Seinfeld for instance was MASSIVE in the US and never ever popular at all over here, despite it being shown a lot on networks trying to cash in.. It just seemed so generic and boring to British audiences. British comedy is a bit more edgy, dark or even surreal.
However, some very typical American comedies have been huge in Britain. Big Band Theory was really big and I was a fan. Also, Friends was enormously popular. I don't know why some US comedy shows translate well and some don't.
@Burnley123 Perhaps the ones that work here as well, are rich in wit and irony, not only belly-laugh gags?
A few years ago I read a critic's sorrowful comment in a newspaper or perhaps the Radio Times that British TV companies were moving to the safety of comedy based purely on open jokes, losing the edginess and dramatic pathos that had been the strength of so many successful sit-coms.
I recall also an appreciation of Clint Eastwood's work, that stated one film he made was not released because it was meant to be a comedy but its own country's publishers felt it not "funny" enough. It relied heavily on irony, and may well have succeeded in Britain, where Eastwood already had a large following for his other films.
Different countries have different cultures, and with them different tastes in humour - though I see little humour in some of the comments elsewhere on this thread.
@Burnley123 To be fair, I'm American and didn't find Seinfeld to be very funny. I do like British humor from time to time though. But I've always been a fan of wit and wordplay which the Brits do well.
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I appreciate all humour. As long as it is funny to me. Origin irrelevant.
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Once upon a time - not that long ago, really - the Brits voted a 1950s comedy series as their favorite American sitcom - - -
The show was listed as Sgt Bilko, or even Bilko, in the Radio Times and elsewhere during the 70s and 80s, when it enjoyed a huge resurgence in popularity in the UK. Back then, it became a reliably funny late-night fixture, usually the last thing on BBC1 before closedown. ( The Guardian Jan 21, 2016)
I was going to say what a laugh the Brits got out of Ameicans electing Trump.. But then, there was Boris...........😷
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@whowasthatmaskedman Any mention of Biden or Trump on here evokes a tirade of abuse. Don’t wake the Americans up, they are blissfully asleep at the moment.
Some. MASH was good. My wife was a great fan of Seinfeld but I couldn't see it. Friends had the occasional funny moment. I never did see what was so amusing about Frasier.
Some films such as Blazing Saddles of course!
But the things I've mentioned are all very different one from another, so is there such a thing as specifically American humour? Is it the same in Boston, Massachusetts as it is in, Eugene, Oregon? Just the same as humour isn't uniform over the whole of the UK.
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@ninalanyon Agree MASH was funny. But as for Frasier and Friends, they left me cold.
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No
Though I did enjoy the Marx brothers, and Phil Silvers as Bilko. Robin Williams was good too. And Whoopi Goldberg of course.
It depends. Tom Lehrer I found funny, and more recently Third Rock from the Sun (John Lithgow....) but the total absurdity of Monty Python or the Goons (going back even further) are what I find funniest. Mainstream American humour is somehow on a different wavelength.
I think what Americans rave about comedically doesn't play well in Britain most of the time. Probably because much of American comedy plays endlessly on stereotyping rather than character and situation advancement.
Same was true in the UK certainly up until the late 70's -early 80's. But even then,,,,
Only fools and horses ~ 64 episodes in total Last of the summer wine ~ 295 episodes in total. Although many retired actors made appearances here which is probably what made it so popular Blackadder ~ 26 in total The I.T Crowd ~ 25 episodes Monty python ~ 45 episodes
I must admit I would not have thought Last Of The Summer Wine would be very successful in America because it is not only very English but one part of England: it's raaight Yorkshire wi' it.
Monty Python's Flying Circus was perhaps the closest of that list to the repetitiveness you say characterises American TV shows, by having no characters and plots to advance. Its cartoonist was an American, too.
Though I suppose none of those would be appreciated by some of the American respondents on here who display only mere contempt for Britain!
...... What of radio comedies? I wonder if any of those were ever aired in the USA? Some can be now, via the BBC's Internet services, as they are being repeated on R4 Extra.
I think in hindsight the 1960s sit-coms like The Clitheroe Kid*, The Men From The MInistry (presaging TV's Yes, MInister) and The Navy Lark eventually flew the paying-off pennant because they had run their courses with no advancement. Each episode was a different story using the same characters and stock jokes, and naturally ran out of ideas. James Clitheroe never took his GCE O-Levels, the Ministry was never sold off and none of HMS Troutbridge's officers were ever promoted (to harmless posts in "stone frigates"?).
Also their definite national identities may make them harder to sell abroad. Americans think everyone else understands, even lives by, US culture; but do they understand everyone else's? Not all countries have the same sense of humour, and self-mockery of national particularities needs knowing those ways.
On the other hand the 1950s Goon Show and the 1960s I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again were forerunners to Monty Python, and some of the ISIRTA leaders went on to The Goodies and Python.
While Round The Horne was edgy enough for its1960s time, so might export happily; but some of its material, such as the "Jules and Sandy" sketches, may be too edgy for our prim-&-proper nowadays. Especially in the Pilgrim Fathers' land.
.... Yet now much of the BBC's radio output is broadcast internationally, via the Internet; not least helped by the European Broadcasting Union it founded and which aids its annual season of weekly operas broadcast live from New York. (Saturday evenings here, of matinee performances in "The Met".)
Indeed, it has many listeners in the USA, and very likely some Americans do follow the modern R4 comedy shows like The News Quiz, The Now! Show (both satire) and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue the just gorgeously bonkers "antidote to panel games".... but c.f. Round The Horne above, re double-entendres. ...
*(After the show finally ended on the wireless, Jimmy Clitheroe toured the act theatrically; but it was a career mistake. Type-cast and with his natural ageing making playing his 12yo character on stage ludicrous, his career faded away.)
What we humans are attracted to is a familiar 'likeness' to that of ourselves. If what we see in someone else is something that we like about ourselves, we will be attracted to that person in some way. This is because 'like' attracts more 'like' to itself within the universe.
Certain thoughts will attract more similar thoughts, be those thoughts 'good' or 'bad' thoughts for example. Bad thought will attracts more bad thoughts and good thoughts will also attract their own likeness.
The Brits as a collective Nation do not see themselves as being 'like' Americans in any way, shape or form. In fact, Brits are highly insulted if you mistake them for being 'American' or if Brits are falsely accused of being 'like' Americans.
I think that Brits laugh at Americans whenever Brits view Americans performing like poorly trained dancing bears on the world stage, but I don't think Brits actually have a true appreciation for America's perception of humor.
But what is America's perception of humor, one might ask?
My answer to that would be, Americans themselves don't know the answer to that burning question, so how could I know?
I only know one thing for certain and that is, if American sit-coms didn't come fully equipped with laugh-tracks, nobody in the world including Americans, would know when to laugh and when to shut up and listen when they heard American humor being performed on TV.
I think this is because Americans as a collective Nation do not ever laugh at themselves, nor do Americans like it if foreign Nationals laugh at them. After all, America sees itself as serious business contained within a suit of armor.
Nobody laughs at America's Superman, nobody pulls the cape from America's Lone Ranger and nobody ever told the All American John Wayne to go pi** in his hat and wear it.
America's perception of itself as self-ascribed savior of the world means, they don't like anyone who laughs at Superman, nor anyone who dicks with the Lone Ranger nor anyone who attempts to humiliate America's favorite Pilgrim, John Wayne. Anyone who attempts to undermine America's perception of itself is therefore subjecting themselves to banishment from life on American principle alone.
Brits on the other hand, laugh at themselves all the time. In fact, the vast majority of British humor stems from British issues or British perceptions of how the world goes around as their King monitors the situation and gets back to them in good time with Royal interpretation of the seeming illusion at hand.
If a foreign National goes to Great Britain, particularly England and jokes about British society, an Englishman will one-up that notion by making life in Britain sound even more hideous than anyone ever thought it was in the first place.
But don't ever say that to a Scotsman while visiting Scotland. Scotsmen are actually far worse than Americans for taking people seriously when someone jokes about them. Scotsmen don't see themselves as British, though Scotland is part of Great Britain. Irishmen don't see themselves as English either, though Ireland is part of Great Britain as well.
I guess what this means is that the only ones who truly laugh at themselves in Great Britain are Brits, which technically are the English in jolly old England. The Irish don't see themselves as Brits and certainly no Scotsman would ever stand there and let some foreign National call him a fu*king Brit, though only a drunk Scotsman in a weak moment could ever accuse another drunk Scotsman of being nothing more than a fu*king Brit and get away with it.
The question really is then, do the English in Great Britain have an appreciation for American humor?
The answer is still no, because 'like' only attracts 'like' to itself in the universe.
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@swirlie This is a very old fashioned view of British society. It is much more diverse than that. Dare I say multicultural.
But as I’ve said elsewhere, unless you fully understand the Culture if a Nation you will not understand its humour. French humour really baffles the English. On April Fools day, what are all those silly fish about?
