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Looking for some quality comedy entertainment to check out?
Who better to turn to for under-the-radar comedy recommendations than comedians?
David Cross is not one to shy away from ugliness.
So it makes sense that hes a fan of the British bleak cringe comedy of the early aughts.
Awkward, provocative, and downright gnarly comedy ruled England from the late 80s on.
Shows likeKnowing Me, Knowing You, The Office,andSnuff Boxstretched the limits of unlikable protagonists.
But Julia Davis out-yikesed them all withNighty Night.The first episode sets the tone for the rest of the show.
In a doctors office, Daviss character Jill sobs, I mean why, why me?
Her husband Terry consoles her, reminding Jill thathesthe one with cancer.
Jill immediately starts online dating for Terrys replacement, refusing to listen when Terrys prognosis actually looks pretty good.
She also immediately starts lusting after her neighbor, Don.
Packed with British comedyThems,Nighty Nightwas consistently the darkest and most outlandish show on telly.
Jill was casually rude to strangers and sociopathic to her friends.
David Cross is currently on hisinternationalOh Come Ontour.
Youre recommending a show about a compulsively lying, racist narcissist ruled by their most base instincts.
What feels relevant about that now?Oh, I see what youre saying.
I never really saw it like that.
I just, sort of, enjoyed it.
How dare you just enjoy something!
Julia Davis is just amazing, and people really should seek her stuff out.
You know, my wife and I will often go Jee-ull at each other, like her husband Terry.
And the supporting cast are cream of the crop from British comedy.
And its just one of the best.
It comes from that era where there were a lot of chances being taken in British comedy.
Her husbands funeral, where she rides in on the horse, is one of my favorite things.
You would possibly discuss that in a writers room in America.
But you could see people pulling back on it, saying, Thats a bit much.
It recently got remade as an HBO show.Yeah.
That doesnt surprise me at all.
I dont know what the exact experience was, but that would be my guess.
Did you ever seePulling?Sharon Horgan and Dennis Kellys show?
I think I saw the first episode.Oh, its great.
You should watch the whole thing.
When I got approached for this,Nighty NightandPullingwere the two things that immediately popped into my head.
More people might know Sharons back catalogue now thatCatastropheandDivorcewere big hits.
Shes blowing up over here, as well she should.
ButPullingis great, and they made an American version, and I saw it.
And its just terrible.
They took out all the stuff you would like about it and softened the edges.
It didnt resemble the original one at all.
And in Britain, theyre not necessarily trying to make money.
Thats not the first and foremost reason people are making television in Britain.
They are doing it for the art of it.
Todd Margaretwas an American-British production.
That was IFC and Channel 4 for the first series, but the second two were just IFC.
The differences I found were more about production.
Not that anybody gives a shit.
If its cold, youre going to be cold.
Theres not a lot of warming tents.
You get one warming tent and craft services are a tin of cookies and some tea.
Also, its sort of understood that you dont work quite as long there.
In the States, you work till youre done.
I mean, you get paid for it, but you’re able to work a 14-hour day.
Youre not supposed to, but youre certainly not working less than 12 hours.
In the U.K., its a little less than that.
But everybody busts their ass and theres no complaining.
And thats the other thing: Nobody complains.
Theres no union guys bitching about making $62 an hour sitting in their car for nine hours.
Theres nobody bitching, which is really nice.
I did this other show for Sky, which was all British.
It had nothing to do with the States at all.
And they have ads on Sky, its not publicly funded.
Its not like you have a minute and a half of ads every 20 seconds.
Do you think even that structural change makes a difference, artistically?Huge, huge, huge difference.
I cant understate it.
We finished it, and IFC called us and said, Great news guys!
Were going to switch over and be an ad-driven channel.
So now there will be more money for production!
I watch the first episode ofTodd Margaret,and it makes me cringe.
Theres no air in anything.
So thats a great example.
Compared to what we had before, it just seems manic and over-the-top and ridiculous.
Theres no nuance at all, in that pilot, and thats the difference.
But in the pilot, they just come because they had to.
Like in the middle of a scene.
And thats one of the great things about the originalOffice.Those moments breathe.
And in the American version, youre jumping out of there super-quick.
You dont spend any time there.
They utilize that documentary talking-to-camera thing constantly to get them out of a scene.
Thats as good an example as youll get of the difference between British internet comedy and American internet comedy.
Just cramming those ads for Chevy and Casper online mattress or whatever the fuck it is.
Nighty Nightwas the subject of a lot think pieces when it came out.
Theyre just looking for something to write about.
Youre also no stranger to being the subject of think pieces.
Do you let that affect you?
How do you deal with being put through potentially lazy journalism?You venture to be diplomatic about it.
Not doing their homework about the reality of what that phrase or general idea is.
And that wasnt the case at all.
What is it like in this [era]?
And Im not a political comedian at all.
I never will be.
And thats kind of lazy.
Can you think of somebody who is a political comedian?Yeah, Lewis Black.
Id say if 65 percent of your set or more is about politics, then youre a political comic.
It applies to all kind of stuff.
And there are plenty of people who do, but thats just not my thing.
Im not going to do an hour of Jewish jokes.
Thats not my thing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
