As I just commented above, I do think The Office fundamentally maintained this foundation of comedic failure, but I also think it wouldn't have worked as well for American audiences (and indeed, wasn't working as well in the first season because of this) if not for the much larger emphasis on the likable-character love story with Jim and Pam. Maybe the upshot is that you can have a British edge in American comedy, as long as you sand it down a bit with some other element.

I see a similar kind of dynamic in Parks and Recreation, which is maybe a more culturally native take on the same kind of show, where Leslie is also ultimately a comedic failure, but with the edge sanded down by a certain amount of (mostly fruitless) competence and especially a seemingly inexhaustible well of enthusiasm and optimism that can't help but infect most of the people around her.

> That Red Dwarf pilot was actually fine except for the bizarre choice of making Lister a hunk

I doubt the character of Ace Rimmer [what a guy!] would have translated at all.

Jim is the hero of the US version of the Office

He doesn't succeed so much at work but he does in his personal life

Robert California and Dwight were the clear heroes of the American version of the office.