B322 exam - Section B = TV Comedy

Friday Night Dinner‘Buggy’

Our TV comedy case studies

• We have to study two TV comedy case studies which you must know about in detail

• Comedy 1: Friday Night Dinner• Comedy 2: Bad Education

TV comedy sitcom genre• Slightly unconventional in terms of the semi-improvised

(scripted but mainly on the spot, improvised humour) • The feel of the programme – for example the fast paced cuts

and shaky cam in moments of chaos – make it seem more like a documentary “fly on the wall” style of programme.

• 23-30-minute format within a 6 episode series• Set in a familiar and domestic setting and on a repeated set

of stock characters.• Familiar family values being exaggerated and the battle

between the parents and their children • Some stereotypes surrounding British culture are

represented to the audience

Friday Night Dinner• British TV comedy sitcom• Written by Robert Popper• Produced by Popper Pictures / Big Talk Productions• Stars

– Tamsin Greig• Prev comedy = Black Books / Episodes

– Paul Ritter• no prev comedy but in Harry Potter, Quantum of Solace

– Simon Bird• prev comedy = Inbetweeners

– Tom Rosenthal• Prev comedy = Plebs

– Mark Heap• Prev comedy = Spaced / Brass Eye

Friday Night Dinner

• Comedy focused on the regulardinner experience of an ordinary British Jewish family on each Friday night

• Originally aired in Feb 2011• 3 series – 19 episodes

• Episode we’ll be studying:– Series 3 episode 1 – The Girlfriend (10 pm Jun 2014)– 6th most popular TV show on Channel 4 that week

Friday Night Dinner• Every Friday night, twenty-something

brothers Adam and Jonny Goodman return to their parents’ home for dinner.

• Adam and Jonny think of the weekly event as a necessary annoyance – necessary because they get fed, and annoying because, well, they have to spend the evening with Mum and Dad.

• It’s not that M&D aren’t wonderful. They really are. But Dad slugs ketchup straight from the bottle, Mum is obsessed with Masterchef, and even Grandma likes to wear her new bikini around the house.

Friday Night Dinner

• Adam writes jingles for toilet rolladverts and Jonny’s favourite party trick is to jump out of bin-liners onto unsuspecting victims.

• Every family has its foibles, its rituals, and its eccentricities.

Friday Night Dinner

Based on the description of Friday Night Dinner, what

audience pleasures might

you expect?

Friday Night Dinner

Based on the description of the characters, what audience pleasures do you expect?

Friday Night Dinner

Based on the description of Friday Night

Dinner, what do you think the

target audience is?

Friday Night Dinner

• Watch the episode ‘Buggy’• While you’re watching you should make notes

on:– Key plot events that take place in the episode– What audience pleasures you are actually getting

from the programme– Who you think the target audience is based on

watching the episode

Friday Night Dinner

Audience pleasures?

Target audience?

Key plot points?

Key plot events that take place in the episode

• Jonny arrives at the same time as Adam with a bag of washing for mum to do as his boiler is broken at home

• Dad Martin has a cold and keeps sneezing on everyone and everything• Mum is cooking the dinner as usual and wearing a piano jumper• The main focus is the box from the loft mum has found. In it, Adam’s diary from when he was 11 reveals

that he threw Jonny’s favourite toy in the bin. Jonny tries to get revenge on Adam’s childhood toy ‘Buggy’

• There is a snowballing effect as Jonny tries to fight Adam to get Buggy; messing up his room, tying his legs together etc

• Adam gives Buggy to Jim to look after; it is ironic, but Jim seems instantly attached to Buggy• They then meet Jim in the local takeaway and there is comedy when he speaks fluent Chinese; he won’t

give Adam Buggy, as he wants to keep him • They eat the Chinese takeaway; dad is fixing his lawnmower in the kitchen• Buggy ends up in the lake and Jonny gets Adam to go in; along with Wilson the dog• They return home; Jim apologises • Adam has put Jonny’s red gloves in the wash, so they turn all his white washing pink• The final fight for Buggy results in dad sneezing and mowing Buggy to pieces; a classic snowballing

effect

Audience pleasures

• Escapism• Stereotyping• Regularity (time slot)• Intertextuality• Superiority• Easy to watch• Easy to understand• Schadenfreude• Narrative (resolution,

character identification,

snowballing, suspense, comedy)

• Recognition, familiarity, anticipation

• Difference-within-repetition• Performance

unpredictability and spontaneity

• Transgressive• Associated with performers

or personalities

Uses and Gratifications Theory

• What people do with media• The same TV programme may satisfy different

needs for different individuals• Associated with individual personalities, stages of

maturation, backgrounds and social roles• 4 areas of audience pleasure:– Personal relationships– Personal identity– Diversion– Surveillance

Audience – personal relationships

• Gaining insight into circumstances of others – social empathy

• Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging

• Finding a basis for conversation and social interaction

• Having a substitute for real-life companionship• Helping to carry out social roles• Enabling one to connect with family, friends and

society

Audience – personal identity

• Finding reinforcement for personal values• Finding models of behaviour• Identifying with values in others• Gaining insight into one’s self

Audience – diversion

• Escaping, or being diverted, from problems• Relaxing• Getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment• Filling time• Emotional release

Audience – surveillance

• Finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world

• Seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices

• Satisfying curiosity and general interest• Learning – self education• Gaining a sense of security through knowledge

What audience pleasures you are actually getting from the programme

• Storyline based in real life; familiar setting ( home) and characters ( family) but funny / exaggerated situations

• Slapstick – fighting / Buggy in lake / lawnmower and Buggy being destroyed

• Smutty / sexual innuendo / witty and visual comedy• Motifs – catchphrases ‘Pusface’ ‘Pissface’ ‘nice bit of squirrel’ jokes

e.g Adam and Jonny fighting and one-liners• Narrative structure – audience feel that Buggy is back but boys are

still in normal role of fighting • Varied yet stereotyped characters – the four Goodmans but also Jim

– whom we get to know• Short episode – same format every week, so predictable

– Who you think the target audience is based on watching the episode

Demonstrate how Friday Night Dinner offers their audience different pleasures (15 marks).

Point ‘Friday Night Dinner’ enables the audience to see ordinary situations in a familiar setting but with exaggerated consequences

EvidenceThe regular Friday night meal brings mum dad and their grown up sons together but the boys’s behaviour, such as in ‘Buggy’, shows them to physically fight, Jonny “booby-trapping” Adam’s old bedroom.

AnalysisThe audience enjoys the predictability of the fighting, as well as the snownballing effect when Jonny will go to any lengths to get Buggy from Adam and Adam resorts to giving the soft toy to Jim, the socially inept next-door neighbour, to hide him.

Friday Night Dinner

• Practice question:

Demonstrate how Friday Night Dinner offers their audience different pleasures (15 marks).

15 mins