British public tired of British commedians & comedy

[Bob The Skutter]

Basically, people who confuse people being pissed off with 2 comedians being idiots with people being tired of the entire British comedy scene, from stand up to sitcoms are fucking idiots.
Personally I couldn't careless about Manuelgate. Russell Brand is occasionally funny, the fact he is a twat usually means he's not, but he does have a few laughs in his routines. Wossy... is he really a comedian? I always thought of him as a TV presenter first and foremost.
There are some fantastic comedians around at the minute, as well as some fantastic comedies. Problem is the "safe" prime time sit coms are rubbish, but Inbetweeners is one of the funniest sit coms in years.

 

[Pingfah]

There are some fantastic comedians around at the minute, as well as some fantastic comedies. Problem is the "safe" prime time sit coms are rubbish, but Inbetweeners is one of the funniest sit coms in years.

Safe prime time comedies have always been rubbish as well, one only needs to look at the immensely long list of completely forgotten BBC sitcoms that stretch back over their entire history.

Shows like Fawlty Towers are exceptions, they are not the norm.

 

[Reverend]

The debate was particularly centred on the period before their civilization was wiped out, smart arse.

It was basically one bloke saying "Time Lords didn't have a working class" and the rest of us going "BUT WHO REFILLS THE FOOD PILL DISPENSERS?!?".

Well obviously they just go back in time to a point where the dispencers weren't empty. Though I suppose the queues could become a bit of a paradox issue when your other self from next Thursday nicks your place in line.

...Anyway, British comedy; I honestly don't bother much anymore since Izzard, Pegg and his lot went into movies and drama and Bill Bailey's last DVD was a bit naff, not as good as Part Troll anyway. Ross has always been a talentless nothing, who's only positive trait being that he's slightly less irritating Chris Evans. I don't have a clue who the other bloke that got in trouble alongside Ross is, though what little I've seen of his work just isn't funny, so again, I don't really bother. Same goes for that Borat/Bruno bloke. Doesn't do a thing for me. I think the last comedy show that I really liked was Big Train and like The Fast Show (another rare goodie), they appeared to intentionally choose not to outstay their welcome.

I tend to agree that there has been a gradual slide towards comics being obnoxious gobshites with a humor best befitting a 13 year old scrawling four letter words and anatomical diagrams in the school toilets. Unfortunatly I think it started with the "alternative comedies" of the 70's & 80's, which is a bloody shame since I do really enjoy the likes of Python, Young Ones, Bottom and the like. Though, the way I see it, the main difference between that stuff and most of today's stuff that while it was crass and shocking, it was also FUNNY. The younger talent appear to think that just being crass and shocking on it's own is enough, which it isn't.

So I don't think there's anything wrong the the British sense of humour, it's the so called comics that are the problem. Standards in the industy have just slipped.

 

[Deckerd]

The debate was particularly centred on the period before their civilization was wiped out, smart arse.

It was basically one bloke saying "Time Lords didn't have a working class" and the rest of us going "BUT WHO REFILLS THE FOOD PILL DISPENSERS?!?".

Well obviously they just go back in time to a point where the dispencers weren't empty. Though I suppose the queues could become a bit of a paradox issue when your other self from next Thursday nicks your place in line.

...Anyway, British comedy; I honestly don't bother much anymore since Izzard, Pegg and his lot went into movies and drama and Bill Bailey's last DVD was a bit naff, not as good as Part Troll anyway. Ross has always been a talentless nothing, who's only positive trait being that he's slightly less irritating Chris Evans. I don't have a clue who the other bloke that got in trouble alongside Ross is, though what little I've seen of his work just isn't funny, so again, I don't really bother. Same goes for that Borat/Bruno bloke. Doesn't do a thing for me. I think the last comedy show that I really liked was Big Train and like The Fast Show (another rare goodie), they appeared to intentionally choose not to outstay their welcome.

I tend to agree that there has been a gradual slide towards comics being obnoxious gobshites with a humor best befitting a 13 year old scrawling four letter words and anatomical diagrams in the school toilets. Unfortunatly I think it started with the "alternative comedies" of the 70's & 80's, which is a bloody shame since I do really enjoy the likes of Python, Young Ones, Bottom and the like. Though, the way I see it, the main difference between that stuff and most of today's stuff that while it was crass and shocking, it was also FUNNY. The younger talent appear to think that just being crass and shocking on it's own is enough, which it isn't.

So I don't think there's anything wrong the the British sense of humour, it's the so called comics that are the problem. Standards in the industy have just slipped.

The Young Ones WAS 80's alternative comedy. It was of its time but bloody funny nevertheless.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

The debate was particularly centred on the period before their civilization was wiped out, smart arse.

It was basically one bloke saying "Time Lords didn't have a working class" and the rest of us going "BUT WHO REFILLS THE FOOD PILL DISPENSERS?!?".

Well obviously they just go back in time to a point where the dispencers weren't empty. Though I suppose the queues could become a bit of a paradox issue when your other self from next Thursday nicks your place in line.

...Anyway, British comedy; I honestly don't bother much anymore since Izzard, Pegg and his lot went into movies and drama and Bill Bailey's last DVD was a bit naff, not as good as Part Troll anyway. Ross has always been a talentless nothing, who's only positive trait being that he's slightly less irritating Chris Evans. I don't have a clue who the other bloke that got in trouble alongside Ross is, though what little I've seen of his work just isn't funny, so again, I don't really bother. Same goes for that Borat/Bruno bloke. Doesn't do a thing for me. I think the last comedy show that I really liked was Big Train and like The Fast Show (another rare goodie), they appeared to intentionally choose not to outstay their welcome.

I tend to agree that there has been a gradual slide towards comics being obnoxious gobshites with a humor best befitting a 13 year old scrawling four letter words and anatomical diagrams in the school toilets. Unfortunatly I think it started with the "alternative comedies" of the 70's & 80's, which is a bloody shame since I do really enjoy the likes of Python, Young Ones, Bottom and the like. Though, the way I see it, the main difference between that stuff and most of today's stuff that while it was crass and shocking, it was also FUNNY. The younger talent appear to think that just being crass and shocking on it's own is enough, which it isn't.

So I don't think there's anything wrong the the British sense of humour, it's the so called comics that are the problem. Standards in the industy have just slipped.

The Young Ones WAS 80's alternative comedy. It was of its time but bloody funny nevertheless.

And I'd tend to disagree about comedians, there are a lot of fantastic stand up out there still. From Jimmy Carr to Andrew Maxwell, Dara O'Briain to Lucy Porter, Jo Brand and Lee Evans.

Psychoville was a fantastic show, and this years Mitchell and Webb had a lot of great sketches. A show I only caught 1 episode of, but it seemed very good, was BBC Three's How Not To Live Your Life.
Add to those Peep Show, IT Crowd, The Inbetweeners and various other shows that come and go, as well as the comedy panel shows I would say British comedy is in fine shape.

oh, as for The Young Ones and Bottom, I would say they were very much of their times, and as much as I loved them I can find them to be very annoying at times when I go back and try to watch them again.

 

[Deckerd]

Red Dwarf travels better, although it started unravelling towards the end.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Red Dwarf travels better, although it started unravelling towards the end.

This is true, I can almost quote Red Dwarf word for word and it still makes me laugh. series 7 and 8 are better than I gave them credit for upon first viewing but it is true, I think it suffers from the loss of Rob Grant more than anything.

 

[Jim Steele]

Red Dwarf travels better, although it started unravelling towards the end.

Started? 5 minutes in to series 7, it couldn't be unravelled any more. By Back to Earth, the only thing left to do was take those strips of fabric, soak them in piss and throw them out the nearest airlock.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Red Dwarf travels better, although it started unravelling towards the end.

Started? 5 minutes in to series 7, it couldn't be unravelled any more. By Back to Earth, the only thing left to do was take those strips of fabric, soak them in piss and throw them out the nearest airlock.

I did think 8 was better than 7, Back to Earth was weird, and I'm still not sure what I think to it.

 

[Captain Shaw]

There always been crap comedy on TV.
I have never found Brand and Ross to be funny but i really liked Psychoville and Live at the apollo.
I find people like Peter Kay and Frankie Boyle make me laugh so i think we have a long way to go before British comedy is dead.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

Basically, people who confuse people being pissed off with 2 comedians being idiots with people being tired of the entire British comedy scene, from stand up to sitcoms are fucking idiots.
Personally I couldn't careless about Manuelgate. Russell Brand is occasionally funny, the fact he is a twat usually means he's not, but he does have a few laughs in his routines. Wossy... is he really a comedian? I always thought of him as a TV presenter first and foremost.
There are some fantastic comedians around at the minute, as well as some fantastic comedies. Problem is the "safe" prime time sit coms are rubbish, but Inbetweeners is one of the funniest sit coms in years.

People in England want TV channels like TV Land and American Life Network and the show that were on them (Andy Griffith, The Donna Reed Show,etc.) possibly because the same nostalgia plague that infests North America is creeping over the pond, I reckon.

 

[Snaploud]

Same idea might by why the movie Bruno has done so poorly. Critics loved it - audiences.....didn't even bother...

Critics loved Borat. They were mildly amused by Bruno.

 

[Count Zero]

If British comedy is bad, where does that leave the rest of the world?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

There are some fantastic comedians around at the minute, as well as some fantastic comedies. Problem is the "safe" prime time sit coms are rubbish, but Inbetweeners is one of the funniest sit coms in years.

Safe prime time comedies have always been rubbish as well, one only needs to look at the immensely long list of completely forgotten BBC sitcoms that stretch back over their entire history.

Shows like Fawlty Towers are exceptions, they are not the norm.

We never realized that in America. The only place here we got to see British comedy was on Public television so we would only see shows like Python, Fawlty Towers, Good Neighbors, Butterflies, Reggie Perrin, and think all British comedy was like that. It actually use to puzzle me when Python would make comments about programmers putting nothing but banal dreck on British TV.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

From The Telegraph:

As John Cleese's Basil Fawlty once exclaimed through gritted teeth, while giving Manuel another clip round the ear: "You can't get the staff, you see; it's a nightmare!"
Now that Russell Brand has resigned from his Radio 2 programme and Jonathan Ross remains suspended for crassness beyond the call of duty, the pair will have plenty of time to watch re-runs of Fawlty Towers.
Plenty of time to remind themselves just why Andrew Sachs - who stooped to conquer our affections as Manuel - is held in such protective esteem by the public, more than three decades after Fawlty Towers first aired. And maybe they'll begin to wonder along with the rest of us: what on earth happened to comedy in this country?
Fawlty Towers was as innocent as it was beautifully scripted, while the antics of Brand and Ross were as grubby as they were mindlessly improvised. The contrast feels shaming and peculiarly telling about the decline of the great British sense of humour.
As a comedy critic, I often encounter material on the stand-up circuit that leaves me stunned by its inhuman coldness, its relish for tawdry detail, its sheer nastiness. "Rape" has become a comedy word; paedophilia is a regular staple. I'll never forget being told by one household-name comic that he was dying for Madeleine McCann to be found because he had the perfect joke ready for the occasion.
You might argue that it's the failure of arbiters of taste like me that has helped get us into this mess; we're all too scared of being lumped in with the po-faced likes of Mary Whitehouse to protest. Maybe we should hang our heads in shame but I'd counter that some comedians are now so powerful that words of condemnation - unless delivered en masse - can't hurt them, and if anything, can give them added kudos. At some point along the way "safe" became the dirtiest word in showbiz and "edgy" became the holy grail.
Back in 1975, when Fawlty Towers first aired, family-friendly fare was in abundance. There was Dad's Army, Porridge, Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Are You Being Served? and, of course, The Good Life. Just round the corner lay those other suburban classics, George and Mildred, Terry and June and Butterflies. Happy days. But we shouldn't get too carried away. In the midst of all that were Dudley Moore and Peter Cook as Derek and Clive - the latter pontificating, to mention one notorious instance, about getting aroused at the sight of the deceased Pope. And Monty Python's The Life of Brian (1979) caused a stink that easily eclipses the Brand/Ross debacle.

British public tired of British commedians & comedy

It is ironic he should mention FT as innocent comedy. I don't know if it is the same in England, but nowadays in America a lot of its racial humor would not remotely be allowed on a prime time television show. It's the same her with shows like All In The family which could never pass the censors in today's climate.

 

[Count Zero]

It is ironic he should mention FT as innocent comedy. I don't know if it is the same in England, but nowadays in America a lot of its racial humor would not remotely be allowed on a prime time television show. It's the same her with shows like All In The family which could never pass the censors in today's climate.

I think in the US people are a bit oversensitive concerning this issue, due to the fact that it was much more of an issue in its history. I imagine it's not that much of a taboo in the UK.
I remember watching a live performance by my favourite comedian and noticing all the little remarks that could be construed as racist and would never fly in the US.
Of course, other countries have their own sensitive subjects.

 

[Davros]

The debate was particularly centred on the period before their civilization was wiped out, smart arse.

It was basically one bloke saying "Time Lords didn't have a working class" and the rest of us going "BUT WHO REFILLS THE FOOD PILL DISPENSERS?!?".

There is also the idea that the Time Lords did not actually get wiped out in the Time War.

 

[Dusty Ayres]

The debate was particularly centred on the period before their civilization was wiped out, smart arse.

It was basically one bloke saying "Time Lords didn't have a working class" and the rest of us going "BUT WHO REFILLS THE FOOD PILL DISPENSERS?!?".

There is also the idea that the Time Lords did not actually get wiped out in the Time War.

The why can't the Doctor find them with his mind?

 

[Middle Earther]

Same idea might by why the movie Bruno has done so poorly. Critics loved it - audiences.....didn't even bother...

Critics loved Borat. They were mildly amused by Bruno.

68% rating at rottentomatoes. The critics loved it. The audiences hated it.

 

[stoneroses]

Here we go again the media (which I work in) love to lump everyone in together with words like 'public' and 'everyone'.
I love British comedy. Sure there is rubbish like 'My Family' etc. However there is so much great comedy as stated above. We have just had the brilliant Psychoville and Mitchell and Web series' and Mock The Week is still running.
I love it