American or otherwise.
From browsing this sub, I get the impression that you guys prefer the US productions that are closer to the British style, and aren’t so fond of the ones that aren’t. With sitcoms, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ are the two most cited, along with ‘the Simpsons’ and other animated shows in that vein.
What about movies and shows that don’t appeal to British sensibilities? Whether it’s because it’s “too [North] American” or whether it’s simply too foreign (something out of Italy, for example). Are there any that you happen to like? ‘You’ as in you the individual, not ‘you’ as in “people of Britain!”
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I like the 80s and 90s Steve Martin, John Candy and Mel Brooks type comedies the best. I still love the early Simpsons series although I find it pretty much unwatchable now.
There’s plenty – mainly what works badly is when Americans try to remake British stuff.
The American Office is a good example – the first season has some good moments, but it only really came into its own from Season 2, when they stopped folowing the British template so rigidly.
Modern Family was great.
Going back further, Marrid with Children was fantastic. Actually, maybe I’m just an Ed O’Neill fan…
I do quite like Asterix and Obelix. Although I feel like that’s something pretty much anyone can enjoy.
Schitt’s Creek – loved it!
Trailer park boys
Atlanta slaps
Community
‘Friends’ is still wildly popular for good reasons – the scripting, pacing etc is spot on.
Eastbound and Down 🤌
Classic stoner movies like Dude, where’s my car? and Harold and Kumar etc.
Anything Ben Stiller, like Zoolander, Dodgeball or Tropic Thunder. In the same vein, Adam Sandler stuff like Little Nicky or 50 first dates.
For TV shows – Two and a half men, King of Queens and Everybody loves Raymond. Basically the stuff that used to air on comedy central.
New Girl, Bobs Burgers, Arrested Development (original run) and IASIP come to mind as American programmes that make me laugh out loud, but I’m not sure I’d say that they’re particularly at odds with typical British humour
The Good Place
I’m not educated enough in different comedic styles to know what would count as “British” or “American” but the US does have a lot of great comedies to be fair
I think British people dislike the corny style like seen in something like Friends and prefer smarter humour. Although that’s also a pretty popular show in the UK lol
M Name is Earl, the earlier ones anyway.
30 Rock, Arrested Development and Community seemed to marry the standard American format with a more absurdist form of humour that I always appreciated. Also Kath and Kim from Australia was ace.
I’m really enjoying Shrinking. Also Parks and Rec.
The Office (America)
EuroTrip is one of my favourite movies
Others are Waiting and Road Trip
Kath and Kim, absolute Australian gold 🥇
A Korean series called Mr Queen.
Big Bang Theory / Trailer Park Boys
Modern – Young Sheldon.
2000s – Malcolm in the Middle.
The Mick.
Parks and Recreation, absolutely sublime
Northmen on netflix, it’s Scandinavian comedy based on vikings with a modern humour element to it. Really close to British humour
Tires
Pretty much anything Mel Brooks
I (mostly) liked Seinfeld, because it wasn’t all cuddly and feel good like American sitcoms tended to be; it had a cynical edge to it and featured smart ass characters who were mainly out for themselves.
Only trouble was, it was on very late at night on British TV if you had to get up in the morning.
Arrested Development. The Good Place. IASIP.
Malcolm in the Middle
Trailer Park Boys
Dumb and Dumber
Always Sunny, Community, Arrested Development, Frasier (bit British), My name is Earl.
From movies, The Jerk, Tropic Thunder, Tucker & Dale Vs Evil
Modern Family. I recently watched all of it on Disney Plus.
I loved My Wife And Kids!!
Bob’s Burgers, Futurama, Parks and Recreations, Friends, Frasier, The Big Bang Theory, The Middle, Malcolm In The Middle, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Superstore, Single Parents, The Office, Community…There are going to be more but I cannot recall them all off the top of my head. I just love sitcoms generally.
Brooklyn 99
The Good Place
And recently, The Residence on Netflix was excellent
Parks & Recreation
Isn’t this a tautology as if we like it it must appeal to a British sense of humour? At least to that Individual.
A few from India:
Panchayat (Hindi comedy drama)
Maya Bazaar – For Sale (Telugu sitcom)
Stree (Hindi comedy/horror film, Indian comedy horrors have a very different vibe to UK ones).
Eega (Telugu movie, I’m cheating here because I feel this does appeal to the British sense of humour but I think the fly based protagonist thing is quite unique and it’s a film I lobe to recommend).
Friday TV in the late 90s early 2000s. Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, Fresh Prince, Due South, 3rd Rock from the Sun…
It’s only available paid here at the moment, but Detroiters, from Tim Robinson and co is fantastic. I think you should leave is also great.
Letterkenny/Shoresy from Canada and The Hollow men/Utopia from Australia.
The Canadian contribution is a very silly look at life in rural Canada/hockey culture.
The Aussies have provided the two spiritual successors to Yes Minister/The Thick of It.
Norsemen
Schitt’s Creek!
Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies.
Friends. It’s the best american sitcom ever made, not through any specific trick, just through consistently making good decisions on an episode-by-episode basis.
American office.
Parks and rec
Etc
Always sunny in Philadelphia
Watch ‘Rake’ it’s a Aussie program, not really a comedy but funny.
Corner gas,a Canadian sitcom set in a small town,free to watch on amazon.
Third Rock From The Sun was pretty fun
Eastbound and down with Danny McBride is exceptional
I loved loads from East Asia when I was a teenager, almost anything made me laugh. This included the Gaki no Tsukai New Years 24 hours no laughing challenges.
No laugh haunted hotel, police academy and high school being my favourites back then. I saw some recent ones and hated them. Mainly because they’re so old now they are wearing really thick padding and it felt quite perverse as they let out forced yelps with empty dead eyes.
I won’t share a link because YouTube is absolutely dead and I suppose the link I do share will get me done for copyright or something. But here’s a video of one of their most popular clips from no laugh high school.
https://youtu.be/zxDbeBgeZ74
edit: Norwegian Taskmaster was also funny.
Fisk, Australian lawyer sitcom, that’s fun.
Better of Ted.
Call My Agent. A French comedy that translated well.
US – Seinfeld, Community, Parks & Rec and Curb are canon IMHO.
Les Visiteurs and Papy Fait De La Résistance. I also have a soft spot for the Astérix et Obélix films.
I like Aussie humour and generally prefer it over American comedy – Kath & Kim, The Castle, Fisk, Colin From Accounts etc. I also love Flight of the Conchords from NZ.
Fisk and Colin From Accounts, both Australian comedies. I think Aussie humour is closer to UK humour. I’m really struggling to think of any US comedy that I find funny, US humour always seems so unsubtle and obvious
Chef & My Fridge. A Korean Ready Steady Cook with a superb sense of humour. Very good banter.
Frasier
Schitts Creek
Community
The Good Place
30 Rock
Parks & Rec
Malcolm in the Middle
Only ones I can think of, and I suppose Frasier is quite close to British humour.
Crazy Ex Girlfriend, The Good Place, Schitts Creek and Community.
The What We Do in the Shadows movie and Flight of the Conchords – although I feel NZ humour is very close to British humour?
Colin From Accounts and Mr Inbetween. Both Australian, Colin is a romcom, but more comedy and Mr Inbetween is a dark comedy about a hitman
Dumb and Dumber, and the US Office is fantastic.
Colin from Accounts is worth a watch of you want that sort of humour
Scrubs
22 years ago, on honeymoon in Italy, we got to really enjoy a little sketch comedy called Camera Caffè. Apparently originally French, it seems to have been made almost everywhere in the world except here, which is odd because it looks like it costs about 50p to film and fits our sense of humour.
The premise is that there’s a camera fitted to the coffee machine in the corridor of an office. That’s it.
YouTube link for the Italian series. Personally, only having a vague sense of what was going on didn’t hamper my enjoyment because they’re only short.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpe91pRB-Okz1YaHjjGBvHIlu0YcBA8tk&si=Zjogt4WErP9nmkKR
The Kids in the Hall – Canadian sketch show from the 90s but had a recent reboot with the original cast.
r/KITH
What We Do in the Shadows and Our Flag Means Death are both excellent, though they do each have some British cast members so not sure if it counts
I found Corner Gas to be decent low key humour. Watching on Plex at the moment
Blazing Saddles, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Recreation.
Brooklyn 99
I really love American Dad, it gets weird and the humour really catches me off guard.
Frasier, exceptional comedy series
There’s a hilarious Polish comedy on Netflix about medieval noblemen in rural Poland called 1673. Very funny if you can work with subtitles.
Quite similar to the Norwegian sitcom about vikings called Norsemen, which is also absolutely brilliant. Very Python-esque. And in English.
I still enjoy Mlcolm in the Middle now
Atlanta. I don’t really think it counts as a sitcom but it has the right amount of abstract comedy to appeal to me.
Arrested development was good
We’re the Millers. Normally I hate that kind of humour but it’s brilliant. So much heart, and outrageously funny. I’d already seen Jason Sudeikis in The Last Man on Earth but this is the film that made me a fan. And obviously Will Poulter is a legend. The meme. The rap. The kissing scene in the motorhome. Lucky bugger.
New Girl, Happy Endings and The Mindy Project are some of my favourites
Superstore & Abbot Elementary are favourites for me (AE is definitely more American humour in my eyes and there are some parts that make me cringe for that reason but I still loved it)
Flight of the Concords was excellent. Also Wellington Paranormal is great. Both excellent kiwi comedies
Edit: also What we do in the Shadows is remarkable. The kiwi movie is great (although the US TV show is good too if only for Matt Berry)
Malcolm in the Middle, Arrested Development, Scrubs
I happen to really like young Sheldon, not too big a fan of the Big Bang theory. I think I just love the family dynamics of young Sheldon
New Girls is one of my favourites, lost it a bit towards the end but such a wholesome show
Happy Endings was not too bad either – should have been given a chance to grow
House of Lies is pretty good
Better Things is also pretty good. Written by Louis CK and Pamela Adlon
Modern family
Wellington paranormal.
Its a spin off from the “what we do in shadows” film from a nz team. Its brilliantly funny.
Letterkenny.
Movies by the Wayans brothers e.g Scary Movie, White chicks
Our Flag Means Death, and also the series of The Time Bandits.
Both have Taika Waititi in and although they’re US produced there’s a big NZ/UK flavour and cast.
Silicon Valley
Police squad. The dead pan delivery. I’m not sure it’s typical of US or UK humour. Not watched it, or the naked gun films in years. Will have to find them on the weekend. Hopefully they haven’t edited OJ out of them.
Superstore , SATC
Wellington paranormal 🤣
Silicon Valley gives me inbetweener vibes.
Richard is very much like Will, Dinesh/Erlich are Jay, Bighead is Neil and Jared is Simon… (that last one is a stretch but the other 3 are very accurate)
I fucking love Letterkenny. Canadian.
Just a perfect little show.
Class of ’07 is very funny, and very likeable
Although it’s Australian, so not sure that totally counts as ‘non British humour’
The Good Place was absolutely spectacular from start to finish
Brooklyn 99 was also a lot smarter than it tried to present itself as, and very funny
3rd Rock From The Sun is also hilarious
The Pentaverate
Reporting For Duty, a Brazilian cop comedy, was hilarious.
I fully expected not to like New Girl but it’s now one of my favourite sitcoms. The cast really gelled with each other.
Always sunny