BS: can someone explain

Subject: BS: can someone explain
From: GUEST,missing the point
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:21 AM

Can someone explain the American sence of Humour (?)as I'd love to get the joke when watching their sitcoms.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:22 AM

What American sense of humour?

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:23 AM

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: harpgirl
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:25 AM

It is far inferior to the Brits' I think, having hung around here for many years....Plus no one in the south ever gets the joke!

love, harpy

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: John Hardly
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:26 AM

It's really pretty simple -- when you hear the laugh track, that's when you're suppose to laugh.

We're horribly backwards over here. We entirely lack the subtlety of Benny Hill.

.......fade to yackity sax.........

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:30 AM

you want humour? Forget the sitcoms - watch our politicians!

granted - it's a sick, twisted, humour, but it is "ours"

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:49 AM

Superior to ours? I wonder.

As mentioned above, Benny Hill. And what about that married guy who has the brains and reasoning power of a new puppy? I saw it several times but I don't remember the name of the show. It was that memorable...

Now, if you talk about word play and subtleties of expression, I'll grant you that. But it's definitely not an across the board thing.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 11:52 AM

Canadians are way funnier than Brits anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:03 PM

I admit I miss the joke whenever Benny Hill or Mr Bean is on. But Fawlty Towers ? That's a hoot.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:16 PM

a sense of humor is a reflection of the more serious concerns of a society. I don't 'get' a lot of Brit humor, but some of what I do get is very funny.....as is much of American humor. If you want strange, look at what passes for 'funny' in Japanese TV shows...

now as to American sit-coms, most are aimed directly at special interest groups, especially at youth 17-25, and I don't LIKE the underlying premises. "missing the point" would have to explain which show were particularly confusing, as they are **NOT** all the same.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:30 PM

I watched them doing a show before a live audience once. They had to hold up a sign saying applause or laugh whenever some jerk called Seinfeld said something that was supposed to be funny; it was the only way they got any laughs by the way. I dont know why it was called comedy, the only bloke that was remotely funny was some guy called Kramer. Guess American humour is very complex and too hard for us Brits to understand.

Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:34 PM

Good point, Dave (tam), there was nothing complex or hard to understand about Kramer.

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:38 PM

Anyway, Dave (tam), you live in Atlantic Canada (at least you did last time your location was mentioned)... Atlantic Canadians are the funniest people in the whole world. You live right there in the middle of the mother lode of humour. What in the world are you watching US sitcoms for?

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:43 PM

I dont watch them CarolC. My first exposure to US humour was in 1969 I came by merchant ship to many US ports. Sometimes we spent weeks in places like New York and Chicago, I got the odd chance to watch a show or two ;-) Yes in Atlantic Canada we have both kinds of funny people. (Funny = Strange and Funny = Humerous);-)

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: PoppaGator
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:46 PM

As an occasional American observer of British TV comedy, I find that the Brits seem to enjoy BOTH material that is cruder and more lowbrow than anything aired in the US AND other stuff that is way more sophisticated than anything the US networks will show.

Do the British have a broader range to their sense of humor? I doubt it. My theory is that American TV executives are more conservative and try to stick to "middle-of-the-road" humor because of the huge dollar amounts at risk.

I've noted that a number of UK Mudcatters express an inability to "get" the low-key ironic sensibility common to Letterman, Seinfeld, Larry David, and others who I consider some of the hippest comics amid the sea of mediocrity that is American TV. Maybe one has to expereince life in the current-day USA to understand ~ but then, on the other hand, there are plenty of Americans who don't especially like this stuff either.

I agree with CarolC that Canadians seem to be the funniest of all (Kids in the Hall, Danny Ackroyd, the SCTV gang, etc.) I suppose it's because they enjoy the benefit of exposure to as much American pop culture as they wish, without the burden of actually having to be Americans. :)

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: The Curator
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:47 PM

Remember Rowan and Martins laugh in ? Has to be the last great American show, maybe giving my age away.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:54 PM

In a group the other night, The Curator, we were discussing Laugh In. The stuff that seemed so daring and risque then would be pretty tame now- but Laugh In was funnier...

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:56 PM

Actually, Poppagator, I heartily disagree with the idea that Canadians (Atlantic Canadians in particular) are funny because of anything they see or hear coming from the US. Their sense of humor was well developed long before TV or radio became common household items. (I know... my paternal grandfather was from New Brunswick.)

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 12:58 PM

American bought the Benny Hill shows? Says it all.... But then again, I know plenty of Brits who think the Phil Silvers show was hilarious.

Got to agree with The Curator though. The laugh-in was a brilliant exception.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: artbrooks
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:02 PM

IMNSHO, most Americans who are either over the age of 20-something or who have an IQ slightly above lukewarm don't watch TV sitcoms, because they don't think they are particularly funny. Of course, the advertising for the products which sponsor these programs are directed to that same sub-normal audience which, for some unfathomable reason, appears to have a lot a discretionary income.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:05 PM

Frazier was a very funny show, though.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:21 PM

I absolutely YEARN for something like the "Ernie Kovacs show" or "Jackie Gleason" or "The Smothers Brothers" or "Laugh-In" or "The Colgate Comedy Hour" these days ...or even M*A*S*H....but they all want to be 'safe' and churn out variations on a theme vaguely resembling "Seinfeld" or "Cheers" or worse....

I have accidently tuned into that abomination named after "Drew Carey" a couple of times, only to be greeted by that fat woman with the ½ ton of make-up....arrrghhhhhhhhh

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: John Hardly
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:39 PM

The funniest show on TV is still out there churning out irreverent humor that is unmatched now or then -- The Simpsons.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:56 PM

I am told that The Simpsons does hit a few nerves and makes points....but I just cannot get past the art work and voices. I lose the point in all the caricactures.

Now, what I'd LOVE to see would be Walt Kelly doing an animated Pogo based on today's issues...

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 01:59 PM

Brit humour for me. If you can master the language, then Russian. Granted, Simpsons is brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:16 PM

Perhaps American humor had its consciousness expanded by the popularity of Monty Python's sometimes-absurdist humor. Hopefully we returned the favor with Firesign Theatre.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: sixtieschick
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:41 PM

American humor shouldn't be judged by television. Check out www.theonion.com for political humor (it's spotty, but when it's good it's fantastic), books of "The Far Side" cartoons by Gary Larson, solo performances by Lily Tomlin, such as "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe," the best Mel Brooks movies, the NPR news quiz show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me"--and that's just for starters.

M.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:45 PM

I was watching some Monty Python just last night..."The bicycle tour"....and it was a stretch for me to identify with many of the sight gags......but some Python crosses all bounds and is pure genius.

I guess you can't expect everthing they do to be A-1.......on the other hand, there were a 'few' clever moments in some "Benny Hill" shows, in between the busty nurses and leering.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: bobad
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 02:47 PM

Can someone explain about the French and Jerry Lewis THAT is something I just don't get.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:34 PM

As to the British sense of humor--there is a very successful West End show called, "Jerry Springer, the Opera"--the idea that you all would pay to see that is very funny.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 03:57 PM

Dunno. We've given the world Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Bob Newhart, Shelley Berman, Lily Tomlin, Lenny Bruce -- does anyone remember when Cosby was doing standup? I enjoyed his Noah's-conversation-with-GOD ("Riiiight. What's a cubit?" "Noah, how long can you tread water?") And there is (or was?) a female comic named Boosler(Elaine?) who seems to have a real gift for female-reality routines that always gets to me. Granted that's not sit-coms, but I think we've demonstrated our ability to "get it" with our enjoyment of That Was The Week That Was(TW3), Laugh-In, Monty Python.    Tw

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 04:12 PM

My favorite US comedian is Wanda Sikes.

And I second the vote for The Firesign Theater.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: CarolC
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 04:15 PM

Excuse me... Wanda Sykes

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Jim McLean
Date: 01 Jul 05 - 04:34 PM

Phil Silvers, Jack benny, The Simpsons .... terrific. I find Monty Python as funny as a broken leg.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Kaleea
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 02:20 AM

Funny thing is, I DO get the British humor. I have been reading British books since I was in grade school, and in fact my alltime fav author is P. G. Wodehouse. It is almost impossible to find his books in a library nowadays, sadly.   

   The TV sitcoms in America quit being of interest to me many years ago. The old school comedians here were primarily Jewish. I can't imagine how difficult it was for a fellow to not be booed off the stage between strippers during the Vaudeville days. Those guys really had to be funny.

    Will Rogers was once considered the greatest commedian in America. He would tell his homespun humor while doing his rope tricks.

   guestmmario et all--Before Bob Hope, there was a Cherokee feller from Oklahoma named Will Rogers. The D.C. crowd would go see him at the local watering hole & ASK him to tell jokes about themselves!
   He was once said this about Congress:
       "Legislatures are like animals in a zoo. You can't do anything about 'em. All you can do is just stand & watch 'em.
      
         A quip about the last SILENT film he made :   
    "Just finished shooting scenes here in Washington for a movie of the old stage play 'A Texas Steer.' It was the story of a man elected to Washington on bought votes. We are bringing it up to date by not changing it at all!"

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 05:25 AM

The Far Side is delightful, so's Calvin & Hobbes, but the greatest humourist of all, Brit or otherwise, is definitely PLUM!!!!
Saki and Waugh get honourable mention.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 06:19 AM

Nowadays it's 50% slapstick, 40% verbal slapstick, and 10% that is brilliant.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 06:19 AM

American comedy, I meant.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: jimmyt
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 12:14 PM

I think the concept of comparing American TV humor to British TV humor is really what you are asking. I find the majority of our sitcom material totally dull and the humor is predictable and without any "thinking person's" substance. Mind you, I have also watched a fair amount of British tv while travelling and you have a lot of the same mindless drivel. It is easy to compare the brilliant Brit humor to our mediochre stuff. The VIcar of Dibley, Dawn French, is quite a genius, but on the whole I see as much mindless drivel on Brit TV as I do in the US.

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 02:12 PM

Don't panic! Don't panic!

Subject: RE: BS: can someone explain
From: Matt R
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 02:17 PM

Father Ted is the funniest sitcom I have ever seen. Black Books in close second.