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Sitcom Yawn
By Maree Amor of Textworx
What is it about so many so-called "sitcoms" that are about as funny as dropping an anvil on your foot? Do the producers think our laughs will issue forth as readily as the "canned" variety? I don't know about you, but a great comedy is as rare as hen's teeth in our neck of the woods. Night after night I notice the promos for the current crop of (mostly American) sitcoms and immediately decide that hoovering my belly-button will be much more amusing. There are rare gems that really nail some aspect of life - whether it's portraying someone similar to a person we might know, or a situation relevant to us. Just so as you know that I'm not unfairly criticising any particular country's productions, one of my favourite shows was (and still is)"Frasier". It is very intelligently written, superbly acted and brilliantly cast. Some of the humour is very subtle and likely to go over the heads of those less in tune with the characters' nuances. However, part of this show's success is the clever combination of subtlety, double entendre, physical humour and sometimes gags hovering on the edge of political incorrectness. Of course, "timing is everything" with comedy, and this show proves that. Shows such as "Frasier" also imbue us with a sense that's OK to laugh at ourselves - a quality which is too often overlooked or thought of as "taboo". The British and Australians are particularly good at what we call "taking the Mickey" out of ourselves (a phrase which probably stems from many of our ancestors from the UK/Ireland). I believe that some of the best humour comes from the darkest of places, and is a way of coping - or at least forgetting that which is bad in our lives. Perhaps that is why some of the current sitcoms are so bland i.e. that for the most part (besides some terrible tragedies affecting the masses), most people's lives in the Western world are fairly good. I have just read someone else's opinion about the TV show M*A*S*H which bears out this theory, and while many scenes are downright heartbreaking, for the most part the characters and plots show how the use of humour (and taking comedic shots at each other) can help in a terrible situation. Then there are some shows that will work in one geographical area and not in others because of local colloquialisms and vernacular. Australia's "Kath & Kym" is a prime example of this, proving extremely popular at home and in the UK, but when adapted for US television, it lost all that was originally funny. It is not possible to "get it" when the viewer has no idea about the subtleties of the humour, which relate to life and lifestyle at a very local level. It's like "Frasier" but aimed at a more specific audience - and there's one big difference to most sitcoms - no canned laughter to say "laugh here"! So you're either in on the joke or you're not. That's the skill of the writers (who both have starring roles) and producers. I think a great deal of superb comedy writing and acting are achieved via the same principles as any successful written work. The gems come from the basics of life and the subjects we know best, skillfully and honestly portrayed. Writers need to have the talent to pick-up on all that is amusing (and all that is not) to produce great comedy. So to all those mediocre/poor sitcom writers out there, I say "Can it!". |
Textworx
| pHunny Science
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May, 2012
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