Maybe it's got something to do with the tweed and the accent, but we Americans tend to think of the British as intellectuals. Yet their comedians seem obsessed with the cheap laughs that come with men dressing up like women. Monty Python, Benny Hill, even Shakespeare knew how to milk a laugh out of men in drag, and "Little Britain" follows in their absurd comic tradition.

"Little Britain," performed by the comic duo of Matt Lucas and David Walliams, has scored on the other side of the pond and recently moved stateside to air the sketch comedy show on HBO.

The debut of "Little Britain USA" was a tease - it only aired six episodes, which are now out on DVD, and the hit-to-miss ratio with laughs was pretty high.

For the uninitiated, Lucas is the shorter, rounder one, while Walliams is taller and less convincing in a dress.

"Little Britain USA" is a scattershot show and the skits are more hit-and-run than the ones on "Saturday Night Live." Some sketches seem to drag on for what seem like hours, fumbling for a commercial break to put them out of their misery.

Lucas and Walliams have brought a lot of their staple characters from the British version of the show here as well, like motor-mouthed teenage delinquent Vickie Pollard, seen above. But some of the less familiar characters are instant classics too, like a hospital receptionist lacking people skills, a bitter old astronaut and a pair of pumped-up gym rats who snap towels and trade not-so-subtle homoerotic banter.

To help make their splash in America, the boys tapped a few U.S. fans like Rosie O'Donnell and Paul Rudd for appearances. Rosie's is priceless, as she is mercilessly ridiculed at a Fat Fighters meeting.

Not every skit is a gem, but the short first season is a promising start. Something tells me there will be more from Little Britain, which is to say, more women with suspicious five o'clock shadows.

Now for a look at what else is new on DVD: in "Vicky Christina Barcelona," Woody Allen sets a love triangle in Spain; in "Appaloosa," Ed Harris tackles a western; and in "Swing Vote," Kevin Costner dabbles in politics.