Haven't seen the show. Apparently they are going to remake the series for U.S. audiences this fall. Of course, the best of the humor probably won't survive the transition. :roll:
Sorry for another off-topic post, but this caught my eye: What would such remaking for U.S. audiences comprise? Are even British programmes dubbed by native speakers?
No, but British and American humor are definitely different. Check out scenes from the British and American versions of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" on Youtube if you want a good example. Remaking a TV show usually means work and living spaces have to be redone; people just don't live and work the same way in every country. "The Office" has four versions, doesn't it? And three of them are European.
Not much in the way of British television makes it to the American public unaltered, and what does is usually on PBS (e.g. "Are you being served?" and "Keeping up Appearances") or else viewed on the original British channels via cable or satellite.
:shock: Are you implying that they're going to re-shoot all the episodes (just 6 in this case, but still) to make it USA-conformant? That reminds me of a fabulous line in Futurama (Fry is an American guy from the year 1999, who was cryogenically frozen and awoken in the year 2999 in New New York and is now trying to find his place in the current society): Leela: "Look, I know there are no car chases, but this is important. One of these two men will become president of the world." Fry: "What do we care? We live in the United States." Leela: "The United States is part of the world." Fry: "Wow, I have been gone a long time." Watching the Australian Millionaire would probably make poor sense to a Czech, but, heck, even The Office airs in its British version (my guess, but definitely not some Czech version) here in 8:25pm. Not to mention The IT Crowd itself, which have I - a Czech - found to be one of the best sitcoms ever. Thanks for the links, Ceit. The very message I see is: the Americans laugh at a gangster being riddled with bullets, a bad-tempered sperm trying to find its egg and a bloodhound trained to sniff out complete idiots, while the British laugh at a man who thinks he's mucking the stables, a railway station announcer and a man who thinks he's king Arthur. Considering all this, no surprise some people from around the globe find Americans ignorant and unsophisticated. Doesn't it make you (Americans) just angry sometimes? Are there any movements against this or do you just stick with the satellite to be able to enjoy a bit of foreign culture/humor?
Not just re-shoot, but re-write. Sometimes characters get subtle and not-so-subtle changes too. This article about "The Office" lays out the differences between the four versions: British original, US, French and German. I've never even seen this show, it's not on Spanish TV, but the article makes me wish I had satellite TV. Maybe I could see all four of them... About the links, my intent was to show American comedy as more "in-your-face", more slapstick, while British comedy tends to be more subtle (although they certainly have their share of silliness). It does bother me when people assume Americans can't be intelligent or enjoy high-brow entertainment, especially when they've just shown themselves to be as ignorant as the average American (that happens a lot in Spain, trust me).
hi shreypete! I'm going to be studying medicine aat Charles University too...but will be at the Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove! Am also currently learning czech language but have not reach sentence formation yet...ha ha! anyway, good luck in learning!
if you are na American and could get into a decent medical school in the US, you are making a big mistake to come to the CR. If you are planning a medical career in the US, I mean a good career, you chances are much smaller coming from Prague. You will be rusted, 5-10 years behind the current knowledge, with no research to show. Sure you can make it back in the US, if you try hard, well, the saying goes that everybody can become Eistein if one tries hard, right, but by taking CR route you are not doing yourself a good service. If you are serious about your career, do some ground work, find out how many Nobel prize winners in biomedicine you meet in Prague, how many opinion leaders on EU or EU/US level you will meet in Prague, then taka the trip. MD
I'm just curious, what is the average number of Nobel prize winners in biomedicine teaching/working at a common US medical school? And how many "decent medical schools" do you think are in the USA in total? And one more question, somewhat unrelated: Do you believe that the USA having Nobel prize winners in the field of medicine results into the significantly higher general level of health care available to most of its citizens? I'm not saying that the level of CU Medical School is lower or higher than the one of decent medical school in the USA, I have no clue about that. By the way, I myself don't get why would any American serious about his/her career want to study medicine here in the Czech Republic, unless they for some reason want to live in the Czech Republic once they graduate (or as you hinted, they weren't able to get into decent school at home).
If you attend a good or top US medical school, you will have access to Nobel prize winners through lectures (either regular course, which would be rare, or through guest speaker lectures, which is common at top schools). Besides that you will have access to top researchers that have relevance, publish in leading journals, etc. At the Charles University you will find individual researchers/clinicians/teachers that may have European or EU/US relevance, but you will find a group of extremelly lousy teachers, teachers with attitude without substance, or plain vanilla guys who just coast. Very little original and relevant research. As to the general level of medical care in US vs. CR, there is a big difference in what is available in the US and what is not available in the CR. You can start with access to drugs. Then go to access to procedures. Then you go to ethical treatment of patients. Then you go to facilities. Czech doctors try hard but they work under a big disadvantage which begins with education, then post graduate training (residency), then access to medicines, then access to continuing education. The advantage of the CR system for patients is that it is cheap. Now think about it, would you be interested in paying cash from your own pocket to receive a better or world class procedure or medication (that e.g. prolongs your life, or quality of life)? That is the choice you can make in the US, legally. MD
I asked about common medical schools. Or if you allow me to rephrase - how's the situation at let's say 60-80% of medical schools in the USA (ie. is the majority of medical schools at the level you've just described, what percentage of MD graduates comes from those top schools)? Unfortunately, you might find lousy teachers and people who just want to get by at many if not most schools all over the world, and being exceptional researcher doesn't necessary mean to be a good teacher. Once again, I'm not defending CU's Faculty of Medicine, still just curious. Is it really a choice available to all? I mean, can all (or at least vast majority of) people afford it there? I, just as most of people I know, I used to believe, that *general* level of health care is not that high and due to its cost, many people don't have access to even not so exceptional treatments. Maybe it's one of those myths about the USA? Well, I guess I would need to dig deep into some statistics. One thing about Czech health care is sure, there's still HUGE room for improvement when it comes to how SOME Czech doctors treat their patients, sometimes it's still really beyond belief - seems they are better suited to be vets. And whether health care in the Czech Republic is cheap that is a question - you have to pay 13.5% of your wage (though you get to see only 1/3 of it on your wage slip, the remaining 2/3 are paid directly by your employer) and you still have to pay for some procedures/drugs, and we are going to pay more soon. But in the end, it's still probably less expensive than in the USA despite the losses caused by the redistribution of money. Disclaimer: I've never watched any TV series set in hospital (Chicago Hope and similar) so my knowledge about quality of american health care is close to nil. :wink:
Switching back to the thread earlier regarding television programming and stereotypical senses of humor: It seems that the general consensus expressed here is that the American sense of humor is doltish and low-brow and that the Bristish and European senses of humor are sopisticated and high brow. If these stereotypes are true, then how do you explain the success of Are You Being Served and The Benny Hill Show in England or the French beleif that Jerry Lewis is a comic genius? Rather, isn't it more truthful to say that each culture has a variety of senses of humor ranging from the slapstick and doltish low-brow comedy to thoughtful, sophisticated high-brow comedy? In cultures that don't share much "collective consciousness" the humor may not translate, but in cultures that do share a history or a strong link, the humor does translate, but it may be that said humor is just not someone's "cup of tea." For example, there are things in both British and American humor that I find rib-cracking funny (Monty Python, William Shakespeare, Tom Stoppard, Keeping Up Appearances, the American and British versions of The Office) and there are things in both cultures I fail to see the humor in (Are You Being Served, Benny Hill, Jerry Lewis, and any reality show). I prefer sophisticated comedy that plays with language. That does not make me superior to another person who prefers slapstick. Now if you judge Americans solely on the dreck coming out of Hollywood, you are really being unfair. Most of us find the majority of what is produced to be insultingly unintelligent and boresome. But doesn't the media in all cultures play to the lowest common denominator? In all things cultural, it is best not to make sweeping generalizations about people in any one culture, because as we each know from living in our own worlds, people are unique.
I didn't get the same impression that we were being critical of American humor in general. The point is that when you redo a comedy for a new audience, the reason for doing so is that the new audience either has a different taste in comedy, or else has different cultural quirks which makes understanding the original series more difficult, or both (and of course, there's always the bottom line, $$$$ :wink: ). Hence, odds are that most of the humor will be altered somewhat, either in the form of humor, or in the cultural associations. That's the only generalization I see in the former discussion. I agree with you on the points you discussed, and even share much of your taste in comedy (I'm American, too, by the way). Having said that, however, until I have a chance to compare the British to the American series, I'll stick by my prediction (Who knows? Perhaps I'll be pleasantly surprised).
I love IT Crowd ... 0018 999 881 999 119 725 3 ... I'm disabled ... :lol: People are divided in 10 groups - those who understand binary code, and the others IT Crowd is for/about first one.
