Best British comedy series to have debuted in the last ten years.

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That's fair nuf. Where you see self-regarding and pleased with itself, I see it aiming high, succeeding, know it's succeeding, and going "YESSSSS!" Which for me gives it that heart.

― The Wayward Johnny B, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:51 (seventeen years ago) link

Not much of a hope of a second series tho is there?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:53 (seventeen years ago) link

all the "Classic British Sitcoms" i mainly remember as stuff that clogged the schedules when i was a kind and there were only four channels. i wouldn't choose to watch any of them ever again.

perhaps i'm remembering them wrong, but on the other hand clip-shows have fussed over them something rotten, and despite having all the visual interest of a not-very-visually-interesting-thing, they have this great big aura. it's like rockism or something innit.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:54 (seventeen years ago) link

wow, no has mentioned fawlty towers in terms of all time classics. too obvious? i still love it.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:54 (seventeen years ago) link

What sitcoms are you talking about Quitty?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I mean, a Some Mothers Do 'ave Em or Only Fools, which lives as a repeat, I can understand, but it's not as if The Likely Lads was stlaking you through the schedules was it?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:56 (seventeen years ago) link

wow, no has mentioned fawlty towers in terms of all time classics. too obvious? i still love it.

Not visually interesting enough to make TOTQ laugh

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:57 (seventeen years ago) link

i cant imagine That One Guy That Laughed

― 696, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, what does being visually interesting have to with being funny?

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:58 (seventeen years ago) link

i dunno when i was growing up the best pre-watershed comedies were repeats of stuff from the seventies. it still holds true, look at that list, nothing broadcast before 9 o'clock.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:00 (seventeen years ago) link

What sitcoms are you talking about Quitty?

-- Dom Passantino, Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:55 PM (2 minutes ago)

dad's army, porridge, only fools and horses, uhh, the good life...

'fawlty towers' is good, though!

Anyway, what does being visually interesting have to with being funny?

-- Tom D., Thursday, May 10, 2007 3:58 PM (1 minute ago)

i think in an audiovisual medium you might want, sometimes, to use the medium, and not make yr television shows the equivalent of filmed theatre. buster keaton knew it, ernst lubitsch knew it, and goddamnit zach braff knows it.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link

i bet ilx hates 'blackadder'. i think it was good.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:02 (seventeen years ago) link

[i]What does being visually interesting have to with being funny?[/i}

Yes, but you don't have to, to be funny, and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:03 (seventeen years ago) link

they put Citizen Smith on either just before or just after Eastenders in the early-mid 90s so i saw a few of those (never again anywhere/anytime else). also remember an Eastenders where Pat and Frank are watching Citizen Smith. at the end Frank says "well there it is babe" i.e. quick turn the telly off before Eastenders starts!

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Blackadders II & III = classic.

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:04 (seventeen years ago) link

and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

where to draw line on/measure evidence of funniness tho? a lol? could a smile be enough? could an inner smile be enough?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, but you don't have to, to be funny, and being funny is the most important thing about a comedy

-- Tom D., Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:03 PM (1 minute ago)

this is like "rocking is the most important thing about a rock song", kind of. what i find weird about 'friends' is that it's stupendously expensive to make but at the same time really cheaply made, like an early talkie or something, static, stagebound, etc, no matter how good the performers and the script. whereas with 'arrested development' or 'spaced' or 'the thick of it' (or ok 'the office') they get the best out of performances by trying to think it through visually.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link

this is like "rocking is the most important thing about a rock song", kind of

No it isn't. Ha ha, I might have known you'd like "Arrested Development"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Citizen Smith is pretty bad. In fact, with Just Good Friends looking similarly shonky at this distance and with no one able to get beyond the theme tune* to Dear John (and let's not mention the Boycey/Marlene spin-off), King Of The Sitcoms John Sullivan kinda looks like a one-hit wonder. And a hit that went on about 10 years too long.

(* - though I do sing it incessantly at home when Ava asks for her Dear Zoo book; she's started singing it now too).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

i sort of agree with with quitney is saying. comedy isn't necessarily about 'funniness'. look at Nighty Night - if that makes you laugh out loud...how? why?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

i enjoyed Citizen Smith, in the early 90s, as a teenager. i suppose in the same way i enjoyed Bread, in the 80s, as child. what makes us think we know any better as we get older tho eh.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Dear Zoo...by the time you'll read this letter I'll be...goo?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Is Quitney getting into that territory occupied by the Late Lou Jag, with his "important" and "challenging" comedy?

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:13 (seventeen years ago) link

we need lou jag up in this bitch to rep for 'AD'.

oh FUCK, i had forgotten 'BREAD' which i too watched. this country should be BOMBED.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

true xpost

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

half the reason why Friends is such televisual crack is the combination of tight comedy and well-played soap opera. that's why it's going to run twice a day on E4 until armageddon - that and the fact that its really quite well done, like the best fast food - the same thing every time. i think its like Spaced, in that if you hate the characters you hate the show. there's plenty of sitcoms though where you hate the characters (or are potently ambivalent) but still watch.

citizen smith sucks when you watch it now, but i still want a Freedom For Tooting tee shirt. i wish they'd repeat Dear John.

isn't louis jagger lurking on this thread under another name already? i have suspicions...

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

we need lou jag up in this bitch to rep for 'AD'.

no because that would be v boring. lots of people like AD, end of.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

just got offed = louis

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:15 (seventeen years ago) link

comedy isn't necessarily about 'funniness'

Now that's funny!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:15 (seventeen years ago) link

is Tom D. L Jag? seriously

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

answer my question tho - what's the minimum re funniness? laughing, smirking, smiling etc.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

sorry to bring this up but there's a gender thing lurking here. in my experience friends and green wing's biggest fans are female. note percentage of females on this thread. cookd and bombd forums have repeatedly hit the rocks trying to work this one out.

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:19 (seventeen years ago) link

also scrubs is the new friends

― acrobat, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link

^^^ OTM

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Are we assuming jgo is loujag just because of the monkeydust thing? I refuse to believe the boy jagger has never watched IAP.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:21 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah acrobat is otm x2

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link

they're just suspicions... i refuse to be drawn further...

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Dear Zoo...by the time you'll read this letter I'll be...goo?

Got it! She loves "goo" - particular that bit in Bing Bunny: Something For Daddy where the main protag squirts liquid adhesive everywhere.

(Jeez, that sounds kinda rude).

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends? i remember the guide running a special piece on the show when the second series began. otherwise, yes! definitely!

was green wing consciously fashioned after scrubs? the faint surrealism?

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Citizen Smith wasn't great but Peter Vaughn was, as he is in pretty much everything.

― Ned Trifle II, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

answer my question tho - what's the minimum re funniness? laughing, smirking, smiling etc.

-- blueski, Thursday, May 10, 2007 1:18 PM (3 minutes ago)

It maybe needs something else going on beyond funniness, if the laughter is only minimal? I was the one vote for the Armando Iannucci show, and that's as often poignant and slightly unsettling as it is funny (admittedly less with the crap replaced music on the DVD).

A lot of the CaB objection to NB seemed to be "it is advertised/acting like it is a comedy, but it does not make me LOL = it fails"

― Michael Philip Philip Philip philip Annoyman, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

point of order: Just Good Friends is very good! but yes very dated. awful theme tune. but the soap opera quotient is still quite compelling. penny seems an awful snit in the 21st C but resembles my other half so this is forgiven.

― stevie, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Peter Vaughn fucking killed it in Our Friends In The North. Awesome performance from the man there.

xxp

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

it never had as prominent a timeslot as 9pm friday c4 "at the time" but owing to constant repeats it's sort of sneaking in.

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

you can say Nathan Barley isn't funny but you can't say it's not a comedy show.

believe me, i tried once.

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:26 (seventeen years ago) link

is it rockist to prefer 'reginald perrin' and 'fawlty towers' over other more ingratiating Classic Sitcoms?

― That one guy that quit, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Not really, I don't think.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

is scrubs as much of a cultural phenom as friends?

Nowhere near it

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

a more interesting poll/discussion perhaps:

who is the most likeable LEAD character in a British comedy show/sitcom?

― blueski, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I didn't even know "Scrubs" was supposed to be a comedy, I thought it was a "comedy-drama"!

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:28 (seventeen years ago) link

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