In all cases, in an actcom it is the actions that are incongruous, not the characters or thought. Domcoms illustrate the effects of behavior by characters that is incongruous with the established norms of behavior. In this way, the characters can be shown aligning their attitudes and actions with the norms. Barbara ONE DAY AT A TIME is pressured by her boyfriend to go to bed with him, and the conflict within herself is shown, until she aligns herself with the established norm of avoiding sexual relations until mature enough to handle them.
In all domcoms , it is the established norms of behavior by characters that is used to provide incongruity for humorous effect, rather than actions or thought. The dramedy holds societal norms up for examination by illustrating them in extreme cases. Attitudes on sex, crime, war, patriotism, race, religion, etc. He is shown in conflict with those whose attitudes and beliefs run counter to his. However, unlike other types of situation comedies, the characters in a dramedy do not hold the societal norms: the norms are the foundation from which they depart, their attitudes and actions incongruous with the norms in order to hold the norms up for examination.
The actcom only appeals to the intellect in that it does not have an emotional content: the characters do not react in a fashion that could create a real emotion e. The domcom can and does appeal to the emotions of the audience, but only as a byproduct of illustrating growth in the character as he or she copes with an emotional situation.
In any case, the emotion is shortlived as it is often maudlin and ended with a short comic scene, to relieve the emotion. The dramedy is the only form of situation comedy that has emotional appeal as a regular part of the effect of the show. The intellect is appealed to during the examination of the societal norm, but emotion is used to show the effect of the societal norm on the characters.
In all cases, the actions and attitudes are perceived by the audience as harmless: people are not physically, mentally, or emotionally hurt by the events that occur. Even in the domcom , in which a character's emotions may be whipsawed by events, the audience is still aware that by the end the character will not only be spiritually unharmed but will be happier than before.
Only in a dramedy is there a chance that a character will be harmed, and those moments are not humorous: they many be poignant, sad, or horrifying, but they are not funny. However, in the last several years sitcoms have begun taking chances, violating the norms, ideas or attitudes of the ideal "Middle American" family in such a way that some people seem them as harmful and therefore not funny. Those people that actually adhere to those norms feel insulted because their attitudes are being held up to ridicule, and thus they feel harmed by such humor.
Therefore, the casts consist of biological families or makeshift families formed of roommates or friends. The precinct is not always the only location and almost all shows include a number of bases for the characters to interact in, both in private and public. It is rare that a sitcom only centres on one place. But it is vital for your own sitcom writing experience that the characters have a location where they can all meet. There, they can link up to go on a variety of antics.
So far, all we have is a part of the situation. A sitcom will not succeed unless it has characters who are funny. The comedy has to come from somewhere intrinsically tied to who that character is. When writing comedic characters, Judd Apatow often starts by reading self-help books, which allow him to think psychologically about his characters and build them from flaws and insecurities.
This is a good example of how even comedic characters need depth. A basis of contradictory personalities and conflict is integral to every sitcom and to comedy in general. It is the first thing you should be considering when creating your characters in your sitcom. To continue the earlier pizzeria example, it is important to create a makeshift family that all contradict each other. This may mean ensuring that one pizza chef is an Italian pizza purist, while another is an advocate of hot dog stuffed crusts, for example.
Therefore, as demonstrated by Frasier , it is crucial to have an ensemble cast with conflict built in to their very personalities. The humour within Frasier comes from distinctions in personalities and differences in reactions to the situations that they find themselves in within each episode. Another important consideration to take into account when writing a sitcom is what form it will take.
This will determine how the script will be written. Forms of sitcom include:. There are many different comedic genres within comedy. Sitcoms often use a combination of styles and genres within them.
Watching and studying shows like those listed below will give you a good understanding of the potential breadth of genre within the crafting of a sitcom:. These different comedic genres can have different functions. When misapplied or inappropriate their strength can feel undermined. Sitcom story structure can be viewed similarly to the scriptwriting of any television show or film, just condensed to a minute script. When writing a sitcom the three-act structure can be applied as with every other genre of film or TV.
Friends Season 1 Episode 5: The One with the East German Laundry Detergent demonstrates sitcom story structure well as it has three separate plots that all rapidly go through the three-act structure.
It demonstrates how sitcoms both use the traditional film three-act structure but also have unique elements to their form as well. The friends are all gathered in the coffee shop. During the first act, they split up into pairs, creating three separate plots with two main characters in each. A Plot: Ross and Rachel agree to meet and do laundry. Ross is nervous when he convinces himself that it is a date and wants it to go well. Rachel wants to do her own laundry to feel independent.
B Plot: Chandler wants to break up with his girlfriend, Janice. Phoebe wants to break up with her boyfriend, Tony. C Plot: Joey wants to take his ex-girlfriend, Angela, on a date. So, he convinces Angela to go on a double date.
Angela and her new boyfriend will go on a double date with Joey and Monica. All three subplots go through mild, comedic obstacles to achieve their goals, which were established in the first act. A Plot : Ross and Rachel go to the laundrette. Ross proceeds to teach her to do laundry. B Plot : Phoebe easily breaks up with her boyfriend while Chandler is unable to break up with Janice.
Chandler breaks the news to Janice and she reacts negatively. Structuring Humo Seinfeld NBC, , perhaps the most popular sitcom of recent years, famously insisted it was a show about nothing, about the pettiest details of everyday life.
Though Seinfeld remains most outspoken about its obsession with trivia, the series in fact simply exaggerated one of the founding principles of the situation comedy: its humor is rooted in the mundane nature of the everyday. This focus on minutiae extends to the very nature of its humor; from The Honeymooners CBS, to Modern Family ABC, present , show writers have relied on quick repartee and clever one-liners to keep the audience laughing.
Interestingly, the rapid-fire nature of this fundamentally domestic comedy is in marked contrast to the very serious aspects of the sitcom, the morally motivated soliloquies that intend to teach characters a lesson. The disparity of bursts of humor and extended principled soliloquies constitute the crux of this paradoxical art form, whose unity stems from its relatability whether it be in terms of inside jokes about the American Zeitgeist or the familiarity of its characters and setting.
I would like to examine this structural dichotomy, both as it was established by classic sitcoms, and as it has been redefined and subverted by more contemporary versions. It was among the first formats to appear on the small screen, adapted directly from radio sitcoms of the period, and its popularity has never since waned in the American television landscape. This article hopes to examine how the characteristic brevity of the form, and the rapid-fire nature of its humor, is in fact coupled with a slower-paced desire for moral lessons—a soul to accompany its wit.
The tension between fast and slow, between humor and morality, will be shown as both a staple of the sitcom, and an ever-evolving relationship within the genre. Perhaps the most popular sitcom of recent years, Seinfeld NBC, , famously insisted it was a show about nothing, about the pettiest details of everyday life, from preferred brands of food to the ethics of using handicapped parking. In blatant contrast to that other successful product of the late twentieth century, the science fiction extravaganza, there is no epic scale, no death-defying incidents, no saving the world.
Once television became widespread, 2 sitcom aesthetic traditions, for example, remained fairly similar throughout the first odd years of its history, with the half-hour format, the flat lighting that allows for both close-ups and wider shots without changing lighting cues, and the requisite studio audience and recorded laugh track before multiple cameras. Likewise, the conformity of the sitcom is often social, apparent in the world presented to the viewer, which was long an idealized one, especially in terms of gender roles and middle-class social expectations.
It is only with the turn of the century that these traditions started to be subverted again, notably with the absence of a laugh track and a single-camera format which has been associated with increased realism in series such as Malcolm in the Middle, Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Scrubs, a fashion that continues to be common today. The sitcom, emerging at the tail end of the s alongside the television itself, bore witness to the conformism borne of the horrors of the Second World War.
A generation forged in the fire of the war sought placidity and sameness on the homefront: stable nuclear families, a nation of identically constructed Levittowns. Television was a product of the same enforced consensus.
It would mirror America, not necessarily as it was, but as it should be: peaceable, middle-class, eternally unchanging. Austerlitz 8. A characteristic example from The Brady Bunch shows wide-eyed, innocent Cindy get her weekly dressing-down:.
MIKE: I think the time has come for a little one-sided discussion, here. Hop up there. Grown-ups have that same problem. But you have to learn when to keep quiet. Is that clear? See video below. If this was all there was to the sitcom, a rigid enforcement of aesthetic and societal norms with a morality solemnly attached, one might reasonably wonder at their popularity.
The situation comedy is a genre, however, where the idea of paradox is implicit in almost every aspect. Mintz gives of the genre:. Sitcoms are generally performed before live audiences , whether broadcast live in the old days or filmed or taped, and they usually have an element that might almost be metadrama in the sense that since the laughter is recorded sometimes even augmented , the audience is aware of watching a play, a performance, a comedy incorporating comic activity.
Mintz Such characters were depicted even farther back with the many immigrant comedies like The Goldbergs CBS, staging Jewish characters or in Beulah ABC, , the first show with an African-American lead, which made it clear that conformity could exist according to different models, and was often only an overlay of normality with underlying weirdness. Unlike stand-up comedy, for example, which depends on extended riffing to set up a single punchline, the sitcom has traditionally demanded a much quicker output of humor, grounded in familiar situations and characters both in the series itself and in relation to the experience of the audience.
The disparity of extended principled soliloquies and bursts of humor, of soul and wit, constitute the crux of the paradoxical art form, whose unity stems from its relatability, whether it be in terms of inside jokes about the American Zeitgeist or the familiarity of its characters and setting.
I would like to examine this structural dichotomy, both as it was established by classic sitcoms of the 50s and 60s, and as it has been redefined and subverted by more contemporary versions in shows like Community NBC, present , The Office NBC, , or Parks and Recreation NBC, present. The lead characters, from solemn father Mike Brady, or any of his kin from Father Knows Best, Ozzy and Harriet, The Andy Griffith Show and so on , or the strong but understanding women putting up with largely male hijinks from Harriet of Ozzy and Harriet , or Laura in The Dick Van Dyke Show , to the long-suffering Jill in Home Improvement , are often straight men that act as foils to the zany sidekicks:.
The sitcom was devoted to a certain kind of star—one whose familiarity and affability encouraged viewers to return, week after week, for our scheduled time with them. But even the most appealing sitcom stars […] required someone off whom they could bounce their comic ideas Austerlitz ROB: [Grimacing, then shaking his head excessively; laughter heard in the background] No, no. I mean… [uneasily] Why be nervous?
The doorbell rings, and both Rob and Laura spring up anxiously. They run to the door, then each turns away from it and pushes the other towards it, neither being willing to open the door and begin the blind date.
Laura inhales deeply to calm herself, and opens the door. Laughter throughout. Laura speaks with excessive and thus clearly feigned enthusiasm] Hi, Sally! She marches from the door to the couch where Thomas is waiting. Are you still single? Camera cuts to Rob, who closes his eyes in consternation. I thought he looked a little young for an old inventor.
Laughter] Oh, yes. Oh, of course! Camera cuts to Rob, biting his finger in anxiety]. Did your doctor ever tell you to try Chlorachlosine hydrochloride? Camera cuts to Rob, then Laura, both laughing uncomfortably].
You see, Miss Rogers, your body—. Cut to kitchen, Laura and Rob entering]. ROB: Gosh, I hope so. Any other guy would have punched her in the nose! ROB: I told him you were the life of the party. Jokes for any occasion. Rob, are you sure there were no phone calls for me? You look like a cheerleader for an accident.
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