Things that seem to be punchlines in US comedy...

[olliebean]

Is there an equivalent thread on a US forum somewhere where people are going "Tea! P45s! What order you should put cream and jam on a scone!"?

I think these are mostly punchlines about English people in US comedy, rather than punchlines in UK comedy.

[dissolute ocelot]

#1 punchline in UK comedy is somebody falling over.

[Leej88]

Or falling through a bar.

[olliebean]

#1 punchline in UK comedy is somebody falling over.

They do that a lot in US sitcoms as well.

[Leej88]

Misunderstanding more Benidorm in that case.

[dr beat]

They do that a lot in US sitcoms as well.

Yep.  This is my favourite bit in all of Seinfeld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipeh0WFAnhc

[Bad Ambassador]

Someone accidentally chopping off a finger or toe, then having to look for it, put it on some humorous cold food like chicken dippers or something, then dash to the hospital. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 3 examples from Frasier, Brooklyn 99 and Superstore so I reckon it's probably happened at least once in every sitcom ever.

There's a variation on this in Seinfeld, which turns into a story about Kramer racing to the hospital with a toe.

[Leej88]

Rik cuts off his finger in Bottom but comically reattaches it and Chandler loses the tip of his toe in Friends.

[dothestrand]

Yep.  This is my favourite bit in all of Seinfeld:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipeh0WFAnhc

Part of the show's brilliance is its memorable one-episode characters whose mannerisms seem to have become part of the public consciousness. Although they're often derogatory mannerisms of Jerry's girlfriends - man hands, two faces, etc.

[St_Eddie]

The way THEY always end sitcoms with a list of credits.  I don't care who produced this nonsense.  You can't put a bookend on intermediable garbage.

[Retinend]

one spotted in the wild:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4MKQMTHplI
Stairway To Gilligan's Island
2,016,407 views Jul 7, 2020

[JesusAndYourBush]

Gilligan's Island (and Fantasy Island come to that) are shows I only know stuff about because of references in other shows.  I don't even know if they were ever shown in the UK. (I mean back in the day, I'm sure they'll have been shown in more recent times now we have so many tv channels.)

[Retinend]

Americans are film and TV obsessed. I can't think of any campy show from the 60s that we would constantly use as a punchline, without it seeming hopelessly dated.

Actually, perhaps "Carry On" references as punchlines are the UK equivalent. And stuff like this is always hilarious to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB1FgExOvRI

I'd love to see a Shelbyville version of this thread from our American cousins, about what leaves them completely cold.

[Dayraven]

US TV having had reruns as channel filler in greater quantity for longer than the UK probably helps with the old TV references.

[Bad Ambassador]

Gilligan's Island (and Fantasy Island come to that) are shows I only know stuff about because of references in other shows.  I don't even know if they were ever shown in the UK. (I mean back in the day, I'm sure they'll have been shown in more recent times now we have so many tv channels.)

A quick search finds that GI in 1965 and FI from 1978 to 1981, both on ITV.

[Famous Mortimer]

US TV having had reruns as channel filler in greater quantity for longer than the UK probably helps with the old TV references.

The free-to-air channels show a pretty much uninterrupted stream of old sitcoms - "Who's The Boss?", "One Day At A Time", "Night Court" and "Gimme A Break" are all on at the moment (you're not missing much with the other three, but "Night Court" is decent).

[kngen]

A quick search finds that GI in 1965 and FI from 1978 to 1981, both on ITV.

I remember Fantasy Island being a regular talking point in the playground, but ITV did have a habit of dropping in the odd episode of US sitcoms as timeslot-fillers without context much to my (and I would imagine most of the audience's) bafflement. e.g. A Very Brady Christmas being shown during the school summer holidays one morning, even though The Brady Bunch - which I think was only broadcast in a limited amount of ITV regions in the first place - hadn't been seen on British screens in about a decade, and was watched by about 12 people.

[Gulftastic]

Yes, Fantasy Island was shown and was pretty popular back then. 'The plane, boss!' was a well used playground catchphrase.

[famethrowa]

Getting your car towed away. Seems to happen any time, any place to them over there, and apparently it's hilarious?

[Blue Jam]

Gilligan's Island (and Fantasy Island come to that) are shows I only know stuff about because of references in other shows.

I only know of Gilligan's Island because it gave its name to "The Gilligan Cut", a trope Arthur Matthews and some other fella used to call "The Bicycle Gag" (a man says "I will not ride that bicycle, I wouldn't be seen dead on that bicycle, never in a million years will you see me riding that bicycle." Cut to scene of the man riding the bicycle). It was in their list of sitcom cliches they were sick of, despite the fact that they used it in Father Ted a few times.

By no means exclusive to American sitcoms of course.

[JesusAndYourBush]

A quick search finds that GI in 1965 and FI from 1978 to 1981, both on ITV.

Ah well I wasn't born yet for GI, and for FI I was at middle school at that time but don't recall it, maybe there was something better on the BBC, or it was after my bedtime, or I was doing something less boring instead.

[beanheadmcginty]

A thing called a "corsage", which appears to be a plastic flower in a box that boys give girls at their "proms".

[jamiefairlie]

Yes, Fantasy Island was shown and was pretty popular back then. 'The plane, boss!' was a well used playground catchphrase.

Especially when taunting a small kid.