Interesting. In the UK there's a feeling in some quarters that it's been the other way round for a few years - that American comedy is currently sharper, better-produced and better-written than its British counterpart.

To back this up, none of the British programmes mentioned so far are less than ten years old (though I don't know "An Idiot Abroad"), and some recent UK sitcoms have been atrocious. My kids tell me that the newer generation of comedy is excellent, but I haven't seen any examples. I tend to stop at the early 2000s, "Father Ted" and "The Fast Show".

Standup is a different area entirely, of course. We see quite a few American and European comics over here, and they tend to go down well.