Quote: David Bussell @ January 25 2012, 5:21 PM GMTI do have Sky but that's just for The Simpsons, isn't it? What British comedies are playing on Sky that are worth a look?
*cough cough* Mine if the deal goes through mwha.
British comedy is no longer funny Page 3
Quote: David Bussell @ January 25 2012, 5:25 PM GMTI seem to remember reading some very poor reviews of this but I will endeavour to check it out on your recommendation.
Just saw that they're going to be showing it on Comedy Central starting next week, if anyone's interested.
Of course you might all hate it. 
Quote: Gavin @ January 25 2012, 5:49 PM GMT*cough cough* Mine if the deal goes through mwha.
So what we can summarise from this thread is: broadcasters are scared and meddlesome, and everyone has a different sense of humour.
Quote: David Bussell @ January 25 2012, 5:21 PM GMTI do have Sky but that's just for The Simpsons, isn't it? What British comedies are playing on Sky that are worth a look?
Sky are making a ton of comedy at the moment, This Is Jinsy, Trollied, SPY amongst them. Obviously none of them may be to your taste, but they are making a lot of new stuff suddenly, they've invested a lot in comedy and it appears to be paying off generally, ratings-wise. Which is good news.
Oh yes, I liked Spy too. Quite slow, but very watchable.
Quote: Aaron @ January 25 2012, 6:27 PM GMTSo what we can summarise from this thread is: broadcasters are scared and meddlesome, and everyone has a different sense of humour.
Wow, that is a very relaxed view on the downward trend of British comedy, you are one cool customer Aaron.
If I had a website that depended on fans of British comedy (and that a significant proportion of my income was derived from it), then I would have cause to worry if the product got continually worse and fewer people watched it.
But not you ice man. 
Lucky then that it's just Renegade Carpark declaring British comedy null and void, and not the general public or people who matter. 
I have faith that British comedy is more than capable of overcoming the problems it currently faces. It's done so before and will do again. I also don't believe it's nearly as sick as you have painted.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 3:31 PM GMTBest Comedy Series 1996: The Fast Show
Best Comedy Series 2001: One Foot In The Grave
Best Comedy Series 2006: Peep ShowSource: The British Comedy Awards wiki -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Comedy_Awards
If Aaron or Mark wants to put up the BCG winners from the same years, then that would be a good comparison.
Best Comedy series 0AD: Only Fools and Horses and Donkeys, and Wise Men, and Shepherds.....
Best Comedy Series 32AD: Both Feet in The Cave
Best Comedy Series 32AD (+3 days) The Fall and Rise of Jesus of Nazereth
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ January 25 2012, 3:47 PM GMTBut doing so is no guarantee of actually being funny. If "race" were sufficient Jim Davidson would be the greatest comedian alive, and "sex and incest" would propel every incoherent "blue" comedian from your local working man's club to the Perrier awards.
Exactly. Swearing and being crude and offensive to minorities isn't pushing boundaries at all, it's the opposite - pulling boundaries in; and going back decades to the days when it was the norm.
Regarding sitcoms, I think we are in a lull, but that's hardly surprising after the incredible number we've produced, some masterpieces, many very watchable while not being anything too special, and many more having fans and haters in equal numbers. The golden age was the golden age because they had a clean slate to work on.
Now we don't, so naturally it's harder to be as inventive and original and funny as they were. The Fawltys and Rigsbys and Del Boys got there first, filled their boots and made it hard for us to hold a light to them today. It's not impossible though, as Brent and Partridge proved, but you need good creative writers with genuinely inspired ideas, which are obviously becoming hard to find in Britain.
Instead now, we have many average writers resorting to constant irony, attempted dead pan humour, adult humour just because they think it's cool, mad wannabe surreal nonsense and OTT childish sillines. They've been forced down these sorry tracks because all the obvious situations have been used, but also by their own desparation to have a sitcom on TV, regardless of having any real inspiration. We just need more genuinely inspired writers, not legion after legion of comedians wanting to jump on the gravy train! IMO. But that's not going to happen until the idiot TV commissioners stop pandering to their celebrity chums and start reading and looking for scripts from inspired writers, however unknown they are.
Quote: Aaron @ January 25 2012, 7:46 PM GMTI have faith that British comedy is more than capable of overcoming the problems it currently faces. It's done so before and will do again. I also don't believe it's nearly as sick as you have painted.
I do certainly hope that you are correct. It's getting to the stage where I'm rolling my eyes as soon as another tired 'vehicle' is announced.
As for my sick painting, the sheer lack of interest in the results of the 2011 BCG Awards should have been a massive indicator to the current state of British comedy.
Until something gets better, you have to diagnose the illness - or some zen bollocks like that.
Quote: Aaron @ January 25 2012, 6:27 PM GMTSo what we can summarise from this thread is: broadcasters are scared and meddlesome,
I agree with that but I wonder though if that's the whole story though? Psychoville and League of Gentlemen for example were by no means 'safe' yet they were broadcast and enjoyed a pretty good run ...I reckon it's not that the commissioners are scared...they would bang controversial/ dark comedy on the TV like a shot if they thought it would be a roaring success, more that there's a lack of quality shows being made in the first place, they are 'out there' written in all probability but they are not getting past first base with anyone with the power to take it to the next level....why? God knows, too many of the wrong people holding the power, why can't it be like in the old films?? 'you know what guys, why don't we do the show right here, in grandmas backyard'.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 7:54 PM GMTAs for my sick painting, the sheer lack of interest in the results of the 2011 BCG Awards...
... Is an interesting reading of the situation. This website crashed with the amount of people trying to get on and find out who'd won what! There was plenty of interest!
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ January 25 2012, 7:53 PM GMTExactly. Swearing and being crude and offensive to minorities isn't pushing boundaries at all, it's the opposite - pulling boundaries in; and going back decades to the days when it was the norm.
And again, my points have been misunderstood. It's not about swearing or being racist or whatever - it's about exciting, challenging work, that is thought provoking, subversive and funny.
As for the olden days of comedy, it's back again - Miranda, Mrs. Brown's Boys, The Royal Bodyguard, Not Going Out, etc. and you know what? Aside from bits of NGO, it's terrible.
Society and comedic tastes have moved on but the networks have gone backwards to appease the mythical 'Middle Englanders'. Instead of Alexi Sayle, we're given Michael McIntyre, instead of TW3, we're given Russell Howard's Good News and instead of Pulling, we're given a thousand tedious panel shows featuring the same comedians doing the same jokes, week in, week out.
You can't blame the writers because they have no freedom anymore. They're given a brief, a remit, a demographic, a star, a set of incredibly strict rules on 'decency' and told to make funnies. It's an impossible situation and results in the worst kind of designed by committee comedy programmes.
Quote: Aaron @ January 25 2012, 8:03 PM GMT... Is an interesting reading of the situation. This website crashed with the amount of people trying to get on and find out who'd won what! There was plenty of interest!
This website crashes every two days - though I'm not sure if that's due to overwhelming demand.
I think there's way too much comedy on now, especially in the form of cheap panel shows, which have become the modern 'light entertainment' filler show. Cut down on these drastically and most other comedy shows will seem less tired and a bit fresher. We are swamped with too much comedy, especially from sub standard stand ups wanting to cash in on TV.