CONTEXUAL STUDIES - GENRE - COMEDY

GENRE ANALYSIS

Genre is in 'French' means 'type' or 'kind'.
Genre for TV is always up for debate as we discussed in the lecture today, it is easy to put many TV shows under different umbrella's as it could have many different aspects within a show which can change through the course of viewing.




COMEDY

We discussed that there are many different types of genre in which we could even make up some of our own, the newest one that I got to hear was a genre called 'Zom-Com' which in hindsight is a zombie Comedy.

I recalled one type of Comedy which I enjoy watching, this is 'Slap-stick' I enjoy it because it's fast, tragic and un-realistic, as non of the Characters seem to get hurt.
The earliest slapstick that I have watched was on the silent movies of 'Laurel and 'Hardy' then as I got older I watched a spoof which was called 'The plank', this was a movie that is self explanatory, it is all about a plank of wood which has to be used on a construction site but there are many dilemmas to get the plank to the correct place.

          These are some more examples of comedy



We watched 3 types of Comedy today and we had to identify the differences between them which can come with the age and style of the programmes we had to look at:

• Character types.
• Settings - past/present-future-urban-rural-domestic-workplace.
• Iconography - costume-props-visual motifs-set/location.
• Narrative - certain kind of plot - is there a story and plot device.
• Style - what was the look and feel, cinematography, editing/film/video

Adams family.

Created By: David Levy

Aired: September 1964 - till 1966

Episodes: 64

Commissioned by: ABC

The characters in Adams family where evident to be different from the very beginning, the opening sequence was the family sitting on a chair with a song being played with the lyrics:

They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

Their house is a museum
When people come to see 'em
They really are a scream
The Addams Family.

[snap twice]
(Neat)
[snap twice]
(Sweet)
[snap twice]
(Petite)

So get a witch's shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams Family.
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/theaddamsfamilylyrics.html

So not only do the lyrics tell the audience about the family but the set behind them during the opening and throughout the episode is crazy and unusual, there where plants that where 'Really alive' and ate food out of Mortisha Adams hand and the most un-usual looking furniture.

Costumes - All the characters wore black clothes and had dark eyes and hair which also symbolises eeriness.

In the episode we did follow a plot but as I have seen the series before I do now that each episode is different and the audience haven't got to follow a narrative structure throughout the series, it can be put on the TV at any time and be easily watched without having to start from episode one.

This Comedy uses tragic events and turns that into comedy, for instance in this episode, Mortisha and Gomez Adams where upset that there son, Pudsley wanted to do normal things like join the boy scouts, play with a puppy and sports instead of wanted to play with his torture toys, so his parents get a shrink to help with the issue, however the shrink seems to think that he is doing weird and unusual things by looking a Mortisha and Gomez and visiting the house, the conclusion was that, Pudsley ended up going back to the weird child that his parents always wanted him to be.

Fawlty Towers.

Created By: John Cleese and Connie Booth

Aired: 1975 - till 1979

Episodes: 12

Commissioned by: BBC 2

Unlike the Adams Family the opening sequence was very short, however straight away there is a visual element that suggests that it is a comedy as the 'Fawlty Towers' sign spelt out a different name (Can not recall what it spelt)

The genesis of Fawlty Towers came when John Cleese and the rest of the Pythons went filming in the Southwest of England in May 1971. They were scheduled to spend two weeks at the Gleneagles in Torquay, but cut their stay to one night. It all had to do with the "wonderfully rude" hotel manager, the late Donald Sinclair.

Sinclair hated all the guests who had the short sightedness to stay in the Gleneagles. Worse, Sinclair was only 5'4" and was married to a large, domineering wife.

Cleese turned Sinclair into a character for a Doctor in the House script for the BBC in 1973. This was just after Cleese had finished his TV chores on Monty Python's Flying Circus. Cleese wanted to strike out with his now-separated wife, Connie Booth, so the BBC gave both the offer to do a series.

It didn't take long at all for Cleese and Booth to make the series out of that Torquay hotel, which they named Fawlty Towers. Cleese cast himself as manager Basil Fawlty, who felt that the main nuisances in a hotel were the guests. Wife Sybil Fawlty was Basil's equal and opposite, the competent co-owner who could lash out at Basil and win on the first stroke. ("We reversed the sizes [of manager and wife]," said the 6'4" Cleese.)

Rounding out the regular staff at Fawlty Towers were Andrew Sachs as Manuel, the dumb waiter from Barcelona who could not make sense of Basil's commands (¿Qué?), and Connie Booth as Polly, whose calmness was sorely tested in each of Basil's schemes and cover-ups.

While most sitcom writers spend two weeks turning out an episode, John Cleese and Connie Booth spent six weeks writing each episode of Fawlty Towers. Cleese said each program started with two or three plot threads, which start parallel, but begin to intertwine. The best shows, of course, are those in which the plot threads touch at the end. The production team spent nearly an hour editing each minute of every program, spending up to 25 hours on each show.

With such intense work put into each episode, Fawlty Towers drew raves around the world, exceeding the success of Monty Python's Flying Circus in some countries. But Cleese limited the run of Fawlty Towers to approximately twelve shows. He did not want to diminish the impact Fawlty Towers has had. And there has been plenty of impact. America tried three times to regenerate the show, none of which worked. 

Fresh prince of Bel -Air.

Created By: Andy Borwitz, Susan Browitz and Benny Medina.

Aired: 1990 - till 1996.

Episodes: 148 Episodes.

Commissioned by: NBC.

Fresh Prince is about a wealthy family living in Bel-Air, California, receives a dubious gift from their poorer relations in Philadelphia when Grammy Award-winner Will Smith arrives as The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. His mother wants him to learn some good old-fashioned values from his successful relatives. But Will shatters the sophisticated serenity of Bel-Air with his streetwise common sense, much to the dismay of his upper-crust uncle, Philip Banks (James Avery), Aunt Vivian (Janet Hubert-Whitten and Daphne Maxwell Reid) and three conceited cousins, Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro), Hilary (Karyn Parsons) and Ashley (Tatyana Ali) - and even the butler, Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell). As the Banks family opens their home - and their cheque book - to their needy relative, Will adapts easily to their indulgent lifestyle. Yet, he reminds everyone that the simplest pleasures of family life can't be bought at any price.

The opening sequence has simularitys to earlier comedies as there is also a Music intro telling the Audience what the back story is the Lyrics are as followed:

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighbourhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared

She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I could say that this cab was rare
But I thought 'Nah, forget it' - 'Yo, homes to Bel Air'

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air.

The Last show we watched was another British Show which was more recent:

Peep Show.

Created By: Jeese Armstrong, Sam Bain, Andrew O'Connor.

Aired: 2003 - till 2015.

Episodes: 54 Episodes.

Commissioned by: Channel Four.

Peep show is a serial Comedy with is executed very well, it is from the point of view of each character and shot in a unique way.

Essentially, a take on the odd couple, peep show revolves around the lives of Mark Corrigan and Jeremy Osbourne; two twenty-somethings who share a flat.

Mark works in an office and has a bleak outlook on life; he's infatuated with his colleague, Sophie Chapman. Jeremy, in contrast, is a lazy, shallow man trying to make it in the music industry.

A unique twist that immediately sets the show apart form other sitcoms is the use of the first person view point [the original show title was POV], where we get to see from the characters own eyes. We also get to hear internal thoughts and opinions which reveals things they wouldn't say out loud.

Unlike the other comedies we have watched peep show follow somewhat of a narrative structure, because there is an underlying plot of Mark wanting to get with Sophie, whom in the first series he only see's on the bus journey into work, however tragic circumstances get in the way each time he gets close to gaining her affections. 

Comedy has changed and developed throughout the years in style, set, costume, narrative and pace, however they all have something in common and this is that comedy is the un-comfortable truth of how REAL people are perceived.