Personal Reflection on Comedy TV

I have been watching a fair amount of comedy television of late, most notably Seinfeld, The Games, The Office and The Nanny. While watching these shows I remembered the comment in class that Americans love the plot and story spilled out plain and that they don't like different dialects of English on TV. The Office and The Games are British and Australian shows respectively while The Nanny and Seinfeld are American. Both of the former shows were mega successes all around the world.

Both the American comedies are more like actors playing out a stand up comedians set. The canned laughter and often slapstick humour is very funny but is not intellectually funny or addressing any deeper issues. I suppose it is like fast food. Easily consumed on the spot and then on to the next meal.

I find that both the other shows are more intelligent and clever in the way that humour is expressed. Both of them are shot like documentaries to an extent and are based in office type situations. The scripting in these shows is extremely clever and often the jokes can be expressed by just good acting.

I find that American comedies tend to be over the top while the Australian and British comedies are more down to earth. The Office was at many times painful to watch because it seemed so real. The Games was especially good because it was able to, at the time send up the whole Olympic planning process without being offensive. In many other countries such a comedy would be considered in bad taste. Two other shows like this in Australia are CNNNN which basically takes the Mickey out of current issues and Corridors of Power which is a satire of the backbench representative in parliament.