Goldrusher
Member
Not another one of these hipster threads.
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Wilfred or ITT: Why don't Americans "get" it?
- Thread starter chicko1983
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Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Korey said:
According to Jim, Two and a Half Men and Yes, Dear tell you to gently fuck right off.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
It's ok OP, we all know Australian humor is the best anyway.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Combichristoffersen said:
I dont mind According to Jim, its on at like 6pm or something which seems to be a good time for it. Decent.
Johnlenham
Member
Jack Scofield said:
What on earth, this blows my mind.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Johnlenham said:
An American once tried to tell me that Americans didn't have an accent, other people did. My mind was blown.
Johnlenham
Member
Haha that was going to be my argument, like how there are fuckloads of accents in American shows but I dont have a problem with any of them but eh.ThoseDeafMutes said:
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
It's one of the worst series I've ever seen on TV. Yes, Dear was admittedly worse though.
345triangle
Member
ThoseDeafMutes said:
someone made that argument on here once, i was completely lost for words. what made it worse is that they claimed to have thought about it for more than three seconds
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Johnlenham said:
Same. Thick accent....... Wow.
Think Aus has got it good though can easily pick up accents and understand them easily.
Clarke and Dawe are the funniest duo ever.ThoseDeafMutes said:
My grandmother swore that until the day she died. Her small concession was that there were some American accents, like in the south, but in the NW they certainly didn't have any accent!ThoseDeafMutes said:
PumpkinPie
Banned
Dastardly Jerks said:
LOL, exactly this! This is why I cannot watch US sitcoms, you know what the joke is before they even tell it too.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
I wouldnt hate on any sitcom or TV show, as long as they where in English........ just because jokes dont come across to well in subtitles.
Are you being deliberatly dense? Several people have already explained to you cultural differences/references have something to do with it. I'd imagine a lot of other countries don't do it because 1) they don't have the money or it wouldn't make financial sense to attempt produce something close to the quality of the American original and 2) American culture is a bit more ubiquitous than Australian. Sorry if that hurts your patriotic sensiblities.chicko1983 said:
I'd imagine another reason for the remakes is more control on our behalf. Why re-broadcast an Australian show that is controlled by an Australian company, probably airred years ago so has aging Australian actos and is written by a team of Australians, when you can make your own, hire your own actors, write your own stories (that you can control if the series becomes a hit), and just generally have to worry about a lot less things being out of your control in respect to your show.
edgefusion
Member
I LOVE ELIJAH WOOD! I'm gonna watch the shit out of this show. Screw the Elijah Wood-less Australian show.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
edgefusion said:
I wish I could hate you to death.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
devilru said:
The Australian version of that show was overrated trash, so nothing of value was lost.
whatsinaname
Member
The jump from the UK version of Coupling to the US version of COupling was the worst offender for me.
Ickman3400
Banned
You say I wouldn't get the original, but seeing the ads for this one I don't get this either. It looks beyond fucking stupid and something that will be cancelled after 2 or 3 episodes to be honest.
slidewinder
Banned
Why don't Australians "get" that they're just a dumber version of Americans?
edgefusion
Member
Bernbaum said:
Did you just say that most Australians are stupid? Yikes.
whatsinaname
Member
Shurs said:
No, there is actually a US version of Coupling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmFG8kNoY44
:/
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
slidewinder said:
Why dont you get that you're a fucking moron?
Bernbaum said:
No you.
Vyer said:
Fun house and Supermarket Sweep are American? That's shaken the bedrock of my childhood. Pat Sharp and Dale Winton have a lot to answer for.
I think more than remaking Australian/UK shows for the American market it's remaking the shows for the international market. Living with a couple of guys from India last year they would sit around for a whole Saturday watching U.S sitcoms but didn't understand British ones at all. Apart from the occasional pop culture reference U.S humour is far more accessible for the international audience.
Hopefully we'll never see a U.S version of the Thick of It or Peep Show. They'd have to rip the heart out of both of those shows to make it work for non-UK audiences
StealthGoblin
Banned
If they want to remake the shows, fine, but they are missing out.
I watch a lot of US shows like House, Lie to Me, Numbers, Dexter, Castle etc, but in my opinion, because of the length of the series they aren't as compact and consistently good throughout. I find that if a series has 23-24 episodes then there are some really cack episodes in there. The really good British shows have a shorter run and that allows the writers to get in and out with what they want to do without having to fluff things out.
I've watched quite a few US pilots of UK shows and they always lose something that makes the UK series special. For example the US pilot of IT Crowd was horrible. Its not good without Roy and his actor.
Being Human is another one I'm puzzled at.
Ah well.
I watch a lot of US shows like House, Lie to Me, Numbers, Dexter, Castle etc, but in my opinion, because of the length of the series they aren't as compact and consistently good throughout. I find that if a series has 23-24 episodes then there are some really cack episodes in there. The really good British shows have a shorter run and that allows the writers to get in and out with what they want to do without having to fluff things out.
I've watched quite a few US pilots of UK shows and they always lose something that makes the UK series special. For example the US pilot of IT Crowd was horrible. Its not good without Roy and his actor.
Being Human is another one I'm puzzled at.
Ah well.
astroturfing
Member
someone should do a Finnish remake of Seinfeld.
badcrumble
Member
To be fair, a lot of sounds and inflections that are particular to the British accent are 'new' over the past couple of centuries; I've heard it said that King George III would sound more like an American to our modern ears than he'd sound like a current-day posh British man.
THEREFORE THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS AN AMERICAN ACCENT, OR SOMETHING
THEREFORE THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS AN AMERICAN ACCENT, OR SOMETHING
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
badcrumble said:
I think there needs to be a differentiation between British (English) accent and Chav.
mellowyellowod
Member
Combichristoffersen said:
This is a pretty stupid statement. So there aren't 3 bad comedies in the history of anyone else's country?
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
astroturfing said:
A show about Järri Säiinifältti observing and commenting on everyone being depressed and suicidal would be a surefire hit
mellowyellowod said:
Sure there are, but the statement is no less stupid than someone claiming that American humour has been proven to be funny
Just watched all of FX's teaser shorts on youtube. I think the show looks like it could be pretty good, and FX is a pretty good channel to be on. I don't really mind people remaking shows at all, but I also live in the US. We remake a lot of shows form overseas, whereas those overseas always get all of our crap aired everywhere, so I guess I can understand the hostility a little.
British humor and American humor is just different. I can only get into certain to British comedies (Fawlty Towers being my favorite). I like the Offices about equal. From the US Wilfred clips available vs. the the Australian link in the OP, US one looks funnier to me, but I also dig the vibe of the Aussie one... I think maybe the scenes are just lacking some context, having never seen the show. Definitely going to check this show out this weekend. The actors don't have that nails-on-a-chalkboard Australian accent I can't fucking stand so that's good. What region is their accent associated with? If I ever go to Australia, that's the area I would have to visit.
British humor and American humor is just different. I can only get into certain to British comedies (Fawlty Towers being my favorite). I like the Offices about equal. From the US Wilfred clips available vs. the the Australian link in the OP, US one looks funnier to me, but I also dig the vibe of the Aussie one... I think maybe the scenes are just lacking some context, having never seen the show. Definitely going to check this show out this weekend. The actors don't have that nails-on-a-chalkboard Australian accent I can't fucking stand so that's good. What region is their accent associated with? If I ever go to Australia, that's the area I would have to visit.
worldrunover
Member
chicko1983 said:
I don't know if you understand the nature of humor, but it is mostly based in common experiences. Why would an American audience find a thoroughly Australian or British show funny? Granted, there may be some common ground, but frankly I think the best of the American Office trumps the British version, mainly because I don't think British humor is especially funny. That's probably because I'm AMERICAN. So I don't see the problem with "Americanizing" a show for, you know, America.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
The American version doesn't look like he's on drugs, looks like he's about to kill himself and stops only because the neighbour asks him to look after the dog. It's insane but good plot story wise.
There needs to be some differentiation between stories or its just a cut and paste copy.
There needs to be some differentiation between stories or its just a cut and paste copy.
Seems pretty similar to the original concept. Probably has a better setup than the Australian version. Having Woods character at the end of his rope so to say is an interesting place to start.
Bingo. Its a fantastic setup for a bizarre situation.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Bingo. Its a fantastic setup for a bizarre situation.
I remember reading an interview with David Renwick about his attempt at writing a US version of Jonathan Creek. His script was rejected because for 3 minutes it featured an 80yr old man and the network was completely against having an old person on screen, even for just 3 minutes.
Ridiculous.
Ridiculous.
MWS Natural
Member
The difference in productions values are very apparent. Will checkout the American version, the originals gave me a few chuckles but was pretty boring.
Squirrel Killer
Member
Why don't Amuricun's "get" it?
Well, Wilfred has:
Thick accents
"Bad" language
Poor video quality
16 total episodes
And The Office has:
Seriously off-putting characters
Unfamiliar cultural references
14 total episodes
Yeah, that might be why American's don't "get" it. It wasn't made for them.
Another reason American studios remake is that the market is large enough that they can afford to remake it. They're also very protective of their own internally developed properties. If another market was large enough that a local studio could afford to both buy the rights and produce the show, I'm sure they would.
Well, Wilfred has:
Thick accents
"Bad" language
Poor video quality
16 total episodes
And The Office has:
Seriously off-putting characters
Unfamiliar cultural references
14 total episodes
Yeah, that might be why American's don't "get" it. It wasn't made for them.
Another reason American studios remake is that the market is large enough that they can afford to remake it. They're also very protective of their own internally developed properties. If another market was large enough that a local studio could afford to both buy the rights and produce the show, I'm sure they would.
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