Do good comedies have to be about losers?

[Corpsey]

I went into Fleabag thinking I'd hate it but I ended up loving it. Typical guardian reader.

 

[Simon silverdollarcircle]

Panel shows are what happens when British people try to be funny without it being about losers. Load of blokes in shiny shirts smirking at each other. Hateful

We need comedy to be about losers otherwise we lapse into shit bantz. It's the only thing that saves us

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I think that's roughly what I was saying with Larry David isn't it?

I didn't see that - yes, pretty much

but it also goes the other way

you can't have comedies about people who just live in grinding poverty and then die. there's nothing funny about it.

this is related to why comedies so often handwave or just completely ignore characters' material conditions

i.e. yr typical 90s rom-com where's everyone a magazine editor or something who lives in a giant NY apartment

or those modern Friends analogs @Linebaugh mentioned where everyone is the modern analog of a magazine editor or something

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I quite liked Fleabag btw but it's not something I think ever actually outright laughed at

she didn't come off as smug to me because the character seemed like such a mess in often relatable ways

death of a close friend, guilt, family tensions, envy, etc

my suspension of disbelief was definitely tested by - as I mentioned - the handwaving of her material conditions

i.e. she lives more or less comfortably in one of the most expensive cities on Earth on the proceeds of a failing cafe

but I expect that kind of thing from comedies and by those standards it's not nearly the worst

 

[IdleRich]

Yeah every time. I started talking about Peep Show and in that Jeremy never has a job yet somehow is always in the pub or getting the bus to Hastings for the day.

 

[WashYourHands]

I quite liked Fleabag btw but it's not something I think ever actually outright laughed at

she didn't come off as smug to me because the character seemed like such a mess in often relatable ways

death of a close friend, guilt, family tensions, envy, etc

my suspension of disbelief was definitely tested by - as I mentioned - the handwaving of her material conditions

i.e. she lives more or less comfortably in one of the most expensive cities on Earth on the proceeds of a failing cafe

but I expect that kind of thing from comedies and by those standards it's not nearly the worst

From this side of the pond it was the hype that ruined it. Inescapable for a while and that’s not the writer’s fault, followed up by KE.

Because so much smug, narcissistic ‘comedy’ over here hinges on an over abundance of these dire, dire panel shows, anything outside of that arena of sin can create a stir. Add the quiet despair of Englishness in general = home run.

This is why Julia Davis is a personal preference because she pokes around these zones far more ruthlessly and effectively, the end result being comedy of a higher level of farce and darkness. Fleabag I was half expecting the lead to be skipping around at times if that makes sense.

 

[Mr. Tea]

FWIW it's worth I really enjoyed Fleabag, but I think Rich and WYH might be onto something about the insane levels of hype that surrounded it.

 

[Leo]

enjoyed fleabag for reasons mentioned by padraig, plus yeah the hype wasn't as bad over here. had some laughs from "Friday Night Dinner", for shamelessly being essentially the same things every episode (characters redoing their stock antics each week, always a similar ridiculous situation that needs to be resolved, etc.).

we don't watch much comedy, last decent US one was probably "The Last OG" with Tracy Morgan (partly because it was great just to see he'd recovered from his horrendous car accident). He plays a guy who's released from prison after 15 years, returns to the hood to find it's been gentrified in his absence and that he has kids from a now-married ex-girlfriend. he befriends that family, grapples with the new Brooklyn, tries various schemes to get his life on the straight-and-narrow and avoid some of his old shady friends, makes headway and then inevitably falls back. Morgan writes lots of his own smartass wisecracking into the character.