Sitcom Essay
How Has the Television Sitcom Changed Over Time?
Looking back at sitcom it used to be very slap sticky in the sense that, physical hurt, Walking into doors and lampposts and over dramatic slapping was the humour of T.V Sitcom for example some mothers do ave em’ and Faulty Towers, those types of sitcoms also used canned laughter.
Also the type of characters have changed along with that the types of jokes,
But looking at sitcom as a whole, they have become rather routine and formulaic as a result viewers were practically watching the same thing over and over again making them lose interest as the plot would be predictable.
As time went on subgenre comedies such as Scrubs which is a dramedy Friends an Actcom and My Family a Dom Com which altogether is a hybrid changed the conventions of a typical sitcom.
Even newer sitcoms wanted to experiment with change such as documentary and socialrealism type subgenres but do people really like change?
These included the office and Flight of the concords which got rid of things like canned laughter and was actually filmed on set whereas for example Friends is located on a stage/prepared set.
In the 1980’s because Britain was becoming much more ethnical
T.V sitcom started to expand, from then a lot did, bringing new culture to comedy for example Desmonds in the early 1990’s who is a Black Guyanese and even everybody hates Chris which is based around a black family living in America, in a white populated area dealing with the troubles of everyday life.
The roles of certain genders in sitcom too have changed, in early sitcom such as I love Lucy and even nowadays The Simpson’s portray women as housewives, leaving the 90’s behind women in sitcom started to represent women in society because the roles of housewives were not so major after the 90’s women became more independent and free able to go get a job and do their own thing for example Rachel from Friends.
So as the years moved on so did Sitcom it became more diverse as before it featured a main white cast.
Sitcom has somewhat made them audience fragmented, in the past comedy were for the family and soap operas were aimed at women, now sitcom can be found for young audience such as children these shows include The Suite life on deck and That’s so Raven and then for teenagers Gavin and Stacey there the comedies aimed at adults and older viewers such as the Office.
Over all the audience for sitcom has become more sophisticated as they are aware of the formulaic structure of comedy and have become immune to what comedy is about and need new more original ideas.
Music Video Analysis
The Fear (Lily Allen) The Fear by Lily Allen, this is the music video that this essay is analysing, the song is about fame and what the affect of being famous has on the person. This is an interesting song and video because the video shows a luxurious lifestyle and yet the lyrics of the song are saying that all that wealth and fame is not all glamour and gold. The music video of ‘The fear’ is quite a hybrid genre, the simple fact that she has used a caravan in her video makes it hybrid It gives the viewer the festival, Indie vibe but Lily Allen herself is capable of connecting with a range of audiences, at the start of the video you see Lily Allen in a field inside of a caravan then it turns into a mansion, the significance of starting this song in a field would be that it shows how celebrities pretty much start of with a simple life. In this video lily Allen has dancing butlers this is making fun of the celebrity way of living, because in a way it makes them look quite stupid, in contrast to Holly valances ‘kiss kiss’ the men she has in her video give off a more sexual vibe, that’s what lily Allen is talking about, the way once you become a celebrity people have a certain expectancy of you. Just like fame, lily Allen shows that not everything is real because in her video she has dancing balloon people and people dressed as presents that could be seen as a way of saying that nothing lasts forever and at any moment you could be left with nothing, also the back of her caravan turns into a mansion. At the end lily Allen walks out of the mansion- walking away from all the fame which then has a red ribbon, tied around it. She’s showing fame to be surreal, presents coming alive before her. Lily Allen has a wide range of audiences because she can cross over from genre to genre. She’s quite popular with festival goers, but at the same time the same people that listen to Jay-z will be interested in her music, as Jay-z also does festivals. Lily Allen is signed to an independent label but that label is owned by a major therefore they have the power to make Lily Allen huge but being signed to an independent label means she’s more independent to do what she wants. Personally I do not listen to lily Allen but I think that the video and what the song is about is really good because actually it’s conveying points that need to be noticed and for that reason I like the song as for the video I to like it because when you think about the lyrics and you watch what’s happening, I find it entertaining, however having a person who is indeed famous sing about that life in such a negative way I found quite hypercritical.
A Response to ‘Flight Of The Conchordes’
Well I’ve never heard of them so watching it for the first time it was definitely different i didnt immediatley look away when it did not appeal to me as funny. It wasn’t glossy like other sitcoms such as ‘ Two and A Half Men’ or ‘Friends’ . yeah It had it’s funny moments where for example they burst out with a rap riding down a streets of New York on their bikes, it was different to stereotypical sitcom, no canned laughter or being staged it almost felt like it was being documented, the humor was not very sophisticated however a bit silly. i don’t think that this particular sitcom is aimed at teenagers per say because of the actors themselves, scenery and the kind of jokes being used for example making jokes out of racism. Us as teenagers may not find it particularly amusing.
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