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Green Wing
2004 · TV series · 60 min episodes · 2 seasons
Created by Victoria Pile
Follow new surgical registrar Dr Caroline Todd through her first day at work and beyond, starting out as she means to go on - dishevelled and under-deodorised! Along the way she meets an assortment of bizarre and demented characters. Be prepared for one of the most surreal journeys you're ever likely to take as you dive into the anarchic world of Green Wing Hospital!
3 positive1 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
"TikTok doesn't live up to the best of TV" is true, but that's not the argument I'm making.
OP asked for "newer", and yet you've not named anything created in the last 10 years. ( And named a 30+ year old improv show, which is definitely not the format I'm talking about. )
You're not alone, one second-cousin comment even went with the phrase "more modern", then named a range of shows that are at least over 20 years old. Green Wing was the 90's, that's closer to the time of Python's Life of Brian than today.
Clearly things aren't fine if there isn't fresh blood coming through.
Sketch shows never were the best of TV, they are a format where you throw a lot out there and then the very best bits of each episode might be particularly funny, with a bunch of filler in-between.
That can't compete with a medium where people just swipe the second they're not finding a particular piece funny or to their taste.
There are lots of examples of comedy comparable to Monty Python over the years, but with so many media outlets you kind of have to seek it out or stumble across it. Here are a few random ones that immediately spring to mind:
Green Wing [1], Channel 4 television series (UK)
Aunty Donna, Australian comedy troupe that has a lot of surrealist humour. A good introduction is this sketch [2] and their Netflix show "Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun".
The Frantics, a Canadian sketch comedy troupe. They are most known for their sketch "Boot to the Head", but their CBC radio series which ran from 1981-84 was (to me) very reminiscent of Python.
I'd imagine fans of The Mighty Boosh and Python intersect quite a bit.
The Mischief Theatre Company - the ones behind the "Goes Wrong" theatre shows, e.g. "The Play That Goes Wrong", the "The Goes Wrong Show" on BBC, etc.
Bleak Expectations by Mark Evans, BBC Radio 4 pastiche on Dickens (2007-2012) - one of my favourite pieces of comedy in any medium. Here's the first episode [3] on YouTube.
I've seen a lot of live comedy that reminded me of Python at places like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Wing>
[2] <https://youtu.be/a5FGOaz__W0>
[3] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdyYQeLR1kA>
That pretty much sums up American vs. British comedy (televisual anyway) for me.
US: 'momentarily interesting' (resp. funny at the time) - series of one-liners and the like; UK: character development, hard to explain why it's funny, might take 'getting into'.
Green Wing for example - I thought it was absolutely absurd when I first saw it, and it is. But for some reason I went back to it (or was made to) and stuck with it for a few episodes while I learnt to love it. And now I do, it's one of my all-time favourites. And of course I've been back (several times) to watch the first episode(s) again, and they're hilarious too.
Or perhaps a clearer example is the original UK The Office (Ricky Gervais) vs. the US version (Steve Carell). Same rough outline obviously, some of the same (especially early in the remake) storyline and jokes, but somehow even then the humour is very different.
(I'm not hating on the remake, I enjoyed it enough to watch it all once I accepted it's different, and stopped expecting 'The Office' as I knew it. Especially once it found its own path and diverged from the same jokes - IMO - worse delivered.)
FWIW I find IT Crowd funny, but it's not on my 'must have' list. - Office, Green wing, Alan Partridge, blackadder, brasseye, day today, extras, league of gentlemen, psychoville, police squad, 30 rock, etc would all be above it.
IT Crowd is great, but I wish it was a bit more cutting/daring rather than settling into a formulaic sitcom.