Yeah I wasn't quite talking about that idea that we're better at irony in comedy, which I agree is largely nonsense. If anything I think US comedy is generally a bit drier than ours.
I meant more that US comedy more often has that warmth to/underneath it that I was talking about before. It's not afraid to be earnest. Whereas over here I think we go ew, emotions, how embarassing. I don't think we're "better at irony" but I do think we believe that comedy has to have ironic distance from anything emotionally warm(? struggling for the right word).
Things like Taxi, Cheers, Roseanne, US Office, Parks and Rec, King of the Hill, Community, even Simpsons and Futurama. They'd often get very sentimental/sincere/earnest/emotional (not quite sure which word is right) in a way that UK comedy generally backs away from or, at best, *immediately* undercuts with a joke to prevent us from the embarrassment of sitting in our emotions.
The US *also* has the other, colder/more distant, stuff - Curb Your Enthusiasm (which I think it excellent but find hard to watch for this reason), Arrested Development, Schitt's Creek etc.. But it seems less the norm.
And I struggle to think of UK comedy with that USey warmth. It's not *entirely* absent, I think it was there in Shameless? Which makes me think it has a class component, which seems likely.
Maybe it's like you were saying with theatre and it's because TV is really still a very oxbridgey, middle class endeavour over here, which I don't think is/was the case in the US.
I've not seen Better Call Saul (or Breaking Bad) so can't comment directly. They look very good, but the subject matter has always put me off.
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