The American remake of Kath & Kim will make its US debut in NBC’s Thursday night timeslot, but even the trailers for the show are inspiring ridicule. NBC seems to have locked down a lot of footage which had been available online, but you can see some teasers on their official Kath & Kim website. There’s also a trailer on YouTube.

The Toledo Blade wonders whether something was lost in translation when remaking the Aussie show, saying “Kath & Kim has one note, and that note is whiny.”

“[Selma] Blair’s whiny, one-note performance wears thin in short order, and it falls to Shannon to do most of the comedic heavy lifting. Too bad she’s not up to the task. Her character is no more likable than Blair’s, and more often than not, her delivery is forced and unfunny. With time-slot competition like CBS’s Survivor: Gabon and ABC’s Ugly Betty, Kath & Kim’s chances for success aren’t very good. But truth be told, it wouldn’t be worth your time if it were the only show on.”

The San Francisco Chronicle opened its review by saying “Oh great, now we need to apologise to Australia.”

“By the end of the second episode, a stray thought occurred: Maybe an apology to Australia is unnecessary because the American version misses the mark so badly that it’s barely recognizable as a distant cousin to the original. For example, one of the great things about the original Kath & Kim, a mother-daughter comedy about cluelessness, tackiness, blind hope and failed expectations, is that it found humor in all of its well-drawn characters and situations.

In the American version, there’s no humor at all. So there’s your first big difference.”

Go Fug Yourself said NBC couldn’t even get the trailers for the show right. “The promos for Kath & Kim that ran during the Olympics deeply stank. To the point where I think I felt actual, physical pain. I would shake my fist at the sky and ask why, GOD, WHY, so many talented people are involved in something so potentially awful, but then I remember that Maid In Manhattan is not a figment of my (or Ralph Fiennes’) imagination, so … truly anything is possible. Ergo, I guess Selma Blair can’t be blamed for taking a pair of scissors to her dress. Those commercials would make anyone stabby.” [via Defamer]

But someone out there has to like it — BuzzSugar said the promos looked “delightful” but it seemed the nicest thing they could find to praise was the fashion (!?): “For one thing, it’s great to see Molly Shannon with a sassy, blonde haircut and some seriously out-there clothes. For another, I’m loving the attitude Selma Blair’s bringing to her role, falling somewhere between entitled princess and petulant teenager.”

If they’re praising the fashion in Kath & Kim either something’s gone horribly wrong in the translation process, or the oft-joked about American irony filter has kicked in.