Americans and their lack of a sense of humour

[threebikesmcginty]

Well, like you said, your bad.

My bad what?

 

[Stephenite]

That's the thing that puts me off American sit coms, Friends and Big Bang Theory especially.

There seems to be bit of dialogue that leads up to a, 'joke,' followed by a pause.

Then just to hammer it home in case you missed it, there's a blast of canned laughter.

This is then repeated for the rest of the show.

I don't need to be told when to laugh, if something's funny I'll work it out for myself.

You should give Parks And Recreation a try. The funniest US program since... well, forever, probably.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

You should give Parks And Recreation a try. The funniest US program since... well, forever, probably.

Yeah, Ron's OK.

 

[Over The Hill]

[QUOTE 3351538, member: 259"]Where shall we start? [/QUOTE]
With this at the top of a long list of horrid American expressions that we seem to have adopted.

Americans don't seem to get our quickfire word play or when there is a joke but without someone going "boom boom tish" after the punchline. Their chat shows seem to go at a really slow pace. Sometimes when you get a US celeb over here they don't adapt very well and are really lost.




I was asked in a US coffee house "do I want it regular". I replied "no just once" but she did not understand.

 

[swansonj]

I only live ten miles from the US border but they won't let me in because I was arrested in the UK in 1982 I was not charged or fined just arrested.
As for the sense of humour - it's in the delivery, if you tell a joke straight (British style) nobody gets it but if you are are rolling on the floor laffing they know it is a joke so they laugh whether they get it or not.

I have also been arrested -1983 in my case- but have been to the USA many times. Does the nature of the offence make a difference?

 

[Over The Hill]

That's the thing that puts me off American sit coms, Friends and Big Bang Theory especially.

There seems to be bit of dialogue that leads up to a, 'joke,' followed by a pause.

Then just to hammer it home in case you missed it, there's a blast of canned laughter.

This is then repeated for the rest of the show.

I don't need to be told when to laugh, if something's funny I'll work it out for myself.

When we took MASH it was shown here without the canned laughter. Far better for it. I think they added laugher on mon-tee pye thaaan and other shows going that way.
I do (despite this) that they produce some good sitcoms. They just throw lots of writers at the episode and ensure there are the right number of good jokes in the episode. Many like Big Bang are recorded in front of a studio audience which sort of slows it down while the audience catch up with the joke.
I do get fed up with having just six episodes of something and it is then gone (as with Plebs). I nice run of 24 seems much better.

 

[Longshot]

That's the thing that puts me off American sit coms, Friends and Big Bang Theory especially.

There seems to be bit of dialogue that leads up to a, 'joke,' followed by a pause.

Then just to hammer it home in case you missed it, there's a blast of canned laughter.

This is then repeated for the rest of the show.

I don't need to be told when to laugh, if something's funny I'll work it out for myself.

Whilst I have some sympathy with your point, there's been no British sit coms I can think of in the last 15 years that are funnier than either of those shows.

Also, Friends was filmed in front of a live audience and, to my knowledge, the laughter wasn't canned.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

...Also, Friends was filmed in front of a live audience and, to my knowledge, the laughter wasn't canned.

Blimey, was that a comedy?

 

[glasgowcyclist]

This isn't a topic to be belittled, just ask the pilot who wrote to his national paper praising his airport security team's efforts:

May I use this forum to express my gratitude to the vigilant Glasgow Airport security personnel who narrowly foiled a potentialy horrible terrorist atrocity last week.

As an airline captain I am very concious that security is a team effort.
It's in my interest that all the links in the security chain are pulling together in our efforts to keep the "baddies" off the aircraft. After all, we pilots are usually the first to arrive at the scene of a crash, and that is a fate we constantly strive to avoid. With this in mind, I naively proceeded in uniform to my aircraft in the assumption that we crews were "on side" with security.

Imagine, then, my horror when a sharp-eyed security person identified in my flight bag last Friday a small bottle of Tabasco sauce (used by myself to dull the horrors of airline catering). This item had transited security many times over the past few months by virtue of a shocking application of common sense and intelligent judgment by this guard's colleagues.

As I sat locked inside the flight deck with all the controls, a fire axe and more than 100 tons of fuelled-up airliner in my hands, imagine the chilli-based havoc I could have inflicted with this deadly substance. Indeed, had the first officer smuggled a similar-sized bottle of ketchup through security, the liquids could have been combined to produce a potentially lethal barbecue marinade.
I consider the 10 minutes that the security team at Glasgow devoted to publically and loudly confiscating this item from my bag to have been another minor victory in the "war on terror".
Thank heavens we are keeping our eye firmly on the ball.​

GC

 

[User169]

Whilst I have some sympathy with your point, there's been no British sit coms I can think of in the last 15 years that are funnier than either of those shows.

Also, Friends was filmed in front of a live audience and, to my knowledge, the laughter wasn't canned.

All very personal of course, but I'd take IT Crowd, Green Wing and Thick of It over Friends (which I thought awful) and BBT.

 

[Dayvo]

I was asked in a US coffee house "do I want it regular". I replied "no just once" but she did not understand.

It's the way you tell 'em!

 

[Haitch]

Someone picked up a wifi connection on the plane STOP
It had Al Quaeda in the title STOP
the plane was delayed STOP
Americans are thick STOP

Please STOP

 

[Ganymede]

Whilst I have some sympathy with your point, there's been no British sit coms I can think of in the last 15 years that are funnier than either of those shows.

Also, Friends was filmed in front of a live audience and, to my knowledge, the laughter wasn't canned.

Yes, a lot of US comedies are recorded in front of a live audience - and, point of professional technique here: when performing live you have to wait until the laughter has died down a bit before continuing, or you will not be heard. I've been on stage with experienced TV actors who either don't know this or have forgotten, and who kept effing up the laughs. What happens is, if the audience laughs but you carry on with your line, you train the audience to stop laughing (they want to hear the next line), which impacts on all the rest of the cast WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. (No names no packdrill.) To be fair it is quite a skill and one which is very well developed in US sitcom actors but it can slow down the action a bit. If you just imagine you are in a live audience it makes more sense.

 

[ayceejay]

I have also been arrested -1983 in my case- but have been to the USA many times. Does the nature of the offence make a difference?

I don't think so. The first time the border guard asked if I had ever been arrested and as it was such a long time ago and doesn't appear on my record I said no. Of course he knew the answer before he asked the question and then had me down as lying to a blah blah blah USA. The next time I tried the guy asked me if I had ever been refused entry to the US after a brief interrogation I got back in the car with my wife and dog and two of them stood in the road, hand on pistol while I did a uey to return home. I haven't tried a third time as orange is not my favourite colour.

 

[stephec]

Whilst I have some sympathy with your point, there's been no British sit coms I can think of in the last 15 years that are funnier than either of those shows.

Also, Friends was filmed in front of a live audience and, to my knowledge, the laughter wasn't canned.

Why restrict it to the last fifteen years, Friends is older than that?

So if we're going back as far as Friends you can have -

Alan Partridge
Rev
Not Going Out, the first few series at least before they started repeating themselves
The Office
The Royle Family
Phoenix Nights
The League of Gentleman
Saxondale

That's just off the top of my head, although on the American side of things I'll give you Married With Children, I always seemed to find that funny.