Compo and the lust of his life, Nora Batty, on Last of the Summer Wine. Photo / File
The Atlantic is a very wide ocean.
From the United States of America across to England it's about 6700km ... which is near enough to eight times the distance between Napier and Christchurch so yes, it's a bit of a journey.
And of course such distances, coupled with the evolution of two very culturally diverse locations, means something that verbally works in New York isn't necessarily going to work in Manchester.
For a start, there is a communication issue in terms of accents.
I have even seen a couple of American-made documentaries featuring English people using subtitles while they speak in their broad, but to us understandable, dialects.
It just didn't look right.
I have also heard tales of folk in New York asking a visiting Kiwi "sorry, what did you say?"
Which I guess is understandable, given I've watched a couple of shows where someone with a very broad Scottish accent has left me wondering exactly what it was they were trying to elaborate about.
Even the Aussies and I daresay some Kiwis can leave a few question marks for visiting Brits and Americans when our unique strine is taken to the limit.
"Owyiz goin?"
And so, what could be deemed hilarious on one side of that great ocean could be deemed to be simply odd on the other.
The Americans liked the idea of Steptoe and Son and Till Death Do Us Part but were clearly perplexed at the way they were rolled out ... so came up with Sanford and Son and All In The Family.
I daresay the Brits would have been just as perplexed with Malcolm In The Middle and Happy Days.
Mind you, they were from the softy stable and never exactly had me grinning.
However, going way, way back the American studios unveiled gems like Camp Runamuck, Green Acres, F Troop and The Munsters and as laughter machines they did spark.
As did Taxi and Seinfeld despite being very deeply soaked in the ways of Noo York.
Like Last of the Summer Wine is deeply soaked in the Yorkshire dales where time appears to have stopped.
Play that in Detroit and there'd be calls of complaint ... and calls to at least have it subtitled.
I love the difference a big ocean makes, and Sky clearly does too as they square up the Brit/Yank factor in terms of what works for one side may not work for the other.
They have Comedy Central, which is an American cable and satellite station and which accordingly rolls out the likes of American Dad, How I Met Your Mother, Family Guy and That '70s Show and many more.
And they have BBC UKTV which revolves around the likes of 'Allo 'Allo, Keeping Up Appearances, The Vicar of Dibley, Fawlty Towers, etc, etc.
Then they have Jones which effectively is a bridge over the Atlantic as M*A*S*H leads into Last of the Summer Wine and Rising Damp follows ... while Happy Days and The Mary Tyler Moore Show are early evening items.
Interesting mix and if you were to watch one after the other you'll appreciate the art of scriptwriting for one side of the briny and the other.
Humour, like anything in the world of entertainment, is of course subjective so there is no shortage of what is often termed "comic relief" across the pay-to-view landscape so there's got to be something for everyone, as they say.
And no subtitles are involved ... despite the shambling lilt of Summer Wine's 'Compo'.
● Last of the Summer Wine, Jones at 7.30pm Thursday: And you will hear plenty of that wonderfully shambling lilt in this episode of one of the Brit-side of the Atlantic comedies.
Because 'Smiler" (the most inaccurately-named chap in Yorkshire) becomes Nora Batty's lodger.
And Compo is far from pleased.
This is one of the classic episodes in this series which was uncorked in 1973 and finally capped in 2010.
ON THE BOX
● Billy T James, Maori TV at 8pm Thursday: Ahh, a fine serving of Kiwi nostalgia which has aged nicely.
Billy T James was a shining beacon of New Zealand entertainment whose musical, acting and stand-up comedy skills were effectively unmatchable.
So of course his shows when he went on tour were always occasions for the theatre manager to unearth the "Sorry Sold Out" signage.
A great character who left the stage of life too early.
Always a treat to see this remarkable lad in entertaining action with clips from his live shows.
● The Chase, TV1 at 4.55pm weeknights: A couple of days back a question how old was Alice, the little girl in Alice and Wonderland?
Was she 7, 17 or 27.
The contestant chose 17.
Oh dear.
And there was one quite some time back where Bradley asked for the third Marx brother on the list of three to join Harpo and Chico.
One of the options was Karl and guess who the lad in the spotlight chose? Yep.
But hey, we're on the general subject of having a good laugh and this entertaining game show ticks the boxes on many occasions.