Poll: Who's better at comedy? Brits or Americans?
- Thread starter SlickBoy
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I voted British because, as an English person, that's what I'm used to. I understand why some people find American humour funny, but for me a lot of the so-called 'great' comedies such as 'Family Guy' very rarely leave me even with a chuckle. Then again, that's probably just because of the tastes I was raised with.
I'll agree with the first remark (that British TV isn't filmed as well as American TV for the most part), but the second remark seems irrelevant. I've always disliked the fact that American TV shows always fill themselves up with models, I like the fact that normal looking people can actually have a career on screen when their face is irrelevant for the role.sneakypenguin said:
And Spaced, Black Books, Father Ted, Vicar of Dibley, Red Dwarf, Blackadder, The Good life, Bottom, The Young Ones, to name but a few.Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs said:
American. For stand up we gave the world George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Mitch Hedberg, Louis C. K., Dave Chappel, just off the top of my head. Current TV shows: Daily Show, Colbert Report, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, Parks and Recreation, Louie, South Park, Futerama. Adult Swim was genius a few years ago, though it's fallen off now. Arrested Development was great. You brits have some funny people too, namely: Eddie Izzard, Simon Pegg, John Oliver, and Ricky Gervais. Course they've all been coming over to the States now that they're big.
British comedy. The Brits are known for their comedy. What are America known for? Their fierce military.
Population: 312,259,000>62,262,000. In all fairness, its a 5:1 ratio for population size, compared to 4:1 for the number of Stand-ups. This would mean we have more comedians per head of population so we winLaxman9292 said:
This is why in any sort of argument like this I say the British are funnier. Even in non comedy shows like Top Gear, Sherlock and Doctor Who, there's normally some layer of comedy whether its just an absurd situation happening for the sake of it, or and off hand sarcastic comment. Also, though it may be the same in the US, comedy staples such as understatement, wit and sarcasm are used constantly in normal conversation. Just the other week I walked into the break room at work and one of the managers was in there looking out at the rain. He turned to me, completely straight faced, and said "Looks like my Sun Dance didn't work".Your once and future Fanboy said:
Finally, we have "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" which is probably well, definitely in its hayday) the best comedy program every created. For proof, see:
&
and I cant go without leaving you these other UK comedy gems:
You're lists are an invalid point. The US has a population 5 times the size of the UK. Surprise, surprise, the amount of comedians is 5 times more in the US.Laxman9292 said:
Quality, not quantity.
Anyway I prefer British humour. I think it's more clever than American humour.
Unless we have a significant quantity of population who have a wide range of experience in both British and American humour, and have been exposed to the best and worst of both breeds and as well have been studying both for a long time, this poll bares as much relevance as fox news and can only be interpreted as quantity of opinion vs another quantity of opinion. Instead ask who do you think makes better comedy. Otherwise you imply one is better than the other based on naught but opinions of people who may or may not have seen much of the other breed of comedy.
mmmhmmm Because shows like chuck, parks and rec, the office, glee, FWB's, don't contain the obligatory cast of diverse characters...dreddfan said:
I love both, Americans for Mitch hedburg, George Carlin, and Dimitri Martin. The British for Frankie Boyle, monty python, and mock of the week
Hmmm. The IT Crowd is the funniest sitcom I've ever watched. The Monty Python movies were entertaining, but not spectacular as the nerds claim. I'm not into dry humor shows like The Office(UK), or any other sitcoms other than The IT Crowd from the UK. But stack that against South Park, Simpsons, MadTV, Seinfeld, and the ass-load of comedy movies of the USA, my decision goes to:
Basically yes. I can only laugh so hard at a joke and only for a few times. I loved the UK version of the Office, but you know how many times I watched it? Once. Extras? Once. The width and breadth of long running American sitcoms annihilates character driven British quirkiness. Even shows that get cancelled early, like Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks still have way more content than your average British hit. With enough variety and time, I can go back and laugh at old Simpsons episodes and SNL sketches I've seen dozens of times because new stuff is coming out at such a frequent rate.bahumat42 said:
Another American show that I thought was underrated was The Drew Carey Show, which went from good to great to okay to awful and back to good again. UK sitcoms would never have the chance to develop, change, and grow. Also take for example, classic sitcoms, like Green Acres, Taxi, The Honeymooners, or All In the Family. I've never been to the UK, but do they even show really old sitcoms on there, like the British version of All in the Family? I've never seen it on here ever, and I've seen a lot of Archie Bunker.
CANADIANS IS BEST.
Seriously nothing beats kids in the hall. We kind of dominated the 90's in terms of comedy.
Seriously nothing beats kids in the hall. We kind of dominated the 90's in terms of comedy.
As an Australian I find the British sense of humour more appealing as it is similar-ish to ours. That said we get more exposure to US comedy than anything else, but most of my favorite comedians are from the UK (Eddie Izzard, Billy "yes I know he's Scottish" Connolly, Mark Watson, all of Monty Python).