81–90 of 115 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a German, I have to agree. My favourite comedians are British, Irish or Australian, not one of them is German. I find most German comedy unwatchable at worst or unfunny at best.
This guy is pretty funny: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henning_Wehn Anecdotally, plenty of Germans have a wicked sense of humour - maybe it's a Berlin thing. Not sure their humour would get airtime on TV though.
I found political satire to be a very good way to learn about British politics and a bit of culture before, during and after I lived in the UK. I have looked for something similar in Ireland, and even with a country that has some shared history and a lot of exposure to British culture, it doesn't seem to be able to replicate it.
Could it because the BBC (state owned television) effectively nurtures small series and lets them run for far longer than you would have in the US market, which suffers from both viewer and producer short attention span? Essentially, not trying to have a hit for every show results in a far greater overall success rate. If so, the analogy between the TV show market and startup scene could be instructive (i.e., nurture…
While there maybe some truth to that, it's also worth noting that we see the same with all our (British) terrestrial TV networks. Particularly channel 4, which has given us classics such as The IT Crowd, Father Ted, The Inbetweeners and Black Books. Edit: and Brass Eye. How could I forgot Brass Eye when this topic is specifically about satire? Awesome show.
Channel 5, otoh, does not, and we don't tend to get a whole lot of interesting new stuff from it - they like to play it very safe.
At times my work has brought me into contact with Americans and in general they just do not get sarcasm and satire. Obviously not true of everyone but in general in my experience, Americans (not sure about Canadians) take things that you say very literally. Take my advice, when dealing with people from the USA, as a default, avoid irony/sarcasm/satire and even humour until or unless you know they will appreciate it.…
Well, for what is worth, many Europeans, like the Germans, are even worse at satire and humor than Americans are.
As a German, I don't agree. I think Germans get satire and humor. I'd say we are in that respect closer to the British than the American (But I have to admit that the Brits are light years ahead when it comes to everything entertaining) It's just that our media outlets are characterized by another German trait: fear of risk. If a program works well enough than nothing is going to change. Just think about how long "Wetten Dass...?!" was on air.
As far as tv programs are concerned I think that "Stromberg" or "Tatortreiniger" aren't too bad.
On the subject of Prime Minister's Questions here are some clips showing how rowdy it can get; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1iL2jGZiZw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUqhqsfE0YQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVs1jN85w10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUX9LvYlAps
I doubt any Brits would consider politician's jibes - especially the scripted ones - a high point of our humour. The best thing that can be said for the schoolboy humour of Opposition questions in PMQs is that it represents a welcome break from the dreadful toadyism of questions planted by government backbenchers.
At times my work has brought me into contact with Americans and in general they just do not get sarcasm and satire. Obviously not true of everyone but in general in my experience, Americans (not sure about Canadians) take things that you say very literally. Take my advice, when dealing with people from the USA, as a default, avoid irony/sarcasm/satire and even humour until or unless you know they will appreciate it.…
In America sarcasm in speech is usually heavily signaled via the tone of voice. You don't usually just drop it in deadpan. So it's not so much that we don't get sarcasm or satire but we're used to having it more clearly demarcated. At least in speech - satire is quite popular and common in print.
At times my work has brought me into contact with Americans and in general they just do not get sarcasm and satire. Obviously not true of everyone but in general in my experience, Americans (not sure about Canadians) take things that you say very literally. Take my advice, when dealing with people from the USA, as a default, avoid irony/sarcasm/satire and even humour until or unless you know they will appreciate it.…
I've heard people attribute the failure to perceive humour to the influence of ancestral, puritanical European emigrants to America. With whom "your word" was your bond. I would lay a very large bet that the "/s" tag is an American invention. I find people pleading for unambiguity in sarcasm on the internet amusing, "sarchasm" being one of the better words invented over the last few decades. (Also an American inventi…
At times my work has brought me into contact with Americans and in general they just do not get sarcasm and satire. Obviously not true of everyone but in general in my experience, Americans (not sure about Canadians) take things that you say very literally. Take my advice, when dealing with people from the USA, as a default, avoid irony/sarcasm/satire and even humour until or unless you know they will appreciate it.…
You can see that if you look at U.S adaptation of Britain or French series or movies, they often lose the tongue-in-cheek humor (if that term makes sense) in the process. The Office U.S became great when they stopped copying the U.K version and I don't think it's just a difference of bleakness as the article states.
There's also probably a survey problem, the American productions that don't take themselves overly seriously and throw in some tongue in cheek humor aren't going to be the ones borrowing their ideas from someone else.
"Burn Notice" comes to mind as a drama series that managed to throw in some humor without making it zany and obvious.