European sophistication

France Counts 1,193 Cars Torched on New Year's Eve

I was just going to link to that saying something like "Why am I not surprised", or "C'est la vie", but that got me thinking about how many Europeans and Americans want America to be more like Europe, as if Europe is somehow more sophisticated, cultured, and enlightened.

Which then got me thinking about a new BBC comedy I decided to try. I went in expecting something clever, something one might expect from a British comedy, and wow was I so very, very wrong.

Mrs. Brown's Boys is comedy for people who think gratuitous swearing and dirty one-liners are funny.  Maybe there is something inherently funny about an elderly grandmother type spitting out sex jokes and F-words, but that shtick gets old fast. If I had to describe Mrs. Brown's Boys in one word: unsophisticated.

The Euro-fetishists will point to Jersey Shore or Kim Kardashian, and of course, to our "gun-violence". But the truth is Europe has awful crap just like we do, and our crime rate is comparable if not much better than Europe's.