Originally Posted by Oink

Family Guy is pretty good. Its interesting that Americans seem to only be able to laugh at themselves when its in cartoon form.

Originally Posted by Oink

Family Guy is pretty good. Its interesting that Americans seem to only be able to laugh at themselves when its in cartoon form.

Originally Posted by triumphguy

Do Canadians find British humour funny?

Originally Posted by JonboyE

You are not really being fair, taking the best of forty years of TV comedy in the UK and comparing it to a year or so viewing in Canada.

Was Monty Python a 70s show? I think it started in the 60s. Yes, this was innovative and sometimes very funny, but not always so. Other than that there is nothing of the 70s that stands out in my memory apart from Faulty Towers. In the 80s and 90s mainstream TV comedy was various successors to the Morecome and Wise show, and the awful twee "family" sitcoms that make it to the low budget channels over here: May to September, There's no place like home, Waiting for God and so on.

Sure, there was some very funny and innovative stuff going on in BBC2 land as well. The Young Ones still makes me laugh, as does Absolutely Fabulous. The first series of 'allo 'allo (it started on BBC2 after the watershed) was also good. They bastardized it for prime time BBC1. I enjoyed some of the sketch based shows but Harry Enfield is the only one that comes to mind now. Despite myself, I laughed a lot at the first three series of Only Fools and Horses.

I liked Have I got News for You (I still think Paul Merton is one of the funniest comedians I have seen) and They Think it's All Over.

In 30 years, that is about it, and there was an awful lot of dross to get through for these gems.


Comedy is derived from culture. I don't think the "let's all laugh at the lower classes" (which is 90% of British comedy) works very well in North America. We get all the references and the North Americans don't. Similarly, we don't "get" a lot of North American comedy. The Simpsons aside, I've not found any TV shows that make me laugh much.

However, there is a lot of good stand up comedy.

Originally Posted by triumphguy

Do Canadians find British humour funny?

Originally Posted by Lord Vader

Well, are we talking about the sense of humor of the average citizen or of "famous comedians"?

As for comedy shows, Monty Python is probably the best. Mr bean and Benny Hill were funny for one scene and after that it gets old. Could someone could direct me to some good recent Brit comedy on youtube or another site.

Some "Canadian" comedy shows I like that are a bit older are The kids in the hall and 4 on the floor. More recent examples are Puppets who kill, just for laughs, Jon Lajoie on youtube. Red Green, Trailer park boys, Rick Mercer and Tom Green all have their moments. I would also recommend looking outside of the gubmint owned cbc for comedy.

Originally Posted by Lord Vader

Well, are we talking about the sense of humor of the average citizen or of "famous comedians"?

As for comedy shows, Monty Python is probably the best. Mr bean and Benny Hill were funny for one scene and after that it gets old. Could someone could direct me to some good recent Brit comedy on youtube or another site.

Some "Canadian" comedy shows I like that are a bit older are The kids in the hall and 4 on the floor. More recent examples are Puppets who kill, just for laughs, Jon Lajoie on youtube. Red Green, Trailer park boys, Rick Mercer and Tom Green all have their moments. I would also recommend looking outside of the gubmint owned cbc for comedy.

Originally Posted by dboy

Best British comedian - Peter Kay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiW-DEy7y8

I wonder if a lot of his very northern stuff goes over some brits' heads:

Originally Posted by Alan2005

I never said all UK comedy was good. And I agree it's probably not fair comparing the rich heritage of british comedy with what canada has to offer - which is kind of my point. Canadian TV comedy is always going to be lacking when you compare it to british TV comedy over whatever period you wish. A lot of this is going to be down to the simple fact that the BBC is by far the best broadcaster in the world and to a certain extent drags up the quality of the output from the commercial channels in the UK.

Anyway some examples of the periods you consider to be lacking (and this is off the top of my head rather than googled).

70's comedies - rising damp, porridge, some mothers do ave em, reggie perin
80's comedies - young ones (tho that is v dated), only fools and horses, black adder

American comedy that I would think of as classic would be frasier, or married with children. I don't know of any canadian classic comedy, but I am happy to be educated.

As for animation, southpark is the best of the cartoon american comedies - (that, the simpsons and jon stewert are the only things I bother to PVR - everything else I watch is on iplayer or channel 4 on demand).

(Family guy would be good if they got rid of peter griffin - I found that his voice just got really grating after about 10 episodes and I can't bear to listen to it anymore).

Edit to add: I should also say that the rest of the world loves crap british comedy. Mr Bean is v popular, as is benny hill. My philipino barber always wants to talk to me about how funny on the buses is

Originally Posted by dboy

Best British comedian - Peter Kay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaiW-DEy7y8

I wonder if a lot of his very northern stuff goes over some brits' heads:

Originally Posted by jillany

I was at a fair the other day and had a Young Ones Book for sale. Never expecting for one minute to sell it. A Canadadian, about 60, came up to me, raved about the young ones and then introduced me to his son who also raved about them. Said it was the funniest British show they had seen.
No I didn't disagree or agree, just found it odd that they liked it. Must have had some english blood in them somewhere. They are the only people I have ever met who even knew the show.

Originally Posted by Lord Vader

I'm sure he is funny, but I honestly had a hard time understanding his accent. I would catch most words and then miss a couple. So if he was talking directly to me I would probably nod and smile.