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Rating: Country: UK/USA Release Date: January 13, 2009 Distributor: HBO Home Entertainment Cast: · Matt Lucas · David Walliams · Tom Baker · Brent Gentile Related Sites: · IMDb: Little Britain USA Grade: B+

One’s appreciation for Little Britain USA, the American spin-off of the UK hit Little Britain, will depend greatly on how easily offended they are and how critical they are of being shocked for the sake of shock itself. Much of the material is scatological and is frequently rather obvious, biting at American and British stereotypes in a generalized manner rather than offering anything particularly insightful or clever; however, these quibbles aside, the show is more often than not, nothing short of hilarious. Some sketches and characters that do not connect as well as others (depressed married British couple, homophobic gay gym buddies) but each episode offers up more than a few laughs, pacing the comedy well and offering timely punch lines.

Bringing in many familiar characters such as Fat Fighter Marjorie Dawes, inarticulate teen Vicky Pollard, outdated drag queen Emily Howard and Carol the unhelpful receptionist, and adding new characters in the form of an astronaut who obsesses about his walk on the moon, a woman whose love of her dog leads to public defecation and nudity and some over-enthusiastic rednecks, the show maintains its initial appeal and simply adds on to its successes with appropriate cultural references. This criticism of America is essentially the main difference in this version of the show, which is presented as a travelogue of sorts, with each sketch examining a different aspect of American life.

Inevitably, different characters will connect comically for different audiences but it would be hard to find someone who did not have some sort of reaction to the Fat Fighters sketch with Rosie O’Donnell where Marjorie Dawes asks O’Donnell, “Are you a lesbian because you’re fat? Or are you fat because you’re a lesbian?”. Many should also find some amusement in the British houseguest who breastfeeds her 25-year-old son and likes to offer up her “biddy” to anyone who might require it.

Indeed, anyone who finds amusement in a proper woman pooping in a public park, a British Prime Minister making sexual advances on Barack Obama or a grown woman insulting a 5-year-old for making the vague statement “I’m almost 6”, will enjoy Little Britain USA to at least some degree. Baptists and rednecks, however, will almost certainly be confused by the on-screen happenings.

Included with the first season box set are commentaries on all six episodes from David Walliams and Matt Lucas, which are surprisingly straightforward, offering up opinions on what works, discussion the differences between live sketches and single camera sketches and how cameos from Rosie O’Donnell and Sting came to be.

Also included are the many deleted sketches with commentary from the creators, which essentially point out that everything was cut for the simple reason of not being as funny as everything else is. The commentary on the Sarah Chalke Fat Fighters sketch, however, is quite amusing, as they discuss Walliams interest in the affable Ms. Chalke, in addition to lunching with another young starlet who had pills for lunch.

Bloopers are included, along with a “Character list” and a brief “Making of” video, which examines the nature of heavy prosthetics, working with David Schwimmer as a director and the preparation Walliams and Lucas did by travelling throughout America for two weeks.