To be nonplussed why people rave over Mrs Brown's Boys

[ComposHat]

I've tried watching it twice twice and haven't got past the first five minutes it was so awful.

It seemed like an artless parody of a shite 70s sitcom (like something Frankie Howerd forgot to make) Don't get me wrong I'm not a comedy snob and quite enjoy a broad knockabout comedy like Vicious, yet I am utterly bemused by Mrs Brown's Boys, it looks dated, absurd and utterly free from laughs.

Yet it has a massive following, especially amongst people of my parents' generation. Normally when there's a TV programme I dislike I can see why other people (Top Gear for example) may enjoy it. But Mrs Brown seems to be without any redeaming features.

There must be some fans out there who can explain its appeal?

See, personally I can take or leave Mrs Browns Boys. On the other hand I find Father Ted tiresome and offensive and always have.

My ten year old dd absolutely adores Open All Hours and I thought she would love the new one on Boxing Day. She did not, and spent the whole episode pining for Arkwright!

Personally I like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, and then the old favourites, Porridge, Only Fools and Horses and the Vicar of Dibley. Oh, and blackadder.

I was quite surprised with how popular MBBs is. Mainly amongst my gay friends and, like the op said, the likes of my mother and her comtemporaries.

I like it - its silly and isn't trying to be cool or clever. It might be old fashioned but then aren't we all supposed to be pining after the two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise?

I also love Miranda, but even i think it can be a little manic sometimes.

Sitcoms are a hard genre i think.

Loved when miranda harte and her 'mother' went for therapy. So funny.

@ Marmalade

I laughed at BOAF, does that make me an uneducated idiot?

I laugh at Big bang theory, How I met your mother, Blackadder and the like, does that make me 'in' with some of you?

I absolutely cry at Inbetweeners and want more but is that more 'well written' than Mrs Brown, I hardly think so.

I tend to think that people who find Mrs Brown's Boys (and also Miranda) funny are a bit thick.

I don't understand the need to be so insulting - why Toby & others who have been? Where does it say that that sense of humour equates to intellect??

I don't enjoy Miranda but do enjoy Mrs Browns Boys - go figure?? I'm certainly not thick, which I'd say can clearly be evidenced by my qualifications, job, no of employees & salary & therefore isn't my subjective view at all but a totally objective one.

I guess if putting others down makes you feel superior, go for your life, but it really isn't a nice trait at all.

You have to be really dense to equate someone's SOH with their intellect. Honestly.

Agree bigbuttons. If I take all my friends, there is not one who loves/hates exactly the same comedies as I do. They are not thick, or racist/sexist just because they enjoy something I don't; it does not seem to be generational or dependent on nationality or intelligence - it is just what makes them laugh.

With some I'll share a love of QI with others my enjoyment of MBB or Big Bang Theory. Some love pantomime and slapstick, some love verbal jokes, some like humour that ridicules others whether 70's style or 2014 style. Who cares? I wouldn't judge people by what they laugh at. Laughing is a good thing!

Where does it say that that sense of humour equates to intellect??

In my head

I never stated it as fact. Don't panic. I'm sure you're a genius, onedev.

Really don't see the need for rudeness Toby?? Never once said genius, but pointing out that from an objective perspective, most definitely not thick.

Oh there is. There absolutely is a correlation between people's intelligence and what they watch on the television.

Yy Bunny.

I don't get what's meant to be funny about it either but am definitely in a minority among my family and friends who all rave about how hilarious it is.

But as I always say, each to their own

Also very definitely a correlation between twatishness and judging people by their tv viewing preferences

I am amused by your use of your salary and number of employees as evidence of your obvious intelligence, onedev.

I don't give a toss what anyone watches on tv. But there will always be a correlation, even if only my head, between the people who laugh at base, easy to understand 'comedy' and the people who did slightly less well in their GCSEs.

Very possibly true, mrs. Luckily, what internet randoms think of me is none of my concern. It seems that many don't share my view and put far too much stock into what others think.

I think you can probably group MBB's Boys and Benidorm in the same bracket - both depressingly similar and aimed at the same audience.

I have to agree that there is a correlation between intelligence and what you watch regularly and enjoy.

I don't like Citizen Khan and Benidorm but I wouldn't judge people who do.

I like Mrs Brown. end of.

Why do people not understand that putting 'end of' doesn't actually mean 'I'm right and you're wrong and that's the end of the conversation' on here?

Good for you for liking what you like. But you've been quite rude yourself further up the thread - telling people to 'get stuffed' and banging on about people not liking MBB because 'we don't get it'.

I don't like it. end of

Am snorting at the idea of intelligence correlating with what people find funny.

Humour is surely very individual.

I am intelligent and I like MBB. I like the non- pretension of it all. I like the toilet humour, I like the slap stick.

I am intelligent too and watch some awful tripe on telly.

I find it an escape from reality.

Are people on here saying that if you're intelligent you can only watch serious programmes and if you're thick you can only like shite comedies and the like?

Genuine question - to those of you saying that sense of humour is just a matter of individual taste and has no relationship to their character or intelligence, would your opinion of someone really not change if they told you that they find Jim Davidson and Bernard Manning's 1980s routines hilarious? (that's if you liked them before they told you this).
I generally find that people tend to bond with those with a similar sense of humour. Having said that, DH finds MBB hilarious while I can't stand it. He's Irish, I'm not. He says that I don't find it funny because I'm a cultural snob. I tell him I don't find it funny because it's shite.

It's an acquired taste, a guilty pleasure. Perhaps not that dissimilar to Miranda, esp as the lead character breaks the fourth wall ie turns to the camera from time to time.

It's hard to explain, but it is irony-free humour to some extent and the bloke in drag is a tradition that predates Les Dawson and goes back to Music Hall. I should say that being English I don't find anything patronising about the lead being Irish, in my view she could be any Northern woman, the attitude would be the same, being kind of a bossy, flawed matriach. I like the way even though it obviously doesn't insult our intelligence by pretending to be real, it maintains its emotional aspect with a certain sincerity.