fopdoodle
Saturday 6th February 2016 4:49am [Edited]
Edinburgh
623 posts
Mrs. Brown's Boys.
Not going to say I hate it because I can only stick it for a few seconds before it starts to irritate me so haven't seen enough to judge, and I've seen Brendan O'Carroll on other shows as himself and seems a worthy and affable chap, but in the same way Jerry Springer does - he is likeable too but his show - can't stick that for more than about 5 seconds either.
But I think I know why I can't get with it, apart from being the wrong demographic. At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, some have evolved and grown with the changing culture of comedy, and some haven't. You only have to look at re-runs of Man About the House and similar sitcoms of that era to show how far the writing has come today. The humour was rarely laugh-out-loud-a-lot but rather smile-and-gently-chuckle-now-and-then as the approach and execution by comparison was quite different.
With the exception of standalone early evening comedies such as Fawlty, The Good Life, Yes Prime Minister, Porridge and anything with Leonard Rossiter in it, the likes of Terry and June, Hi De Hi and Are You Being Served are so seaside postcard compared to shows we have now, but the sharp fast-paced stuff is not to everyone's taste which is why people must be watching re-runs of Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances - but personally, I couldn't stand these shows even as a kid. Along with the aforementioned, as a family we also watched Taxi, Roseanne and Cheers because they had one-liners the whole family could relate to which weren't based on mild smut or strange camp men to ridicule.
But if that's what some brits still like, who am I to say that demand shouldn't be met. As long as they stay in their homes and don't venture out when I do.