Mediancat

Now, this is a shameful confession, but it's one that's been on my mind for a long time and I have to come clean. Forgive me, but I have sinned . . .

I don't find British TV comedies funny.

Not Are You Being Served?, not Blackadder, not Yes, Minister, not Fawlty Towers, and not . . .

dare I say it, and reveal my philistinism to the world at large? Dare I admit this?

I must. I must, to fully reveal my shame to the world.

. . . notMonty Python.

Now, I'm not saying I NEVER laugh; just that, 90% of the time when I try watching these shows, I hear a line, I hear people laugh (either on a laugh track or in the room around me), so I KNOW something said was supposed to be funny, and . . .

I don't get it. I just don't get it.

It's not that I have no sense of humor, and it's not a matter of not finding British HUMOR funny. I like Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Gerald Durrell, and others. But once it's televised . . .

Almost nothing.

Thank you for listening to my confession. What is my penance?

Rob aka Mediancat

Rousseau_CHN

psst...neither do I.

british and their weird humor.

pz

That depends. Do you find crappy American sitcoms funny? Have you ever watched something like "Will and Grace" or "Just Shoot Me" and laughed?

We have to find out whether you are simply missing a sense of humor, or whether instead you bear some demonic, brain-sucking parasite that has distorted an existing sense of humor into something inhuman and evil.

Scotty

Ohhhh, now I see why you like Buffy...

-Scott

Mediancat

I find SOME American sitcoms funny. The Simpsons, That '70s Show, Friends sporadically . . . but not that many.

Will and Grace, never; Just Shoot Me, never.

Rob aka Mediancat

Mediancat

No, I like Buffy because I have taste and recognize quality drama when I see it. I suspect with Brit-coms, it's something genetic . . .

Rob aka Mediancat

pz

OK. There's hope.

Scotty

It was a joke. I don't care what people watch, it is my brain that has a problem with the shows.

Maybe it is genetic in a sense of the specific humor of British comedy. I suspect what I like about it is that they are so willing to make fun of their own history and the mistakes they made. Try to find that in a US comedy, we are way too PC.

Buffy is in a different category and I could understand enjoying it. I think I overanalyze things instead of enjoying them many times, it is a problem I have. Logical consistancy in "real life appearing" shows is what is missing (when it is a "drama" or in that category) and I pick up on every single plot hole (even if it is REALLY SMALL!) which takes away the enjoyment for me.

The one of two Buffy's I saw I just wondered why they didn't email somebody (it was when they couldn't speak and had the Nosferatu looking vampires floating around...see what I mean, ruins it for me.).

-Scott

Mediancat

Scotty, I knew you were joking; my response was intended to be in the same vein. Sorry if it didn't come across that way.

The Buffy ep in question was called "Hush." I'm wondering where email would have helped . . . certainly when a group of monsters comes charging into your room they're not going to stop to let you boot up your computer.

That said, I love nitpicking; few people are bigger nitpickers of shows than devoted fans. (Buffy's had three different birthdays, for instance.)

I also have single one of Phil FArrand's Nitpicker's Guides, and I think they're hilarious.

Rob aka Mediancat

Friar Bellows

You know ... irony? It's a bit like bronzey and goldy ... only it's made out of iron.