Stumbled onto this through checking out "Father Ted" (due to sharke's references to it... quality stuff too). Definitely tricky getting a hang of the Glaswegian accent and slang at first but the regional cusses and insults definitely make it that much funnier.
 
Just wondering what other British/Scottish/Irish "dark-ish" comedies like this are kicking around.
 
Note that I've been through "Peepshow" and "15 Stories High" (both great IMO) and of course the classics that us North Americans think make us "cool and interesting" for having watched like Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.
 
Since a lot of the GB shows don't really get filtered over to us North Americans it's hard to really separate the real comic gems from the "family friendly" or annoyingly lame formulaic garbage.
 
Sooo... yeah, even if they're hyper regional and the accents might rip the average North American's eardrums to shreds what comedies would you recommend?
 
BTW... every episode of Still Game is up on youtube on various channels for those curious about WTF I'm talking about.
 
Cheers!

If you want even thicker Glaswegian, try 'Rab C. Nesbitt'
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaXbaewEqkM
 
The best for me in recent years has been 'Detectorists', an absolute joy from start to finish. Quite gentle comedy, but it bears repeated viewing, loads of subtle details and the camera work is beautiful.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgN7z0SD8v8
 
Next best recently was 'W1A', brilliant 'mockumentary';
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKWZlWaGKgc
 
Interesting you mentioned '15 Storeys High', I missed that first time round, but caught up with last year, very funny stuff.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Excellent, James. Was hoping you'd pop in because you always seemed to have/get that biting northern wit.
 
I've seen Rab C on some of the lists and was curious about it but the lists of such shows are looong. Ya'll put out a LOT of comedy and it seems to run the gamut from really cheesy bad to insanely hilarious "they actually put THAT on TV?!" type stuff.
 
Haven't heard of the others but I do love me a good mockumentary and actually a big draw of Brit shows for me is the decor/architecture/landscapes. Canada has a bad habit of tearing down anything interesting and old (the whole country is turning into a boring, painted over strip mall... I swear, it's gross).
 
Actually I watched "Doc Martin" recently which was definitely not "gritty" funny but still had some chuckles but the visuals of that town were just great. Beautiful.
 
Cheers.

Rab C Nesbitt is an absolute masterpiece of comedy. Absolutely no toning down of the Glaswegian accent and it's all the funnier for it. Rab and his wife Mary are pure gold. Just a drunk Rab saying "Mary doll" is enough for me. I watched every episode on YouTube about a year ago and was gutted when I got to the end. Definitely not your traditional sitcom humor and quite philosophical and poignant at times. This is the kind of labor of love comedy that could never be written by a team of writers a la most of the network crap that's on.

Might take a couple of episodes for your ears to "focus" on that accent though....

The guy who plays Rab, Gregor Fisher, debuted Rab in the sketch show "Naked Video" which is also well worth a watch. There was another great Scottish sketch show in the early 90's called "Absolutely" which was cult stoner watching. And two of the guys from that had their own short lived but hilariously whacky comedy called "Mr. Don and Mr. George," again cult early 90's stoner TV. All of these shows make me extremely nostalgic for my youth, I can't believe the first series of Rab C Nesbitt was 26 years ago :(

On the pilot ep of Rab now. Definitely a thicker accent but most of it's getting through.
 
The thing is, and this is a little sad (and maybe wrong) to say but his speech and mannerisms are kind of reminding me of Shane McGowan from some of the interviews/docs about ten years ago when he was still full tilt with the hard liquor.
 
Yeah... I'm gonna go with sad. Poor Shane. That was rough to watch. He was still brilliant through the fog though.

I'll give a Scottish comedy a go if they provide English subtitles.
 
Speaking of comedy from Great Britain that Americans might have missed, one of my all-time favorites is a sitcom called "The IT Crowd". I've watched the entire series three times through, and laughed just as hard each time. A must for anyone who's ever worked in IT, or wondered what "IT" stands for.

bitflipper
I'll give a Scottish comedy a go if they provide English subtitles.
 
Speaking of comedy from Great Britain that Americans might have missed, one of my all-time favorites is a sitcom called "The IT Crowd". I've watched the entire series three times through, and laughed just as hard each time. A must for anyone who's ever worked in IT, or wondered what "IT" stands for.

Funnily enough some of the Still Game eps on youtube actually have subtitles. Those versions bothered me though because it kind of felt like cheating. lol
 
One thing it makes me realize though is some of the thicker Canadian regional "accents" are heavily influenced by Scotland. Particularly the east coasters.

It's quite amazing to follow the lines of influence from ye olde Great Britain across the world. I've always been fascinated by the similarities between my accent, Geordie, and the Jamaican accent. There has to be a connection there. I definitely hear some Scottish in Canadian. Did you also know that Gospel music originated in Scotland? 

sharke
It's quite amazing to follow the lines of influence from ye olde Great Britain across the world. I've always been fascinated by the similarities between my accent, Geordie, and the Jamaican accent. There has to be a connection there. I definitely hear some Scottish in Canadian. Did you also know that Gospel music originated in Scotland? 

I watched a documentary series a while back about that very subject (I think it was a BBC production too) that spanned the history of the English language from it's origins and then to various places it landed around the world.
 
How it came to be, how it spread, how it changed based on regions and the passage of time, etc. Very interesting. Lots of etymology too which I've always been very fascinated by.
 
I guess the Welsh are the ones who speak the closest to the original English. Sadly they didn't (or didnae... lol) cover Canada much but they did go into the crossovers that happened in the Caribbean and in America from the slave trade which was particularly interesting (patois and southern US) as well as how a lot of the superfluous U's and E's got dropped from spellings during early America (as well as a buttload of new words being created to describe things, phenomena and activities never seen before in Europe).
 
Yeah, cool stuff... if you're into that type of thing. Otherwise I guess it's probably boring as all heck. I liked it though.
 
It's on the youtubes somewhere.

 
 
Worth checking out a few episodes of Bob Servant - Independent: