American Humour is Terrible

[Amphoteric]

I prefer British Comedy to American comedy. I don't find people like George Carlin funny.

But Humour is subjective, get over it.

 

[The_Emperor]

OK
Mitch Hedberg
Doug Stanhope
Bill Hicks
Daniel Tosh
George Carlin
Russel Peters
Pablo Francisco
Louis CK
Modern Family
House (not comedy but it's funny)
Scrubs
Southpark which is american, matt and trey are from colorado.
Chris Rock
Simpsons
Futurama
Family Guy
American Dad
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Saturday Night Live
Flight of the Conchords
Metalocalypse
The Venture Brothers.

All quality humour, some dry and intelligently done.

You really suck at threads and comedy, there are just as many shitty British sitcoms as there are American sitcoms.

I'm British and I am agape at your lack of comprehension of differing degrees of quality and the lack of any link quality has to cultural differences. The Office and Shameless are the only 2 British sitcoms of my generation that made it over to America. American humour is just as clever and funny as British humour, they have things that aren't funny, we have things that aren't funny. I'm sure the japanese have things that are funny there are just bad and good it has nothing to do with culture.

Seriously I could go on but you are almost as bad as that fella who said "I hate the way that everything in Britain is cute"

Generalisation makes me angry.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

God.

I hate generalizations so much.
I think comedy, no matter what country it comes from, can be good. But I absolutely hate it when people from the UK say "Our comedy is much more 'intellegent'.
It's not.
Comedy isn't ment to be 'intelegent' it's ment to make you laugh. It's all about taste.

I honestly hate southpark, it annoys me to the brink of wanting to punt a kitten. I think it's immature, stereotypical, and simple retarded.

Now, I like The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, but other than that, this is my view on most sitcoms
(The second "Video" in the video, starts at about 8 seconds)

 

[poppabaggins]

I like South Park (I know it's Canadian) for it's witty commentary of current affairs. It actually takes issues of the day and makes some good jokes at them. Family Guy is just ok - I wouldn't watch it often, but it can be funny. The kind of American humour I really don't like is shows like the Big Bang Theory. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLQaTcViOA

It just isn't funny. Not because it isn't my sense of humour, but there is no intelligence to the jokes involved. America has scrounged genuinely good British TV series such as Shameless and The Office, and ruined them in an effort to bring them to the American market.

My point is American humour is unintelligent and boring to watch. It is juvenile, and I find it actually almost painful to see shows like Two and a Half Men doing well when they are so full of utter crap.

I've come to the conclusion that all British people are uninformed, unintelligent assholes.
My evidence is that you are an uninformed, unintelligent asshole (and I am assuming you are British).

Doesn't make very much sense to disregard and entire nation's worth of people because of a small sample, does it? Ever heard of Arrested Development? Ever heard that South Park is an American show made by Trey Parker (American) and Matt Stone (also American). Have you ever watched Monty Python? The funny parts are comedy gold. Everything else is absolutely terrible and not intelligent in the least. I'm also positive that there are plenty of bad British comedy series. If I only judged British comedy by the bad shows, I would miss out on some absolute gems.

 

[tris4992]

Wow, that is elitist. There are some great American comics but you seem to have ignored them completely. Try to be more open minded, even though it is fashionable to be anti-American.

Try The Daily Show for American humour and satire done well.

I agree with the first post but I love Jon, the daily show is awesome.

 

[Himmelgeher]

Okay, so your examples of unfunny/unintelligent American humor are Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, two shows openly acknowledged as two of the worst shows on TV, in the same genre, by the same creator, on the same network, that often run back to back. Yep. Nothing wrong with that assertion. By the way, the British version of The Office was fucking awful. At least the American version took four seasons (okay, three and a half) to become fucking awful. I also noticed you cited Family Guy as sometimes being funny. Actually, it's never funny. Ever. It's dry and lifeless when the Seth Macfarlane isn't using it as his personal "Atheism and Liberalism are awesome and anyone who disagrees is a moron because of my petty insults and utterly unsubstantiated claims" soapbox and grating and idiotic when he is. See? I can present my opinions as fact too. That doesn't mean they are, and that doesn't give you the right to insult anyone who disagrees with you. Sure, you guys have some funny stuff now and then, like Hot Fuzz, Monty Python, or anything involving David Mitchell, but most of it is crap. Just like ours. Seriously, this would be like me reading Twilight and saying that the entire Gothic Fiction genre is crap, completely ignoring anything by H.P. Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe, then presenting that ridiculous assertion as fact.

And as everyone else has stated, South Park is 100% American.

 

[Harveypot]

I don't care where comedy comes from or how clever it is. If it's funny, I like it. I like loads of different things from Family Guy to Extras to Spaced to Angry Boys. Intelligent shows are good but sometimes I just want to see crude hilariousness.

 

[zHellas]

I like South Park (I know it's Canadian) for it's witty commentary of current affairs. It actually takes issues of the day and makes some good jokes at them. Family Guy is just ok - I wouldn't watch it often, but it can be funny. The kind of American humour I really don't like is shows like the Big Bang Theory. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLQaTcViOA

It just isn't funny. Not because it isn't my sense of humour, but there is no intelligence to the jokes involved. America has scrounged genuinely good British TV series such as Shameless and The Office, and ruined them in an effort to bring them to the American market.

My point is American humour is unintelligent and boring to watch. It is juvenile, and I find it actually almost painful to see shows like Two and a Half Men doing well when they are so full of utter crap.

Other people like American humor. It's called an opinion. You're not right, and neither are they.

My point is that the jokes involved are less intelligent than those in British shows. Go watch Peep Show. That is genius. Compare it to any widely viewed American comedy show. I'm not arguing which is subjectively better, I'm arguing that British comedy is more intelligent. Please read my post and understand it before replying.

Well first of all, just because 2 shows from the U.S.A. suck, doesn't mean all American comedy sucks. I call troll.

2ndly, in response that British comedy is more intelligent:

Spoiler: My Rebuttals

And 3rd, not all American comedy is in TV shows. Look up stand-up comedy. Like Jerry Seinfeld, Mitch Hedberg, Patton Oswalt, Louis C.K., George Carlin. All great comedians with brilliant bits.

 

[Grey_Focks]

And the only British humor I find funny are the works of Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost. Different strokes, etc.

I could list all the American stuff I find funny, but this thread already has done a very good job of that.

 

[Warforger]

Other people like American humor. It's called an opinion. You're not right, and neither are they.

My point is that the jokes involved are less intelligent than those in British shows. Go watch Peep Show. That is genius. Compare it to any widely viewed American comedy show. I'm not arguing which is subjectively better, I'm arguing that British comedy is more intelligent. Please read my post and understand it before replying.

What about the Colbert Report????What about the Daily Show? What about Malcom In the Middle?

Yah there are REALLY bad shows and comedians, but there are alot, and you haven't seen all of them.

I like South Park (I know it's Canadian)

Wait what. Both the creators are from America, Colorado and Texas respectably, the show was made in America on an American channel. Hell in the show Canadians are portrayed as some weird alien egg people who can barely speak English and are most famous for their show Terrance and Phillip which is all about fart jokes. What kind of Canadian would do that?

 

[Shakespeario]

You're comparing the best comedy on one side of the pond to the some of the very worst on this side. Two and a Half men isn't even a comedy it's just a parody of a sitcom created to soothe the ignorant masses who want safe bland 'jokes.' If you want the good stuff you generally have to watch things with a more mature tone and often things that are mostly or partially dramatic. There is crap funny everywhere avoid it on a case to case basis, let's not quibble on about this.

 

[xchurchx]

its true, i find american humour not that funny, especialy the stand ups, just no
there are certain things i laugh at like family guy and american comedy films, but i watched this one show where it was like a news programe but instead they took the piss out of stories (and no it wasn't fox news), the entire audience were wetting them selves with laughter, i however was starting to worry about humanity

 

[bigmike768]

Alot of american humour is hiliarious, modern family, old scrubs episodes, old family guy episodes, all fucking awesome. What shouldnt be done is american importation of british humour, or british tv full stop. Ok modern family did work but thats cos of a stellar cast and director and stuff. It just doesnt work.

 

[Jegsimmons]

South Park is Canadian? Since when?

apparently when Canada skipped Idaho and Montana and other states and just conquered Colorado.


what are you talking about OP?! Your just making blanket statements about american Humor from opinions on just a few shows.


Always Sunny in Philadelphia
robot chicken
south park (its american, not canadian)
the boondocks
scrubs
Reba (tell me you dont get a laugh out of that show)
daily show
colbert report
whitest kids you know
Andy Griffith show
Fresh Prince of Bel-air

just to name a few.
( also everything family guy related is pretty shitty.)

 

[GigaHz]

Your point is kind of moot anyway because humour is one of the most subjective things there is, next to beauty.

There are different degrees of humour designed to appeal to different audiences. There's wit, tragedy, slapstick, timing, ridiculousness, random, observational, stereotypes, surreal, "smart" and many more. You can't expect one person to equally appreciate all types of humour.

While you could argue that certain American Comedy shows cater to a certain demographic and use low brow humour, you can't say that ALL American Shows use low brow humour. There are plenty of well-written American Comedy shows that don't get the same level of appreciation and exposure that Family Guy does. Even still, The Simpsons in their prime managed to use low brow humour among other things in a very intelligent way. It was hailed one of the funniest and well written series of all time, and for good reason.

Does that mean that every single North American finds The Simpsons funny? No. You see my point?

 

[Slangeveld]

Stereotypical 'American' humour borders on vulgar and is 'hillarious' more than anything else. Stereotypical British humour is morbid and depressing.

Actual humour actually differs quite a lot from time, location, and people involved. It doesn't have to be 'intelligent' in order to be funny. (if you can say that something which isn't alive is 'intelligent') it just has to be clever in a way. Be this in a vulgar, morbid, tasteless or random way is up to those part of the humour.

 

[Johnny-Natrium]

Well the thing is, really, American humour is awful, EXCEPT for Jewish humour. Seinfeld, for example, brilliant. Everybody keeps going on about Arrested Development, which is basically the only tv series that you hear people about when they're defending American humour. It's also funny that Arrested Development was written by a Jew as well, further advocating my point. I can't express how gut-wrenchingly awful, corny and lowbrow American media really is, but Jews have usually done a good job. At least they're the ones who made the really good stuff form America.

 

[HardkorSB]

My point is that the jokes involved are less intelligent than those in British shows.

Yeah, British comedy is always intelligent.
Like these fucks over here:

 

[Eternal_Lament]

Big Bang Theory being proof of American comedy being bad is just as valid as saying that The Birtish Office is proof of British comedy being good, which is to say that neither is actually valid. Fact of the matter is that Britain puts out some bad comedy as well, its just that that comedy is unlikey to be brought over to Western audiences, and as such we just assume that the only stuff they send over, the good stuff, is indicative of all their comedy. Hell, perhaps shows like South Park or Curb Your Enthusiasm are sent over to Britain and the people there watch them and think "Man, American humour is so funny, not like the crap we have here, at least nothing bad is released in America".

 

[Urgh76]

I like South Park (I know it's Canadian) for it's witty commentary of current affairs. It actually takes issues of the day and makes some good jokes at them. Family Guy is just ok - I wouldn't watch it often, but it can be funny. The kind of American humour I really don't like is shows like the Big Bang Theory. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmLQaTcViOA

It just isn't funny. Not because it isn't my sense of humour, but there is no intelligence to the jokes involved. America has scrounged genuinely good British TV series such as Shameless and The Office, and ruined them in an effort to bring them to the American market.

My point is American humour is unintelligent and boring to watch. It is juvenile, and I find it actually almost painful to see shows like Two and a Half Men doing well when they are so full of utter crap.

Hold on there,

When you mentioned the American and British versions of The Office, did you give the Americans credit for turning it around, or did you say that they ruined it?

Just hard to tell with the way you worded it.

OT: I'm American, yet I fully understand your point. Half the time that I watch television anymore it's spent watching Top Gear. (Not that goddamn American version they're trying to pull off now, that just makes my stomach turn)