Transnational TV Comedy Audiences

This article addresses academic debates around the relationship between nationality and humor through an empirical case study of national and transnational TV comedy audiences. Based on data from twenty-five focus groups held in Norway and Britain, it examines audience talk around interlinguistic subtitling and articulated responses to two case study programs: The Office (BBC2, 2001—3) and Nissene på Låven (TVNorge, 2001). Discussing constraints associated with transnational TV comedy, the analysis underlines national differences in engagement with subtitles but argues that participants tended to underestimate the ability of transnational viewers to comprehend and enjoy the case study texts. Drawing on theories of humor and nationality, the article suggests that the recurring emphasis on cultural difference served to maintain nation-based us—them distinctions.