{"id":556978,"date":"2026-03-22T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556978\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T12:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:23:07","slug":"strong-british-comedy-but-format-is-too-american","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/556978\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong British Comedy but Format Is Too American"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt is rare to see British sketch comedy on television. In fact, British comedy on television is so rare that the genre has been deemed \u201cat risk<\/a>\u201d in recent years. So, naturally, you would have thought that the launch of \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a> U.K.\u201d \u2014 overseen by legendary executive producer Lorne Michaels, with a heavy investment in a new generation of acting and writing talent \u2014 would be welcomed by Brits with open arms. Right? Right?!<\/p>\n

\n\tQuestion. Have you met the British?<\/p>\n

\n\tIn reality, there was so much cynicism shared by British viewers online in the run up to Sky One\u2019s first episode on Saturday that it felt like it needed Danny Boyle Opening Ceremony level of turnaround to make it work. The promos ahead certainly did not do \u201cSNL<\/a> U.K.\u201d any favors. An unremarkable skit with host Tina Fey pretending to be Mary Poppins. A photoshoot of the new players posing next to a London bus stop. An underground advert with the show written out in baked beans<\/a> on toast. All of this together gave the impression that \u201cSNL U.K.<\/a>\u201d was going to be made by American tourists making assumptions on British comedy rather than a reflection of what it currently is; its eight-episode run the TV equivalent of taking a photo in a phonebox next to Big Ben before dining in an Angus Steakhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThankfully, \u201cSaturday Night Live U.K.\u201d largely took the basics of what makes the U.S. version successful \u2014 sketch comedy, rotating guest hosts and the unpredictability of live television \u2014 and left the Brits to it. That\u2019s where it works. Overseen by former \u201cLate Late Show With James Corden\u201d producer James Longman, the sketches are darker and more surreal than its U.S. counterpart, the comedy much more deadpan. Even if all the sketch itself doesn\u2019t work (hey, they kept that feature too) there\u2019s enough one-liners to keep you going and try out the next.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m David Attenborough\u2026 and it can\u2019t be long now,\u201d quipped George Fouracres as the legendary British broadcaster. This was only minutes after he was a spineless Keir Starmer<\/a>, saying \u201cI\u2019ll do anything, I\u2019ll try anything, except take a stand.\u201d On Weekend Update<\/a>, the legendary spoof headlines segment, Paddy Young and Ania Magliano did a pitch-perfect bit on influencers fleeing Dubai, with Young joking \u201cbut I must stress though, it isn\u2019t all good news.\u201d Hammed Animashaun also delivered a cutting take on film junkets with agonizingly enthusiastic influencer interviewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the U.S. version launching the careers of Bill Murray, Maya Rudolph and Will Ferrell, the U.K. iteration also has the potential to turn the cast into household names. Player Jack Shep seems one to look out for, pulling off a Diana impression<\/a> so good that when the sketch itself<\/a> didn\u2019t land you didn\u2019t care. Within minutes, he was in another as a dancing baby fetus. No idea what that was about either, but because of Jack I didn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe weakest part of \u201cSNL U.K.\u201d is, well, the \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d part. Fey promised at the top to not get in the way of the new British cast, but then was in nearly every sketch. She\u2019s great, I mean she\u2019s literally Tina Fey, but with such a presence and having so many lines it resulted in fewer opportunities for us to get to know the new British players, who are the reason why we\u2019re supposed to be tuning into this in the first place.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe monologue at the top of the show also consisted of the typical American shock that on British television you can say swears such as \u201cshitbird\u201d and \u201cbollocks,\u201d when on the U.S. version you can\u2019t even though it airs late. This was then followed by Michael Cera making a surprise cameo just to say \u201cshitbird\u201d and \u201cbollocks.\u201d Hardly revolutionary. Have you met us? By the time Graham Norton came on stage followed by Fey and Norton reciting British catchphrases, ending with them both yelling the advert \u201cAutoglass repair\u201d \u201cAUTOGLASS REPLACE,\u201d you were left wondering why Norton has not been confirmed to be a guest host, considering he\u2019s such a familiar presence here.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think this gets to the heart of an issue \u201cSNL U.K.\u201d has: who is this exactly for? The set looks American, the pacing of some of the sketches feel American, and the fact it lasted nearly 75 minutes (when British audiences usually love their comedy no longer than 60 cos we\u2019re tired) feels awfully American. At times, watching this feels like visiting a branch of Five Guys. It\u2019s fine, but it\u2019s not like eating in America. If this show is just to celebrate a U.S. institution that a large proportion of Brits have never tuned into and won\u2019t apart from a few viral clips, after the initial hype dies down it\u2019ll fall flat on its face. Yet, if it is left to confidently find its own feet, leaning into something more British and inherently surreal \u2014 such as Cilla Black impressions and William Shakespeare turning up on a beeping, stolen lime bike before saying \u201ccunty little earring\u201d \u2014 it\u2019ll have a hope.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, market it as one of the only places you can watch live comedy and music at a time on British TV when there\u2019s shockingly little of both, and they might be onto a winner.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a British comedy after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is rare to see British sketch comedy on television. In fact, British comedy on television is so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,33892,46340,274597,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-556978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-saturday-night-live","12":"tag-snl","13":"tag-snl-u-k","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}