Poll: British Sitcoms vs American Sitcoms

[More Fun To Compute]

When our British sitcoms are at their best they win but zee yankees have large teams of funny people working around the clock to deliver a consistent weight and quality of humour. Actually, sitcoms went out of fashion in the UK due to a lot of especially mediocre attempts with Graham Linehan just about keeping the flame alive with shows like Father Ted and The IT Crowd. It's more about panel shows and talk shows now.

 

[Buizel91]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

 

[Daveman]

OK. Let's take some random British ones:
- Only Fools and Horses
- The IT Crowd
- Fawlty Towers

All very different types of humour. All classic, timeless comedy.

The IT Crowd is a classic and timeless comedy?

Well, I suppose it's a bit early to tell yet... But I'd put good money on it! I mean Father Ted is and they're both written by Graham Linehan and have a similar style of humour.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I love British sitcoms, despite being American. I find most (but not all) of the American sitcoms to be rather lacking in quality.

 

[Skorpyo]

America gave us Seinfeld and for that, America wins.

Britain gave us Red Dwarf. Your argument is invalid.

 

[Outright Villainy]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

Explain it to me then! I'm really quite baffled as to why it's so popular, everything about that show makes me cringe.

 

[thedeathscythe]

I find british sitcoms are shorter and don't get old. American ones are awesome, just like british ones, and you'll get a longer string of seasons, but sometimes itll run dry. for example, the office I think should be done in america, yet theyre keeping it going and Im not sure if Im loving it nearly as much as I used to. now the british one I personally feel ran too short but at least I never found myself saying "why am I watching this and what did they do to it?"

thats not to say all lengthy series are bad, its just a trend our countries seem to have different. sopranos is long but its completely bad ass

 

[voetballeeuw]

I watch the American Office consistently and find that hilarious. I've seen the British office on Adult Swim and don't find it to be funny. So I'll go with American Sitcoms.

 

[DaJoW]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

Explain it to me then! I'm really quite baffled as to why it's so popular, everything about that show makes me cringe.

I agree. It's an awful, awful show and I cannot understand how it lasted past the first series, not to mention becoming such a huge success.

 

[Ensiferum]

Definitely British. Mainly because most highly successful American sitcoms are based on British ones that came first, The Office being the most obvious example. 3's company was another one.

That and there's the fact that British sitcoms are generally more clever.

Let's not forget that thanks to the British we have John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie, Graham Chapman, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, etc etc.

 

[Buizel91]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

2 and a half men is fucking retarded.

It's not something I'd use to give merit to American sitcoms.

You guys have better stuff than that shite.

You guys? im British and love it!

 

[Jonesy911]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

2 and a half men is the most notoriously awful sitcom in america, where've you been?

 

[JWRosser]

Not gonna lie, I do like me a bit of How I Met Your Mother. Big Bang Theory, I thought, slowly declined. I haven't watched it that recently but I think the earlier episodes seemed to be funnier.

 

[kaieth]

America wins because of Seinfeld and Arrested Development. Sure hope that movie comes out at some point.

 

[Kenko]

Britain wins, because American humour is both stupid and retardedly boring at the same time.

See "Coupling" for example of yanks failing at getting the point. British Coupling wins! American Coupling sux. Teh aaaeeend.

 

[Jonesy911]

2 and half men is the most consistently awful show I've ever seen. Like I find that show insultingly bad.

O_O tell me he di...did he just?

Ooh hell no *****!

2 and a half men is fucking retarded.

It's not something I'd use to give merit to American sitcoms.

You guys have better stuff than that shite.

You guys? im British and love it!

Ah. Just assumed you were American.

But 2.5 men is fucking dribble.

To 99/100 people, watching two and a half men is like this: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1929403

 

[tricky_tree]

I prefer British, probably because I am British. I do like My Name is Earl, Better off Ted and the US version of the office (mainly because I hate Ricky Gervais). But I find the rest to be just awkward. 2 and a half men makes me cringe, Friends and Joey just irritate me and How I Met Your Mother, well I won't even start. But like someone said, they're tailored for their own markets and I much prefer the surrealism of Black Books etc, and the biting satire of Little Britain etc