British TV

[veryweirdguy]

I liked the IT Crowd, but Becky's right: there was too much hype, considering that it was written by co-writer of Father Ted and Black Books, both award winning comedies.

It's quite quirky and had some really good moments, but on the whole was too amateurish to be a classic. Some of the more surreal stuff is nice.

[voh]

Well, it was only the first season (and I enjoyed it enough to watch the entire season twice), and season 2 might be somewhat less amateurish, now that they've got the experience

[Magic]

I think the IT Crowd had the potential to be fantastic, but it gradually degraded into a more generic sitcom of several characters in X situation with Y event(s) happening each episode. They could have been more like The Office in exploring ICT concepts and their effects. I got the impression that if they went this way then the writers were worried that it would confuse the audience as not everyone is IT savvy enough to get all the techy jokes.

I liked the episode where the Irish guy actually got some praise for his work and he couldn't believe it - that's one of several moments that anyone who has worked in IT will appreciate!

US \ British comedy: The usual comment (Which I don't necessarily completely believe) is that British comedy is more clever and uses concepts such as irony. The Office, for example, isn't about obvious punchlines and setups - it has a lot of observational humour, involving a viewer realising or "get" something on their own (Which is honestly far better than the standard sitcom where anyone can guess when jokes are coming which in turn is repetitve), and cringeworthy moments where something is so unbelievably awkward that one can't help but laugh out of embarassment. But hey, The Office was heavily inspired by This is Spinal Tap which was written by Americans.

[evenwolf]

Ricky Gervais is also a huge fan of Larry David.

Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm are definitely influences for "Extras"

[Chicky]

Red Dwarf and the Mighty Boosh.

Dont bother with any of that 'Little Britain' shit. It's just simple minded comedy for the masses.

[voh]

Oh, also, I'm looking forward to the new season of Hyperdrive. Quirky little sci-fi spoof

[Mr Jake]

It maybe a bit too british (although my canadian friend loves it), but Im surprised no ones mentioned Skins. Its labelled as a "teen drama" but its also full of light humour. Worth a watch if possible. (course, I may only enjoy it because I liked spotting out places they're filming in - its largely filmed around my old college.)