Harry Hill

Got my ticket for his show today [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
However, I was watching his TV Burp and those in attendance who were overseas students thought it was pretty crap. The same with The Office, Brass Eye and I'm Alan Partridge [his air guitar playing on monday was hilarious]. Why do foreigners think our sole comedy exports of worth are Benny Hill and Monty Python? What is it about it they just don't get? And why? I'd hate to think there really was such a yawning gap between our sense of humour and everyone else's.
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i reckon its cause its based on real english people + the english mentality...like they wouldn't really get the pisstake of local BBC radio cause they're not that familiar with it

harry hill does my head in anyway.
i never used to find him funny
he makes me laugh on occasion now though, but i wouldn't care for seeing him live.
Give me Eddie Izzard any day!

harry hill is my fave comedien!
"pete waterman is so old that when he looks at a fossil he starts to cry because he remembers what they were like when they were alive"

not many overseas ppl seem to get what Monty Python is about, or is that just the americans?

American humour is never spoof led...they are fed crap sitcoms over and over again...we get the best of it...look at the Andy Dick show...very hit and miss...never especially funny....Friends is probably the best they have to offer...if it doesnt have a storyline per s? then they arent interested...Brass Eye spoofs british culture that they rarely see,and Alan Partridge and the office are also comedies of manners...which the Americans wouldnt get...the cringe factor of the Office is firmly a British thing and is subtle.to a point...
HArry Hill is cack though............

I think Harry Hill is the only British comedian to ever be on the Letterman show, thus proving he is a great comedian and he is meant to be far better live.

Okay onto America. Most Americans are heavily into Python as are other nations (I think with Python it's all the shouting. They don't understand the text, but they like the way it's shouted) and Father Ted, League Of Gentlemen, Only Fools and Horses, and so on is supposed to be relatively popular. It is weird though, how two similar nations could produce such very different shows. This is possibly down to fear. US networks are shit-scared of offending anyone (given that the Americans are a very vocal and puritanical lot) so, where possible, the networks try to water shows down as much as possible so they're "suitable for all". Bowling for Columbine highlights the fear factor in America [Well worth seeing]. It's also probably down to the fact that the ratings war out there is incredibly fierce with networks wanting shows that will attract as many viewers as possible.

As a result, you get shows that are, to a greater or lesser extent, pretty tame and often quite bland ... the heart and soul of what makes a show great is often sacrificed in the name of "family entertainment". Most Americans are happy with this because they don't know any different ... "risky" shows don't last and are replaced with the next "well-off middle-class pretty people and their oh-so-amusing lives".

Okay, America churns out stuff like "Jackass" which, although pushing it a bit in what you can show on TV, it's not really "edgy". It's just seeing what gross and twattish things they can get away with showing. Most US stuff like "Friends" or "Ally McBeal" don't use particularly sophisticated humour - it's just repeated sarcasm, plain and simple, and it wears thin very quickly. Sure, in the UK we're known for our sarcasm, but it works differently ... more often than not, our sarcasm is really irony or sardonic self-deprecation. The sarcasm in "Friends" is just abuse, with the characters ripping into each other.

"Mr Bean" is a global hit because it's slapstick farce; no sophistication, just a rubber-faced pillock making a knob of himself. Being British I like to think our humour is a bit above the rest of the world ... we do have a deep love of satire (the more biting and fierce the better), irony, self-deprecation, and anything that makes you wish you're not the protagonist. The situations in "Friends" don't make you go "thank fuck that's not me", because the crises are never that bad. David Brent makes you cringe with embarassment at his desperate attempts to be popular because it's a situation you'd never want to be in ... yet you know, with him being so close to bosses in real life, you really could end up in such a situation.

Maybe our humour is shit, and maybe all that bland American stuff like "Veronica's Closet", "Moesha", or "Seinfeld" isn't actually that bland. British comedy is invading though. There is going to be an American series of Trigger Happy TV.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 12, 2002 12:59 PM: Message edited by: Sim ]</font>

americans dont understand anything

Britain's humour is satire, and being a not very nationalistic country. I would say there's more in a british comedy, but it's quite alone in the world. N trigger happy tv seems quite continental to me

Trigger Happy TV is shite. Harry Hill is ace live.