Rob (To Alvy): We do the show live in front if an audience.
Alvy: Great, but nobody laughs 'cause your jokes aren't funny.
Rob: Yeah, well, that's why this machine is dynamite.
That sums it up for me. Canned laughter is a sign that you should be laughing, but you aren't. It's forced. A good comedy makes you laugh because it's funny, but a lazy comedy has to indicate when you should be laughing. It's what put me off Friends, it's what put me off Big Bang Theory (along with a bunch of other stuff I wont get into), and it was what initially put me off The IT Crowd. The bulk of the humour in The IT Crowd revolves around making fun of Chris O'Dowd's and Richard Ayoade's socially awkward, introverted man-children and all their cringy social encounters, and Katherine Parkinson's computer illiteracy and her incongruity in an IT department.
Richard Ayoade is always funny, but the actual jokes are often slapstick, much like 'good old-fashioned comedy', as in it's very obvious and heavy-handed lacking subtlety and wit. From I've seen, the plots twists and turns are dictated by how deep the introverts can dig themselves into the pit of social awkwardness, channelling the Mariana Trench, but it can sometimes be funny or at least mildly humorous. There is always potential comedy in three people who know little about social interactions indulging in social interactions.
As far as introverts go, there are a wide range of introverts that The IT Crowd depicts, unlike The Big Bang Theory which simply depicts all nerds and basement-dwelling troglodytes. There's the buttoned-up, 31-but-lives-with-his-mum stereotypically geeky type, the lazy, sloppy, poorly-dressed introvert with the work ethic of an overweights house-cat with no legs, and the obligatory woman character who has to be grouped with these nerds, but is no more introverted than them. She may be a Luddite, but is mainly independent who doesn't fall to gender conventions like many other Luddite-esque women. It's mostly obvious and silly, but it make me laugh quite a few times, so if it's intention was to make me laugh, then it succeeds as a comedy, I guess.
Richard Ayoade is always funny, but the actual jokes are often slapstick, much like 'good old-fashioned comedy', as in it's very obvious and heavy-handed lacking subtlety and wit. From I've seen, the plots twists and turns are dictated by how deep the introverts can dig themselves into the pit of social awkwardness, channelling the Mariana Trench, but it can sometimes be funny or at least mildly humorous. There is always potential comedy in three people who know little about social interactions indulging in social interactions.
As far as introverts go, there are a wide range of introverts that The IT Crowd depicts, unlike The Big Bang Theory which simply depicts all nerds and basement-dwelling troglodytes. There's the buttoned-up, 31-but-lives-with-his-mum stereotypically geeky type, the lazy, sloppy, poorly-dressed introvert with the work ethic of an overweights house-cat with no legs, and the obligatory woman character who has to be grouped with these nerds, but is no more introverted than them. She may be a Luddite, but is mainly independent who doesn't fall to gender conventions like many other Luddite-esque women. It's mostly obvious and silly, but it make me laugh quite a few times, so if it's intention was to make me laugh, then it succeeds as a comedy, I guess.
'socially awkward, introverted man-children': perceptive but frame your topic sentence as a point that the sitcom genre draws on stereotypes. Your final paragraph is excellent on stereotyping but needs examples and ideally quotations from dialogue.
ReplyDelete'comedy in three people who know little about social interactions': give specific instances.
'the actual jokes are often slapstick': good observation but give instances.
Is the audience positioned as omniscient? Can you link this to the 4 areas of audience pleasures? For example, 'the target audience of younger males aged 15-45 would share with Moss and Roy their computer expertise and therefore a sense of omniscience when compared to the ignorant co-workers that the IT team have to support, but the target audience also feel positioned as superior to Moss and Roy when it comes to social skills, as..."
Grade B