{"id":663,"date":"2012-04-06T15:31:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T19:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=663"},"modified":"2012-04-06T15:31:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T19:31:57","slug":"british-comedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=663","title":{"rendered":"British Comedies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of British comedy in America is definitely one that many people approach with a great deal of skepticism. There is no question that it has the stigma of being too dry and therefore un-relatable for most American audiences. In a lot of ways, I think that it is comedy that Americans are actually the most familiar with in regards to British film and television because more people have been exposed to such productions than probably most other genres. So, every time we have watched a different comedy this year, I have been thinking about how people I know would react to the different jokes and comedic strategies. Obviously we have debated numerous times whether certain British shows of any genre would or would not be well-received here in the states. In this case I\u2019m not really as interested in this debate, which really is focused more on whether shows could consistently<\/em> attract large audiences. Instead, I am more simply inquiring as to whether people I know would find the shows to be entertaining or not.<\/p>\n

I think that comedy is in many ways one of the easiest genres to judge as far as audience reception. It\u2019s really a simple question: did you laugh when you watched it or not? Obviously, there are more redeeming qualities to the better comedies that can make them higher quality, but overall I think it\u2019s safe to say that the intention of most comedies is to incite laughter.<\/p>\n

Thus, I have to say that I really do have my doubts about the British comedies we have watched, as a collective whole. What I have observed is a noticeable absence of laughter in our class during the screenings. How would I define a lack of laughter? I really don\u2019t have a specific way of doing so other than through a comparison to my own viewing experiences with my friends. During those times, the room is filled with laughter consistently throughout the episodes. Of course, some are worse and some are better, but there are usually at least a few large laughing periods for each episode. In regards to our class, I have noticed that many shows spark only a few small laughs, while others really none at all. Furthermore, I have to say I have never noticed a time when the entire room lights up with laughs.<\/p>\n

Now there are some serious variables involved that could account for the differences. One possible variable is simply the setting. I\u2019m sure that we are all slightly less comfortable in the classroom than we are at home with our friends, and so I am sure that somewhat affects how much we laugh. Another example is that my friends are going to have more similar traits and interests as a group than our class, which means that we will probably be more likely to watch certain shows and to find them amusing. However, I think this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that we are the same age and are all FTT majors (so we clearly have a heightened interest, informed perspective and broad experience with TV).<\/p>\n

Also, despite my observations, it does seem that there usually (definitely not always) is a significantly positive reception in our class when we discuss these shows. My explanation for this is actually due to the fact that we are FTT majors, and that we do have informed perspectives and generally hold higher standards for television. I believe that we get a large amount of enjoyment out of watching British comedies because they are very different and a nice break from the redundancy and simplicity that often times plagues American television. However, this does not necessarily make them good comedies<\/em>, since we are not laughing as much as we otherwise would.<\/p>\n

I guess my point in writing this rather lengthy post is that I think it\u2019s very difficult for us to accurately evaluate British comedies\u2014maybe even more so than other genres we have watched. I think this is first due to the fact that comedy as a genre constantly serves two masters (making people laugh, yet being different and unique), and I think problems in analyzing these separate parts is exacerbated by the British style, which makes it harder for us as Americans to connect with the humor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of British comedy in America is definitely one that many people approach with a great deal of skepticism. There is no question that it has the stigma of being too dry and therefore un-relatable for most American audiences. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}