h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Odd... Over here, everyone thinks the highlight of the show is David Hyde-Pearce's portrayal of Nialls... (and, of course, Daphne's tight outfits... but then, we remember her as one of Benny Hill's dancers before she went over to the States!)

We got Benny Hill for a while... But then he disappeared, symptomatic of the deeper problem with US humour... Everyone's too afraid of offending the relig^H^H^H^H^Hcensors.

No, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are pure Coloradoians. But they do enjoy making fun of Canadiens.

Then there's that guy in Spokane that likes to do that, too... Can't remember his name offhand.

As you can see from the spelling above, I am English. This does not, however, affect my standing in this conversation.

I read a quote recently by an American writer, who's name I forget, which said:"The British are the masters of the studied insult. Americans don't understand the studied insult, and so, when facing it, are forced to resort to bland insults"

It is the same with humour. British comedy and the British sense of humour are admired across the world. In Europe, advertising agencies copy the British sense of humour because it is wonderfully subtle and intelligent, but is incredibly funny and apt. For instance, 'Not the Nine O'Clock News. By clever use of editing techniques, they produced some of the funniest tv I have every seen. And the man who walks into trees-classic stuff*.

Meanwhile, the Americans produced Home Improvement. This provides about as much contest for the heavyweight monster that is British comedy as a balsa wood cut out of the guy from the Mr. Muscle** ads would for a ninja with a chronic hatred of wood.

God, I hate American 'comedy'.

Now an American would read all of the above, get very angry, make a potato man effigy of me, and then shoot it to bits with a handgun. This bothers me not, for all the people who count in this arguement are nodding their heads in sage agreement. You see what I mean about the studied insult.

*The sketch ran something like this: 'The guy is walking along the street. He notices the camera opposite, and transferes his gaze from where he is headed to the camera. He keeps walking, looking at the camera, until he walks into a tree and falls over backwards.' Not that funny in writing, but you just watch it and try to stop yourself laughing.

**Mr. Muscle is a kitchen cleaner. In the ad, a weedy little nerd wearing, for some reason, a vest and boxer shorts, cuts through grease and grime in the kitchen with a single wipe, apparently not exerting himself at all. hmmm...

The point is, not all American humour is of the putrid, Tim-the-toolman-Taylor sitcom variety (thankfully!) and not all British humour is good.

I'm going to start this with an apology, because I find Americans funny. Some of them.
Just to clarify, and so as not to offend (because some of you were getting a little bit stressed up there), by Americans I mean citizens of the US of A. And when I say I think they are funny I mean that they have a sense of humour, as opposed to "Hey, check the huge American, ha, ha, ha ! Is that shirt for real ? Heh, heh, heheh"
And I don't care how you spell humour either, I mean, isn't it maybe ironic that you all take humour so seriously ?
I like to laugh, and I can laugh at almost anything, but nothing shuts me up faster than a fake laugh track. These things really need to stop. No-one needs them, they only make good American shows seem, well, shite.
America and Canada have given us some great shows and comedians. The first time you see Steven Wright, Eddie Murphy, Emo Philips, Bill Hicks, Dennis Leary, and (be honest now) a million others live, you laugh. Can't help yourself, it's funny. But to make money you have to put these guys on prime time TV, and to do that you have to remove most of the act, and in the end, most of the humour. Sad, but true.
Saturday night Live was a testiment to that - even at it's peak (Ackroyd, Belushi, Chase), if you ignore the coneheads, it was never more than 50% funny. But at least it tried. It DID dare to be different, and that's where British comedy wins, really. It's not that it's better, it's just that there's so much of it, always different, always breaking the mold, always moving on. American sitcoms tend to stick with the same patented formula, but Britain hits out with Python, Not The Nine O'Clock News, A League of Gentlemen, The Day Today, Men Behaving Badly, Blackadder, The Fast Show, Absolutely, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf . . . the list goes on. It's not all funny, and some people don't like it, but no-one really cares. If it's losing the ratings war, it's ok because it's on BBC2 at 11pm, who cares ? If people start to watch it, then we'll make it prime time.
And most of the shows, not that many people watch to start with anyway. The first series of the Fast Show looked like it might bomb, but it picked up. Same with Blackadder (the first series). Father Ted had about three times the viewing figures when the first series was repeated than when it was first on . . . Who cares ? That's the difference over here. Just because no-one watches a show doesn't mean it's crap, it doesn't mean it should be pulled off the air. There's always someone who will stick with it.
Who remembers the first series of Men Behaving Badly ? Harry Enfield was the star, it was on ITV and it bombed, and Harry left. They couldn't replace him, so they dropped it. Some nutter at the BBC decided to make Martin Clunes the star and resurrect it. The nutter becomes a genius. Go figure.
American corporate TV type people don't want to take risks like that because it's their ass (not arse) on the line and they can't hack the pressure. It's do or die.
American comedies have a hard time. They can't just be funny just for the sake of it, they MUST have some sickly sweet moral message in there somewhere too. Another let down. The only time they take risks is in their cartoons - The Simpsons, King Of The Hill, Johhny Bravo, South Park, Beavis and Butthead, The Amazing Spiderman. Probably.
But give them a break. Remember Taxi ? Cheers ? Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd), Coach, and Woody ? Funny guys. But that's the other thing with American sitcoms (if I can grossly generalise for a moment here), it always seems to be the one character supply-ing all the laughs. Frasier - Roz gets the best lines; Spin City - Stuart, every time; Rosanne - the only reason to watch was to see what Darlene would say next (well that, or to see Becky squeezing into another pair of tight jeans - I was young back then).
I suppose all that is a bit like us over here with Only Fools And Horses. Trigger. Every time he calls Rodney Dave, you have to smile. Or quotes like:
"Here, Trigger, I thought you said this place was open 24 hours ?"
"Well, yeah. But not at night,"
And everyone has SEEN Friends. Don't tell me that Joey, Chandler, and Pheobe don't make you laugh, 'cos if you do - you're lying.

And then there's the movies . . .
Something About Mary. Funny ? It had it's moments, right ?
So I Married An Axe Murderer. Not a classic, but Mike Myers doing the Scottish dad ? I almost wet myself. And I'm Scottish.

Anyway, I am oot, as they say up oor way. I really didn't mean to go on for so long, so I'll love you and leave you . . . With one of my favourite gags................


A guy gets up in the morning. It's a beautiful day, so he opens the bedroom curtains to drink in the sunshine . . . And is shocked to find a gorilla sitting in his tree, in his very own garden.
"Shit!" he thinks, "What am I going to do ?" So he gets out the Yellow Pages and starts looking for the pest control section. Sure enough, he finds an ad promising 'No gorilla too big, satisfactory job, or your money back'. With nothing to lose, he gives them a call and explains the situation.
"I don't know," the man on the phone says, "we've got a lot of jobs on right now . . . Can you tell if it's a guy gorilla, or a lady gorilla ?"
The guy has a good look out of the window . . .
"Oh, DEFINITELY a guy gorilla!"
"No problem then, sir, I'll be right over."
So, a half hour later a van pulls up, and the pest control guy gets out. "Oh, yeah," he says to the guy, "I see the problem here. It's a good thing you called when you did." He then procedes to unload the van. He takes out a small chihua'hua, a stick, a shotgun and a pair of handcuffs. He gives the handcuffs and shotgun to the guy, and says, "Right, here is the plan . . . I am going to climb up the tree with this stick. I'm then going to use the stick to poke the gorilla until he falls out of the tree. As soon as the gorilla hit the ground, the dog, this specially trained chihua'hua, will jump up and bite his bollocks. When the dog does this, the gorilla will instinctively cross his hands to protect himself allowing you to slip on the handcuffs. Once he's cuffed we can just load him into the van and take him away."
"And what am I supposed to do with the shotgun ?"
"Well," says the guy, "if I fall out the tree first . . . shoot the dog!"



Comedy is truly Universal. It CAN break the language barriers, it CAN end wars.
It doesn't, but we know it can.


If you melt dry ice . . . can you swim without getting wet ? (Steven Wright)

Finally! An unbiased, informed opinion from our neighbors across the pond. You nailed it on the head. We do some very funny things, even though some bigots refuse to admit that. And yes, we also make quite a bit of crap, for just the reasons you stated. As for the cloyingly sweet moral message every episode of a sitcom must contain, I blame the Puritans. If only England had been able to stand their presence a bit longer, they would have moved to Australia, and left this fine country alone. I am getting the impression from newer sitcoms that this trend is dying, though. Certain comedies have been able to avoid moralizing, including Friends, the Simpsons, Drew Carey Show, and South Park. Even Seinfeld managed to avoid moralizing...but it was still dumb.

As for So I Married an Axe Murderer...classic flick, I bought a copy, I loved it so much. Mike Myers did that Scottish thing in Saturday Night Live, too, in a recurring skit about a family that owns a store called "All Things Scottish" ("If it's not Scottish, it's CRRRRAAAAPPP!!!). The US can take some credit for the show, and for the movie, but Mike was a huge contributor to both, and he's Canadian. Just goes to show what countries can do when they put their talents together. UK and US put their talents together and produced "A Fish Called Wanda" and its sequel. So rather than bickering about each other, why don't we work together again, for a change?

Lorne is Canadian. America can not do it alone. Neither can Canada. You'd know this if you've ever seen Royal Canadian Air Farce. I just wish that the Americans would actually THINK things through before raising their defences. EVERY country has lots of funny stuff, no matter what type of humour appeals to you. And every country has its own brand of humour that applies to its own country. Tastes are what it all boils down to. To each his own!

Uhm... The h*ll with nationalities. Every -individual- has their own tastes -and- sense of humour.

I never said that all British sitcom humour was a shining example to all. For instance, Babes in the Wood and all kids' comedy. But then, that all comes from ITV, not the BBC. Monty Python, Not the Nine O'Clock News and Have I Got News for You are all BBC babies.

The Netherlands are GREEN ?!?!?

Cannibals don't eat clowns -
they taste funny.

I've never forgiven you Australian's for delivering Paul Hogan to us. His strange variety show was a warning of what was to come, now he's transplanted to our country delivering one liners to sell us the latest Subaru Outback.

Fortunately for all of us , humour in all countries, including mine does not come only in television sitcoms.The true test of how much humour is manifested in a country is in how well it is displayed on stages at concerts , at the watercooler and boardrooms, on tv programs and movies not advertised as comedies.When the humour comes out in everyday life and in every venue, a culture has arrived.

Bingo!

"at the watercooler and boardrooms" ... and at kitchen tables and in garages and standing next to automobiles or bicycles... Hmm... I believe I detect a pattern here.

Well, speaking as an American, I am very glad that we've started importing reruns of "The Young Ones." That's a GREAT show. Hehe. "Vyvian."

And Red Dwarf. It was on some public TV stations a few years ago. Another great show.

That's my two cents. Or pence. Whichever currency you prefer...

PBS... What would we do without them?

I disagree wholeheartedly with the central thesis of this forum.

After reading about Diana Ross' adventures with the airportcustoms I know for a fact that Americans can be very very very funny...

Gotta love PBS. Where else could you see the hideous, papier-mache aliens of "Doctor Who?"