British sitcoms. Whats your view?

[cutecuddely]

As the title suggests i want to hear what people think about British sitcoms?
do you love it? Hate it?
think American Comedy is better?
think it has gotten worse or better?

But remember please no flame wars.

 

[Ldude893]

Not all comedy in a country is good, but all the same, not all comedy in a country is bad.

This show for example:
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[Swny Nerdgasm]

Only ones I ever watched were Spaced and Flying Circus, and I enjoyed them both

 

[Wutaiflea]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s and nothing seems to be appearing to change my opinion on that at the moment.

I think the strength of British humour at the moment is mostly stand-up and those random quizzes that get several stand-up comedians together that there seem to be a lot of.

QI, for example, is fucking awesome, and edu-ma-cational.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well of course it depends from show to show...

However shows like Spaced, Black Books, IT crowd, Monty Pythons Flying Circus, Phoenix Nights and Black Adder all populate my DVD shelves.

Then of course I never miss The Inbetweeners or Shameless when they're on.

I wish I had a Fawlty Towers box set...

 

[Hoplon]

They range from utterly shite (not going out) to genius (spaced) not better or worse than the stuff that comes out of the US.

 

[RSGstyle]

What I really love about British sitcoms is that most of the time, the Directors view or expression of the show isn't influenced from monetary gains. This results in a more "raw" type of comedy that isn't affected by whatever fads are going on or you won't get some show that feels like it was made by committee.

With American comedies, they are usually stretched out too far and laid too thin just for the sake of keeping the money rolling. Not to say they aren't good, but most American sitcoms start out really creative and intelligent, but die out and seem to force themselves to produce mediocre work just for the bucks.

It's like Extras...

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Being British I like them; most of them anyway. I like the subtle or situational humour rather than having the show use over the top gags and gimmicks as American comedy is wont to do.

I like: The IT crowd, Peep Show, Inbetweeners as well as oldies like "'Allo 'Allo", "Yes, Minister" etc

On the American side I like: Raising Hope, Fraiser and that's about it.

Our main comedy over here comes from panel shows and stand up like the poster above says for example:
Mock the Week, Celebrity Juice, QI, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News For You, A League of Their Own.

 

[cutecuddely]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s.

I have to agree with you there. before the 90's there were comedy greats. 'allo 'allo, blackadder, Dads Army, are you being served and Only fools and horses to name a few but the list is endless. Nowadays there are some good ones like peep show and not going out (some people find it to be absolutly terrible but i dont mind it)but there isnt the standard of comedy writers there was. also the comedy now is somewhat vulger where as then it was clean with only sexual innuendos. Morcambe and Wise to name a duo.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Why has no one mentioned the Office? There a some good Britcoms (yes I just coined that term) It Crowd, Extras, The Office, Fawlty Towers, Gavin and Stacey etc. but there are also some real stinkers (see My Family).

 

[tahrey]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s and nothing seems to be appearing to change my opinion on that at the moment.

Mostly this, though we do have the occasional reprise like the IT Crowd etc. We've passed more into making solid Dramedies (e.g. Gavin & Stacey, which is almost a sitcom, but has too much of a running storyline, more 3D characters, and too many serious moments) and the like, as well as other programs that would be just regular drama or action-adventure but get infused with a bit of a python/doug adams/etc bent. EG Being Human, or even Doctor Who.

Mighty Boosh may be one to put with IT Crowd, but i'm not sure if it's a sitcom or just a 29-minute surrealist freak-out.

If you're after a "proper" one, along the lines of Father Ted, Keeping Up Appearances etc, then you're looking at occasionally-interesting but usually just drecktacular stuff like My Family, My Hero, My-whatever and the deeply YMMV reboot of Reginald... sorry, "Reggie" Perrin. I think we've sort of passed beyond the age where that sort of thing is really so popular, and they've been on a losing streak against reality TV etc for ages; the last one that was really much cop were the early series of Two Pints. The vogue is more for Whose Line-type panel shows (almost all of them EXCEPT for QI actually made by the same company AS WLiiA?), sketch comedy (Armstrong & Miller, Come Fly With Me, etc) and topical news satire/parody things which can themselves blur the lines with the other types.

Certainly we've hardly anything to offer vs the strong offerings that the US is putting out of late, after their own late 80s/early 90s lull. Maybe we'll have a renaissance later on as well.
And we definitely haven't had a triple-A gold star show like Red Dwarf for a bit (I think the IT crowd is a bit too niche-interest; e.g. my nan wouldn't watch it). I'll gloss over "Hyperdrive", and the repeated and increasingly desperate attempts to relaunch RD itself...

 

[Rylot]

They do seem to have a dryer sense of humor if any of the ones I've seen are indicative of the whole genre, granted I've only seen things like Red Dwarf, Flying Circus, Are You Being Served. From what I've seen They can be very funny but I don't have much access to them.

 

[Thaluikhain]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s

Yeah, it does seem that way.

Generally, I like British comedy alot more than American attempts, which seem to rely on toilet humour and abuse. Or worse, shows that don't bother trying to be funny at all, and just stick a laugh track on.

Literally not trying to be funny, I mean...scene starts with man sitting in chair *laughter* there's a knock at the door *laughter* man gets up and goes to open door *laughter* another man is revealed to be behind door *laughter*. WTF? At least the painful Brit "I'll be weird and that'll make me the next Monty Python" stuff is trying.

 

[tahrey]

Rylot: The problem here is that most of the programmes, such as those you mention, that are considered classics of the genre are SO OLD now. It's been the best part of 40 years since Python was in its prime. AYBS ended before I was even born (best part of 30), as did On The Buses, Rising Damp, the original Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, etc. Red Dwarf hasn't really been any good since the turn of the millennium (11 years). There was continuing prime time through the 80s and 90s but it's faded.

Have a look for stuff like Allo Allo, Father Ted, One Foot in the Grave, Only Fools & Horses, Waiting for God, etc from that sort of era. Funny stuff without being stupid or lowbrow, which is what more recent shots seem to suffer from... (heck the only thing that kept My Family watchable was it channelling an 80s kind of vibe)
((Exception: Men Behaving Badly and Game On were good despite violating that rule a bit, but it was kind of their point, and it was all very gentle and you'd probably get away with just a PG rating. They still focussed on the jokes))

..... balls, I say all that, and I forget "Not Going Out". It can itself be a bit borderline at times, but it's got both Lee Mack (wry stand-up comedian) and Tim Vine (the merciless punslinger) on board so they bring the funny. Too bad Miranda Hart has left to do her own show, though. They were a good team, I doubt they'll be as good apart.

 

[SckizoBoy]

New Britcoms aren't that good, and whoever said they died out in the 90's I second/third.

Some are good, some are shite (much like any country's display-stand of TV shows). Be honest, though, can't think of any American comedies that I liked all the way through. I love Scrubs, but seasons 6&7 were lame. Nothing else non British I'd go out of my way to watch.

As for UK ones I enjoyed: The Thick of It, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister (see where I'm going with this?)

So, most stuff I watch/listen to is satire (Mock the Week, HIGNFY, News Quiz etc.)

 

[Obliterato]

Well, as a Brit, I would obviously be a biased opinion here and say, pretty good. But, I won't deny there have been some real stinkers. The Inbetweeners as a recent example, it took me all three series to finally decide that actually I actually liked. I guess it's the same as any other countries sitcoms though, there's the good, the bad and the ones that only makes sense in their country of origin.

Father Ted

Dangerous territory saying that one! As much as it would be great to take credit for the genius that is Father Ted, that's an Irish show, not British.

 

[BuGGaTon]

This is about the level of rash generalisation I've grown to expect on these forums. You can't just take an entire countries comedy genre and judge it off that.

The only Finnish comedy I've seen was "Star Wreck", a hilarious ribbing of "Star Trek" but that doesn't mean all Finnish comedy is now of the highest order. There's Spaced, The Thick of It, Blackadder, Black Books, Other, Many... and they're all brilliant. Then there's things like Coupling or Two pints of Lager and stuff which are terrible. Everywhere has some poor comedies.

USA has greats like Family Guy, Simpsons (although less lately), Southpark, Fraiser, Seinfeld. It also has a lot of arse like Will & Grace, 2 and a half men and loads more total tosh.

 

[ugeine]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s and nothing seems to be appearing to change my opinion on that at the moment.

The Office
Peep Show
The Thick Of It
The Mighty Boosh
The IT Crowd

Just off the top of my head, there's a lot more. Not sure if they all get played on American TV (Especially Peep show and The Thick of It, better then any American sitcom in the last ten years, and I say that as a massive fan of American sitcoms)

 

[Wutaiflea]

To be honest, I think British sitcoms died around the early 90s and nothing seems to be appearing to change my opinion on that at the moment.

The Office
Peep Show
The Thick Of It
The Mighty Boosh
The IT Crowd

Just off the top of my head, there's a lot more. Not sure if they all get played on American TV (Especially Peep show and The Thick of It, better then any American sitcom in the last ten years, and I say that as a massive fan of American sitcoms)

That's fair enough if you like those shows. Peep Show is a little hit and miss for me, and personally I prefer those two guys doing stand-up than their sitcom set-up. I haven't seen The It Crowd at all, but the others, I'm afraid, I don't like at all, especially compared to things like Blackadder etc.