Is British Comedy On a Downer?

[jj]

Having only been 'guilty' of the comment about 'My Family' (more to point up the adoption in the UK of the US practice of team-writing than its dubious claim to comedy immortality), the point hardly needs to be laboured about the quality of the US imports we get (their domestically-retained majority is, however, just as dire as ours....).
The point that seems to emerge (albeit through the rose-tinted visual aid of nostalgia) is that compared to most of the current output, old comedies are hilarious. I remember the likes of 'On the Buses' only too well, and it was about as funny as root-canal: still, funnier than an entire series of 'A Bottle of Lager....': 'It makes me laugh, so....' is NOT a good guide to writing comedy when you are 19-year-old lager lout with a Creative Writing degree.
I'd hazard the guess that in this most difficult of art forms, the British 'hit rate' is broadly comparable to that of the US.

[steve56]

does anybody here recall beggar my neighbour it was about 66,68?starred peter jones,june whitfield,pat coombs,reg varney,no-one on fru has heard of it.

[magoo]

The classics of the last few years Pheonix Nights, The Office, Brass Eye etc are brilliant. Much better than The Benny Hill and Kenny Everett that I grew up with.

This is obviously an age thing. Older forumites might just not get the modern stuff. Although I know a few people aged 50-60 why enjoy these shows. The Office is more an observation of peoples amusing traits and mannerisms than traditional gag based humour. As for Chris Morrisses stuff (Brass Eye, Jam et al) I cant imagine anyone over 45 finding it funny. Hence the misunderstanding over the peadophile show they did.

Also I cant imagine The Office or Pheonix Nights going down well abroad. British satire doesnt travel well IMHO. Which might be why Buttsie is not keen on a lot off it.

[steve56]

monty python has a cult following in america so youll never know pheonix nights might take off over there

[the Monkey Wrencher]

JJ, without wishing to be cynically minded, there's a simple reason why 'Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps' got a BBC commission. It was written by a women. A rarity in the male dominated comedy scripting world of UK television. Not that this excuses the piss poor content mind you.

[magoo]

Call me a sexist but I dont think women are very good at writing comedy. Victoria Wood has a knack for scripting good dialogue as in Dinner Ladies but most female writers and performers are crap.

Female stand ups are usually dire as are female written sketch shows and sitcoms. I wonder why this is? Is it because men start trying to be funny from an early age in order to compete with each other whereas women dont bother trying to out-funny each other at school and in the pub and hence do not learn to hone their comedic skills?

Or is just that men are better at everything? Name one decent female drummer for example.

Magoo (author of The Joy of Sexism)

[steve56]

hi magoo,1 good female drummer coming up,honey lantree?from the honeycombs they had a hit in 64 with have i the right ihad a jukebox copy yrs ago with those spider middles.

[jj]

We agree then: and it's not cynical to be honest......
See here, severally, for refutation of that 'it's because I'm a woman/
black/Muslim/any other minority' argument.

[Wink Wink]

What about Carla Lane she wrote The Liver Birds, Butterflies & Bread?

[jj]

Given that there are so few women writers, I'd guess they were percentage-wise no worse than men. Whether men find 'wimmin's humour' funny is an entirely different can of bees* (YES !!!! He shoots, he scores.....).........all that stuff about sanitary pads and epidurals. That Muslim girl stand-up isn't bad.........
Female drummers have a unique physical problem with drum-kits that normally requires the adoption of an 'Amazonian' solution, or several large bandages......
...and I'm still waiting for the autographed copy of your book, as promised.

[* We are having a competition for the greatest number of times we can plausibly work the phrase 'can of bees' (YES !!) into forum posts. Whaddya mean, you didn't know? Well, you do now, he said, not very helpfully. 2-0, BTW.....]