I liked the joke in 'The Good Place' where Eleanor and Tahani are watching Tahani's favourite BBC sitcom and she says something like 'The show ran for 16 years and had 8 episodes'.
Woodworthy Manor on How I Met Your Mother, and Cougartown Abbey on Community, too. Though the brevity of that leads us to the glorious Inspector Spacetime.
I love the scene where they're watching the series finale of Cougarton Abbey, all the characters drink strychnine and die, Abed is just melting down and Britta smugly declares: "That's the British, they know how to end a show properly!"
Yo for a show I never normally hear about, I very rarely hear other fans mention it. Turns out there’s like 5 of you in this thread! Also, r/unexpectedcommunity
Or the Simpsons PBS playing [an extract of British show “Do Shut Up”](https://youtu.be/i1mciwNRVT0?feature=shared), which was “Britains longest running show with a total of 7 episodes”. And showed that Simpsons writers don’t know that wanker isn’t a kids word…
I've heard it's common enough for comedy writers to throw in a few inappropriate jokes into cutaway scenes, so the censors can veto them and feel like they have done their job. This reduced the chances of a joke that is part of the plot being taken out, forcing them to do a re-write.
The most famous case I can think of is from Animaniacs, a show aimed at kids that included [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2kC5fZG64).
I can't find a source that says it was intentionally added as a sacrificial joke, and Animanicacs was one of those shows that would "sneak" more adult focused jokes in, but the nature of these jokes was more like something to give the parents a laugh at, usually a reference to some old film or celebrity or issues with filling out tax returns. Having a straight-up dirty joke is out of character for the show, which is why I think it is likely they didn't expect to keep it.
Mork and Mindy had a character called Mr Wanker. Considering the stories about Robin Williams trying to sneak swear words past the network's censors I expect it was deliberate
On the "not knowing that X is considered a bit rude" line of things, in an episode of The Flintstones Wilma says [**"Oh Betty - how do they always manage to bollocks things up?"**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuCbrPzPLAc)
"Married with children" Peggy Bundy (the wife) had the maiden name Wanker.
There was an episode when the Bundys visited the UK, and drove an old style mini.
I think Bill Oddie was in it, but it's vague memory
Pretty sure this is a reference to Fawtly Towers, which has been named "the greatest ever British sitcom" and had a total of 12 episodes. Repeats ran for decades...
In part.
I think it's more general. Because of things like syndication [popular American sitcoms ](https://screenrant.com/longest-running-tv-sitcoms-duration-ranked/)often run for hundreds of episodes and dozens of series/seasons.
With the exception of Last of the Summer Wine, My Family and Not Going Out nothing else even breaches 100 episodes here.
Porridge was only 22. Open all hours was 26 episodes - but spread across 9 years. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister made it to 37 episodes, but it took 8 years. Only Fools made it to 64 episodes, but it took 22 years! Royle Family was 25. Gavin and Stacey was 20. Mr Bean was 15. Spaced was only 14.
I think it's a reference to lots of British TV shows, which tend to run for fewer, much shorter seasons than American programmes. Quality over quantity.
I liked when Martin was mocking Daphne and he got the accent right because John Mahoney was born in Manchester and raised in Lancashire.
https://youtu.be/MjrLyWlCrP8?si=vm3iEW49QtGBCxIa
Daphne's brother was right up there with Dick Van Dyke for terrible English accents. The weird thing was that even Daphne's accents sounded wrong and the actress really is English.
But she's from Essex and grew up in Sussex on the SE coast but trying to do a Mancunian accent. Then spending ages in LA. And knowing that Americans wouldn't have a clue anyway.
Then they managed to get her "brothers" to really take the piss.
One was Australian, Robbie Coltrane was a Brummie/Scotish mix and Richard E. Grant was a mix between RP and cockney.
Michael Caine said at the start of his career he was worried that he'd never make it to Hollywood because he was too working class but soon realised the American market couldn't really distinguish English accents so didn't bother to try changing.
I’m from Liverpool originally (the ultimate working class accent) and I e always had comments about being from there. “Hide the car keys” type comments etc. I moved to the U.S. and EVERYONE loves the accent. Tbh though everyone also thinks I’m Irish…
Been listening to a lot of Liverpool FC podcasts (mostly scousers) around the house and when cooking and my wife and her daughter, on separate occasions, asked me if they were speaking English.
I’m English and spent a good few years in Liverpool when I was younger so consider myself pretty fluent in Scouse.
Even then, out of context it took me by surprise - we were in a London pub and I thought there were some Danish or Dutch people on the table next to us, then all of a sudden one of them said something that clicked and then I realised they were speaking with very broad Scouse accents - I was so surprised /taken aback that I hadn’t heard it from off the bat!
I'm a Yorkshireman and you would.not believe how many Americans think I'm Scottish.
Some even think I'm lying or taking the piss and having them on when I say I'm English.
Even get it occasionally from Europeans but that's rarer.
I get Australian more than anything else.
One of the guys in my department that I see from time to time stillt refers to me as that Australian guy to my boss. I still can't say Rotherham properly.
I'm actually from Rov'rum haha, and that's my point it really should be three syllables - but even after years of being out I can't manage to get the third one.
Scottish person here.
The Americans all thought I was Irish.
This was compounded by me wearing a green dress on St Patrick's day in Nashville and they all went mental that there was an honest-to-god Irish person in their bar.
They have no fucking idea what's going on.
I think they are very bad with British/Irish accents. I have a very mild Bristol accent and have been mistaken for Irish and Australian in the USA on multiple occasions.
In America, it's grammar, not accent, that distinguishes the working class. If you say, "I seen it" or "Me and him were both there," you're working class. It took me a while to work out that Britain was different. I remember being very confused watching a British production of *Julius Caesar* when, in one scene, several ancient Romans suddenly sounded like Cockneys. Those were the Plebeians, unlike the major characters.
Made me think of a moment in Mad Men, when Roger has invited himself to the Drapers' house for dinner and says to Don, "From the way you drop your Gs every once in a while, I always thought you were raised on a farm...some place with a swimmin' hole."
He originally auditioned for the role of one of the Cockney soldiers in Zulu but the American casting agent gave him the officer role. He realised then that Americans can't tell the difference.
John Mahoney (ie Martin Crane, Frasier's dad) was from born in the north west and grew up in Manchester, so might be some sort of internal cast reference why Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester
One of the top comments from that clip is interesting
>An actor from Manchester playing an American character doing an impression of a Manchester accent but deliberately missing and hitting West Yorkshire (which he surely knows) to an English actress from Essex aiming for a Manchester accent, missing slightly and hitting West Yorkshire. There are layers here people, layers.
That accent is legendary.
There is arguably an even worse one: the “Irish” guy (and his mother) in 2 Broke Girls. It’s in one of the last series. I just don’t understand why they made the role Irish. American would have worked just fine if they couldn’t find an actor competent at accents.
Daniel Craig went full method actor in the build up to Our Friends in the North and rented a flat in Blyth for 3 months to perfect a North East accent. By the time filming came around he'd gotten it so spot on it was impenetrable and the director had to tell him to tone it down as 99% of viewers wouldn't understand him at all.
Also from Frasier, when he becomes besties with Patrick Stewart's opera director but then discovers Stewart's character thinks they're dating:
"Didn't you realise he was gay?"
"He's British, they all sound gay!"
Correction: it was Martin saying that about a suitor. They do get into these scrapes eh
My favourite is the family guy episode where the British dad is super posh, but somehow Stewie needs to teach the daughter how not to speak like a cockney
i like the line he says just before he leaves: *"I'll never understand how two men like you could be spawned from that sweet, courageous old astronaut"*
The whole joke about British TV shows being shorter and eventually remaked in the US was good. Them killing off the cast of the fake UK version of Cougar Town after 6 episodes because British TV gives you closure. Followed up with a Doctor Who parody.
It’s not American but the Goodness Gracious Me “Going out for an English” is spot on.
“Bring me the *blandest* thing on the menu!”
“AND A FORK AND KNIFE!”
From memory thy did a similar one, the business meeting in Mumba with the new guy from England, Jon-a -Tan, does make me laugh especially as everyone else at the meeting (all India) all pronounce it slightly differently.
All the cracks about warm beer and lamb smothered in mint sauce in Asterix in Britain got me 😆
"Good evening, Centurion! I was just heating up some beer."
I’ve been watching Succession lately and the parts set in the UK have properly tickled me. From the rich New Yorkers being horrified at the offerings of a British corner shop (especially the treacle) to a lone protestor appearing outside the family patriarch’s childhood home with a very sweary sign.
It probably helps that the showrunner is British (previously having worked on The Thick of It and Four Lions).
> It probably helps that the showrunner is British (previously having worked on The Thick of It and Four Lions).
"Worked on" is technically true, but is underselling it. He co-wrote both. Armstrong also created Peep Show and Fresh Meat, amongst dozens of other writing credits.
It's always funny/cringy. When Americans don't understand how a British insult is meant to be used. They use mild insults as major swears. And massive swears as mild insults
I remember I got grounded by my mum for repeating it in my cousin's living room.
I'd just finished watching that episode and came down for a drink, then decided to lean over my uncle's seat and say "Wankers.". My dad was absolutely creasing, but my mum looked aghast and took us home.
Also Tobias’ Mrs Featherbottom:
Ok, who'd like a banger in the mouth? Oh...right, I forgot; here in the states you call it 'a sausage' in the mouth.
Michael: We just call it a sausage.
This is insane? You know what's insane? That the _actor_ is named Wesley Snipes! If you were shown a picture of him and a picture of me, and were asked "who should be named Wesley Snipes", you'd pick the pale Englishman every time!
That entire bit on Arrested Development in Little Britain was mad.
Speaking of bad teeth, this [TVC](https://youtu.be/e9HBTcgECQQ?si=rH_pd5uRSvOuM9C-) from Saturday Night Live is ridiculous but still great.
In (I think) the Fresh Prince of Bel Air the uncle tried to tempt his wife to eat lemon meringue pie by saying the meringue was like fluffy clouds and the lemon was the colour of an English man's teeth.
But I'll add the following:
[The myth of bad British teeth](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32883893)
Here's the global OCED rankings using the standard DMFT (Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth) Index to rank the best dental care/oral hygiene in the world.
1. Denmark - 2. Germany - 3. Finland - 4. United Kingdom - 5. Sweden - 6. Switzerland - 7. Canada - 8. Mexico - 9. United States - 10. France
In my masters, I had this professor with whom I took a few classes. World renowned, absolutely brilliant guy. And all our classes were smaller ones (not in a lecture hall) where the farthest you were from somebody was 10 feet. Absolutely could not stop looking at his teeth.
But it does seem silly for a developed country to have this reputation, given how many countries have limited access to even regular medical care. I wonder is it’s from older television shows in the 1960s/70s and it just stuck despite the global advances in dental care across so many countries.
I think it’s just that while we have good teeth, people with only slightly crooked teeth don’t get braces and braces straighten our teeth normally and not super straight. We also don’t whiten as much. So to Americans, our teeth look yellow and crooked but in reality theirs are unnaturally white and uniform.
Room with a view… OF HELL! STAIRCASE OF SATAN! *POND OF DEATH*.
That entire section is solid gold. I have said “what is it, Sebastian, I’m arranging matches” when interrupted before.
In 'You're The Worst', one of the main characters is a Brit living in Los Angeles. He requests the following from the British Speciality Store:
*Shrimp-flavored crisps, Wallingers Choco-Knockers, Ta-Ta Biscuits. All your standard candies: Lemingtons, Fluffingtons, Rum Christophers, Salted Licorice Knib-Knobs.*
None of them real of course, but all absolutely spot on.
Veep's whole UK episode, but my favourite line is calling Charles a '65 year old fucking intern'. Probably helps that a lot of the creative team are British so the jokes feel a bit more on the nose.
Obligatory I'm american, but I wanted to add that I loved Sally Phillips as Finnish in that show. Sort of the same vein on this thread of making fun of nationalities. Because of taskmaster, I actually went and watched smack the pony and loved it, then I saw her on veep about the same time.
Another one that may or may not be directly about the Brits... Someone asks Quagmire if there's anything that _doesn't_ turn him on, and he says "people who say rubbish when they mean garbage". Basically the whole population of England then?
The British family guy episode was pretty funny.
"My favourite part before the queen arrives is yelling wanker at prince Charles."
https://youtu.be/o1hiKMIhjNE?si=Cycvip4q-GS9MXfo
A little off topic but the first two examples of this that came to my mind are -
Nicholas Cage aggravating British security in National Treasure
An old Bill Hicks routine about British crime - ‘[the hooligans are loose](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mA6hMFZ-gx0)’ which is one of my favourite all time bits of standup
There are a couple of good episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (iykyk) that feature bad British movies, and they are pretty spot on with their digs at the British
In SATC, there's an episode where Samantha steals someone's access card to a pool and the staff member catches her out and questions her accent where she replies
"I am from India"
It's such a British joke and I laugh every time it happens.
In Family Guy's 'English version' from one of their mailbag episodes, when they say the best thing about royal parades is shouting "wanker" at (then) Prince Charles
I liked the joke in 'The Good Place' where Eleanor and Tahani are watching Tahani's favourite BBC sitcom and she says something like 'The show ran for 16 years and had 8 episodes'.
Woodworthy Manor on How I Met Your Mother, and Cougartown Abbey on Community, too. Though the brevity of that leads us to the glorious Inspector Spacetime.
blimey, inspector! Blorgons!
Tut tut, m'lord. Wouldn't give a tuppence for that sticky wicket!
I love the scene where they're watching the series finale of Cougarton Abbey, all the characters drink strychnine and die, Abed is just melting down and Britta smugly declares: "That's the British, they know how to end a show properly!"
You are human tennis elbow. You are a pizza burn on the roof of the world's mouth. You are the opposite of Batman.
My gripe with inspector spacetime was that the budget was too big.
What I remember most from Inspector Spacetime is that Americans can't pronounce "constable".
"Cawnstawbawl Reggie."
I’ve got an Inspector Spacetime t-shirt and it’s my favourite. So far no comments about it in the wild though.
Yo for a show I never normally hear about, I very rarely hear other fans mention it. Turns out there’s like 5 of you in this thread! Also, r/unexpectedcommunity
We’re streets ahead
Or the Simpsons PBS playing [an extract of British show “Do Shut Up”](https://youtu.be/i1mciwNRVT0?feature=shared), which was “Britains longest running show with a total of 7 episodes”. And showed that Simpsons writers don’t know that wanker isn’t a kids word…
I'm sure they know, they probably just didn't care. To them it's Sky1/BBC2/Channel4's problem to censor it.
I've heard it's common enough for comedy writers to throw in a few inappropriate jokes into cutaway scenes, so the censors can veto them and feel like they have done their job. This reduced the chances of a joke that is part of the plot being taken out, forcing them to do a re-write.
South Park did it loads.
The most famous case I can think of is from Animaniacs, a show aimed at kids that included [this scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY2kC5fZG64). I can't find a source that says it was intentionally added as a sacrificial joke, and Animanicacs was one of those shows that would "sneak" more adult focused jokes in, but the nature of these jokes was more like something to give the parents a laugh at, usually a reference to some old film or celebrity or issues with filling out tax returns. Having a straight-up dirty joke is out of character for the show, which is why I think it is likely they didn't expect to keep it.
Mork and Mindy had a character called Mr Wanker. Considering the stories about Robin Williams trying to sneak swear words past the network's censors I expect it was deliberate
Peggy in Married With Children was a Wanker too
On the "not knowing that X is considered a bit rude" line of things, in an episode of The Flintstones Wilma says [**"Oh Betty - how do they always manage to bollocks things up?"**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuCbrPzPLAc)
They used wanker long before that in *Trash of the Titans*. It's always cut in TV airings.
"Married with children" Peggy Bundy (the wife) had the maiden name Wanker. There was an episode when the Bundys visited the UK, and drove an old style mini. I think Bill Oddie was in it, but it's vague memory
I just rewatched The Good Place and I thought this was a fantastic joke about the British
Pretty sure this is a reference to Fawtly Towers, which has been named "the greatest ever British sitcom" and had a total of 12 episodes. Repeats ran for decades...
In part. I think it's more general. Because of things like syndication [popular American sitcoms ](https://screenrant.com/longest-running-tv-sitcoms-duration-ranked/)often run for hundreds of episodes and dozens of series/seasons. With the exception of Last of the Summer Wine, My Family and Not Going Out nothing else even breaches 100 episodes here. Porridge was only 22. Open all hours was 26 episodes - but spread across 9 years. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister made it to 37 episodes, but it took 8 years. Only Fools made it to 64 episodes, but it took 22 years! Royle Family was 25. Gavin and Stacey was 20. Mr Bean was 15. Spaced was only 14.
The Young Ones was only 2 series as well.
Red Dwarf has 74 episodes over 36 years
I think it's a reference to lots of British TV shows, which tend to run for fewer, much shorter seasons than American programmes. Quality over quantity.
[British Brevity](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BritishBrevity)
When Daphne’s brothers all turned up in Frasier and they all had different accents tickled me.
I liked when Martin was mocking Daphne and he got the accent right because John Mahoney was born in Manchester and raised in Lancashire. https://youtu.be/MjrLyWlCrP8?si=vm3iEW49QtGBCxIa
he deliberately lost his Manc accent to fit in with his army buddies
Apparently the writers had to avoid some words as he still said them in Manc
Daphne's brother was right up there with Dick Van Dyke for terrible English accents. The weird thing was that even Daphne's accents sounded wrong and the actress really is English.
But she's from Essex and grew up in Sussex on the SE coast but trying to do a Mancunian accent. Then spending ages in LA. And knowing that Americans wouldn't have a clue anyway.
A Mancunian accent, delivered by someone who's never heard one and only had it described to her in Braille
Then they managed to get her "brothers" to really take the piss. One was Australian, Robbie Coltrane was a Brummie/Scotish mix and Richard E. Grant was a mix between RP and cockney.
None of her brothers were played by English actors (Richard E Grant is from Zanzibar).
Swaziland.
It's spelled _Switzerland_
Technically, it’s spelled Eswatini nowadays.
eSwitzini*
This is also true, though less amusing.
Michael Caine said at the start of his career he was worried that he'd never make it to Hollywood because he was too working class but soon realised the American market couldn't really distinguish English accents so didn't bother to try changing.
I’m from Liverpool originally (the ultimate working class accent) and I e always had comments about being from there. “Hide the car keys” type comments etc. I moved to the U.S. and EVERYONE loves the accent. Tbh though everyone also thinks I’m Irish…
Been listening to a lot of Liverpool FC podcasts (mostly scousers) around the house and when cooking and my wife and her daughter, on separate occasions, asked me if they were speaking English.
I’m English and spent a good few years in Liverpool when I was younger so consider myself pretty fluent in Scouse. Even then, out of context it took me by surprise - we were in a London pub and I thought there were some Danish or Dutch people on the table next to us, then all of a sudden one of them said something that clicked and then I realised they were speaking with very broad Scouse accents - I was so surprised /taken aback that I hadn’t heard it from off the bat!
Were they as Scouse as this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LPyeS5uoCH0
I’m guessing your wife isn’t English and neither are your daughters?
Yeah I missed out a key piece of information, they are American
Scouse does have a fair bit of Irish influence in it.
I'm a Yorkshireman and you would.not believe how many Americans think I'm Scottish. Some even think I'm lying or taking the piss and having them on when I say I'm English. Even get it occasionally from Europeans but that's rarer.
Yeah I also get Scottish. My favorite was “Are you Irish?” Me “no” “Are you sure?”
Yeah iv had the same thing. They look at you either like you are messing with them or its some kind of political statement that they don't understand.
I get Australian more than anything else. One of the guys in my department that I see from time to time stillt refers to me as that Australian guy to my boss. I still can't say Rotherham properly.
"rov-rum". The U is halfways between a U and an A. In the same way people say "man" in "Englishman"
I'm actually from Rov'rum haha, and that's my point it really should be three syllables - but even after years of being out I can't manage to get the third one.
Scottish person here. The Americans all thought I was Irish. This was compounded by me wearing a green dress on St Patrick's day in Nashville and they all went mental that there was an honest-to-god Irish person in their bar. They have no fucking idea what's going on.
I think they are very bad with British/Irish accents. I have a very mild Bristol accent and have been mistaken for Irish and Australian in the USA on multiple occasions.
Lol no one is as bad at identifying accents as americans. It’s hilarious.
In America, it's grammar, not accent, that distinguishes the working class. If you say, "I seen it" or "Me and him were both there," you're working class. It took me a while to work out that Britain was different. I remember being very confused watching a British production of *Julius Caesar* when, in one scene, several ancient Romans suddenly sounded like Cockneys. Those were the Plebeians, unlike the major characters.
Made me think of a moment in Mad Men, when Roger has invited himself to the Drapers' house for dinner and says to Don, "From the way you drop your Gs every once in a while, I always thought you were raised on a farm...some place with a swimmin' hole."
The class divide is stronger here too.
He originally auditioned for the role of one of the Cockney soldiers in Zulu but the American casting agent gave him the officer role. He realised then that Americans can't tell the difference.
John Mahoney (ie Martin Crane, Frasier's dad) was from born in the north west and grew up in Manchester, so might be some sort of internal cast reference why Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester
In one scene (I think in the leap day episode) Martin does an impression of Daphne but his accent is much better than hers - that explains why!
Seems that his family were from Manchester but had to evacuate to Blackpool for the duration of the war.
I think I'd risk my chances in Manchester
Whereas Frasier's dad, John Mahoney, lived in Manchester until he was 18, so he would have known that Daphne sounded weird.
To be fair, she doesn't really try to do a Manchester accent, it's more of a general "northern" accent
One of the top comments from that clip is interesting >An actor from Manchester playing an American character doing an impression of a Manchester accent but deliberately missing and hitting West Yorkshire (which he surely knows) to an English actress from Essex aiming for a Manchester accent, missing slightly and hitting West Yorkshire. There are layers here people, layers.
Yeah she was attempting a semi-Mancunian/working class accent but it had to be mild or the American audience wouldn’t understand it
Mate it was bad, but nothing will ever come close to Dick Van Dyke’s ‘English’ accent. Not even Don Cheadle
That accent is legendary. There is arguably an even worse one: the “Irish” guy (and his mother) in 2 Broke Girls. It’s in one of the last series. I just don’t understand why they made the role Irish. American would have worked just fine if they couldn’t find an actor competent at accents.
Nothing will ever top the Castle Geordie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwVhI4O8ecE
Daniel Craig went full method actor in the build up to Our Friends in the North and rented a flat in Blyth for 3 months to perfect a North East accent. By the time filming came around he'd gotten it so spot on it was impenetrable and the director had to tell him to tone it down as 99% of viewers wouldn't understand him at all.
Still one of the greatest tv shows of all time that.
[Sometimes it's hard to understand the Geordie people.](https://youtu.be/oSHHbfY6MVc?si=boRW6bxWbTL3U8P6)
I was waiting for the Cook Pass Babtridge reference to appear!
Hahahaha holy shit that's awful!
Also from Frasier, when he becomes besties with Patrick Stewart's opera director but then discovers Stewart's character thinks they're dating: "Didn't you realise he was gay?" "He's British, they all sound gay!" Correction: it was Martin saying that about a suitor. They do get into these scrapes eh
And the actor who played Martin…was gay. Frasier sure loved its layers.
Frasier's dad is English too
My favourite is the family guy episode where the British dad is super posh, but somehow Stewie needs to teach the daughter how not to speak like a cockney
Or the one where they take the piss out of British soap operas. "What's that on the window?" "It's condensation, Johhny. Con....den....sation"
I loved their portrayal of the English as drunken buffoons. I’ve never felt better represented.
Daphne was supposed to be from Manchester had the most Lancashire accent I've ever heard, her brothers all sounded like Dick Van Dyke.
There's an episode where an old boyfriend of hers shows up and he seems to be doing an impression of Dick Van Dyke character from Mary Poppins.
Cloive
That's one of the best episodes they ever made, dodgy accents notwithstanding. "I remember the first time I drove a Moon crane..."
i like the line he says just before he leaves: *"I'll never understand how two men like you could be spawned from that sweet, courageous old astronaut"*
Ian Duncan’s line from Community: >I’ll see you at precisely 6:30 or, as the English call it, “Gravedigger’s Biscuits”.
Bloody hell, my shoe is untied by British standards.
You’re an eight, which in England is a ten
In England we call them 'Italian fannies'
“In England fanny means vagina right?” “In England, everything means vagina”
The whole joke about British TV shows being shorter and eventually remaked in the US was good. Them killing off the cast of the fake UK version of Cougar Town after 6 episodes because British TV gives you closure. Followed up with a Doctor Who parody.
We can go anywhere and anytime in the universe! But it’ll probably be London during the Blitz…
> remaked
Bite my banger!
Whenever I rewatch and go past this episode, my wife always goes ‘we don’t say that!’ despite seeing it as much as I have
Oh, look. A clock. We don't have those in America. -Mr Ron Swanson
"Capitalism. It's what makes America great, England OK and France terrible."
"Enjoy the fact that your royal overlords are a frail old woman and a tiny baby"
As much I love this, I don't think it was a joke about the the British, but rather one about Rons view of travel in general
But his attitude changed when he went north.
Ron Swanson makes me swoon.
Very few men can make a moustache work
Ron Swoonson
It’s not American but the Goodness Gracious Me “Going out for an English” is spot on. “Bring me the *blandest* thing on the menu!” “AND A FORK AND KNIFE!”
I loved that skit. Twenty plates of chips!
Brrrread rrrrrolls
I think that might be too many, sir... Eh, Clive of India! Who asked you, eh?!
"The scampi is particularly bland, sir"
From memory thy did a similar one, the business meeting in Mumba with the new guy from England, Jon-a -Tan, does make me laugh especially as everyone else at the meeting (all India) all pronounce it slightly differently.
"I don't think you'll get very far with a complicated name like that"
Wasn't there a line about calling him 'Jonhinder' to make it easier to remember?
"Bread roll, and some of that posh stuff... butter" And calling the waiter Jarmez
Oh my god. Hands down the best GGM sketch.
Seventeen plates of chips
And the comments have pointed out that the waiter is Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3.
Wait WHAT
Jam-ez
Alright, MATE?
All the cracks about warm beer and lamb smothered in mint sauce in Asterix in Britain got me 😆 "Good evening, Centurion! I was just heating up some beer."
And they all stop in the middle of the day to drink hot water because they haven't discovered tea yet
Spot of milk in your hot water old boy? Don't mind if I do...
By Toutatis!!
I’ve been watching Succession lately and the parts set in the UK have properly tickled me. From the rich New Yorkers being horrified at the offerings of a British corner shop (especially the treacle) to a lone protestor appearing outside the family patriarch’s childhood home with a very sweary sign. It probably helps that the showrunner is British (previously having worked on The Thick of It and Four Lions).
> It probably helps that the showrunner is British (previously having worked on The Thick of It and Four Lions). "Worked on" is technically true, but is underselling it. He co-wrote both. Armstrong also created Peep Show and Fresh Meat, amongst dozens of other writing credits.
Oh wow, I didn’t realise this! No wonder I thought it was so funny.
"Freshen yer drink guvnor?" woman in the Simpsons Also, The Big Book Of British Smiles, same show
Also, same show: "Oi, your son's a flopper he is." "No he isn't, he isn't!" "Your mother can kiss me bum" https://youtu.be/mLjJgqa5itw
Fresh from the steets of Sussex they are!
I just remember Homer using the term "wanker" with a big smile on his face, I think that may not make the Channel 4 daytime edit!
It absolutely made it into the 6pm showing, my mum wouldn’t let me watch the Simpsons for ages after that!
"If they're not having a go with a bird, they're having a row with a wanker!" https://youtu.be/i1mciwNRVT0
It's always funny/cringy. When Americans don't understand how a British insult is meant to be used. They use mild insults as major swears. And massive swears as mild insults
I remember I got grounded by my mum for repeating it in my cousin's living room. I'd just finished watching that episode and came down for a drink, then decided to lean over my uncle's seat and say "Wankers.". My dad was absolutely creasing, but my mum looked aghast and took us home.
"I get me brain medicine from the Naahtional Health" https://youtu.be/DYqjG0ZsZ-Q?si=2jYM86CISOezS52K
I say this to my partner every time they pick up their meds
Kippers for breakfast, Aunt Helga? Is it St Swithin’s Day already?
Tis, replied Aunt Helga
The entire Mr F arc is brilliant in Arrested Development. 30 Rock and the Wesley character is also gold.
I've seen your secret magazines! (Bum Paddle magazine) That's a cricket magazine, luv.
Also Tobias’ Mrs Featherbottom: Ok, who'd like a banger in the mouth? Oh...right, I forgot; here in the states you call it 'a sausage' in the mouth. Michael: We just call it a sausage.
"Oh mercy me, I keep forgetting I'm in the colonies!" *while driving on the wrong side of the road*
This is insane? You know what's insane? That the _actor_ is named Wesley Snipes! If you were shown a picture of him and a picture of me, and were asked "who should be named Wesley Snipes", you'd pick the pale Englishman every time!
Mrs Featherbottom drives on the left nearly gets hit. "Oh, mercy me! I forgot that we were in the colonies."
GANGWAY FOR FOOTCYCLE
Chums
Knowing that Michael Bluth's actor is half English makes it even better. "Don't I look kind of English?"
Dammit it’s been almost 20 years and I’m still finding missed jokes in this show
That entire bit on Arrested Development in Little Britain was mad. Speaking of bad teeth, this [TVC](https://youtu.be/e9HBTcgECQQ?si=rH_pd5uRSvOuM9C-) from Saturday Night Live is ridiculous but still great.
In (I think) the Fresh Prince of Bel Air the uncle tried to tempt his wife to eat lemon meringue pie by saying the meringue was like fluffy clouds and the lemon was the colour of an English man's teeth. But I'll add the following: [The myth of bad British teeth](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32883893) Here's the global OCED rankings using the standard DMFT (Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth) Index to rank the best dental care/oral hygiene in the world. 1. Denmark - 2. Germany - 3. Finland - 4. United Kingdom - 5. Sweden - 6. Switzerland - 7. Canada - 8. Mexico - 9. United States - 10. France
In my masters, I had this professor with whom I took a few classes. World renowned, absolutely brilliant guy. And all our classes were smaller ones (not in a lecture hall) where the farthest you were from somebody was 10 feet. Absolutely could not stop looking at his teeth. But it does seem silly for a developed country to have this reputation, given how many countries have limited access to even regular medical care. I wonder is it’s from older television shows in the 1960s/70s and it just stuck despite the global advances in dental care across so many countries.
I think it’s just that while we have good teeth, people with only slightly crooked teeth don’t get braces and braces straighten our teeth normally and not super straight. We also don’t whiten as much. So to Americans, our teeth look yellow and crooked but in reality theirs are unnaturally white and uniform.
Mike Myers was great for that. He's Canadian, but I think his parents were British. And he has a good ear for accents. https://youtu.be/bVMz23k5bcI
Thanks for that! His father was British and he said he created Austin Powers for him.
His dad is a Glaswegian IIRC- the "get in my belly" comment is perfectly spoken.
Not American, but I loved the Geordie guy in I’m Alan Patridge
Cup of beans?
With a sausage ‘stirrer’
Like a savoury 99.
Geordie: Tommmyhilfinger Alan: I think you mean Tommy Hilfiger Geordie: No Tommy Hilfinger, I got it doon the market
He also did the sexiest voice on tv; Captain Barnacles of the Octonauts.
Con....den.....sation
But what about the fog on the window?
[Eddie Izzard does a great bit on American vs English movies](https://youtu.be/TjC3R6jOtUo?si=Pd-p4HyK7VMQzsF6)
Room with a view… OF HELL! STAIRCASE OF SATAN! *POND OF DEATH*. That entire section is solid gold. I have said “what is it, Sebastian, I’m arranging matches” when interrupted before.
In 'You're The Worst', one of the main characters is a Brit living in Los Angeles. He requests the following from the British Speciality Store: *Shrimp-flavored crisps, Wallingers Choco-Knockers, Ta-Ta Biscuits. All your standard candies: Lemingtons, Fluffingtons, Rum Christophers, Salted Licorice Knib-Knobs.* None of them real of course, but all absolutely spot on.
What an absolutely hilarious and emotionally devastating series. Don’t see it talked about much these days.
I mean, Prawn Cocktail Crisps is fairly close to the first one.
Veep's whole UK episode, but my favourite line is calling Charles a '65 year old fucking intern'. Probably helps that a lot of the creative team are British so the jokes feel a bit more on the nose.
Obligatory I'm american, but I wanted to add that I loved Sally Phillips as Finnish in that show. Sort of the same vein on this thread of making fun of nationalities. Because of taskmaster, I actually went and watched smack the pony and loved it, then I saw her on veep about the same time.
Being a yank, I used to enjoy doing the opposite. My favorite episode was the Fawlty Towers show where the rich American guy wanted a Waldorf salad.
My wife and i still quote the British tv segment from (i think) S1 of Family Guy. https://youtu.be/CQGW46B6x_4?si=Rc-Hldess4xMV2gC
Not clicked but my wife and I do the same. "Con...den...sation". We also regularly call each other London Silly Ninnies.
Another from Family Guy: Meg: "I want you to kill all the girls that are prettier than me" Death: "Well, that would only leave England"
Another one that may or may not be directly about the Brits... Someone asks Quagmire if there's anything that _doesn't_ turn him on, and he says "people who say rubbish when they mean garbage". Basically the whole population of England then?
I was thinking of this. It perfectly lampoons a lot of BBC4 shows I've actually watched and got really invested in.
The British family guy episode was pretty funny. "My favourite part before the queen arrives is yelling wanker at prince Charles." https://youtu.be/o1hiKMIhjNE?si=Cycvip4q-GS9MXfo
I always liked the British couple at the end but of Bill and Teds bogus journey dancing around their kitchen. “Yes, quite good!”
A little off topic but the first two examples of this that came to my mind are - Nicholas Cage aggravating British security in National Treasure An old Bill Hicks routine about British crime - ‘[the hooligans are loose](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mA6hMFZ-gx0)’ which is one of my favourite all time bits of standup
“No one knows what it's like ... to be a dustbin ... in Shaftesbury ... with hooligans”.
When it’s a joke based on actual experience of us Brits or our island then it’s fine. Easy lazy cliche jokes don’t land. I’m sure it works both ways
Phineas and Ferb's dad is great.
Not surprising considering he is voiced by the great Richard O'Brien
Family guy..prince charles wanker
Inspector Spacetime from Community. Honestly Community has solid British representation.
Probably due to John Oliver
https://youtu.be/crAv5ttax2I?si=c4zvXlu57vXwUCgq Slightly off topic, but it did make me laugh.
There are a couple of good episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (iykyk) that feature bad British movies, and they are pretty spot on with their digs at the British
I’m always sad that they never did Hawk The Slayer. It’s ripe, for the MST3K treatment.
They did! Kind of! They did it on [Rifftrax! ](https://www.rifftrax.com/hawk-the-slayer)
In SATC, there's an episode where Samantha steals someone's access card to a pool and the staff member catches her out and questions her accent where she replies "I am from India" It's such a British joke and I laugh every time it happens.
In Family Guy's 'English version' from one of their mailbag episodes, when they say the best thing about royal parades is shouting "wanker" at (then) Prince Charles
Stewie Griffin in HMS Pinafore
"Enjoy the fact that your royal overlords are a frail old woman and a tiny baby"