Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 11:40 AM GMTI think it's time we all came to admit, that British television comedy isn't funny anymore.
What if we don't admit it? What if we argue that it is purely a matter of opinion whether standards have slipped so far that nothing, anywhere, anytime, is funny in British television comedy anymore ? 
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 11:40 AM GMTAs a viewing audience we have been force fed and completely subdued by dull, saccarhin, unchallenging, uncontroversial but most of all, unfunny sitcoms, stand up performers and panel shows.
As a viewing audience we are free to switch over to something we like while continuing to bitch about telly being dominated by stuff that we don't like. We like to call the stuff we are not into "shit" but only because it makes us feel big and clever about our personal taste being superior to anyone else's. In the comedy world one man's shit is invariably another's comedic orgasm.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 11:40 AM GMTNothing is cutting edge or outrageous or subversive anymore.
Bizarrely, it's American comedy shows such as South Park, Family Guy and Curb Your Enthusiasm that are really pushing the boundries. They regularly make jokes about sex, incest, child abuse, murder, kidnapping, politics, race, etc., but most of all, they are subversive of both modern culture and the television genre itself.
All of the above were recently covered by Mongrels which was a 100% Brit production last time I checked. And they have also thrown in disability, terrorism, rape, anti-Semitism, scatology, and a lot of other "subversive" topics too.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 11:40 AM GMTThis used to be a British preserve and now we've lost out to the Yanks. And yes, you can cite the odd programme, like Peep Show, but it is so buried under a mass of bland, corporate, on message, offend no one, family audience, prozac inspired, lifeless crap, that you can barely see it.
Subversive comedy is still around Brit TV same as it always has been. Perhaps it's not noticed as much as the shock value seems to have been diluted in these more liberal times. But it's certainly at least on par with whatever the Americans can offer.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ January 25 2012, 11:40 AM GMTI'm hoping things will change soon, but as the audience becomes less and less demanding and the programme makers more and more afraid, I'm not sure if it ever will.
Change to what? To whatever YOU like? If I were God Of Comedy (and I should be!) I would chuck Andy Parsons, Russell Howard, Dawn French, Michael McIntyre plus a few others into the eternal flames of Comedy Hell. However as a mere mortal I just have to put up with the fact that not everyone has the same taste in comedy.
But as Brits I think we could all maybe take a step back and look at the bigger picture and perhaps we might then feel a wee bit proud of the wide and rich variety of our own comedy culture before claiming the Americans (or anyone else for that matter) can do it better?
