Brits have the best sense of humor

[boxy]

I'm pretty much with Tom on this one.

Some of the off beat American stuff is quite good. Scrubs is one I like atm. I don't like their STN ratio, but they do put so much out there that occasionally they do hit the nerve, right on the money.

[JW Frogen]

As some of you know I have lived in a lot of different countries, one thing this has taught me is just how subjective comedy is, it is far more perceived through paticular cultural lenses than say drama or tragedy, these seem to be universal. Though I did know a Japanese woman who sincerely thought Romeo and Juliet was a comedy, taking off the stupidity of romantic youth. (Maybe that is how it translates in Japan.)

The Japanese had a very physical, if some what cruel sense of humor. They loved the practical joke, where one is humiliated or embarrassed. They have a lot of popular game shows that are based on this premise.

Italians also love physical comedy but with a sense of absurdity, they usually tinge with sadness as counterpoint.

Hell Jerry Lewis is a God in France, what is that about?

The Saudis seemed to have no sense of humour at all, but I suspect this was due to their ridgid code of public politness and that they were going back to their camp laughing their asses off about American habits. (Either that or seething with hatred the Infedel had to protect them from Saddam.)

The differences in British, US and Australian comedy are far more subtle. That is why shows from these countries can export and in import in these markets.

For instance Hebe states she does not like Three and a Half Men (I find it mildly funny) but it is a top ratings getter here in Australia. (Notice how they are playing it more and more.)

Boxy mentions Scrubs, a show I really do like. This show will even offer jokes it must know most of it’s audience might not get, like having a room full of patients who were all characters on relatively obscure hospital drama called Saint Elsewhere, all played their previous characters and made the Scrubs doctor think he might die of a condition he contracted, which was a practical joke they played on Saint Elsewhere.

The comedy I like best contrasts the laughs with a sense of pathos, touches on a real aspect of the human condition so that the characters do not become simply props for the punch line.

The British comedy The Office did this really well. American shows like Cheers and Frazier, even the Simpson’s do this, (notice how drunk Barney gets some real human symapthy at different points in the show?); just when the character becomes nothing but a prop for the punch line they reveal a real human point that makes one sympathies with the character. The Australian movie ‘The Castle’ did this as well.

The king of this sort of comedy was Charlie Chaplin.

[freediver]

I'm watching the American version of the office at the moment. It's good, but sometimes it's just too hard to watch it. You get a sense of dread or impending doom.

[JW Frogen]

I'm watching the American version of the office at the moment. It's good, but sometimes it's just too hard to watch it. You get a sense of dread or impending doom.

That is because it is far easier to fire a worker in an American office than a British office.

As an American worker (in my first job) I used to fight the machine by stealing stationary and eating the manager's lunch from his fridge.

[JW Frogen]

I also drank at work, but that was more for me.

I mean really now, how do you sober people get through work?

[Hebe]

I also drank at work, but that was more for me.

I mean really now, how do you sober people get through work?

Drugs.

[JW Frogen]

I also drank at work, but that was more for me.

I mean really now, how do you sober people get through work?

Drugs.

Indeed, my liver nags me about I must it suffer because other forms of coping with life are illegal?

And all this because Swami will not give the pass to the magic mushrooms I so desperately desire?

[boxy]

I'm watching the American version of the office at the moment. It's good, but sometimes it's just too hard to watch it. You get a sense of dread or impending doom.

That's because it was far too predictable... you always knew what was coming.

I think it stunk, almost as bad as the US Kath & Kim.

[Hebe]

I'm watching the American version of the office at the moment. It's good, but sometimes it's just too hard to watch it. You get a sense of dread or impending doom.

Sounds like working for the Public Service.

[boxy]

Speaking of dread and impending doom... Swift and Shift! Contemporary Australian slap stick