THe US has given us alot of watered down commercail material, but at the end of the day poeple pay for it, so i cant really say it's being forced down poeple's throats...
The US has given us: SONIC YOUTH (i cannot emphasise their greatness), REM, Nirvana (would have felt more at home in the UK in 77, but the fact they werent at home made them intresting, Sebadoh, pavement, just the whole late 80's early 90's alt thing! Dance music! Yes, I really like dance, just not the watery comerialised stuff that floods our charts, but it has really been furthered by the europeans... RAP! Grandmaster flash, takes great pride in my record collection...
To be honest though, I think we gave to the US more influence than the opposite, just because the US acts that cross over have been through the Whole commercaily minded american selection process, while the stuff here becomes popular with less of an emphasis on shifting units (which does tend to mean it flops with the mainstream, but you find it influences alot of musicains a few years down the line, take THE FALL as an example, or better still JOY DIVISION).
By the way, I really dislike most american comedy, with exception of the simpsons ranking pretty high up (yes, it's heretical, but it's not far from monty python), and at the other end JACK AS$! AMAZING tv program, the kind that young men up and down down the country would love to have made but didn't have the time or the guts (lets be honest)...