Now, the comedy of Graham Linehan not quite translating is something we could understood. Even being an English audience watching Father Ted, we can't help but feel like some of the jokes went right over our heads (but luckily we had stuff like My Lovely Horse to tide us over). Humour is subjective at the best of times, and even more so when it's being spun out of certain cultural stereotypes and norms which might not exist in foreign cultures. We're not even sure why we're making all of these justifications since, while all of this would explain why his hit Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd was remade for a German television channel a couple of years ago, it doesn't actually explain anything, since the show appears to be a word-for-word remake of the wacky escapades of Roy, Jen and Moss we're all familiar with. Just look at this clip from their do-over of the fire episode. Das iTeam - yes, that's what it's really called - premiered in 2008 with a debut episode which was, essentially, a carbon copy of the first UK episode, just in a different language with a different cast. They even went out of their way to recreate the sets, with the basement of Reynholm Industries being as identical to the original as all of the jokes were. The similarities to the original didn't do Das iTeam any favours, as professional critics and internet users alike rushed to denounce the production as lazy and unimaginative, plus the pretty awful performance of of Stefan Puntigam as Gabriel (the German version's name for Moss) compared to the masterful Richard Ayoade. The bad reception and low viewing figures saw the show dropped from the schedule after just the second episode, never to be seen again. Still, could've been worse. Could've been the American version.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
