‘The Inbetweeners’ star Joe Thomas says US remake failed because they didn’t cast “weirdos”

14 June, 2023

'The Inbetweeners'

The Inbetweeners star Joe Thomas has said he believes the US version of the series failed partly because they didn’t cast “weirdos”.

The actor, who played Simon in the British sitcom, discussed the US remake with his former co-stars Simon Bird and Blake Harrison during a panel at Comic Con North East in Newcastle last month (May 27-28).

When asked by a fan in the audience their views on the US version of the show, which was cancelled after its first season in 2012, Thomas said: “I think we can say it didn’t work. I think the reason it didn’t work is because… I think it’s a very British show.

“It’s ironic because actually in a way we were bouncing off that American genre of teen comedy. They did it first and we were riding on their shirt tails or whatever. There’s a sense of loserdom and failure in British comedy that kind of is represented in The Inbetweeners.”

Sharing his thoughts, Bird added: “It was just too sort of glossy wasn’t it? The cast was just too handsome. I mean look at us!”

“You’ve got to cast weirdos,” Thomas replied in agreement. “Find some weird looking people. The time they thought the show first might work was when they saw the four of us standing next to each other and they were like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s actually quite funny. That one’s quite tall, he’s got a weird haircut’.

“I think there’s a parochialism to the British show. I don’t know whether it’s just America feels like a bigger and in some ways more precarious, dangerous country where the stakes are a bit higher.

“It feels like in Britain, although they’ll fall, they’ll be caught somehow, like they’re going to be OK even though they’ve messed everything up. Maybe in America the idea of a literal, total abject failure is just not quite as, you’re like, ‘Oh god, that might just be really terrible’.”

He added: “I’m not surprised it didn’t work and I don’t think it was the fault of anyone who was in it. I just think it doesn’t translate, that kind of sense of it.”

The US version of The Inbetweeners starred Joey Pollari, Bubba Lewis, Alex Frnka, Zack Pearlman and Mark L. Young. The original show’s creators, Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, served as executive producers on the US version which aired on MTV.

In the UK, The Inbetweeners ran for three seasons from 2008 to 2010 on E4. The show’s success spawned two feature films in 2011 and 2014.

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