Little Britain v The Office

Let me guess--the only thing you've ever laughed at in your life is your collection of Black Adder DVDs that are so worn down you could see through them.

Satire is never funny. Nope. It's always just a hotbed for all of our negativity and really just feeds the problem. Love that idea.

And you people are trying to call Cohen a snob? Good god.

Believe me, I love a good venting.

I don't particularly like Little Britain, but the Office had its moments. Isn't it really about how stifled the middle class is? Isn't it? Isn't it about how the middle class is repressed and depressed and completely drained by capitalism and the need to earn an honest wage? That's what I always figured. Which isn't to say the lower middle class or the impoverished don't exist and have their problems--it's just observational humor.

Have you ever been to America for more than a week's vacation? Ever? I'd love to see a show of hands for how many people here have actually LIVED in the U.S. It's becoming very obvious to me that some of the British people here have no idea the market-scale the U.S. operates on. Or anything about U.S. culture whatsoever beyond what they've seen on TV in syndication.

It also becomes more obvious that, just like any witchhunters, the PC police are projecting their own racism, classism, and sexism onto these shows and films, hoping that by burning the witches, it will somehow, in effigy, purge them of their own sin.

*venting*

I can't muster any hate for The Office or Extras, but I will say that The Ricky Gervais Show is pretty unfunny to these ears. The first part of the new Halloween podcast (which you can download here) illustrates everything that's one-dimensional and, most fatally, boooring about the show: Karl describes one of his "outlandish" theories (this time about ghosts) and Ricky and Stephen scoffs and mocks him; if there's humour in there Ricky kills it with his laughter, which sounds winsome on telly but sinister here. (Karl is lovely though!)

Nomadologist is spot on about The Office being a depiction of the common-yet-not-poor-man's living hell.

Kent: I'm a little surprised you can't find any redeeming qualities in The Office. I always thought the genius of it is that the humour works on so many different levels simultaneously that anybody is bound to find details that tickles their funny-bone. An example: The famous "Saturday Night Fever" spoof. Some think that scene is funny because Gervais dances funny ("the slapstick level"); some think that scene is funny because Gervais has no self-distance ("the default level"); some think what makes the scene funny is in the subtle details, e.g. the way Gervais utters "impromptu" ("the highbrow level"); some also think that scene is funny because of everything put together, of course, BUT, I'm still to meet someobody that doesn't think that scene is funny whatsoever.

"Have you ever been to America for more than a week's vacation? Ever? I'd love to see a show of hands for how many people here have actually LIVED in the U.S. It's becoming very obvious to me that some of the British people here have no idea the market-scale the U.S. operates on. Or anything about U.S. culture whatsoever beyond what they've seen on TV in syndication."

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Where the hell did that come from?
What does whether someone has or hasn't lived in America have to do with their opinion on The Office or Little Britain? I'm actually curious here, I'm not just taking the piss but was that supposed to be in a different thread or something?

Was this thread supposed to be in a different thread? If you want I'll cut-and-paste it into there.

"Was this thread supposed to be in a different thread? If you want I'll cut-and-paste it into there."

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Just more confused now I'm afraid.

Little Britain is way more offensive than either The Office or Extras. It's almost certainly guilty of all the things K-Punk accuses SBC and Ricky Gervais of (which I don't agree with). Half of the sketches seem to be based around the conceit that "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if disabled people weren't actually disabled, but were actually just, y'know, lazy..."

And it certainly has nothing to compete with the moment Tim asks Dawn out at the end of series 1 (which is easily one of my favourite TV moments of all time, regardless of genre).

We love em to death in NZ

nomadologist said:

I don't particularly like Little Britain, but the Office had its moments. Isn't it really about how stifled the middle class is? Isn't it? Isn't it about how the middle class is repressed and depressed and completely drained by capitalism and the need to earn an honest wage? That's what I always figured. Which isn't to say the lower middle class or the impoverished don't exist and have their problems--it's just observational humor.

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I'm totally with you there. The second season of Extras explores that even more but in regards to trying to create art/comedy in such a context. It's quite clever imo. I also like the extreme silliness too - a bit of slapstick never hurt anyone.

But Little Britain leaves me cold. How many times can they do the exact same sketch? Mind you I might have loved it if I was still an adolescent (they need a laugh too).

Am I the only one who thinks that the US version of The Office is a little bit darker? I haven't watched much of it though, mainly because the first episode recycled most of the jokes from the UK version. I like Steve Carrell's work.

Oh boy. Well. Take a look:

For some reason I can't find the "race card" episode, where for awareness training Michael Scott makes them all put up different cards with different races (although a couple of them are Italian, and Indian) on their foreheads that they haven't seen. They're instructed to guess what their card says based on the "charades" they do of one another's races. It was painful to watch.

Nomadologist:
What do they call a quarter-pounder in France? In Japan? In Russia? What was that about the market scale the U.S. operates on again? How many of these British people can you fit in a European Starbucks outlet? I'm not British, so could someone interpellated by that description hazard a guess?

Idlerich:
Not taking the piss but ... ?

You should have auditioned for The Office.

Knowmylogicalpositivist:
In the Logical Thread?

Idless:

"But that's not logical, Captain."

Is that pain supposed to be funny tho? I'm not sure if I "get" the comedy of embarrassment. It IS painful, but I'm not sure what it is supposed to be achieving through that technique. It doesn't really become disturbing though, which is why it kind of falls down. Surely the big reason why "The Office" was such a hit was because it achieved a degree of personal resonance in terms of its setting? I just found it depressing in an uninteresting way.

I personally don't find it funny. i liked the original though.

me a logical positivist. funny. rimshot.

come to the US and experience real life racism everyday! borat won't seem like the bogeyman after you get carjacked in the bronx on your way to scarsdale and the black teenagers who do it call you a cracker before they put the gun to your child's head. or if you watch a white man try to give money to a black man on the street who's just holding his coffee cup out a little and wearing a puffy jacket, mistaking him for a homeless man.

(i've seen that last one happen)

Borat isn't a bogeyman, it is weak satire that exposes nothing in the end, and whether or not the US is racist doesn't seem to have much bearing on whether you view Baron-Cohen's comedy as suspect or not. The very success of this film is indictative of its lack of ability to challenge the status quo.

Oh- the last one you mentioned happened to me. I was wearing a military greatcoat at the time tho.

Reminds me of the bit in American Psycho (the novel) where Bateman puts some money into a homeless girls' coffee cup because he thinks she's cute...except it has coffee in it, and she's not homeless, just a grungy student type. On a tangent, that book cracked me up many times, and a feminist I know thought it was hilarious too.