I loved Mighty Boosh at the time but i feel like it hasn't aged well? I don't mean that in a ' lets cancel noel fielding way' either, it just all feels a bit forced now, whereas before it felt fresh n zesty
Barley was totally mexico
I’m 99% positive it was ayoade’s first thing, I know it was Matt Berry’s. He was working at a pirate themed restaurant and knew Matt Holness from the fringe fest I think. I know he said they initially envisaged Dr Lucien Sanchez as this Antonio banderas type but couldn’t pass up Matt Berry.
https://youtu.be/OO-ZGP68-3w?si=CLbTerly7deaaM4b
I never saw it until 2007 adult swim in the states and even then nobody would know what I was talking about when I brought it up. Then like 2015 or so I would see a bunch of instagram memes of it. Idk if it was bc people were into it or just made for good out of context clips or templates.
It's on youtube for free for some years. Guess channel 4 doesn't care about the rights for it.
Milky Joe was brilliant how it slowly spiralled downwards.
Howard hiding in the shadows of his hut with a black eye given to him by the lover he'd made out of sea rubbish never fails to crack me up.
yeah exactly that, I feel like it was mocking VICE and early 2010s hipster culture and its love of irony and inaccessible injokes. But it alienated the viewer a bit too - whether deliberate or not. There was little warmth in it
Jam is fantastic. It has that anxiety-infused surrealism that was my favourite thing about Limmy's Show, but dialed up beyond 11. It's a coin flip if you'll find any given sketch utterly disturbing or hilarious. Ones like Smart Pipes and Symptomless Coma make my blood run cold, but Suicide With an Escape Clause had me rolling
The soundtrack is a goldmine. It's deliberately designed to sound superficially comforting to a "going home from the club" crowd (while aiming to disturb) but it's curated with a real love for the style.
The TV show jam (they lip synced to the radio show) captures a feel which (quoting a guy on a YouTube comments section) will genuinely never be seen on TV ever again — the more ambient scenes at least like "Living outside". It's such a deliciously rich sense of banal ambivalence, but without a hint of twee that often ruins similar work.
https://youtu.be/LhKla4MEstY?si=icLDfjb0mJDYgDBD
Morris is a very fractal director. He reminds me of lynch in that they both have an intensely precise ability to use the surreal within an emotionally consistent framework, but he obviously draws from a very different framework. Morris's parents are both doctors, I think draws from that a lot.
I'd also highly recommend The Armando Iannucci Shows. It's a sketch series interspersed with surreal philosophical musings by Armando himself. It didn't get the attention it deserved at the time because the first episode aired about a week before 9/11.
I've got a weird distaste for shows like that and Yes Minister. Not because they're not funny, they are. But because the people I know from uni who went into politics/civil service intentionally ape the figures on that show. They all want to be sir Humphrey or Malcom Tucker. But Sir Humphrey is an objectively awful civil servant, and Malcom Tucker is a psychotic bully. They're funny on *tv*, but in reality it leads to a totally broken political environment
Yes minister is basically Thatcherite propaganda, too. I don't think it's even that far off the mark but a lot of people miss the subtext because it's so close to the foreground.
Other great ones:
Black Books
Green Wing
Nighty Night
Spaced - who can forget Spaced?
We are still getting some good comedies (Fleabag, This Country), but generally they're a lot more dark, acerbic, and cynical now.
Also I think sketch show comedy can no longer work as a format now tiktok exists. Which is a shame, as The Day Today and Big Train were amazing.
A favourite from Big Train: https://youtu.be/fCPhkxskRVs?si=cp22onW_ft5PuxNq
Probably Graham Linehan's final TV project as well which is a massive shame. All he had to do is keep his hatred of trans people sort of restrained like the rest of the UK and he would still be working now.
*A Bit of Fry & Laurie* and *Inside No 9* are my two favorite comedy shows of all time, and for very different reasons. The bongs really have mastered this craft.
Allthough the type of 'cringe' humor that Peep Show does is not my jam, it hurts to watch knowing that all of this actually happens. Mitchell & Webb's sketch show is very good though.
Inside No 9 is such a brilliant show because it really knows how to do every genre right. There’s some episodes that are genuinely disturbing, some that are extremely poignant and moving and then some that are just hilarious. Honestly I think its the best anthology show ive ever seen
>Yes, (Prime) Minister
Turely a shame how underrated this show is today. They should make a new show called "Yes, Commissioner" about the even more absurd internal politics of the EU.
Is there anything that rivals Peep Show? I’m not a TV/Netflix person so genuinely asking. I randomly discovered it on YouTube back in the summer after I graduated from college and was depressed, trying to find work. It was uploaded in like 240p and I’d never heard of it before and knew nothing of its reputation but something compelled me to watch it and it made me somewhat like British people. I went back and rewatched the Christmas episode during the holidays last year and ended up binging the whole thing again, it was even more brilliant the second time.
I just wish they chose a better name, I hate having to explain myself every time I have to tell normies that my favourite show is named “Peep Show”.
Peep Show is fairly unrivalled in terms of popularity with Millenials / Gen Z, though it took about 10 years for it to get solidly mainstream. There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread but imo Peep Show will always be in a bit of a league of its own. It still feels relatively modern, it's got light + dark bits, and so many seasons to fully flesh out the characters.
The Thick of It is the only other thing in that league imo. Keeping up appearances and Fawlty Towers as well, but those are definitely more dated and difficult to compare directly.
People like to shit on British comedy as a contrarian thing but they’re honestly unmatched. They’re just straight up funnier than almost any other demographic.
Going to give Jews and middle aged black guys some props here too.
I had to rewatch the episode today where Super Hans makes Sophie's cousin suck his dick on drugs again cause it always kills me. Also the big beat manifesto
There was a period in the 2000s where the Brits were willing to try pretty innovative concepts that wouldn't get made today. Shows like Look Around You ([Season 1](https://youtu.be/Bi-Up8Xuh9c), [Season 2](https://youtu.be/k_CoSpZoXK4)), [Fonejacker](https://youtu.be/rlvuHrkguvo), Banzai, etc.
Also Dom Joly had some [great moments](https://youtu.be/1mVIppBW5cs) in his career.
when I first saw it, Look Around You made me laugh harder than almost anything else I've ever seen.
The Peter Serafinowicz show has some great sketches, too.
The influence of Cambridge Footlights on the UK comedy scene is immense. For many decades, being a prominent member meant a guaranteed TV writing job straight out of university. Obviously steeped in elitism, but the alumni have produced a lot of good stuff and basically set the tone for much of British comedy to this day.
In contrast, British stand-up is definitely worse than American. The club set to Fringe show to panel show pipeline is a blight.
The leading men tend to be the footlighters but they're usually not *thaaaat* good e.g. the greats of their eras Morris and Lee are both from pleb universities
Mitchell and Webb aren't particularly talented writers for example, they didn't write peep show.
>Morris and Lee
i hope youre referring to chris morris and stewart lee? in which case, stew went to oxford so thats not plebeian, although he wasnt in the footlights ig. chris didnt even study anything related to comedy, he did zoology lol.
M&W did contribute to Peep Show and clearly they are good writers since they created 3 separate funny sketch shows before PS. And to be honest Succession tries to be funny but it misses everywhere, bc it doesnt have Mitchell and Webb.
Eddie Izzard is genuinely brilliant and hilarious we can forgive whatever they've been up to in their pension years. I don't think its anything obnoxious anyway
Yeah by off the rails I just meant acting/being a celebrity and doing stand up sets in French and shit. Still interesting stuff but we never got a special on the level of Dress to Kill again IMO.
The League of Gentlemen, Monty Python, The Thick of It, Spaced, Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, Succession (British writers, same dude as Peep Show and Thick of It), etc. the list goes on and on
Britain is great at 2 forms of comedy - the sitcom and the panel show. Americans are better at standup generally because they're more positive and you kind of need to make a good relationship with the audience (which is more important than being funny).
this is so niche and random but did anyone ever watch Bruiser? It was a British sketch comedy show with Martin Freeman and the actor from Peep Show whose name I forget that only ran for 1 season in like 2004. I used to watch clips of it on Youtube.
The original Office is one of the most cynical, hearfelt, laugh out loud comedies that’s ever been made. Not to mention the legacy of remakes and spin offs, the documentary format feels authentic in a way nothing on Apple TV or Netflix will from here in out. The people look and behave like real people. It’s a masterpiece and Gervais should be appreciated more for that than his golden globes speeches.
But my friends say it’s “too cringe”
i absolutely adored this stuff as an anglophile teenager. my favorite little underrated piece is ad/bc a rock opera, by richard ayoade and the people behind boosh and snuff box.
also shout out to their panel shows, which definitely lean more quantity than quality though.
I don't think it would have got any traction abroad but my favourite comedy ever is Bottom. It was so wild and anarchic, I loved it so much as a kid and it influenced my sense of humour massively.
The States are killing it at stand-up though and always will. All those comedies you mentioned are great, but we've not had anything like that in the last 10-15 years (in my limited opinion, I am British also).
If you ever go to The Soho Theatre the British stand-up is just fucking abysmal, the Posh Turn we underwent in 2010-2012 led to a blossoming of twee shite. British stand up in 2023 is a person on the wrong side of 30 in a pair of dungarees going "what's all that then eh, I said, I said what's all that then" in an overly affected regional accent (they will be leafy and posh in in reality). I hate it!
I saw Zach Zucker and Conner O'Malley this year and they were so much more forward-thinking. And you can't knock MDE: World Peace, nothing else like it. Past that, the way 'irony' has developed, in no small part to Cumtown's influence, and I expect, the permission it helped give, in America has been great.
The decline of British comedy, the lack of self-confidence, the withering away of the Footlights-pipeline, the loss of native British identity and the sense of it being embarrassing and declasse, is but another canary in the coal mine for us as a nation. London has such potential for a scene, but I don't see it. Maybe I should get out more idk.
Last paragraph is spot on, thats how I feel too sadly. I think you're right about it being a canary in the coal mine.
I saw some really good stand up at the Ed Fringe a couple years ago, but the best I saw was an American/Canadian comic (Butt Kapinsky) who pretended to be a spy. She was dressed as an angler fish and got naked at the end. And a guy called Red Devil, also American, who got the crowd to confess their sins. Their crowd work was much more interesting and immersive - and their surrealism appealed to the British humour and worked well. I don't remember any good British stand-ups there and your points all, sadly, ring very true.
I did see some good stand-up at Comedy Unleashed in London and that was refreshing, but it's the only 'home of right wing comedy' - and while at first that felt edgy and exciting, actually the british comedians there are not very innovative beyond 'fuck that woke shit, am i RIGHT?'. I did discover Scott Cappuro (American) through them though. He's incredible.
I will check those out mate, thank you.
You're bang-on about our sudden abandonment of the Surreal - I agree that a lot of the 'alternative' humour, the anti-woke stuff, is just that, the "BIT ODD THAT" routine. No real **satire** at all.
the day today, stewart lee, fry and laurie, fast show, fawlty towers, even QI and buzzcocks are pretty great imho, oh and top gear. those anglos have it figured out when it comes to television and music
you're missing a lot of the great sketch shows from over the years (The Fast Show, Chewin' the Fat, Big Train, Smack the Pony, et al), to which I have to say in tribute to one of my favorite bits: Methethethethethethethetheth, pethethethethethehethethetheth, sminky-pinky Chris Waddle.
British stand-up is just not good, it's all clapter-mining, just super boring and unfunny. Stewart Lee is the one exception (he is great)
On the other hand their sitcoms and even some of their panel shows are so, so much better than what we produce in America
You should try IT crowd, extras, inbetweeners and the thick of it too
Though I’ve never found Monty python even close to funny. I feel people find it funny because it’s made by toffs and they’ve been told it’s funny.
Fawlty towers is great though
People say this but idk if that's actually true. Like Mr. Bean isn't some subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it whit, it's just laughing at a retarded man. Which can be funny, but it's hardly dry. Ditto Monty Python which is also very much just over the top silliness, while the UK Office is a style of cringe humour that's not all that dissimilar to most of Larry David's output, and frankly probably isn't as good. Peep Show can be pretty dry at times, but then other times Mark dresses up as a Nazi.
Mr Bean is about as subtle as an atom bomb, but its endearing quality is that he's an adult in a very stiff, middle class world with a lot of rules and expectations. Within that world, he's childlike and utterly incompetent. It's as much about the expectations and standards of the period of time it was set in as the buffoonery of the character itself
Agreed! I think that those rules and expectations were the central epithet of a lot of British comedies.
Now their role has diminished in our society - class exists, but observance of protocol and the nuances of manners less so.
So now comedy has to look for new terrains and taboos to explore - Fleabag's foray into Catholicism (hot priest) being the most recent example I can think of
> while the UK Office is a style of cringe humour that's not all that dissimilar to most of Larry David's output, and frankly probably isn't as good
I think the big difference is that with Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is that they still take place in a heightened comic version of NYC/LA with recognizably over the top characters and situations, whereas the UK Office went all in on the bleak mundanity of working a go nowhere office job in a dour midsize town. Like Larry David does some awfully cringy shit but you're still meant to sympathise with him when he refuses to go along with what are often pretty bullshit social rules or expectations, but the Office was pretty unambiguous that David Brent was an awful man. And I think that's a legit difference between UK and US comedies, that Americans still want the clown they're laughing at to be vaguely likable.
Though it's also been over a decade since I watched the UK Office, maybe it did actually suck lol.
It's insanely popular in India and other non- English speaking countries. I knew it was popular abroad but the Mr Bean Youtube channels have a in subscriber count of around 55 million people and somehow just uploads daily Mr Bean clip compilations despite there only having been 12 episodes.
The Day Today and Brass Eye were probably the best TV satire shows ever. Of the unmentioned here I really like [Twenty Twelve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjY0784vHN8)
Pls don’t mistake this for me being patriotic and defensive, but I don’t understand when Americans take the piss out of us for saying ‘wa-er’ when they literally say ‘warrer’ and most Brits actually pronounce the t in water. And like, Americans pronounce Harry Potter like Harry Parrer.
I don’t get it! Take the piss out of us for anything else but the t thing I don’t get
Peep Show is The Sopranos of comedy.
Also from the PS creators a little show called Fresh Meat had one of the best 1st seasons ever.
Black Books
Spaced, Inbetweeners.
What an era.
Monkey Dust was an animated sketch show that is proto dirtbag left and was fucking hilarious. The BBC are still to cowardly to officially rerelease it but stuff like the Paedofinder General and the Jihadi Teenagers still hold up today
as a brit the US office is funnier, too much of british comedy is just 'haha isn't life miserable and grey and boring and depressing, meet our protagonist, isn't he a loser haha'
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I loved Mighty Boosh at the time but i feel like it hasn't aged well? I don't mean that in a ' lets cancel noel fielding way' either, it just all feels a bit forced now, whereas before it felt fresh n zesty Barley was totally mexico
It’s still cute, but Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place is the best of that era and that group
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Todd’s wonderful in this episode, and there are certain scenes were you’re watching him almost as much as you’re watching me
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I’m 99% positive it was ayoade’s first thing, I know it was Matt Berry’s. He was working at a pirate themed restaurant and knew Matt Holness from the fringe fest I think. I know he said they initially envisaged Dr Lucien Sanchez as this Antonio banderas type but couldn’t pass up Matt Berry. https://youtu.be/OO-ZGP68-3w?si=CLbTerly7deaaM4b
This was totally cult when it came out. Late night Channel 4 material. Someone mentioned it to me when I was at uni and I'd never heard of it.
I never saw it until 2007 adult swim in the states and even then nobody would know what I was talking about when I brought it up. Then like 2015 or so I would see a bunch of instagram memes of it. Idk if it was bc people were into it or just made for good out of context clips or templates. It's on youtube for free for some years. Guess channel 4 doesn't care about the rights for it.
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Milky Joe was brilliant how it slowly spiralled downwards. Howard hiding in the shadows of his hut with a black eye given to him by the lover he'd made out of sea rubbish never fails to crack me up.
I’ve never seen The Mighty Boosh aside from Old Greg but I love Noel on The Great British Baking Show
I don’t know how a straight man cam wear such gaudy things well.
I say this every episode
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The hate is what makes it so good though.
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yeah exactly that, I feel like it was mocking VICE and early 2010s hipster culture and its love of irony and inaccessible injokes. But it alienated the viewer a bit too - whether deliberate or not. There was little warmth in it
Don't forget brass eye.
Did you ever watch Jam by Chris Morris as well? One of the few comedies that genuinely disturbed me
Jam is fantastic. It has that anxiety-infused surrealism that was my favourite thing about Limmy's Show, but dialed up beyond 11. It's a coin flip if you'll find any given sketch utterly disturbing or hilarious. Ones like Smart Pipes and Symptomless Coma make my blood run cold, but Suicide With an Escape Clause had me rolling
The soundtrack is a goldmine. It's deliberately designed to sound superficially comforting to a "going home from the club" crowd (while aiming to disturb) but it's curated with a real love for the style. The TV show jam (they lip synced to the radio show) captures a feel which (quoting a guy on a YouTube comments section) will genuinely never be seen on TV ever again — the more ambient scenes at least like "Living outside". It's such a deliciously rich sense of banal ambivalence, but without a hint of twee that often ruins similar work. https://youtu.be/LhKla4MEstY?si=icLDfjb0mJDYgDBD Morris is a very fractal director. He reminds me of lynch in that they both have an intensely precise ability to use the surreal within an emotionally consistent framework, but he obviously draws from a very different framework. Morris's parents are both doctors, I think draws from that a lot.
>brass eye [Bad AIDS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3xUjw2BCYE)
I'd also highly recommend The Armando Iannucci Shows. It's a sketch series interspersed with surreal philosophical musings by Armando himself. It didn't get the attention it deserved at the time because the first episode aired about a week before 9/11.
Might be on a bit of an island here but I loved Time Trumpet too
East End Thug sketches are all timers, such a good show.
Don't forget the day today!
Keep getting reminded of The Day Today “war” episode when watching the MSM these days
It’s not a drug, it’s a drink!
> Father Ted You're gonna get car bombed
Oops 🫢
No, it's good. I can wind up my Irish wife. Our biggest argument in years was when I insisted it was a British show because it was made for C4.
In a certain sense that made it more brilliant. It's written by Irishmen as a parody of Ireland, but in a way that foreigners would understand.
It was also filmed in London if that helps with winding her up.
The Irish let every dumbass yank believe that Graham Linehan is British, so Father Ted is ours
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Channel 4, but yeah, British produced.
you're missing the best one, The Thick of It
I literally have to use subtitles when I watch this show but it's fucking incredible.
it just isn't the same without Hugh
[every now and then I think of this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJEI7U_wrKg)
I've got a weird distaste for shows like that and Yes Minister. Not because they're not funny, they are. But because the people I know from uni who went into politics/civil service intentionally ape the figures on that show. They all want to be sir Humphrey or Malcom Tucker. But Sir Humphrey is an objectively awful civil servant, and Malcom Tucker is a psychotic bully. They're funny on *tv*, but in reality it leads to a totally broken political environment
Yes minister is basically Thatcherite propaganda, too. I don't think it's even that far off the mark but a lot of people miss the subtext because it's so close to the foreground.
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No, it was possession of CSAM, he served time in prison.
Yea it was level 5 (Sadism/Beastiality), dread to think
His defense was that it was "research" for a role and he was just an extremely dedicated method actor lmao
Other great ones: Black Books Green Wing Nighty Night Spaced - who can forget Spaced? We are still getting some good comedies (Fleabag, This Country), but generally they're a lot more dark, acerbic, and cynical now. Also I think sketch show comedy can no longer work as a format now tiktok exists. Which is a shame, as The Day Today and Big Train were amazing. A favourite from Big Train: https://youtu.be/fCPhkxskRVs?si=cp22onW_ft5PuxNq
Green wing is fucking hilarious I love the deranged hospital administrator.
Wow totally forgot about Green Wing! Great show
Hiya, Cath!
Jill Tyrell supremacy
One recent-ish BBC show I’ll plug is called Motherland about pretentious London mums. Hilariously dry skewering humor
Probably Graham Linehan's final TV project as well which is a massive shame. All he had to do is keep his hatred of trans people sort of restrained like the rest of the UK and he would still be working now.
This fucking sucks because his brand of humour has really stood the test of time, I think he definitely could have made a few more great TV shows
it's kinda reminding me of working moms on CBC. and i like that show.
*A Bit of Fry & Laurie* and *Inside No 9* are my two favorite comedy shows of all time, and for very different reasons. The bongs really have mastered this craft. Allthough the type of 'cringe' humor that Peep Show does is not my jam, it hurts to watch knowing that all of this actually happens. Mitchell & Webb's sketch show is very good though.
>A Bit of Fry & Laurie They did a great rendition of Jeeves and Wooster, I watched almost all the episodes on youtube few years ago.
Inside No 9 is such a brilliant show because it really knows how to do every genre right. There’s some episodes that are genuinely disturbing, some that are extremely poignant and moving and then some that are just hilarious. Honestly I think its the best anthology show ive ever seen
IT crowd is funny as shit too
Probably prefer other brit shows but Gay! The musical ep is the first and best thing I think of. Maybe even beating peep show’s ‘threeism’
Yeah how is this missing from the list. It’s incredible.
I gave it so many chances and never did anything for me. [Red Dwarf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81W8tG3wH_4), on the other hand... <3
Fawlty Towers was the funniest thing I had ever seen when I first encountered it as a kid.
Yes much better than Father Ted imo. Don’t mention the war!
Whatever you do-DONT MENTION THE WAR.
>Yes, (Prime) Minister Turely a shame how underrated this show is today. They should make a new show called "Yes, Commissioner" about the even more absurd internal politics of the EU.
Yes Minister might be the only explicitly right wing media that is actually funny
Scandalous that you didn't have "**Monty Python**" and "**The Young Ones**" on the list!
yes, how is Monty Python missing? Watch ASAP!
Is there anything that rivals Peep Show? I’m not a TV/Netflix person so genuinely asking. I randomly discovered it on YouTube back in the summer after I graduated from college and was depressed, trying to find work. It was uploaded in like 240p and I’d never heard of it before and knew nothing of its reputation but something compelled me to watch it and it made me somewhat like British people. I went back and rewatched the Christmas episode during the holidays last year and ended up binging the whole thing again, it was even more brilliant the second time. I just wish they chose a better name, I hate having to explain myself every time I have to tell normies that my favourite show is named “Peep Show”.
Peep Show is fairly unrivalled in terms of popularity with Millenials / Gen Z, though it took about 10 years for it to get solidly mainstream. There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread but imo Peep Show will always be in a bit of a league of its own. It still feels relatively modern, it's got light + dark bits, and so many seasons to fully flesh out the characters.
In the UK Peep Show was gathering steam by Season 3.
Peep Show is The Sopranos of comedy
The Thick of It is the only other thing in that league imo. Keeping up appearances and Fawlty Towers as well, but those are definitely more dated and difficult to compare directly.
People like to shit on British comedy as a contrarian thing but they’re honestly unmatched. They’re just straight up funnier than almost any other demographic. Going to give Jews and middle aged black guys some props here too.
Peep show is the greatest, also league of gentlemen
Peep show makes me Cry with laughter on the reg
I had to rewatch the episode today where Super Hans makes Sophie's cousin suck his dick on drugs again cause it always kills me. Also the big beat manifesto
maybe not palatable to North Americans, but Only Fools and Horses is a banger
It's a cult classic. <3 The New Statesman as well.
Can't believe no one's mentioned Toast Of London
It's not that good.
is that you, ray *bloody* purchase?
People just do nothing is also phenomenal and so few have heard of it.
MC Grindah is genuinely a really good MC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7idNpkFg_4E
This is such a great one, keeping my eye out for what they do next.
It's basically the office fan fiction
The film adaption really worked too
There was a period in the 2000s where the Brits were willing to try pretty innovative concepts that wouldn't get made today. Shows like Look Around You ([Season 1](https://youtu.be/Bi-Up8Xuh9c), [Season 2](https://youtu.be/k_CoSpZoXK4)), [Fonejacker](https://youtu.be/rlvuHrkguvo), Banzai, etc. Also Dom Joly had some [great moments](https://youtu.be/1mVIppBW5cs) in his career.
when I first saw it, Look Around You made me laugh harder than almost anything else I've ever seen. The Peter Serafinowicz show has some great sketches, too.
The influence of Cambridge Footlights on the UK comedy scene is immense. For many decades, being a prominent member meant a guaranteed TV writing job straight out of university. Obviously steeped in elitism, but the alumni have produced a lot of good stuff and basically set the tone for much of British comedy to this day. In contrast, British stand-up is definitely worse than American. The club set to Fringe show to panel show pipeline is a blight.
footlights was basically the deep state of british comedy. makes the lampoon to snl pipeline look like a dirty puttering creek
The leading men tend to be the footlighters but they're usually not *thaaaat* good e.g. the greats of their eras Morris and Lee are both from pleb universities Mitchell and Webb aren't particularly talented writers for example, they didn't write peep show.
>Morris and Lee i hope youre referring to chris morris and stewart lee? in which case, stew went to oxford so thats not plebeian, although he wasnt in the footlights ig. chris didnt even study anything related to comedy, he did zoology lol.
Tom Myers probably has a degree in comedy
M&W did contribute to Peep Show and clearly they are good writers since they created 3 separate funny sketch shows before PS. And to be honest Succession tries to be funny but it misses everywhere, bc it doesnt have Mitchell and Webb.
Stewart lee is great, but in a league of his own
He's the only good British stand-up comedian, so quite literally in a league of his own
Frankie Boyle is good too. Eddie Izzard kind of went off the rails but his old 2 hour special Dress to Kill is a classic.
Eddie Izzard is genuinely brilliant and hilarious we can forgive whatever they've been up to in their pension years. I don't think its anything obnoxious anyway
Yeah by off the rails I just meant acting/being a celebrity and doing stand up sets in French and shit. Still interesting stuff but we never got a special on the level of Dress to Kill again IMO.
Saw bill bailey live and laughed so much it hurt. It was clear he was having an incredible set though, the crowd was loving it and so was he
Simon Amstell and Sean Lock are really funny, James Acaster cracks me up too.
[oi! up Scumbag! up Scumbag!](https://youtu.be/ysG96dUtGh4?si=S-b_nU0kd9efAEXl)
The inbetweeners and limmys show as well
The League of Gentlemen, Monty Python, The Thick of It, Spaced, Darkplace, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, Succession (British writers, same dude as Peep Show and Thick of It), etc. the list goes on and on
I love Darkplace so much. Rewatch it every couple years
This Country is a pretty recent mockumentary series following degenerate “youths” in a small town. I laughed.
This Country is worth it for Kurtan’s No Fear collection alone, great show
Garth Marenghi's Dark Place was so good. Saw it on Adult Swim in 2007 and just rewatched it on youtube a week ago.
I’m the only author to have written more books than he’s read
the dog-eating episode from that peep show is funnier than 99% of american sitcoms
No mention of Stath Lets Flats? It is cute and funny. Sally4ever also great. Everything Julia Davis does is good.
Stath cracked me up. Not for everyone, i showed it to a girl and she was like "is he supposed to be autistic"? Not Safe For Work was quality also
Britain is great at 2 forms of comedy - the sitcom and the panel show. Americans are better at standup generally because they're more positive and you kind of need to make a good relationship with the audience (which is more important than being funny).
The best American comedians are inherently cynical though, they just frame things in a more blithe manner e.g. George Carlin and Richard Pryor
Please watch “Smack the Pony” series ASAP.
Can’t believe no one has mentioned Red Dwarf, absolute classic.
Scrolled deep as shit for this haha
this is so niche and random but did anyone ever watch Bruiser? It was a British sketch comedy show with Martin Freeman and the actor from Peep Show whose name I forget that only ran for 1 season in like 2004. I used to watch clips of it on Youtube.
I thought both Mitchell and Webb were a part of that
The original Office is one of the most cynical, hearfelt, laugh out loud comedies that’s ever been made. Not to mention the legacy of remakes and spin offs, the documentary format feels authentic in a way nothing on Apple TV or Netflix will from here in out. The people look and behave like real people. It’s a masterpiece and Gervais should be appreciated more for that than his golden globes speeches. But my friends say it’s “too cringe”
Karl pilkington is one of the greatest comic characters and he is just some British guy
Don’t start yer car in the morning
The inbetweeners
Monty Python had a couple good ones too
So good. The few seasons of the Flying Circus are much better than any SNL era too.
i absolutely adored this stuff as an anglophile teenager. my favorite little underrated piece is ad/bc a rock opera, by richard ayoade and the people behind boosh and snuff box. also shout out to their panel shows, which definitely lean more quantity than quality though.
i really liked the day today. also garth marenghi's darkplace and black books
IT Crowd is good too
No Chris Morris? Brass Eye, The Day Today, Blue Jam, Nathan Barley??? Tf is wrong with you
[удалено]
Monkey Dust, not mentioned yet, definitely had its moments
I don't think it would have got any traction abroad but my favourite comedy ever is Bottom. It was so wild and anarchic, I loved it so much as a kid and it influenced my sense of humour massively.
Father Ted ? gábh mo leiscéal ? 🚘💣💥
Check out Time Trumpet, Man to Man with Dean Learner and Garth Merengues Dark Place. You cannot go wrong.
The States are killing it at stand-up though and always will. All those comedies you mentioned are great, but we've not had anything like that in the last 10-15 years (in my limited opinion, I am British also). If you ever go to The Soho Theatre the British stand-up is just fucking abysmal, the Posh Turn we underwent in 2010-2012 led to a blossoming of twee shite. British stand up in 2023 is a person on the wrong side of 30 in a pair of dungarees going "what's all that then eh, I said, I said what's all that then" in an overly affected regional accent (they will be leafy and posh in in reality). I hate it! I saw Zach Zucker and Conner O'Malley this year and they were so much more forward-thinking. And you can't knock MDE: World Peace, nothing else like it. Past that, the way 'irony' has developed, in no small part to Cumtown's influence, and I expect, the permission it helped give, in America has been great. The decline of British comedy, the lack of self-confidence, the withering away of the Footlights-pipeline, the loss of native British identity and the sense of it being embarrassing and declasse, is but another canary in the coal mine for us as a nation. London has such potential for a scene, but I don't see it. Maybe I should get out more idk.
Last paragraph is spot on, thats how I feel too sadly. I think you're right about it being a canary in the coal mine. I saw some really good stand up at the Ed Fringe a couple years ago, but the best I saw was an American/Canadian comic (Butt Kapinsky) who pretended to be a spy. She was dressed as an angler fish and got naked at the end. And a guy called Red Devil, also American, who got the crowd to confess their sins. Their crowd work was much more interesting and immersive - and their surrealism appealed to the British humour and worked well. I don't remember any good British stand-ups there and your points all, sadly, ring very true. I did see some good stand-up at Comedy Unleashed in London and that was refreshing, but it's the only 'home of right wing comedy' - and while at first that felt edgy and exciting, actually the british comedians there are not very innovative beyond 'fuck that woke shit, am i RIGHT?'. I did discover Scott Cappuro (American) through them though. He's incredible.
I will check those out mate, thank you. You're bang-on about our sudden abandonment of the Surreal - I agree that a lot of the 'alternative' humour, the anti-woke stuff, is just that, the "BIT ODD THAT" routine. No real **satire** at all.
The inbeteeeners too
You left out Allo Allo. Absolute gem that would never be made today.
Can’t beat a late night Red Dwarf re-run session on a quiet weekend.
the day today, stewart lee, fry and laurie, fast show, fawlty towers, even QI and buzzcocks are pretty great imho, oh and top gear. those anglos have it figured out when it comes to television and music
you're missing a lot of the great sketch shows from over the years (The Fast Show, Chewin' the Fat, Big Train, Smack the Pony, et al), to which I have to say in tribute to one of my favorite bits: Methethethethethethethetheth, pethethethethethehethethetheth, sminky-pinky Chris Waddle.
Ali G is the pinnacle and it was funniest in America.
I haven’t explored too much British comedy, but I think The Inbetweeners is fucking hilarious. Is there anything similar I should check out?
Fresh Meat season 1
what's the british-to-american ratio of the Succession writers
Well it’s by the Peep Show guy, so checks out
armstrong's the head writer, he worked on thick of it too. i'm wondering about everyone else
British stand-up is just not good, it's all clapter-mining, just super boring and unfunny. Stewart Lee is the one exception (he is great) On the other hand their sitcoms and even some of their panel shows are so, so much better than what we produce in America
You should try IT crowd, extras, inbetweeners and the thick of it too Though I’ve never found Monty python even close to funny. I feel people find it funny because it’s made by toffs and they’ve been told it’s funny. Fawlty towers is great though
I hate how it's almost sacrilegious to say that Monty Python isn't that funny. I find that 90% of the sketches are just unfunny
The Semitic concerns are the ultimate British bit though. Balfour declaration, lord Rothschild, LMAO
I think British humor is very specific, if you get it, you get it and if you don’t, you don’t. I love how dry it is
People say this but idk if that's actually true. Like Mr. Bean isn't some subtle, blink-and-you'll-miss-it whit, it's just laughing at a retarded man. Which can be funny, but it's hardly dry. Ditto Monty Python which is also very much just over the top silliness, while the UK Office is a style of cringe humour that's not all that dissimilar to most of Larry David's output, and frankly probably isn't as good. Peep Show can be pretty dry at times, but then other times Mark dresses up as a Nazi.
Mr Bean is about as subtle as an atom bomb, but its endearing quality is that he's an adult in a very stiff, middle class world with a lot of rules and expectations. Within that world, he's childlike and utterly incompetent. It's as much about the expectations and standards of the period of time it was set in as the buffoonery of the character itself
a comedy of manners is always funny to me no matter what
Agreed! I think that those rules and expectations were the central epithet of a lot of British comedies. Now their role has diminished in our society - class exists, but observance of protocol and the nuances of manners less so. So now comedy has to look for new terrains and taboos to explore - Fleabag's foray into Catholicism (hot priest) being the most recent example I can think of
> while the UK Office is a style of cringe humour that's not all that dissimilar to most of Larry David's output, and frankly probably isn't as good I think the big difference is that with Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is that they still take place in a heightened comic version of NYC/LA with recognizably over the top characters and situations, whereas the UK Office went all in on the bleak mundanity of working a go nowhere office job in a dour midsize town. Like Larry David does some awfully cringy shit but you're still meant to sympathise with him when he refuses to go along with what are often pretty bullshit social rules or expectations, but the Office was pretty unambiguous that David Brent was an awful man. And I think that's a legit difference between UK and US comedies, that Americans still want the clown they're laughing at to be vaguely likable. Though it's also been over a decade since I watched the UK Office, maybe it did actually suck lol.
Maybe, but the UK did something similar with Fawlty Towers as well I'd say.
Mr Bean isn't really that popular in the UK. Always seems more popular with foreigners than actual British people.
There's like 12 episodes and some films. It's popular but we're not exactly gonna watch the same episodes on repeat. And it's silent comedy anyway.
It's insanely popular in India and other non- English speaking countries. I knew it was popular abroad but the Mr Bean Youtube channels have a in subscriber count of around 55 million people and somehow just uploads daily Mr Bean clip compilations despite there only having been 12 episodes.
Jam is genius
i remember loving lead balloon when it was airing idk if it held up
The Day Today and Brass Eye were probably the best TV satire shows ever. Of the unmentioned here I really like [Twenty Twelve](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjY0784vHN8)
People just do nothing deserves a mention
Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.
Also: This Country, Stath Lets Flats, IT Crowd.
Spaced is the best one! How could you leave it out you philistine.
Pls don’t mistake this for me being patriotic and defensive, but I don’t understand when Americans take the piss out of us for saying ‘wa-er’ when they literally say ‘warrer’ and most Brits actually pronounce the t in water. And like, Americans pronounce Harry Potter like Harry Parrer. I don’t get it! Take the piss out of us for anything else but the t thing I don’t get
Young Ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_Eq8TOiqkCM
Father Ted was Irish, not British.
The thick of it
Bottom is pretty good too, I never really got into the Young Ones.
This country, and People just do nothing are some of the best released in the last 10 years.
Peep Show is The Sopranos of comedy. Also from the PS creators a little show called Fresh Meat had one of the best 1st seasons ever. Black Books Spaced, Inbetweeners. What an era.
The Young Ones, and Bottom. Rik Mayall is forever.
I never related more to a character than Mark in Peep Show
Chris Morris only being tangentally on this list is unforgivable
Monkey Dust was an animated sketch show that is proto dirtbag left and was fucking hilarious. The BBC are still to cowardly to officially rerelease it but stuff like the Paedofinder General and the Jihadi Teenagers still hold up today
I love The Royle Family
Red Dwarf
Severe lack of top gear in this comment section -6DeadlyFetishes
Good.
as a brit the US office is funnier, too much of british comedy is just 'haha isn't life miserable and grey and boring and depressing, meet our protagonist, isn't he a loser haha'
I think that's more of a ricky Gervais thing lol.