I see there are members on here from Belgium and New Zealand, maybe other countries too. I'd be interested to know what the home grown comedy is like there and other countries like Germany, even Russia! Where are they all at with their comedy output, or do they mostly rely on Britain and the US for laughs.
Well I can only give you one persons view from NZ. 
Most of the comedy on TV here is from the US/UK but there are some local comedy programmes which I have no idea if any get shown overseas but I guess not many are (or if they are, it's probably 4am on some forgotten channel).
Flight of the Conchords seems to be the most obvious (read: only) NZ comedy getting any overseas action right now, although it's a US produced show, the group Flight of the Conchords are from NZ and I assume they write their own show so technically it would be a NZ comedy.
There have been a number of comedy TV shows over the years, a couple that stick out in my mind are "Pio" and "Letters to Blanchy" (however I've only lived here since 1994 and was quite young then). One of the best comedy shows of late I would say is "Facelift" which is a NZ politics/current events satire sketch show, and as such would have almost zero appeal to an overseas audience.
Beyond TV, each year there is a Comedy Festival where a number of local acts and overseas guests do stand up and such, I've never been (but would like to) however I've seen some of it on TV which was good.
Is that what you were after? 
I look forward to reading any other posts on this.
When on holiday in Italy, they had a sitcom set on a plane called 'Piloto'. I was hoping the English subtitles option would have worked on their teletext style pages so I could enjoy the jokes, but sadly not.
How did 'Flight of the Conchords' end up getting produced by an American company? One minute it was a little radio show, which I remember listening to, earlier this year, or late last year, on BBC 7, and the next, it's a really classy-looking T.V. sit-com, set in New York.
Quote: catskillz @ October 18, 2007, 3:25 PMHow did 'Flight of the Conchords' end up getting produced by an American company? One minute it was a little radio show, which I remember listening to, earlier this year, or late last year, on BBC 7, and the next, it's a really classy-looking T.V. sit-com, set in New York.
They got a HBO one night stand gig and ended up pitching the idea to them. Before that they tried to get one of the New Zealand channels to produce it but luckily none of them took it up.
Do you think any of us on this forum would ever stand a chance of getting a script to H.B.O.?
Quote: catskillz @ October 20, 2007, 12:20 AMDo you think any of us on this forum would ever stand a chance of getting a script to H.B.O.?
If any US channel is going to chance their arm with a obscure sitcom it will be HBO. They maybe signing the Aussie Tim Minchin next. After all NBC decided not to take a risk with the Conchords in 2004.
I have never seen any other sitcom from another country apart ftom us
Quote: Basil @ October 20, 2007, 2:31 PMThey maybe signing the Aussie Tim Minchin next.
*HUGE gasp of excitement*
I have noticed that it is only us that makes sitcoms that we see
in the uk.
Pretty much, yes. There's Kath & Kim from the criminal fraternity though.
Quote: jamie jones @ October 20, 2007, 3:27 PMI have never seen any other sitcom from another country apart ftom us
The Scots do one ot two.
Trouble is there's a bit of a language barrier. Maybe there should be sub-titles.
There a channel called for us comedy [bbc]
Quote: David Chapman @ October 20, 2007, 11:35 PMTrouble is there's a bit of a language barrier. Maybe there should be sub-titles.
