Comedies From Around the World That Travel Well

A joke can travel without losing the place it came from. These comedies offer clear character conflicts, physical business or recognisable social rituals, while keeping the language and local detail that make them worth seeking out. Derry Girls brings a particular Northern Irish adolescence, Panchayat a Hindi-speaking village office, and Call My Agent! a Paris talent agency. Some benefit from a little historical or institutional context, which the entries supply. Subtitles cannot preserve every pun, and not every choice is gentle, but embarrassment, pretension and the awkward work of living with other people open many doors.