Let's Talk About British Comedy

[TDK]

I've been watching a lot of English things lately; The Ricky Gervais Show (and An Idiot Abroad), Jeeves and Wooster (oh my god), Doctor Who, etc.

I've come to the conclusion that English comedy is the best comedy.


This concludes the discussion of british comedy. Good talk!

[Magus]

My experience is almost entirely with pretty old British comedies because PBS tends to wait a long time to run them due to the licensing costs. I'd say my favorites were Mr. Bean, Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served, Fawlty Towers...Jeeves and Wooster was pretty funny, too.

Seems like there's some other one I really liked but can't remember...the ones on now are pretty good, too, but it has to be pretty dull for me not to find it funny. I'm not a big fan of As Time Goes By but probably because it's half drama. Plus it's been on here for 20 years. Right now, The Old Guys is pretty funny. I've seen most of Last of the Summer Wine already, I think, but still, pretty funny.

[3stan]

The Goodies.

/thread

Okay no, British comedy in general is totally awesome, but the Goodies will always be my favourite. Physical and verbal slapstick + pointed satire + awesome green screen effects and goofy costumes = happy 3stan.

I mean, look at this.
Okay, so it turns out I can't figure out how to embed YouTube videos. Anyway, watch it! (http://youtu.be/2AYcK8wb5vw)
I can't figure out how you'd do that with computers, but they didn't even need them!

[Aldurin]

An Idiot Abroad.

Always.


Forever.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I live in britain thus I can say with certainity that British comedy as a genre is 1% great 99% complete rubbish.;. Only the good shows get exported, you don't experience the mass of tripe that britain puts on tv.

[Flarecobra]

Ever seen the Brit version of The Office?

Also, Red Dwarf.

[Osterbaum]

All of you need to look up Peep Show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrGOhLJuhY).

[Token]

Really. No one's mentioned Coupling or the IT Crowd. No one's mentioned Blackadder.
I'm genuinely disappointed in you assholes.

[Flarecobra]

Didn't like Coupling, never heard of IT Crowd.

I'll take the hit for Blackadder though. *Slaps self on the head*

[mauve]

Keeping Up Appearances

Are You Being Served?

Fawlty Towers (because John Cleese is awesome.)

Blackadder (I like the seasons with Queen Elizabeth and Prince George best. If you're a Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry fan, you'll like Blackadder. They're both in it.)

The OLD Doctor Who episodes, if you've only seen the ones with the tenth Doctor and onwards. They're fun and delightfully corny, and a few of them were wriitten by the author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I'd mention Father Ted, which is hilarious, but some people find it offensive because it's a comedy show about Catholic priests.

[Flarecobra]

Would you all consider Top Gear comedy?

[pochercoaster]

No mentions of Absolutely Fabulous? Damn.

[greed]

I'm actually seriously proud no one has mentioned that series. You know the one I mean.

Also I quite like Black Books, Spaced and Absolute Power to add to this list. I generally think American TV comedy at it's best is better than British at it's best though, we just see more of America's crap cause they export more.

If we're going by movies the Cornetto trilogy is amazing.

[Osterbaum]

No one's mentioned Coupling
Oh yeah, I had forgotten. Coupling was awesome.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

And not 1 mention of Only Fools and Horses yet. Disgraceful.

[Ecks]

I'll second the Top Gear nomination. Also the reason no one's mentioned Monty Python is because we're sick to death of it. It's been hurled at us relentlessly and we'd like to explore other avenues of funny for a change.

Also I don't really watch it for comedy but The F Word is a fun show all the same.

[Magus]

Yeah, Monty Python is just a given, no reason to bring it up.

[Nique]

All of you need to look up Peep Show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrGOhLJuhY).

If you like Peep Show, you should check out any of their other shows especially that Mitchell and Webb Look.

[Magus]

The new Ricky Gervais show Life's Too Short on HBO looks like it's going to be pretty funny (even if the title is a painful pun on the main character who is a little person--but that's a very Ricky Gervais thing to do I guess). His interview on The Daily Show about it was pretty hilarious.

The format from the previews/scenes I have seen give me a very "Curb Your Enthusiasm with mostly British actors" vibe.