Really Surprised!

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Network: HBO; Genre: Sketch Comedy; Content Rating: TV-MA (for strong language, strong scatological humor, graphic sexual dialog and full frontal nudity); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 -4); Seasons Reviewed: 1 season What is it about the sketch comedy series that brings out all the hacks? That brings out all of those whose sense of humor doesn't rise above lazy elementary school jokes surrounding bodily fluids, nudity, gay jokes and fat jokes? With HBO's import, "Little Britain USA", we often get all three at once. Whether it's half the crap on Comedy Central or Showtime's "The Underground" or now "Little Britain", we shouldn't have to be eye raped by a ghastly, juvenile sense of humor every time we tune into a sketch comedy series."Britain" comes on the heels of Tracey Ullman's brain-dead "State of the Union", exhausting a concept that didn't work for her (yet makes her show look much better by comparison). Once again a narrator (Tom Baker) take us all around America explaining the American way of life to us as an outside observer, this time comparing American and British culture head-to-head. The cast mostly consists of Matt Lucas and David Williams, in costumes and fat suits to play characters in all of the sketches. Like "Union", the sketches are a minute or 2 long, which means they aren't fleshed out to anything yet feel unmercifully long even at that length. "Britain" is a more blatantly caustic series, openly hostile toward American culture and lobbing a few grenades at Britain for appearances sake. Britain has transvestites and miserable marriages and they aren't always proper. Americans are all fat, illiterate, crack smoking, gun-toting imbeciles. Americans have never shied away from making fun of themselves – as most of our primetime animated programs show – just not with a sledgehammer style.The show speaks for itself. I'll let these descriptions spare you the sight of actually having to witness it. The first sketch climaxes in a wheelchair bound character peeing in a pool. That's it. A later one features a grown man nursing on his mother's breasts at a dinner table, which naturally also evolves into a spraying of bodily fluids. Oh yes, and naked fat women and naked homo-repressed body builders are inherently funny here. And even if you've had a frontal lobotomy, have so little respect for yourself and your intelligence that you find this garbage funny, the show is unbelievably repetitive, recycling bits and characters that were never funny through the entire series. A woman whose dog tells her to do things, an astronaut who brags about going to the moon, a rude hospital receptionist and, most annoying, a child who speaks to her mother in language she picked up from hardcore pornography – these one-note, single-joke bits are deemed such rock solid comedy gold by Lucas and Williams that they are repeated ad nauseum in every single episode.Single camera director Michael Patrick Jann and studio director David Schwimmer (yes, there's a laugh track and, yes, that David Schwimmer) keep everything pitched out to the cheap seats. It is sophomore humor at its most base and vile. So if you can't get enough gay jokes, fat jokes, fart jokes, spraying bodily fluids, racial stereotypes, men wearing dresses and desperate "shock" humor for the sake of it where the mere utterance of an obscenity is considered sidesplitting comedy (and if you need these gags repeated over and over before you get them) this is your show. A random buffet of clumsy paper-thin would-be satire that is an embarrassment to both Britain and the United States. It isn't insulting because it's crude, it's insulting because it's so infantile. "Little Britain USA" – the worst TV show of 2008. Let's hope I never have to hear from Lucas and Williams again.0 / 4

I loved the original Little Britain and was prepared to really like LB:USA since HBO's got a track-record of nurturing good writing. But, here's the thing: the laugh track in the original serves (at least in my opinion) as a bit of double-irony. The jokes are puerile and play on basic stereotype. They're easy to laugh at already. No laugh track required, so its addition works as a counterpoint to the irony. Not so in the American version; it actually feels like a degradation of the jokes. Or maybe I'm overthinking this thing. Tell you what. If you've seen and liked Little Britain, you'll like Little Britain: USA, because it's god-damned funny and Tom Baker still does the narration. If you've never seen it, try it. But don't act like you didn't know it's not American-style. The word Britain's right there in the title.

To begin with, I'm a major fan of Little Britain. I consider these guys to be geniuses, on par with Monty Python when it comes to English humor. I own all of their works on DVD and have seen the sketches numerous times. So what happened in the transition from the UK to the USA? We happened to them. For as many great comedies HBO has produced -- The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mr. Show, et al. -- somebody at the pay channel really fumbled in bringing this classic British duo to Yankee turf. Here's what happened: they added the clumsiest, most fake-sounding laugh track in the history of television to the soundtrack. WHO thought it was necessary to do this? It sounds like rubbish! I'm talking great hysterical frenzies of laughter, even at the most subtle of jokes (which I know is rare in Little Britain territory). It was so painful to watch the first episode, I abandoned it a quarter of the way through. I really hope they will tone it down in future -- I have been looking forward to Little Britain USA for such a long time, it is terribly dispiriting to see what HBO has done with this grotesque soundtrack.

Let me just preface this post by stating that I fell in love with Little Britain after spending some time in the UK and catching the show. There were a few cultural references that went over my head being that I'm an American, but I still loved the odd and obscene humor that it boasted.After returning to the US, I wondered and secretly hoped that we would get our own taste of Little Britain with vibrant and familiar references to boot. Sure, watching the original on DVD was entertaining, but I kept thinking of characters they could build with influence from our culture.Then low and behold, I'm going through the HBO on Demand this morning when I see "Little Britain USA" in the series list. My jaw dropped, and I immediately did my sitting happy dance. So I pressed play on episode 01, sat back with my coffee, and anticipated seeing Carol Beer rudely tell an American "Computer Says No"... as well as what Yankee characters they would bring to the table.Let me tell you... it HONESTLY did not disappoint. I laughed so hard at one point, I'm sure I woke my roommate up. The things Marjorie says to Rosie O'Donnell are priceless. And Jesus Christ, the gym/bikini guys might even top the obscenity of Bubbles.I'm sure there will be a lot of elitists and Brits that will despise the idea of their beloved show going American mainstream, but these people just need to get off their high horses and give it a chance. This is a show with two brilliant comedians/actors that needs to be shared and enjoyed by as many people as possible.And yeah, maybe I'm just a tad bit biased because perhaps now I won't get as many "Who Are you?" responses to my Carol Beer costume I have planned for this Halloween.Anyway, I really like it. So far, so good. And I really look forward to seeing how far they go with it. You should really see it for yourself before you dismiss it as a bad idea. But I will be honest with you... you need to have a strange and open sense of humor to truly enjoy this show.