First look: The U.S remake of The Inbetweeners

Have you ever woken up with the room spinning, feeling nauseous, accompanied by the thought that your day’s ruined before it’s even begun?

That’s exactly how you might have felt if you got up this morning and watched the trailer for MTV’s U.S remake of The Inbetweeners, which has so far amassed an impressive 31 likes and 2,297 dislikes — presumably from angry British teenagers.

They have a reason to be exasperated, though, as there are no words available to describe the abomination that is this transatlantic port. Well, actually, there are: shit, bollocks and twatting gash to name a few. To be fair to it though, the full episodes may improve upon trailer, which is basically just an assortment of Americanised gags and put-downs lifted from the British version.

A few years ago, it seemed that a few people actually forgave and — whisper it — enjoyed the U.S remake of The Office, but it’s difficult to envisage the new version of The Inbetweeners doing anything but crashing and burning before fading into obscurity.

Take the new Jay, for example, who resembles Eric Cartman more than his floppy blonde haired British counterpart. Jay, as we know, used nob jokes and overtly sexual language as a defence mechanism due to a belittlement-filled upbringing by the hands of his dad. It made him endearing, in a way, whereas the American Jay just comes across as gratuitously crude and annoying, cracking gags about “re-nobbing Will’s mum”, renob spelling ‘boner’ backwards and, well, you’ll have to watch the trailer to discover its hilariously unfunny definition.

It’s possible that the U.S version may completely eschew any explanations as to why its characters behave like they do in favour of churning out gags in order to satisfy its audience. Granted, the British version didn’t exactly go to Peep Show levels of explaining why its characters behaved like they did either – just enough to make them that bit more relatable — but it made all the difference and, ultimately, it was the characters that people loved about the show.

Movies like Superbad and American Pie have proved that they’re just as good at doing this sort of thing across the pond in a manner tailored for their own brand of youth culture, which differs somewhat to how it is in Britain, posing issues for straight ports like The Inbetweeners.

It’s not been ‘nicked’ from us, though, as in reality the show’s creators were probably all too happy to sell the rights to MTV. It went as far as it could in the UK (the drab Fresh Meat was testament to how it might have panned out if it continued), so why not make a few dollars in the process? It’ll be forgotten about in a year.

Hopefully…