There’s nothing quite like the Onion in the UK – at least, nothing that I’ve seen. The satire in Private Eye is more focused, and too often flirts with pettiness; Viz is more puerile, and not as funny; the Framley Examiner is more parochial.

parochial (adj) 1: relating to or supported by or located in a parish 2: narrowly restricted in outlook or scope [syn: insular] – source: Thomas Jones: Short Cuts

Even in its strongest and most overt form, it tends to be Olympian and condescending rather than vituperative.

vituperative (adj) : marked by harshly abusive criticism [syn: scathing] – source: The Anti-Anti Americans

Whatever bad feeling there might be took the form of mordant jokes (butcher to American customer: ”Say hello to George for me”) and a certain defensive pride.

mordant (adj) : harshly ironic or sinister [syn: black, grim] – source: The Anti-Anti Americans

This is a deliberate campain to to ruin Brick. For the most disgusting, sordid reasons on earth: Avarice! Avarice and greed!

avarice (n) 1: reprehensible acquisitiveness; insatiable desire for wealth (personified as one of the deadly sins) [syn: greed, covetousness, rapacity, avaritia] 2: extreme greed for material wealth [syn: avariciousness, covetousness, cupidity] – source: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (R2), 1:19:58

But this is no frustrated rock star, desperate to be taken seriously as a musician. ”I was briefly in a band, but I always had this compunction to be silly,” he says.

compunction (n) : a feeling of deep regret (usually for some misdeed) [syn: remorse, self-reproach] – source: Bill Bailey shares his philosophy

He knows this, because it is where he had his beginnings – stultifying, bourgeois, affluent life.

stultifying (n) 1: to make foolish; to make a fool of; as, to stultify one by imposition; to stultify one’s self by silly reasoning or conduct 2: to regard as a fool, or as foolish 3: (Law) to allege or prove to be of unsound mind, so that the performance of some act may be avoided – source: The benign catastrophist

Coming back into the living room, I noticed he had a wodge of tissue suspended from one nostril. A nosebleed, he explained, something he has suffered from all his life. After this he seemed discombobulated – by the blood or by my continued presence, I wasn’t sure.

discombobulated (adj) : having self-possession upset; thrown into confusion [syn: disconcerted] – source: The benign catastrophist

So it does hearken back to old comedies a bit in that it’s driven by a singular vision.

hearken (v) 1: listen; used mostly in the imperative 2 : to give respectful attention [syn: hark, harken] – source: Curb Your Enthusiasm: Interview

It’s the differences that make this French Python so engaging. It’s an altogether more rumbustious affair than the TV show.

rumbustious adj : noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline [syn: boisterous, rambunctious, robustious, unruly] – source: Ce perroquet et mort

The studio will insist that every scene is shot in such a way that it can be malleable to editing, because when the picture is put together it will be test-marketed.

malleable (adj) 1: easily influenced [syn: ductile] 2: capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out [syn: ductile, pliable, pliant, tensile, tractile] – source: That’s all, folks