Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Office is probably one of he few instances where the American version is superior to the British one, but it's hard to compare since the UK version only ran a couple of seasons. The style of humour in the American Office was a bit more 'British' actually too.
Remember when Americans tried to copy "Coupling", it was a disaster and barely lasted a season IIRC.
Basically to appease this or that particular sensibilities on this side of the pond, they gutted much of what made "Coupling" so brilliant. Which brings up another point about the British humor/television comedies; Brits aren't as uptight about sex and or bodily functions as Americans.
Americans claimed "Coupling" was a rip off of "Friends", but it was so much more. The sanitized version tried by the Americans, yes that was like "Friends", but it had to be didn't it? I mean all the good bits were taken out!
Remember when Americans tried to copy "Coupling", it was a disaster and barely lasted a season IIRC.
Basically to appease this or that particular sensibilities on this side of the pond, they gutted much of what made "Coupling" so brilliant. Which brings up another point about the British humor/television comedies; Brits aren't as uptight about sex and or bodily functions as Americans.
Americans claimed "Coupling" was a rip off of "Friends", but it was so much more. The sanitized version tried by the Americans, yes that was like "Friends", but it had to be didn't it? I mean all the good bits were taken out!
Exactly...or when they tried the Aussie comedy 'Kath and Kim', a lot of the humour is so Australian it just didn't translate.
Exactly...or when they tried the Aussie comedy 'Kath and Kim', a lot of the humour is so Australian it just didn't translate.
Yes, well what goes around comes around doesn't it? Last time one checked a few stars from Coupling (Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman off the top of my head) were working in the USA. This is the other side of the coin; UK provides plenty of great roles but the big money is the United States. It didn't take long before that chap from Downton Abbey legged it to these shores. *LOL* In fact watching network USA programming some nights you have to look to see if it's ITV or BBC for all the UK actors.
Hugh Laurie is mainly known in the USA by the younger generation as Dr. House. Those of us in the know of course love him for Bertie Wooster singing "47 Ginger Headed Sailors".
Yes, well what goes around comes around doesn't it? Last time one checked a few stars from Coupling (Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman off the top of my head) were working in the USA. This is the other side of the coin; UK provides plenty of great roles but the big money is the United States. It didn't take long before that chap from Downton Abbey legged it to these shores. *LOL* In fact watching network USA programming some nights you have to look to see if it's ITV or BBC for all the UK actors.
Hugh Laurie is mainly known in the USA by the younger generation as Dr. House. Those of us in the know of course love him for Bertie Wooster singing "47 Ginger Headed Sailors".
Yeah it's pretty weird how he sounds so convincingly American in House. Fry and Laurie was a great show.
Yeah it's pretty weird how he sounds so convincingly American in House. Fry and Laurie was a great show.
Have the original A&E DVD series of "Jeeves and Wooster" which gets plenty of use since we went OTA last summer. Cannot reconcile Bertie Wooster with Dr. House. *LOL* I mean knowing what Mr. Laurie is capable of and then hearing House speak just throws one for a loop.
Speaking in very general terms...The British have a very self - depreciating sense of humour. We like to laugh about things that happen in real life. We laugh when we are down. Some British humour can be quite dark. We like sarcasm where Americans can find it offensive (I have learned not to use sarcasm here). I guess we don't take ourselves too seriously.
But in the end humour is very personal so it varies from person to person too.
American humour is definitely different, although there are some points where British Humour and American Humour intersect. Many Americans do prefer the British version of the Office as been discussed on here before. I love The Office, some of it just had me in stitches. It is very typical of the self depreciating humour I was talking about.
My favourite comedian is Eddie Izzard. I went to see him live a few times and he literally had me laughing so hard at times I couldn't breathe.
PeaceAndLove42 I'd be interested to hear what sort of humour in general you like?
I think you are right about this. I am a very sarcastic person and have to control my 'dark side.' I got British humor right away and love it.
I was also a huge fan of all of those gloomy but beautiful Manchester bands (The Smiths, Stone Roses, Charlatans, etc...)
I think Brits are funniest when they're just being themselves. They have a knack for understatement in very real situations, that can come across as funny.
If you google British television shows remade by America, you will see all the shows, the list is huge, over forty British television shows have been remade in USA, including many big and famous shows.
In UK we have lots of American tv shows, many of my favourite shows are from America, but we don't copy or remake them, we just show the original American versions, I prefer it this way because you get to feel the way it was written and how its supposed to be. We also have Australian and other english speaking countries tv shows here that we don't mess about with either
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
