Is British comedy really “the best in the world?”

I normally post my expat blog entries to "chit chat" but my latest blog is a bit of a rant on the British belief that their comedy is vastly superior to everyone else's - particularly America's. So I thought it would go well here in "Airing Cupboard."

We need to talk about Benny: Is British comedy “the best in the world?”

http://expatclaptrap.com/we-need-to-talk-about-benny/

It's funny, a friend from back home and I were talking about British comedy and how it isn't generally funny. See I put generally in there because I don't want to say absolutes. But I'm thinking it.

I've seen the Mrs. Brown's boys dvd's in the store. Now is the time to ask the question I've been wondering for so long. Is that a woman or a man in drag?

I've seen the Mrs. Brown's boys dvd's in the store. Now is the time to ask the question I've been wondering for so long. Is that a woman or a man in drag?

A man in drag.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0639983/

I've seen the Mrs. Brown's boys dvd's in the store. Now is the time to ask the question I've been wondering for so long. Is that a woman or a man in drag?

It's a man-- Brendan O'Carroll-- in drag.  He's been writing & performing the character on stage (and filming the occasional performance) for close to 20 years, I believe (along with most of the cast, who are all related to him in one way or another).  

'Mrs. Brown's Boys' is marmite telly.  You either love it or hate it.  The folks who hate it will spend all kinds of time detailing how crass, low-brow and clichéd it is, and despair at having to share oxygen with people who could actually enjoy something like that.  The folks who love it are usually too busy trying to catch their breath and wipe the tears from their eyes to care.

Personally, I love it, because I don't mind a cliché, as long as it's pulled off well.  This is a show that can spend five whole minutes telegraphing a single joke, but it still feels worth it when they get to the punch-line, because it always goes that little bit further than you were expecting.  Having done my time in theatre, I also appreciate the casual abuse of the 4th wall.

I concur.

because I don't mind a cliché, as long as it's pulled off well.  

I am always reminded of Marie Lloyd, the English music hall singer:

Lloyd was summoned to perform some of her songs in front of a council committee. She sang "Oh! Mr Porter", "A Little of What You Fancy" and "She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas" The numbers were sung in such a way that the committee had no reason to find anything amiss. Feeling disgruntled at the council's interference, she then rendered Alfred Tennyson's drawing-room ballad "Come into the Garden, Maud" and displayed leers and nudges, to illustrate each innuendo. The committee were left stunned at the performance, but Lloyd argued afterwards that the rudeness was "all in the mind".

I absolutely love love

Mrs Brown's Boys..

There hasn't been a episode yet that has not had me in stitches..
 

Being British myself, I don't really consider British comedy to be better than American comedy. I love Cheers, Friends, Frasier, Seinfeld, etc.. and both countries have produced some bad stuff. On The Buses is one I cite as pretty bloody awful and British comedy at it's nadir in the 1970s

However, I am naturally biased towards British comedy as I grew up watching it. The BBC in particular has put out some comedy gold in the last 50 years. Strangely though, some of the biggest ones failed in their American re-makes. Fawlty Towers and One Foot In The Grave didn't get much past one season over here and Britain's beloved Only Fools & Horses can't even get off the starting blocks over here.

I showed 'Only Fools...' to my American family and after explaining some of the slang terms to them, it's one of their favourites. I'm sure there's some on here who don't find it funny at all though. "Not as good as Friends!"

However, I am naturally biased towards British comedy as I grew up watching it. The BBC in particular has put out some comedy gold in the last 50 years. Strangely though, some of the biggest ones failed in their American re-makes. Fawlty Towers and One Foot In The Grave didn't get much past one season over here and Britain's beloved Only Fools & Horses can't even get off the starting blocks over here.

Which is interesting because then you have shows like the Office that do much better in the US than in the UK.  I grew up watching both thanks to television stations like PBS which always has a nice smattering of British comedies.  My dad loves Keeping Up Appearances.  Our whole family can be reduced to tears thanks to Are You Being Served?.  I think they did have Only Fools & Horses on at one point (they tend to cycle the shows).

I hate Mrs Brown's Boys!! But not because I think it's crass or low-brow or whatever (utter bollocks, that). I just hate any TV where they turn and speak to/look at the audience. It's 'stage-y' and I don't like it.

Which is interesting because then you have shows like the Office that do much better in the US than in the UK.  I grew up watching both thanks to television stations like PBS which always has a nice smattering of British comedies.  My dad loves Keeping Up Appearances.  Our whole family can be reduced to tears thanks to Are You Being Served?.  I think they did have Only Fools & Horses on at one point (they tend to cycle the shows).

The Office was hugely popular in the UK it was just that Gervais and Merchant chose to end it after two series. That's the thing about British productions of shows, sometimes the writers choose to end them when they're at the peak of popularity and instead keep them going until they stop being funny or struggle to come up with scripts. I know Fawlty Towers is a prime example of this (and I think that's where Ricky Gervais got the inspiration from). I read somewhere that John Cleese didn't even want to do a second series of it but the BBC pretty much begged for it because it was so popular in repeats.

My mother in law and myself were having a discussion about why British shows are so short. She asked me "Why if it's so popular do they not just keep going with it?" The money is obviously a factor and the budgets for American sitcoms are huge compared to what they are in Britain but also it's a case of quality and not quantity I think. There are even fans who say that a couple of episodes of the second series of Fawlty Towers aren't that funny and they only did six episodes so you can imagine what 24 episodes would have been like! haha

PBS is brilliant for showing British comedies on US TV. I always thought that was odd that Britain got so much American comedy and yet America only got Monty Python, Mr. Bean and Benny Hill. The cultural differences/accent argument isn't that valid either and I quote Paul McCartney when he was told that United Artists wanted to dub the Beatles over with mid-Atlantic accents in 'A Hard Day's Night' for release in America:

"Look, if we can understand a f***ing cowboy talking Texan, they can understand us talking Liverpool!"

  

Don't even get me started about the differences in the US and the UK office!  I actually knew and watched the UK version first - it was the first conversation I had with my now husband.  He overheard me talking to a friend a work about the previous nights episode.  It was the fire drill episode and my husband interjected asking if I actually got the humor and was surprised I did (he was being sarcastic).  I love the UK version so much...I mean I was horrified David and Gareth left that poor disabled woman in the hallway but what I loved about it was it was so real.  I mean it didn't feel scripted and they dare go where regular network US TV wouldn't go.  I mean life is messy, uncomfortable and yet we can still find humor in things.   I personally find humor in very real life situations rather than follies, one liners, toilet humor....

That's the thing about British productions of shows, sometimes the writers choose to end them when they're at the peak of popularity and instead keep them going until they stop being funny or struggle to come up with scripts.

I discovered Blacks Books recently. Three series, 18 episodes. As they are so few, you end up going back and watching them very closely.

Don't even get me started about the differences in the US and the UK office!  I actually knew and watched the UK version first - it was the first conversation I had with my now husband.  He overheard me talking to a friend a work about the previous nights episode.  It was the fire drill episode and my husband interjected asking if I actually got the humor and was surprised I did (he was being sarcastic).  I love the UK version so much...I mean I was horrified David and Gareth left that poor disabled woman in the hallway but what I loved about it was it was so real.  I mean it didn't feel scripted and they dare go where regular network US TV wouldn't go.  I mean life is messy, uncomfortable and yet we can still find humor in things.   I personally find humor in very real life situations rather than follies, one liners, toilet humor....

I've met and spoken to many in America who prefer the US version to the UK one. I think that's simply because it was longer than the original. The first season of the US Office was pretty much the same as the UK one but then as they ran out of source material it became just like any other sitcom and they toned down the "mockumentary" style that added so much to the original. When I first watched the original Office I had just flipped on the telly and was fooled into thinking it was an ACTUAL documentary for a few minutes. The training day is one of my ultimate favourite episodes. It just descends into chaos and the guy who's doing the training exercises is just sitting there flabbergasted by the whole thing! haha

Pretty girl on the hood of a Cadillac, yeah....