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

I think many of the problems with comparing comedy is the fact that the cultures are very different. Being an Australian with English roots I find it easier to sit through a British comedy than one originating from the US. I think, personally, it is the way both Australians and the English can have a laugh at their own expense that makes it for me. I never had much time for people who take themselves too seriously and people who "take the piss" out of such people really appeal to me. In general (and this is a generalisation...does not refer to everyone), I find that Americans tend to take themselves a bit too seriously and such humour cuts a bit too close to the bone. Obviously there are exceptions to this but, they are, in general, a very proud race.

I agree that there are Americans that don't get British humour but I think that every American on this page obviously does get and enjoy British humour or we wouldn't be on this page to begin with. And yes some Americans can't laugh at themselves but I would say myself and most of the people I know can laugh at themselves and in fact find it rather enjoyable at times. I know I am a stupid AMerican but I like it that way!!!! And if you want to see some movies where Americans laugh at themselves, check out "LA Story" where they just rip apart all the California myths, truly hysterical. Or many of the Mel Brooks movies where he just destroys common American movies and satirizes them to no end. Again I find him very, very funny. But also I agree with the idea of different cultures finding different things humorous. Just the way of the world, I guess. And now I am off to laugh at myself....just because I want to!

Sandwich Maker has pointed out something- This is a Douglas Adams site. Douglas Adams is British, and his books can be regarded as British humour. So any Americans on h2g2 are probably pretty fond of British humour, so I recommend you go to an AOL chatroom or something of that sort and shoot them down. And don't tell them I sent you.

Only difference between the two words is that the English took a perfectly serviceable word, and added an extra vowel.
As for taking ourselves too seriously, just look at Mel Brooks, SNL, Dilbert, Mark Twain, the musical comedy "1776,"...the list goes on and on of comedy that pokes fun at the American experience. We even have the decency to ridicule our leaders. Too bad the Brits don't do this more often, because the royals are far more ridiculous than any leaders anywhere.

The lack of knowledge is understandable, considering how much weight English teachers place on Billy Shakespeare. Therefore, I have provided some illumination, if i can get the link tag right .

She's Canadian, silly.

Simce when does Samuel CLemes bring on Alanis Morsette?

i'm an american now living in canada (the country where you don't need to buy your rights). i completely agree with the first bit regarding "brainwashed america"--that's part of the reason i moved. well said.

however, canada, like most of europe, has more art in its small towns than the u.s. does in the whole country (humour is an art). this is largely due to the undesirable existence of a place called hollywood (god help us!). nothing but garbage has come out of that place for a long, long time. the problem is simply this:

1) money kills art
2) hollywood is all about money

i am not posting this as an attack. i am merely stating the truth. i lived in that s@#thole (hollywood) for quite a bit of time and, i can assure you, the only thing real there is the smog!

btw, canada, again, is pulsating with humorous theatre, stand-up comedy and television series. you should try catching a rerun of "the kids in the hall".

btw2, people like david letterman and howard stern provide linear entertainment for the masses, period.

ignorance is not an attractive thing.

are you kidding me?! the only difference between the two languages is that the americans dropped the "u". where do you think the english language came from? the states? ignorance is not an attractive thing. please.

why does everyone have to attack each other's countries and cultures. i thought h2g2 was a meeting/chatting place for, i really hate cliches but, birds of the same feather. you know...a group of individuals (key word here) that appreciate douglas adam's perspective of things. honestly, it sounds like a bunch of children bickering at one another. s@#t. if this is the way the world is going to be, then i suggest that everyone sit down, read "1984" and wait for the 6th major extinction (that comes in the form of a large meteor, incidently).

ridiculously yours
enigmaniacs

(Fenchurch) Aha. ThinBlueLine seemed a little weak for Rowan Atkinson - there were big gaps and canned laughter after the punchlines, which he usually spurns. We've recently seen The League of Gentlemen in a TV series, which is probably the closest we get to Kids in the Hall since it stopped being repeated three years ago. Are there any more series of that waiting to come over here? Mr. bean went down after the first few, though I don't know what the film was like. Is Shooting Fish available to rent in the US? If it is, get it out. The same goes for The Day Today. Don't bother with Brass Eye - Chris Morris on his own doesn't work too well.

(Sandwich maker) If you won't judge Britain by the fat bastards who go abroad and red, I won't judge the US exclusively on those people who take the easy route to the top of the local hill carrying camcorders saying "Gee Marsha, is that the palace?" whilst looking at the university library. This thread is about the comedy found in the US. I'm not sure about Mel Brooks, especially if he was to blame for LA Story. He seems too fond of placing large arrows all over the script pointing at the punchline. The worry for those of us over here that like our comedy to be good is that lazy bastard schedulers will start to believe the stuff they're buying from the US to the detriment of homegrown talent. They've already changed the news to a poncey, borrowed format and some of our stand-ups are starting to try and copy some of yours, which isn't gong to work for anyone. Such a nightmare would be Eddie Izzard feeling the need to adopt a stupid voice like Emo Philips even though his material stands up by itself.
What strike sme as the main difference between television comedy here and there is the delivery method - US stuff always seems overplayed, with big, hammy, exaggerated expressions and voices whilst british stuff (unless it's all visual) relies on the language to get the joke across. qv the MPFC "Me, Doctor?" sketch. That's the way it SEEMS, anyway. Very good stuff is usually culturally interchangeable. I assume you thought the second series of South park to be worse than the first? Early Simpsons were slightly unfunny until the moved the emphasis to Homer, around the same time that they stopped trying to draw that characters head-on?

Two cows are sitting in a field.
One says "I hear old Daisy went down wi' that mad cow disease the other week. Worrying, isn't it?"
The other swallows a bit of grass and shakes his head. "Doesn't bother me, mate."
"Why not?" asks the first, curiously.
Says the other: "'Cause I'm a helicopter."

OK, who cares where it comes from??? Some of the best "American" TV started as British. Who cares. Is it funny? Watch it. Is it stupid (oh, you didn't think about Benny Hill, did you)? Change the channel. We have excellent actors/actresses from many countries. Michael J. Fox is a Canadian. He plays a New Yorker. Is he funny? I don't care what somebody else thinks. I like him. I like John Cleese. I like lots of funny people. Get a grip, particularly in culture. As global as we should all be, watch what you like. (or better yet, nothing at all -- read a book).

wsfn

my sentiments exactly. well said.

First off thank you for not judging all Americans by those people but then again, if someone has never been in a place before and that place looks quite different from where they came from originally, they are obviously not going to be able to know a castle from a school library, especially since most college libraries here are horrid concrete things constructed in the 70's (or at least the ones I am familiar with are). Sometimes the only way to learn is to be ignorant and questioning. If you pretend that you know everything then you never know anything and if you already know all about another country, then why bother to visit it in the first place. See my point? It is not fair to make fun of others ignorance, which I know you were not intending but it does slightly come off that way. Maybe those Brits I saw were ignorant to the fact that the sun burns or that they were louder than most, maybe they just didn't know but now they have learned, more power to them.

As for Kids in the Hall, they are yet another group of Canadians, so we Americans cannot claim them either, but I can tell you that they stopped making shows a while ago so you probably can't expect new ones, but I agree they are funny. I also agree with what was written after us, if it's not funny, don't watch it, but don't belittle other peoples, let alone an entire country's, concept of funny. I think many of the shows I listed were not the ones with the obvious facial or physical gags, but relied on some subtle humor. As for LA Story, no that is not a Mel Brooks movie and I was referring to it not strictly for comedy but for it's ability to make fun of LA, which it did well, in a rather tongue in cheek manner. Mel Brooks obviousness is what makes him funny. You watch him for the gag and also for the subtle twists he will put on parodies of other movies. Obvious at times but not always. I actually saw Eddie Izzard for the first time tonight on HBO and I found him hysterical!!! He really had me rolling. However comparing him to Emo Phillips is just silly. Emo Phillips speaks like that as his thing, his catch, his gag. That his how he found humor. Others find it in prop, like the Legendary Id, or in puns, or language, or prat falls, etc., etc. Personally I found Eddie's thing to be his make-up and open-toed platform shoes as a catch or handle. That is what he used as attention.
Still nothing will ever change the fact that humor/our is subjective, and personal and we all need to learn to respect and maybe even try to appreciate some of what we may not consider funny.
(Oh crap, my soapbox just caved in, I guess I will shut up now!)

The problem with all brits abroad is that they can never speak the language. Whereas european countries learn languages from primary age, only in the last five years has britain made learning a language from 11-16 semi-compulsory. Hence the peculiar british habit of speaking loudly and slowly and patronisingly to foreigners and the cultural terrorism of anglicising parts of Spain. If these people expect to be tolerated by the natives of the country they choose to insult they ought to have the decency to accept foreign cultures in their own country; sadly, this is about as likely as a london market trader forming the opinion that the royal family should be done away with and that cockney is the most hideous form of spoken english in the world. It's hard to believe that british holidaymakers come from the same country that gave the world Michael Bentine, Rowland Rivron and Peter Cook. It probably proves that it isn't the country that produces anything, it's the individuals concerned. I saw an ad in a music paper recently saying that "Status Quo use the *dooberry* Hair Follicle Transplantation System". This is as bad as anything of which we accuse the US, including Seinfeld complaining about getting the part of "12th Turkey" in South Park. Then again, it's not enough for lagerwanker tourists to learn self-deprecation; they need to stop what they're doing and keep their twattishness to themselves until they can learn to act decently.

Well, I would have to disagree with your point about Cockney being the worst form of English spoken. I think the cockney accent pales in comparison to that irritating drawl of those in the South of the US. Now that annoying. I can see why they all carry guns down that way!!!

Anyone reading this in the UK ought to have a poke at The Onion before saying anything. Cracking up uncontrollably in front of a computer is a great way of making people at the terminals either side of you feel that they're missing something.

Understood. Most Americans suffer from the same problems of not speaking the language of the country they are in and therefore speaking very loudly and slowly in English, like that makes a difference. However the country I witnessed these Brits in was an English speaking country, so I guess that theory doesn't apply to this particular situation. Americans are also rather intolerant of foreigners in our country, which is doubly ironic when you consider how the country was founded and the statue of Liberty and all that. I mean look at idiots like the Ku Klux Klan. They are truly a problem in our society, but yet they are still around and on Jerry Springer every day.........go figure.

In an attempt to finish this arguement did anyone ever see the ameriacan hollywood take on Red Dwarf? ZooWeee it stank!!! Imitation is NOT the sincerest form of flattery if you do it that bad...