British TV is certainly responsible for some exceptionally good comedy programmes, particularly ones which are a single writer’s personal creation – and it’s nice to see an American critic acknowledge this.
However, the hideousness mentioned in this post’s title single-handedly drags the UK’s average sitcom quality down well below that of Chad or Mongolia. And that’s even before taking My Hero into consideration.
If you do find either of these shows funny, please let me know in the comments, so that I can take steps to have you painlessly neutralised.
Painlessly?
No, you’re wrong, My Hero was pretty good.
It’s a shame that most of the good British comedy mentioned in the Star Tribune article are all pretty old. There’s not much new stuff coming through, excepting the following:
Darkplace (now defunct, I think); Teachers (going downhill every series); The Smoking Room (probably going to suffer a ‘The Office’ style self-destruction on the slow, prolonged drag out to the mainstream).
Thank God the article notices Jerry Springer:The Opera in the meantime. Maybe we can hold onto our comedy dignity with that.
‘My Family’. Kris Marshall. Please god, no more.
The same goes for re-runs of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ – the only fun they’ve been lately is when I realised *that was THE Jim Broadbent*
Great article. Thanks for the heads up John. Shame there was no mention of the great Eric Sykes or the Likely Lads though.
EL, have you seen My Life in Film starring Kris Marshall? The ones I’ve seen have been excellent.