Quote: Nil Putters @ January 11 2009, 10:26 PM GMTI think a clinic would be be more suitable for you.
I thought I was?
This is the British Scizophrenia Group isn't it?
Tell me damn you and stop f**king laughing at me!
Quote: Griff @ January 11 2009, 10:26 PM GMTIt'll cost you ten per cent of your next lot of 118 earnings.
Youze don't wanna know how they pay me......
Wow, think I did touch a nerve there.
All top replies everyone, thanks, although I'm still not convinced The IT Crowd is the hilarious laugh fest other people seem to think. Bearing in mind it's written by one half of the Father Ted writing duo, I'm still waiting for those genius moments that made Ted a classic.
My original rant was about the sitcom not British comedy in general, comedy in this country is great, the sitcom isn't. I very much doubt that in ten years time we'll be ranting about that hilarious bit in Life of Riley where Caroline Quentin eats cereal...from a large mixing bowl....with a serving spoon!! will we.
Or that bit in Lead Balloon where Rick Spleen makes a hilarious mistake with embarrassing consequences (which is pretty much the whole show every episode).
Damnit I've done it again. Sorry. I'm really not a ranty person y'know!
Well there were episodes of Porridge and other classic shows which were mnyah.
You know good but nothing special and in the last Ted was fraying abit at the edges.
Quote: ADuck @ January 12 2009, 10:52 AM GMTOr that bit in Lead Balloon where Rick Spleen makes a hilarious mistake with embarrassing consequences (which is pretty much the whole show every episode).
That's not Lead Balloon; that's almost any sitcom one could care to mention. Certainly the trendy ones.
Quote: ADuck @ January 12 2009, 10:52 AM GMTAll top replies everyone, thanks, although I'm still not convinced The IT Crowd is the hilarious laugh fest other people seem to think. Bearing in mind it's written by one half of the Father Ted writing duo, I'm still waiting for those genius moments that made Ted a classic.
I'd agree. The second series was great, but the third series seemed to be treading water, with few truly inspired moments.
Quote: Dave @ January 11 2009, 6:54 PM GMTCoupling was very American-ised. Everybody drinking coffee on a couch etc.
Coffee?
Seriously?
It was beer or wine all the time (I'm currently re-watching the whole series with my wife) - something you don't really see in American shows... except Norm in Cheers 
As for the topic - cannot say I've cared to explore current Britcoms. I thought the first IT Crowd series were average at best (I've worked in a computer company and heard all those jokes ten years ago), Not Going Out bored me, and... I've not had any desire to explore anything, really. Yes, I stick to my DVDs. I popped in a Blackadder episode recently and was shock to heard some jokes I had totally forgotten! 
The most recent things I really liked from Britcoms were first two series from My Family, Black Books ...and Still Game which does not count, probably
Quote: ADuck @ January 12 2009, 10:52 AM GMTMy original rant was about the sitcom not British comedy in general, comedy in this country is great, the sitcom isn't. I very much doubt that in ten years time we'll be ranting about that hilarious bit in Life of Riley where Caroline Quentin eats cereal...from a large mixing bowl....with a serving spoon!! will we.
Or that bit in Lead Balloon where Rick Spleen makes a hilarious mistake with embarrassing consequences (which is pretty much the whole show every episode).
Exactly what time frame are you referring to? Would The Office qualify, or is that now of a past era?
Looking back two years (let's say), I don't believe we've witnessed any particular dearth in quality. Outnumbered, Peep Show and Gavin & Stacey have all been well received, with the latter perhaps the closest a modern sitcom will come to the levels of national unification achieved more regularly by its older equivalents; indeed, to those required for the public to institutionalise its best moments as part of British culture, as we did Basil Fawlty's "don't mention the war", or Derek Trotter's "play it cool."
Life of Riley is puerile garbage; a product of decadent commissioning, while Lead Balloon purposely eschews any form of broad appeal. Nobody expects history to remember either as heavyweights of the genre.
Decadent comissioning maybe the greatest insult to ever make into this forum. Take that you plutocratic producers!
Quote: WrongTale @ January 12 2009, 2:25 PM GMTCoffee?
Seriously?It was beer or wine all the time (I'm currently re-watching the whole series with my wife) - something you don't really see in American shows... except Norm in Cheers
I remember now - but it was trendy wine bars in Coupling. It was hardly The Nag's Head, was it.
Like many others on this board, I think that the Mighty Boosh, Peep Show and the IT Crowd are fantastic sitcoms. Even though I may not rush home to watch them, thanks to Sky+, television on demand and the Googleweb, I can spend entire evenings devouring entire series of these comedy classics, often watching for hours at a time. (woo, my life is so exciting, woo)
Having said that, any half decent sitcom will get my attention these days if there are good characters and funny jokes in it. Unfortunately, there aren't any, as they've all been replaced with crappy 'dramedies'.
Nighty Night, Ideal, Gavin and Stacey, Shameless, Teachers, that Ralf Little one where he was a record producer in Manchester, etc. are so utterly godawful, that Lead Balloon seems like a rollicking rollercoaster of non-stop comedy laughs in comparison (which it ain't).
I think the outbreak of nostalgia bins on this board has something to do with the fact that in ye olden days of yore, situation comedies actually had funny jokes as the main thrust of the format. The only exceptions were the unfunny soap operas churned out by Carla Lane, but at least they were unique for their time and gave humourless people something to watch.
Don't get me wrong, when black comedy is done well, it is exceptional, The League of Gentlemen being a prime example, but most of these shows are depressing dramas masquradeing as mirth filled entertainment and are an almighty effort to sit through.
I'm finding alot of modern programmes difficult to distinguish from the adverts as most of them seem to be modelled on those irritating BT Family commercials. (You know the ones, smug lanky monkey man marries non-sexual Milf and inherits her spoiled, ungrateful bastard children. But then the Milf starts to age at such rapid speed, that she's either cut from the adverts all together or only shown in carefully lit long shots, so we don't have to witness the degeneration of once youthful features into a macabre mask of grotesquely ancient and bedraggled elderly features.)
What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, sitcoms wuz more betterer in the old days.
Um, so there.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 13 2009, 2:40 AM GMTWhat was I talking about again? Oh yeah, sitcoms wuz more betterer in the old days.
Um, so there.
And I bet music was better in your day, it's all just noise now, isn't it?
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 13 2009, 2:40 AM GMTBut then the Milf starts to age at such rapid speed, that she's either cut from the adverts all together or only shown in carefully lit long shots, so we don't have to witness the degeneration of once youthful features into a macabre mask of grotesquely ancient and bedraggled elderly features.
I still would though...
And old people in my day they knew their place and didn't smell of wee.
And nostalgia was about proper stuff like monstermunch, modern nostalgia is rubbish.
Agreed Sooty, you can't beat good old fashioned nostalgia, they just don't make it like they used to.
Remember when you were a kid and the school bully tried to knife you in the neck for your Dunlop Green Flash? No, I don't remember that, it never happened.
How about when you were a teenager and unlimited free porn was delivered to your home via computer? Sadly, that didn't happen in my day either. 
Finally, remember when you were running late or meeting someone and you could send them a quick text message instead of clambering into a vandalised urinal plastered in graffiti and prostitute advertising, hoping to God that the handset was still attached and that no one had super glued the coin slot or taken a dump on the floor?
I could go on - smoking in pubs, McDonalds being a rare treat, a pint of beer less then a £1, reality shows being called documentaries and actually teaching you stuff - but I won't. Otherwise I will really take it to ridiculous extremes 'Remember when the IRA would phone ahead whenever they set off a bomb, modern terrorists are so rude, I blame the parents (the ones murdered by American helicopter gunships mainly), etc.'
Hrumph!
And whilst I'm in nostalgia rant mode, another couple of things occurred to me about the old days -
When I was a wee nipper, old people used to say 'Back in my day, you could walk the streets at night without fear of being mugged and you could leave your front door open' - Of course it wasn't until later that I realised 'Muggers don't go out when Nazi Doodlebugs are raining down explosive death from the skies and people back then didn't have shit worth stealing, the front door being the most expensive thing these poor ass muthafookers could afford'.
But there is one group who yearn for the old days more then anyone else - paedos and baby killers. No Childline, no News of the World campaigns, neighbours not giving a shit, no background checks, apathetic councils and corrupt law enforcement. Back then children were obscene and not heard and the police believed you when you said that little Johnny was making up stories about bums and willies, had thrown himself down the stairs yet again or somehow, the little tyke had got hold of your cigarettes and covered his own body in burns.
Apologies to everyone, I've done it again, taken a fairly innocuous subject like old sitcoms and written an offensive diatribe which has little to do with the original thread and made you feel uncomfortable. If you pass by me at the tube station, will you throw money into my hat so I can buy more cider?