Unpopular Opinions You Hold

[westernpark]

Curb your Enthusiasm is the only very funny American comedy ever but that’s from a British perspective.

[Jimothy]

10 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Blackadder, Monty Python and Only Fools and Horses from the British POV.

 

Cheers and The Golden Girls from the US one.

 

But again, this is all rather subjective.

Surprised you say Cheers. I like Cheers. Watched most of it, don't think I've watched it start to finish. But everything people aimed at Friends, like its too white, misogynistic characters, questionable jokes about other minorities etc are all littered through Cheers too. 

 

In general, one thing that grinds my gears when people talk about sitcoms is complaining about characters like Ross Geller or Sam Malone, labelling them problematic and things like misogynistic. They are flawed characters, if they weren't it would be an awful comedy. More often than not their flaws are what the comedy is drawn from and they get their commupance. There's an episode of friends where Ross is running around New York looking for this woman for something perfectly reasonable, but he's explaining himself really badly, he's coming across as a bit creepy. In his head he's acting normally, to those around him he looks like a maniac chasing after an innocent women. And that's where the writers draw the comedy from. But recently I saw an article saying people are now watching it and saying his behaviour is problematic. Well der, that's the whole joke in that episode.

 

Anyway I realised this is the first time I posted in the thread so RIP Matthew Perry. Whether you liked Friends or not he was a huge part of one of the most popular TV shows of all time and was an excellent comedy actor.

[leicsmac]

2 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Surprised you say Cheers. I like Cheers. Watched most of it, don't think I've watched it start to finish. But everything people aimed at Friends, like its too white, misogynistic characters, questionable jokes about other minorities etc are all littered through Cheers too. 

 

In general, one thing that grinds my gears when people talk about sitcoms is complaining about characters like Ross Geller or Sam Malone, labelling them problematic and things like misogynistic. They are flawed characters, if they weren't it would be an awful comedy. More often than not their flaws are what the comedy is drawn from and they get their commupance. There's an episode of friends where Ross is running around New York looking for this woman for something perfectly reasonable, but he's explaining himself really badly, he's coming across as a bit creepy. In his head he's acting normally, to those around him he looks like a maniac chasing after an innocent women. And that's where the writers draw the comedy from. But recently I saw an article saying people are now watching it and saying his behaviour is problematic. Well der, that's the whole joke in that episode.

 

Anyway I realised this is the first time I posted in the thread so RIP Matthew Perry. Whether you liked Friends or not he was a huge part of one of the most popular TV shows of all time and was an excellent comedy actor.

I think there's a difference in degrees in what you speak of between Cheers and Friends (definitely agree with the point regarding the ethnicity of the cast though), but again, it's very subjective and I'm certainly not taking what I say here as any kind of definitive gospel.

[Foxdiamond]

15 hours ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Vaping should be allowed in enclosed spaces such as airports/trains even if there are specific areas for it.

 

I have no idea why vapours are chastised, restricted and bracketed in the same way smokers are 

 

Vaping may not be odourless, but it doesn’t stick to other people clothes like fags do. 
 

Vaping has taken over smoking in the UK, with far less health risks, yet we’re still forced to hide in airport toilets having a quick chuff 

 

Cue the ‘if you can’t go without nicotine for 5 hours’ comments.  Well I can’t, and I shouldn’t have to either, when vaping is as harmless as it is 

Still horrible clouds of smoke in enclosed space. No thanks

[The Year Of The Fox]

13 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Still horrible clouds of smoke in enclosed space. No thanks

1. There’s no proof the clouds are horrible 

 

2. let us have an enclosed space of our own like smokers used to have 

[Foxdiamond]

40 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

1. There’s no proof the clouds are horrible 

 

2. let us have an enclosed space of our own like smokers used to have 

The clouds may not be toxic but imo are still horrible.  I wouldn't be against you having a space but of course the owners of the airport or trains etc would have to do the cleaning up afterwards 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

3 hours ago, Daggers said:

I think a phenomenal number have:

 

The Day Today

Brass Eye

Father Ted

Knowing Me, Knowing You

I'm Alan Partridge

League of Gentlemen

Spaced

Bottom

The Detectives

Drop the Dead Donkey

 

And an honourable mention for Keeping Up Appearances, The Fast Show and One Foot In The Grave.

 

Id go so far as to say it was a golden era in TV comedy that has not been matched since. 

30 years on The Day Today still stands up as a superbly funny satire on news reporting, especially with the advent of 24 hour news channels. I'll watch my DVD box set of it every now and then and piss myself laughing every time.

[Daggers]

3 hours ago, Zear0 said:

Most of the above are just lists of comedies and not sitcoms. 

Out of that list, just two are sketch shows.

 

[The Year Of The Fox]

2 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

The clouds may not be toxic but imo are still horrible.  I wouldn't be against you having a space but of course the owners of the airport or trains etc would have to do the cleaning up afterwards 

The cleaning up of what?

 

 

[Foxdiamond]

8 minutes ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

The cleaning up of what?

 

 

Discarded vapes. The smoke will still get into fabrics etc if not well ventilated space

[BKLFox]

6 hours ago, Facecloth said:

Surprised you say Cheers. I like Cheers. Watched most of it, don't think I've watched it start to finish. But everything people aimed at Friends, like its too white, misogynistic characters, questionable jokes about other minorities etc are all littered through Cheers too. 

 

In general, one thing that grinds my gears when people talk about sitcoms is complaining about characters like Ross Geller or Sam Malone, labelling them problematic and things like misogynistic. They are flawed characters, if they weren't it would be an awful comedy. More often than not their flaws are what the comedy is drawn from and they get their commupance. There's an episode of friends where Ross is running around New York looking for this woman for something perfectly reasonable, but he's explaining himself really badly, he's coming across as a bit creepy. In his head he's acting normally, to those around him he looks like a maniac chasing after an innocent women. And that's where the writers draw the comedy from. But recently I saw an article saying people are now watching it and saying his behaviour is problematic. Well der, that's the whole joke in that episode.

 

Anyway I realised this is the first time I posted in the thread so RIP Matthew Perry. Whether you liked Friends or not he was a huge part of one of the most popular TV shows of all time and was an excellent comedy actor.

(Female Self defence class) asking the instructor what would you do next, as the attacker.

 

We all knew it wasn’t because he wanted to attack girls it was because Rachel & Phoebe kept beating him in self defence despite not having “Unagi” 

 

It was playful & As you say all the jokes were on him 

Edited 30 October 2023 by BKLFox

[The Year Of The Fox]

26 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Discarded vapes. The smoke will still get into fabrics etc if not well ventilated space

Understood. People vape no matter what though, so the discarded vapes will always be problematic. Better to have them in one place than to have them discarded haphazardly  

[The Year Of The Fox]

16 minutes ago, BKLFox said:

(Female Self defence class) asking the instructor what would you do next, as the attacker.

 

We all knew it wasn’t because he wanted to attack girls it was because Rachel & Phoebe kept beating him in self defence despite not having “Unagi” 

 

It was playful & As you say all the jokes were on him 

One of the very funniest episodes in my opinion.

 

The majority of Friends funniest episodes involve Ross

[Tommy Fresh]

6 hours ago, westernpark said:

Curb your Enthusiasm is the only very funny American comedy ever but that’s from a British perspective.

You've missed out mate

[Daggers]

33 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

Discarded vapes. The smoke will still get into fabrics etc if not well ventilated space

There is no smoke from a vape, nothing is combusted. It's vapour that predominantly consists of water - unless you read research produced through Bloomberg Philanthropies' funding (which is fundamentally flawed).

 

Plumes of vapour are inconsiderate and those people need to stop. 

 

Discarded single-use products is a separate issue and poses a clear environmental problem. The issue here has been that virtually the entire single-use "disposable" market is dominated by Chinese companies who couldn't care less about our environment or WEEE regulations. With a government that has been reluctant to act, that section of the industry has flooded the UK with plastics and Li-ion cells without a second thought to how they would be processed.

 

Some UK manufacturers now produce fully recyclable devices and operate a return to base proposition by providing a freepost address - but it's far too little and way too late. And then you have the fact that most of the products are used by selfish people littering the street (for which we already have legislation being unenforced).

 

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

My profound contribution to the debate about what comedy is good and what isn't is why bother when I've had my Auntie Barbara lecturing me at interminable length about how Last of the Summer Wine is "proper humour" and "really, genuinely funny", "unlike the stuff you get these days", and also been in the company of a colleague who had tears of laughter running down her face when recounting what had happened in an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys she'd seen the previous evening 

[Daggers]

Just now, Bellend Sebastian said:

• Last of the Summer Wine 
• Mrs Brown's Boys

And, amazingly, both are funnier* than Friends.

 

*yes, "funnier" is doing some really heavy lifting

[grobyfox1990]

I find friends very funny, then and now 

I’m really hoping they ban single use vapes in the uk soon so I can ship a boat load back everytime I come back to the uk and make some easy money 

[Corky]

51 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

My profound contribution to the debate about what comedy is good and what isn't is why bother when I've had my Auntie Barbara lecturing me at interminable length about how Last of the Summer Wine is "proper humour" and "really, genuinely funny", "unlike the stuff you get these days", and also been in the company of a colleague who had tears of laughter running down her face when recounting what had happened in an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys she'd seen the previous evening 

You make it sound as though these people are in the minority. For all we know this could be the norm amongst the population 

[bovril]

51 minutes ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

My profound contribution to the debate about what comedy is good and what isn't is why bother when I've had my Auntie Barbara lecturing me at interminable length about how Last of the Summer Wine is "proper humour" and "really, genuinely funny", "unlike the stuff you get these days", and also been in the company of a colleague who had tears of laughter running down her face when recounting what had happened in an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys she'd seen the previous evening 

You've found them - the person that finds Mrs Brown's Boys funny. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, Corky said:

You make it sound as though these people are in the minority. For all we know this could be the norm amongst the population 

 

1 hour ago, bovril said:

You've found them - the person that finds Mrs Brown's Boys funny. 

At the height of its popularity, Mrs Brown's Boys used to get 10 million plus viewers an episode in the UK, figures that most programme makers can only dream about. Whilst some of them may have mistakenly believed they were watching a particularly disturbing fly on the wall documentary about a foul mouthed cross dressing Irish man haunted by 250 unseen souls who break into spasms of laughter literally every time he says anything at all, most will have accepted it as the inconsequential, accessible and humorous entertainment that it was intended to be. Get your head around that and all sorts of seemingly inexplicable behaviour on the part of the British public suddenly makes sense. Well they would do that, wouldn't they?

[The Bear]

Mrs Brown's Boys is hideous stuff. Like you'd get in the 1970s with Bernard Manning. 

 

Last Of The Summer Wine had some brilliant episodes and was always consistently decent even with plenty of different actors. 

[Sly]

Comedy is so speculative. 
 

Like I posted earlier, Friends looked about as funny as applying veet to your manhood in my opinion.

 

I’d rather watch things like the IT crowd, Inbetweeners, Clarksons Farm, Gavin and Stacey, Ted Lasso, or if you really want something not as well known, then White Gold. The issue being, other than Jeremy’s Diddly Squat farm, I’ve run out of stuff to watch. 
 

In other news, I think Mbappe might struggle in the Premier League. 
 

 

[Zear0]

1 hour ago, Bellend Sebastian said:

 

At the height of its popularity, Mrs Brown's Boys used to get 10 million plus viewers an episode in the UK, figures that most programme makers can only dream about. Whilst some of them may have mistakenly believed they were watching a particularly disturbing fly on the wall documentary about a foul mouthed cross dressing Irish man haunted by 250 unseen souls who break into spasms of laughter literally every time he says anything at all, most will have accepted it as the inconsequential, accessible and humorous entertainment that it was intended to be. Get your head around that and all sorts of seemingly inexplicable behaviour on the part of the British public suddenly makes sense. Well they would do that, wouldn't they?

Same weirdos who find Miranda funny.

[Sly]

Just on vaping, I detest the sweet smell of things. It makes me feel sick.