I was just…baffled. I didn’t find it funny at all. I don’t “get it,” I guess, even though my friend thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. Said friend doesn’t like Mr. Show, which I adore, yet he loves Little Britain.
DO you think it’s funny? Is it just lost on me because I’m not British? (Even though I love Monty Python, The Office and Extras?)
I find some of it funny and am ‘meh’ about some of the other bits. It’s also one of the few shows that I find actually offensive - the Andy stuff (bloke in a wheelchair isn’t actually disabled) is horrific. This tends to get me labelled as being ‘oversensitive’ but I don’t care.
I think it’s hysterical. I like a fair amount of British comedy, but I don’t think its provenance really matters much – you just need to like absurdist, performance based comedy. You don’t have to be intimate with Bristol* to “get” Vicky Pollard, you just have to observe a certain type of seemingly-ubiquitous teenage girl. Seeing an unlikely an actor as Matt Lucas transformed so utterly and convincingly into a broad cartoon of this type of young girl is astounding, and pants-wettingly funny, for me, anyway.
The manifestly asexual Welshman Daffyd, whose completely defective gaydar allows him to cling to his identity as “the only gay in the village” also slays me.
Part of the reason I find it offensive is not the show itself, but the way people use it - people do actually use Andy and Dafydd to take the piss out of gay and disabled people. That’s not the show’s fault in a way, but it makes the sketches less funny for me to watch, and the show made it so easy for people to do that, especially with Andy.
I am a huge fan of British comedy, but I loathe Little Britain. It’s one of these shows that uses endlessly repeated catchphrases instead of actual comedy. Sort of like SNL at its worst. Or MadTV at its best.
I don’t think it’s offensive, because they poke fun at everyone. I do find it funny. Some skits I like more than others, though. I also don’t like they tend to recycle things A LOT. I also don’t like the American Little Britian (on HBO) didn’t have that much new stuff.
I also think, the skinny guy is funnier and more versatile than the fat guy. The fat guy’s annoys me and his shtick is really “Look at how fat and ugly I am. Laugh at me.” A lot of his characters have annoying unrealistic voices/accents. There’s a scene in Run Fatboy Run where he’s buying cookies (the skinny one) and he made me crack up. The only skit the fat guy does that I like is the weight watchersesque skit. That’s only funny because he’s fatter than all the other “fatties” (as he calls them).
I watched a few episodes when it was on HBO, i believe i made a thread about how much it sucked. It is the same catch phrases repeated over and over in the same situations every single show.
Was alright on the radio. The catchphrases were quite funny, but obviously catch-phrase based comedy has a limited lifespan and it was tedious before it even got on the telly.
Very simple stuff, though, it’s not something you can “not get” because of the complicated nature or cultural limitations or anything. It’s not the League of Gentlemen.
Sorry that’s not complete until she coughs in your face
For the record I really enjoy Little Britain. Yes some sketches/characters are better than others, but overall a very entertaining show.
Ditto. I’ve always just assumed that a few years out of the country has left me out of touch from what Brits like these days. After hearing a lot about it I was amazed when I saw it. Amazed at how painfully unfunny it was.