Let’s not get snobbish here… British people have a tendency to become a bit snobbish when talking about American things, and that’s not very attractive. I am very glad that British comedy shows are a bit darker, weirder, more surreal, more complex (sometimes) and dare I say it – more intelligent. I would agree with most of that, except the “unfunny” part of course. People sometimes say “British humour” or “British comedy” as a synonym of “weird, dark, surreal, complex, cerebral” and sometimes “unfunny”. I mean, I get the feeling that the producers of the shows are very conscious that they have to make their advertisers happy and as a result the shows end up having to appeal to a broader audience and this means that the shows are slightly less risky, slightly less edgy and slightly less weird than British comedy shows.īritish comedy can be complicated for non-Brits to get and it can be an acquired taste.
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Generally speaking, I find American shows to be slightly more positive in tone, the characters slightly more attractive and successful – and perhaps because of the commercial nature of a lot of American TV channels their comedy can be a bit more conventional and safe. Comedy is one of the things about the UK that I am most proud of.īritish and American comedy shows are different, in the same ways that British and American culture is different. There are so many TV comedies from the UK and many of them are truly loved by the British public. The USA is also known for its comedy of course, and I’m sure almost all of you are aware of American shows like Friends, The Simpsons, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and so on.īut Britain also has a long tradition of comedy shows on TV – sitcoms, sketch shows and character-based comedy dramas. I love comedy and I think we have a lot of great comedy in the UK. I often get requests from listeners asking me to recommend some good British TV comedy shows. So, that’s what you’re going to get in this episode – comments about using comedy TV to improve your English and then some recommendations of TV shows that you can watch.
Hello, etc! (some rambling here at the beginning!) British TV Comedy
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Recommendations and descriptions of British comedy TV shows with some comments about how to use comedy TV shows to learn English.