Umm English comedy is so different from American isn't it?

I must admit I do not care for our recent comedy shows here--

so much also depends on ones own sense of humour.

I personally dislike anything that is crude.

Some of our former shows are repeated here, though I doubt that young people would find them funny at all.


we have a huge amount of American shows and films.

Friends is very popular too.

guess it depends what some of us consider FUNNY.

we Brits often have totally different sense of humour to American humour but the AMerican shows are popular here too.

Actually some of the older shows are still very popular with the youth, Red Dwarf is still very much liked, and shows like Blackadder and Only Fools and Horses are still aired regularly and I think all of my friends have seen them. I wouldn't say that they were more popular than the recent comedy shows though. I know some are hugely popular, but I haven't personally found any I'd be willing to watch except for some like QI. So I'd agree the older ones are perhaps 'better' than the more recent.

It's a shame in a way, but I'd say a good chunk of English television and films are entirely American, probably around 80% of what's aired. Some is fantastic, some isn't, but the American humour is so different to the English, Australian, Irish etc. that it feels like other English-speaking countries are losing out a little bit.

Also I've heard Friends is due to go off air this year or next in the UK, I could be wrong though.

Edit: Also instead of making several new posts in a thread one after another, it might be better if you simply 'editted' your previous posts with your new comments/links etc. Just a pointer :)

aaaaaaaah thankyou Robin-- I have erred and strayed like a lost sheep.

Its a bit late to train me now at my age

And you would be wrong. We probably watch as much foreign TV as we do American TV in my American house.

by the way..how exacly differs american tv and british tv? doesnt anyone basicly have the same satelite stations - tv1000, halmark, discovery, national geographic,MTV, tv3 viasat etc...i mean when it comes to movies. news channels for each country differ.
for example i do not watch any tv except discovery channel and national geographic- who has it? brits or americans? rest of the shows i watch online. moslty because it takes some 3 years for the "new stuff" to get to us. recetly i heard that second harry potter was aired here :D

I would say your first description describes "American humor" and the second description describes "Japanese humor" but it goes to show you that there is no one thing that is "British humor" or "American humor". I think for the most part when we don't get each other's jokes or humor it is because we are using unfamiliar words or talking about people or places we aren't familiar with.

I can think of plenty of examples of British, American, and Japanese humor that is slapsticky (Benny Hill, Soupy Sales, and Ken Shimura, respectively) as well of examples of the opposite. I think it plays to different desires of the audience.

I remember hearing in Japan Ken Shimura had a TV show up against Takeshi Kitano at the same time every Sunday night. Ken Shimura's show was more slapsticky where Takeshi Kitano's was more adult and dark, making fun (and physically hurting) other people. This was back in the 80s, but both are still considered the kings of Japanese comedy.

Actually that is British humor, British T.V shows are unbelievably populare over there and I think people think I agree with what I posted but I don't. I just saw it on QI. Apparently 75% of the people who write for the simpsons are British and the american guy on the panel thought that was racist. I just wonderd why...

Ah, you should have said that to begin with, it explains a lot. I've not seen that particular episode, but I'm familiar with the show and the comedian (assuming it's the same American), and I'm willing to bet that he was being sarcastic and making a joke. It's not that he actually thinks it's racist, but just that he's joking around.