How is British comedy different from American comedy ?
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I often find American comedy offers a literal clarification to the joke/punch line, rather than letting the audience work it out.
Although everyone’s different, some US comedy has more similarities with British comedy and vice versa.
Office UK vs Office USA is one example that has a direct comparison, although neither represent either countries comedy as a whole.
America’s like to laugh with the sharp witted, wise cracking comedies or characters.
British laugh with the under dog and get please with thought there unlikely successes. For example Mr. Bean
American comedy is mostly based around “extraordinary” situations and people. British humour is much more focused on making fun of themseves and the reality of their everyday lives.
Oh boy. This is going to be a thread where people compare the worst examples of American comedy with the best examples of British comedy. That may be because Britain’s comedy generally has had to come to America through fans (perhaps less so now) since not many British shows are syndicated in the US, whereas America will export the most marketable/generic (read:unfunny) LCD. It’s the difference between getting a bootleg from someone with similar taste, or blindly flipping on the top 40 station.
I should provide the disclaimer that I’m talking out my ass and have no knowledge or expertise on this subject. I once heard that they don’t get It’s Always Sunny in Britain, but get all of Chuck Lorey’s vomit. So that basically the basis of my answer.
In American comedies, the lead is a hero, successful, and makes the jokes. In british comedies, the lead is trying, but is a failure and is made fun of. Stephen Fry explains it much better: https://youtu.be/8k2AbqTBxao
I grew up in northern New York State, just south of Ottawa, Ontario. We had 3 TV channels and one was CJOH which showed a lot of BBC. At least it did back in the 70s. I haven’t been back in a long time.
It seemed to me that the British humor was more physical or sound based (farts or squeaky shoes or anything embarrassing) as opposed to jokes. It was something even children could enjoy. The closest thing I think we had in the states back then was Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show.
This is a way deeper question than it first appears. It really depends on what level we’re talking about
For the most part, British and American comedy is pretty interchangeable. As a Brit who lived in the States for 10 years, I can say about 95% of our comedy ‘travels’ really well in both directions.
Growing up in the UK, in the 80’s we had Cheers, The Golden Girls, Roseanne… in the 90’s Friends and Seinfeld where as big over here as they where over there, and since the interwebs came along we watch a lot of the same stand-up.
The only thing that doesn’t really translate are a few of the bigger comedies that rely more on context. Like, very few people in the UK have ever heard of Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy…and I don’t think many Americans have heard of Peter Kay… but even that isn’t so much a difference in sense of humor, so much as it’s assumed Brits won’t get Redneck references and Americans won’t get Northern English humor. My wife’s American and while some British stand-up went over her head, she still found most of it funny… and the same was true for me in the other direction.
I think the best way to explain it isn’t that British and American people have a different sense of humor, it’s more that the people controlling the purse strings *decide* that we do, so don’t bother marketing it, or adapt it in a different way.
I think a good example is the British and American versions of ‘The Office’.
The whole point of the UK version of The Office is it was a sitcom that wasn’t very sitcom-like. Ricky Gervais said the whole point was that you could watch an episode not knowing what it was and genuinely not be sure if you were watching an actual documentary or a comedy show. The most sitcoms were too ‘eventful’ and full of wacky misunderstandings, so wanted The Office to feel more ‘real’.
The American version was a pure sitcom. It had those wacky over-the-top situations and was way more of a traditional sitcom format…. but the thing is, I like both versions. They’re very different shows, but it’s not like one version is funny and the other isn’t.
Basically, I’d just say that British and American comedy isn’t all that different. I think a lot of us Brits like to think that our humor is more sophisticated and high brow and that American comedy tends to talk down to the audience, but you can always find examples that prove those stereotypes wrong. I mean, Benny Hill is hardly high brow, and Frasier wasn’t known for spoon-feeding the audience.
In the end, I’d just say the difference in our various brands of comedy tend to come down to the fact we just have different cultural reference points.
British love absurdity of daily beurocratic bullshit and officious clerks.
Best examples are Monty Python cheese shop where a customer is trying to buy something but everything requested is not in stock, fresh out etc.
The customer trying to return a dead bird. It’s not dead, yes it is, no its just pining for the fjords
Ministry of silly walks. Office of arguments
American is a pie in the face
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