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

Er, perhaps you didn't notice my tongue firmly in my cheek, don't get too shirty, a bit of fun never hurt anybody (whose skin ain't too thin).

AG

We export that? Wow. You learn something new every day...

Is Bill Cosby American?

In all cases he is definitely African-American.

The US can keep Bob Hope. Is he dead yet? I think it's safe to say that if he is english his alleged humour is more in the american style. In that it's humor, not humour, and is thereby missing something.

Yes, you bastards, you export it to us. We've already got too many crap tabloid alleged newspapers that are turning the menfolk of the country into ignorant, slobbering fools. People from London started off that way but it's spreading. If only Baywatch was made with a little irony it would all be allright. irony, though, is the crucial factor missing from anything American that purports to be humour. Except for that issuing from Parker, Stone, Abrahams, Zucker, Zucker and a few others. DO they put something in the atmosphere breathed by the audience when filming sit alleged-coms? Why the hell are they laughing when nothing has happened onset for at least five minutes? Is there one of those little lights saying "laugh now - that was the punchline" in case they missed it? The fact that the US is humourless is profoundly illustrated by the fact that the US invented the laugh-track.

US humour is good when it is disgusting..
Does Lenny Bruce tickle your fancy perhaps?

AG

First of all, I'd like to say that I fully appreciate US humour - for every Fawlty Towers there's a Friends, for every Blackadder a Seinfeld. Of course there's only one HHGG, though. Oh, plus this one .

One difference though is that viewers stateside seem to have a higher tolerance for canned laughter. M*A*S*H was always broadcast in the US with a laughter track, and in the UK without. Once in the UK they played the wrong tape, with the laughs, and they got complaints - once in the US they made an episode without the laughter, and it won an award. From this I conclude that the people of both countries appreciate being treated like adults - but only the Brits enjoy it on a regular basis.

They think they understand irony, and they laugh at it, which means they are probably happy. But often they confuse it with tragedy.

The man who's afraid to fly plucking up the courage to do so and then dying in an air crash (as per Alanis Morissette's clueless ditty) is tragic. Whereas the man who's afraid to fly taking the car instead - well, it's safer, isn't it? - and then having an Airbus drop on his head as he sits in a traffic jam on the A303 is ironic.

And there's the rub. Since them colonials have no grasp of subtlety, it'll be wasted on them, and importing more is simply going to make them frown a lot. Best leave things as they are.

Seinfeld is not funny. There are plenty of thing's I'll laugh at but not him. Or his hair.

Seinfeld isn't funny? Good. I thought it was just me.

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into a open sewer and die.

Okay, so maybe the USA does need to import some humour.

They do.
Benny Hill !!!
Gasp..choke..vomit

AG

Who?

Everyone is also forgetting BeverlyHills 90210, Melrose Place, Babe (oops I mean bay) watch, and other shows of that genre. You can't tell me those are not humor (even if they are not intended as such by their writers)

I can tell you that they're not humor. they are not HUMOUR, which is a very different thing. They may be amusing to people but the sad fact is that the people who make them take the whole thing seriously. We can laugh at US sitcoms over here if we laugh at the audience laughing at the alleged script, but cannot laugh at the script itself. Christ knows what the audience is laughing at. All we can do is hope that we never become so easily pleased.

What can I say? It's a living!

a man walks into a room and trips over a childs toy, the american luaghs, the man looks at the american and says "i trip over, and somehow thats funny?" the englishman luaghs. a few minutes later the irishman luaghs.

Oh please, Jay Leno funny?!?! In my opinion the man's an idiot. As far as late night television goes, I prefer David Letterman and Conan O'Brian. Give me Dave's Stupid Human Tricks or Conan's bizarre characters and talking TV interviews anyday.