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> (I can’t enjoy this kind of thing [The Office] —I feel only agony. Why enjoy this and not videos of people falling off of skateboards? But I guess most people are different.)

This was only a tangent, but I agree with this. I really don't like "cringe" humor.

There seems to be an entire British subgenre catering to that (which apparently the British original of The Office is a part of), and only to that. It's pretty extreme. As far as I know The Office in the US was retooled to be more "funny" than the original, which was apparently just cringe. (Didn't watch it so it was hard to say, but I've tried to watch other similar British shows like that.)

Fortunately it's only a subgenre, because there's plenty of other British comedy that is absolutely, and famously, fantastic... If you haven't watched Coupling, Look Around You, or The Peter Serafinowicz show, you're really missing out!

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At the time of The Office release here (UK) it was a perfect satire. Many of us (not just in my bubble but according to lots of popular media outlets) very much had a socially-desperate David Brent for a boss, try-hard Gareth and drifter Keith as peers and we very much associated with Tim and/or Dawn who felt trapped in a world surrounded by the above metaphorically spinning our wheels in the mud of (then) modern office life with no prospects or hope in life.

Obviously it appeals to a lot of people, it wouldn't be so successful otherwise, and I'm not here to bash people's taste. It's just that for me personally I probably would not want to be reminded/wallowing in that in my entertainment if I was in the same situation, and as someone who not in that situation it just feels like looking at a train wreck. But I can totally understand how people feel differently and it allows them to relate and laugh about it.

What I was trying to say is that I don't think it would have as much success as it did then, if it were released today. The number of "lifer" employees with no aspirations is vanishingly small compared to 20+ years ago.

> The number of "lifer" employees with no aspirations is vanishingly small compared to 20+ years ago.

I'm curious: Do you have data you could share around this assertion?

Intuitively, I'd be inclined to bet the opposite. The population of the world has grown significantly; even if the number of "interesting" ambition-satisfying jobs grew at the same rate, there would still be tons more people in an absolute sense who end up stuck in a dead-end job.

(Admittedly, I conflated aspiration with achievement just then, but I'm not sure if there is an empirical difference? If an ambitious person is stuck in a dead-end job for years, then, by definition, they must not be ambitious enough.)

Nighty Night [0] is the peak of this wonderful (to me) subgenre. Top question on Google search "Is Nighty Night funny?"

Couple of great quotes from the Wikipedia page [1] "The Guardian called it "an exquisitely vile comic creation" and adding that "The Office might have popularised the comedy of embarrassment, but Nighty Night has moved it on." The Times called it "a blistering wall of superbly unredeemed cruelty that manages to trample over every social convention in a pair of cheap stilettos."

[0]https://www.google.com/search?q=%22nighty+night%22 [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighty_Night#Reception

Someone here put me onto "The Thick of It" and I absolutely loved it. But some of the humor comes from its frenetic pacing -- unlike "Friends", which someone here praised, there was absolutely no pausing for the audience to "get it."

I was just in awe that any cast could be that quick, or that any writers could write that stuff.

My day was made when I discovered "Chance in a Million" on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC7zJP02Pak

It's comedy of the absolutely improbable. The female lead is a young Brenda Blethyn, who of recent years has starred as "Vera", police detective.

> British subgenre

A British comedy series I can recommend wholeheartedly is The IT Crowd (available on Netflix, at least in some countries).

An exemplar of the subgenre "what on earth were they smoking?" is The Mighty Boosh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mighty_Boosh_(TV_series)

The reason this kind of cringe-worthy humour becomes popular is that almost everyone identifies with one or more of characters. When they're young and/or insecure, it seems almost unbearable to watch, but they're not sure why. As they grow older, it becomes relatable as they become less self-conscious and more self-aware.

This tangent caught my eye, too, but for the opposite reason. I never really understood why someone might enjoy watching people falling off of skateboards, or things breaking, pets making a mess, etc. Apparently stuff like that is very funny to a lot of people, because shows like America's Funniest Home Videos contain nothing but.

I agree with you about the falling off skateboards etc. I think people who like those things tend to be the people I don't like for other reasons.

The UK Office however, I think is entirely different.

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