The Flipside of the Generic “Why is Comedy so Shit These Days?” Question

[genericnerdyusername]

The Long Way:
It was my birthday last week and I got rather a good amount of money from it, which I intend to spend on funny things, but I’ve got everything I can think of. I was wondering if anyone here has been blown away by any comedy other than what people would consider “the standards?” (e.g Hancock, Fawlty Towers, the Young Ones, Red Dwarf etc) I thought about asking this over at Cookd and Bombd but from the threads I’ve read their opinions seem to be summed up by the phrase “comedy has been shit since the dawn of time especially Michael MacIntyre”. I mean, really, who wants to hear about how shit a particular comedian is over and over and over again? There are even people on their attacking Dylan Moran now *sigh*. If anyone suggests anything that I’ve already got it doesn’t really matter, I won’t get all “I’ve already got that you FOOL” on you.

The Short Way:
Anyone got any comedy recommendations for my birthday splashing?

[Pete Part Three]

Flight of the Conchords

[redhead85]

> Flight of the Conchords

Second.

[ori-STUDFARM]

Comedy has been shit since the dawn of time especially Michael MacIntyre

Except for Hyperdrive!! :P

[Blisschick]

> Flight of the Conchords

Third.

[Carlito]

Considering I have no idea what type of comedy you like or what you may have already seen, here is a list (in no particular order) of lesser-known comedies (in the UK at least) that I’d recommend to anybody:

Marion and Geoff
Operation Good Guys
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development
Time Trumpet
Nathan Barley
The Armando Ianucci Shows
Director’s Commentary
Human Remains
Big Train
Black Books
Peep Show (even though it’s hard for me to envision people who haven’t seen Peep Show – it’s watched by pretty much everyone I know – the ratings are never great so I guess there are a lot of people out there none the wiser!)
Misfits
No Heroics
Kevin Bishop Show (hit and miss)
Man Stroke Woman (also hit and miss)
IT Crowd
The Larry Sanders Show
Seinfeld (hey, huge success in the US, but you never know who may not have seen the greatest American comedy of all time)
Outnumbered
The Inbetweeners

Considering 17 of the 21 shows I listed are from within the last decade, I wouldn’t say comedy is any shitter these days than it’s ever been. It’s just a case of finding the cream. There was never a time when comedy was ‘on fire’ right across the board, just the rose tinted spectacle brigade would have you believe it.

[Pete Part Three]

>Kevin Bishop Show (hit and miss)

Shit and piss.

[ChrisM]

Bit of an acquired taste these but you might like:

Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place

Psychoville which of course leads to

League of Gentlemen. (You probably know of that already though.)

Actually of that lot I only own the first so far!

[Blisschick]

I have League of Gentlemen on my Netflix Instant Play list, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I may take the dive later on today. I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

[redhead85]

Oh and don’t forget Spaced! ^__^

[Ben Paddon]

Are we just including British comedy in there? Because if we can throw in American stuff then I’d like to nominate Scrubs seasons 1-3 and 8, and also Futurama.

[Seb Patrick]

Arrested Development is ?30 for the lot in HMV at the moment. It really is unmissably perfect.

[genericnerdyusername]

Thanks! There’s quite a lot here I have heard of but never bothered to check out! Ooooh yes and I want to say that I had dinner with Big John from the Inbetweeners (although no one seems to remember who he is until I watch an episode with him in and start jumping up and down, pointing and yelling “I KNOW HIM HE’S MY FRIEND!”). So that’s my small claim to fame; I know a semi-inbetweener. :)

[Tarka Dal]

> Garth Marenghi?s DarkPlace

This.

[Carlito]

>>Kevin Bishop Show (hit and miss)

>Shit and piss.

Okay, more miss than hit, but the hits are worth it.

[Ridley]

Nighty Night
The Smoking Room

[genericnerdyusername]

I watched a few clips of Human Remains on youtube and it’s convinced me to seek out the DVD. From the few clips I watched it seemed like a funny version of Chris Morris’ Jam. I don’t mean that as an insult to Jam, it’s just I didn’t feel that “funny” was what it was going for. I found it disturbingly interesting is accurate.

[Alex]

Human Remains is indeed great. Dark in a different way to Jam but definatly great all the same. Plus of course they used John Martyn’s ‘Don’t Want To Know’ for the themetune so it’s doubally great.

[pfm]

> the ratings are never great so I guess there are a lot of people out there none the wiser

Or maybe, like me, they just can’t stand David Mitchell’s voice for longer than 2 minutes? Yeah I’ve seen enough of it and it IS funny but definitely not one of my favourites. I would rather watch a million episodes of The IT Crowd (well, all of the 18 episodes literally several times each, let’s not over-exaggerate…) over a single episode of Peep Show. And btw this has got nothing to do with the whole Footlights thing, obviously, considering Richard Ayoade was in Footlightst too. Heck, he was President in ’98, 2 years after Mitchell.

[Ridley]

15 Storeys High

[Dave]

Catterick

[Bob Loblaw]

How I Met Your Mother
30 Rock
It’s Always Sunny In Philadephia

[Carlito]

A show nobody has mentioned of yet, which I’m going to watch for the first time later this evening (therefore I’m not endorsing it just yet) is The Thick Of It. Is it as good as people make out?

[Jonsmad]

I like it yeah. The Election specials were very good. The Film In The Loop was good too. There’s definately a lot to enjoy across two/three series. Tucker being the most entertaining thing as long as there is a tv screen between you and him you’ll be ok!

[genericnerdyusername]

I bought In The Loop a while ago, but it got left by an open window while it was raining and is now damaged beyond buggery. Will have to get it again along, along with The Thick of It. I understand that you don’t need to have seen TTOI in order to see ITL, yes?

[Andrew]

In the Loop is pretty much entirely separate. With the exception of Tucker, the characters are different…despite the fact they’re often played by Thick of It actors. (The movie was what got me into the TV series, in fact.)

[Seb Patrick]

The movie is better than the TV series, although the series was somewhat energised by the movie, and the third (which is pretty much watchable without having seen any of the previous ones) is phenomenal. I’d say it’s possible to skip straight to the election specials, but there is good stuff in series 1/2 (which on DVD is one series, but which on broadcast was actually two of three episodes each).

[pfm]

I really hope Iannucci ends up directing the Alan Partridge film. He makes a brief mention of it at the bottom of this – http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/movies/alan-partridge-creator-armando-iannucci-finds-big-screen-success-with-in-the-loop/story-e6frf9h6-1225822543356 so at least he IS involved. In The Loop could very well help the Partridge film get made, along with Peter Baynham’s involvement with Borat and Bruno.

[Ben Paddon]

I wanted to see In The Loop. I saw posters for it when I was in the UK last year. Never got to, though. I had no idea it was connected in any way to The Thick Of It.

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