I've thought about this Janszoon and I think there's a good chance you're right. I think the main thing these kind of people fail to recognise in American humour is intelligence. I think they take everything at face value rather than consider the craft behind it, and as they have very preconceived ideas about American comedy, they see what they want to see.
That's often the case with comedy though really, regardless of nationality. To some people a racist joke is a racist joke, even if it's a joke told to shine a light on peoples ignorance and ridicule it.
Ricky Gervais is one of my favourite comedians and whenever I meet someone who doesn't like him, I ask why. More often than not they tend to tell me he's arrogant. To me that likely means they believe his faux arrogance, and fail to separate that from the real person, the act from the human being.
I think I'd say I do prefer British comedy, but I enjoy a lot of American comedy as well, and would probably only be likely to side with British comedy, should I have to make a choice, because I've been exposed to much more of it. I feel it could also be influenced by what kind of comedy I enjoy and how it's made. I enjoy sitcom, and generally speaking over here there seems more freedom to put out the show you wanted to make, with no interference from a network, and no massive, long, multi-year contracts and demands of 20+ episodes a term, and more terms you have to agree to in order to even get your show on air.
As for content itself, I'm with Goofle. I don't see much of a difference. There may be cultural differences, frames of reference etc. Accent, obviously. But nothing as fundamental as suggesting that an American doesn't understand sarcasm or wit. We don't own those things.
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