Great Comedy Shows Not From The USA Or The UK

The kings of comedy are the UK who seem to of kicked things of with Monty Python all those years ago. Now they churn out two season mini series. The USA knows that there is money to be made and generally make much longer running shows. But what of the rest of the English speaking world? There are some gems you may of missed so lets find out.

New Zealand - Flight of the Conchords

youtube.com / Via imdb.com

Flight of the Conchords stars 3 Kiwis (the slang name for people from New Zealand). Two are in a band (Bret and Jerome) and they play straight faced and dead pan. Their manage (Murray) is the "on" one in the show.

Murray is played by Rhys Darby. His hilarious band mismanagement is a joy to watch as he plays on the stereotypes of New Zealand being a bit behind the rest of the civilized world.

Thats not to say the other two aren't funny too. They both have side splitting moments, which often come in the form of song. This 2 season mini series is short but very sweet. Flight of the Conchords deserves to be ranked up alongside the best the world has to offer. The 8.7 rating currently on IMDB should be testament to that.

The video features one of their songs from their HBO special.

Another worth mentioning from New Zealand is Rhys Darby's Short Poppies. Set in New Zealand the show has had just one season with mixed results. He went for the new character each week format, which worked amazingly with some but terribly with others. If he can stick with the three characters that really worked, we could have another great on our hands if it is given a second season.

Canada - Trailer Park Boys

youtube.com / Via imdb.com

The Trailer Park Boys have been going for years and years. There is masses of content to savor if you are a fan. They have completed 9 seasons with a 10th on the way. They have also released a couple of movies.

Again looking at the IMDB overall rating we can see they currently have 8.6 which is proof that this show is a force to be reckoned with. Comedy often gets low ratings on IMDB, so when you see series above 7, it is time to take note.

The Trailer Parks Boys are just that; a group of three men who have lived on a Canadian trailer park for their whole lives. They straddle the law by stealing, growing pot and scheming. This makes their ongoing war against the trailer park supervisor (and his pot bellied assistant) a very amusing back and forth.

The video shows the most popular clip from the Trailer Park Boys' official Youtube channel.

Australia - None Yet

Australia has lots of good comedy series but no stand-outs. Chris Lilley has created some great moments and some not so great moments. Check out his We Can Be Heros series for his best bits.

The older Kath and Kim was quite a big hit. It was an amusing look at lower class Ozzies, but again never really stood out as a piece of brilliance.

Wilfred is now known as a US series, but it actually began in a much rawer form in Australia. The man dog Wilfred is still played by an Ozzie, but the joke wore thin after two seasons.

We shall just have to keep waiting for a great comedy show to come out of Australia.