British humor doesn't appeal to everyone, but those who enjoy it often have their favorite characters. More so than in the United States and other countries, Britain has a fascination with comedic characters, and they're often discussed and ranked independently of the shows they originate from. This is partly because a popular character can often transcend their show, going on to appear in other shows and movies, and even other media like books and radio shows.

The funniest British TV shows often trade in awkward humor, cringe comedy and intelligent banter. Naturally, some characters are better suited to this style than others, and they can develop fan bases of their own. The key to these characters is that they can be funny in pretty much any situation, as opposed to characters from other countries who only exist within the worlds of their specific shows.

Philomena Cunk is a late addition to the list of hilarious British comedy characters, having first appeared as a minor character in Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe in 2013. More recently, Diane Morgan has played Cunk in some shows of her own, starting with Cunk on Britain, a series which sends the dim-witted reporter on a journey to explore British history and culture. She has since expanded her scope with Cunk on Earth and Cunk on Life.

Each show starring Cunk is a rapid-fire assault of hilarious gags, as Morgan's deadpan delivery makes the most out of her character's laughably inept and disinterested style of TV presenting. Many of Philomena Cunk's best quotes have come in her interviews with respected historians, scientists and scholars, showing that Morgan can be quick on her feet to match the brilliant scripted jokes that make up the bulk of the show. With Netflix recently giving Cunk on Life a global release,

, but it's Mark Corrigan who sits at the eye of the storm, anxiously clinging on while Jez, Super Hans, Sophie, Dobby and just about everyone else try to shake him from his life of cautious inactivity. Mark is the perfect foil for Jez's laissez-faire attitude and hare-brained schemes, but his mature posturing barely conceal the fact that he has just as many problems of his own.

Many of Peep Show's best episodes feature Mark having some sort of crisis of confidence or desperately trying to backpedal out of a situation slightly beyond the rigid borders of his comfort zone. A good example is "Holiday," in which Mark's leisurely bachelor party devolves from a weekend of chess and cruising on a canal to the point that he and Jez are forced to burn a dead dog in the woods. David Mitchell perfectly captures Mark's stick-in-the-mud nature, his misplaced sense of pride and his flimsy English sangfroid.

Del Boy - or Derek Trotter, to give him his full name - is a market trader from South London with dreams of getting rich quick. He often says to his brother "This time next year, we'll be millionaires," but the reality never quite pans out that way, and his schemes invariably blow up in his face. Del Boy's relentless optimism means that he's soon coming up with his next plan, slinging his brother along.

, and Only Fools and Horses ran for longer than most British sitcoms, so there are plenty of great episodes for fans to see Del Boy at his best. As a compulsive liar who seems more interested in the status of wealth than the material benefits, Del Boy often representes the "yuppie" archetype, but he proves that he has a good heart when his family are in need.

Before he was the star of Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi was famous for a completely different kind of role. Capaldi plays Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed political operator in Armando Iannucci's Westminster satire The Thick Of It. Fans of Iannucci's later series Veep will probably find a lot to love in The Thick Of It, with Malcolm being the standout character. A typical episode follows him berating his colleagues as he tries to put out the fires of political scandal wherever they spring up.

Malcolm Tucker is a seasoned master in the art of insulting people. Watching him launch into an expletive-filled tirade against a sheepish civil servant is like watching Monet with a paintbrush in his hand. , which is typically filled with the incompetent or the self-serving. Malcolm is the only character in politics who speaks his mind and conducts himself authentically. He also appears in the movie In the Loop, in which he gets a taste of American politics.

The Vicar of Dibley is a popular show in Britain, but it deserves a big audience overseas, like some of co-writer Richard Curtis' other projects, Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary. The Vicar of Dibley stars Dawn French as Geraldine Granger, the first female vicar in a small pastoral town. As she tries to settle in, she constantly butts heads with the eccentric locals, who are stuck in their ways.

Geraldine isn't a typical vicar, but she's just what's needed to shake up the backwards village of Dibley. The village is populated with oddballs, so Geraldine is often the only normal character in the room, especially at parish meetings. She has her own quirks, however, and her fun-loving nature can often land her in trouble. As the show progresses, she learns to live alongside the locals, and they become her trusted friends.

Each season of Blackadder takes place in a different time period, so Edmund Blackadder is technically four different characters in the same family tree. The first season shows Blackadder as a half-wit, with his servant Baldrick being the more intelligent of the two. The remaining three seasons strike upon a formula that works much better, with Blackadder being the shrewd, cunning operator while Baldrick is frightfully stupid.

Blackadder is a hilarious character, no matter what historical period he's in. , caught between the pompous idiocy of the upper class and the uneducated peasant class. Blackadder is often the smartest and most rational person in the room, but this rarely means that he gets his way or that he has any chance of changing his fortunes. Rowan Atkinson handles his intelligent, erudite dialogue with ease.

Fleabag only ran for two seasons, but Phoebe Waller-Bridge's comedy-drama still had a huge impact. Waller-Bridge developed the show from her own one-woman play, so the character of Fleabag has some elements of her. The moniker Fleabag is a stand-in, since the character's real name is never revealed in the show. This gives her a universal quality, and

Fleabag's constant breaking of the fourth wall reveals a lot about the main character, not just in terms of her private thoughts, but also in the gulf between how she sees herself and how others perceive her. She has a joke for every occasion, but the blatant artifice of the show highlights the fact that she's unable to deal with her own life without seeing it through the lens of fiction. The ending of Fleabag underlines this point, providing the perfect send-off for one of Britain's funniest and most interesting TV characters.

, and his character David Brent is a cringe comedy icon. There are many differences between the different versions of The Office, and the differences between David Brent and Michael Scott highlight the divide. David has no redeemable qualities, and he only starts to seem like a decent human being in the very last episode. Otherwise, he is obnoxious, narcissistic and thoroughly uncool.

David displays a complete lack of self-awareness, whether he thinks he's impressing everyone with his dance moves or whether he thinks he's a popular boss. It's a mystery how he ever got into a position of power, but he sees his role as vindication of his egotistical nature. David doesn't need any external validation to feel emboldened, however, and he's constantly annoying everyone around the office with his lame remarks and self-aggrandizing ideas. Gervais reprized his role as David in an episode of the US version of The Office, as well as the movie David Brent: Life On the Road.

Internationally, John Cleese is probably most famous for the Monty Python movies, but he also created a classic British sitcom in the 1970s. Fawlty Towers is set in a dingy hotel in Torquay, with Cleese playing the rude, tense hotel owner Basil Fawlty. He isn't the kind of person who suits customer-facing roles, and he arrogantly thinks of himself as superior to both the customers and his staff. His bossy wife is the only person he never has a comeback for.

Basil is quick to anger, and even quicker to get himself worked up over very little. , so it's even worse when any inconvenience raises its head. Some of the most memorable episodes include "Gourmet Night," in which Basil makes a disastrous attempt to elevate the hotel's cuisine, and "The Germans," in which Basil takes over his wife's duties while she's in hospital.

Alan Partridge started out as a character on radio shows, but he has since been on TV and in movies, written books and embarked on a sell-out live tour. Steve Coogan's tactless, fame-hungry broadcaster is now more popular than many of Britain's real-life presenters and media personalities. He's the epitome of faux-intellectual, overly self-conscious charlatans of little substance who somehow wind up on TV.

There have been plenty of different projects starring Alan Partridge, but the best is arguably the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge. Many of his shows are specific parodies of British cultural staples, like how This Time With Alan Partridge spoofs The One Show, but I'm Alan Partridge has a much broader appeal as a sitcom about a talentless hack trying and failing to claw his way back into the spotlight. Alan Partridge has helped inspire a whole generation of British cringe comedy. He's a character who's easy to laugh at, but there's also something sympathetic about him.