gcse, media studies, media, gcse, tv comedy

1. AUDIENCE PLEASURES
GCSE Media Studies: TV Comedy
Learning Objectives:
To be able to…
• Explore the audience pleasures
of two sitcoms broadcast on
different channels.
SJS: Research, Teamwork

2. TV Comedy Sub-Genres
Sitcoms Sketch shows
Panel shows Stand-up

3. Exam Information
• You need to study two television comedies in two different
ways, so you can explain:
• How and why they were scheduled on British television
• The audience pleasures of the two programmes
• The exam questions will ask you
• Either to compare the two comedies
• Or to examine one comedy in detail
• This means you need to study the comedies in enough
depth to that you can write about one programme in
detail, and you will need to know the similarities and
differences between them.

4. Exam Information
• You will need to create two case studies on two comedy
programmes of your choice.
• It is probably a good idea to pick two programmes that
are:
• Of a different type
• Aimed at different audiences
• On two different sorts of channels
• Offering different audience pleasures
• Examples: QI and How I Met Your Mother; Have I Got
News for You and Friends; Gavin and Stacey and 8 Out of
10 Cats.

5. Sitcoms: My Family (BBC)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ6LbrJj9uQ
Deconstruct the episode to determine specific audience
pleasures:
• Setting – how may audiences relate to the series?
Characters – how many are there? Do we recognise any
stereotypes? Audience identification. Which characters
are most successful and why?
• Accessible themes – identify them (e.g. relationships,
family, friendship…) How important are these themes for
audiences?

6. Audience Pleasure
• Representation of social issues. E.g., social class, culture,
sexuality). What do audiences see?
• Consumption of the familiar. An important audience
pleasure. Audiences feel ‘comfortable’ dropping in and meeting
the same group of characters regularly.
• Which characters and situations in ‘My Family’ will
encourage this?
• Generic conventions – How does ‘My Family’ challenge or
conform to the conventions of sitcoms/TV comedy?

7. Audience Pleasure
• Narrative resolution.
• How is the status quo disrupted and resolved by the
end of the episode?
• Comedy entertainment.
• What is the main source of comedy in the series? Cast,
location, celebrity?
• What is actually funny and who would the humour
appeal to? Consider scheduling here.

8. BBC Ethos
• How does ‘My Family’ fit BBC’s institutional ethos?
• Can you suggest why the series was a popular success?

9. Channel 4
• Channel 4 was originally set up to be the new force for
creativity in British television, to go where no mainstream
channel had ever gone before.
• It retains a flavour of this still, and it is still required by
Ofcom to have ‘a distinctive character’.
• This means a programme that appears on Channel 4
should have something about it that makes it distinctively
‘Channel 4’.

10. Channel 4
• Let’s take Shameless as an example…
• What makes Shameless distinctively ‘Channel 4’?
• It is a quality programme, winning Best Drama Series at the 2005
BAFTAs.
• Its affectionate and realistic portrayal of the British council estate
underclass is unusual in British comedy.
• It has an unusual visual style for a comedy, with agitated
camerawork.
• It is edgy comedy that does not patronise its audience.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz39BotmgTw

11. Sitcoms: The Inbetweeners (E4)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSFkMfZVFQs
• How does ‘The Inbetweeners’ fit Channel 4’s institutional
ethos?
• Can you suggest why the series was a popular success?

12. ELT: Due Tuesday 10th March
• Find an episode of a TV sitcom and analyse this in the same
way we did in today’s lesson, focusing on audience pleasures.
Record your notes and remember to bring to Tuesday’s lesson
for discussion.
• Use your ‘Exam Information’ hand-out as well to help, as this
task could be used to form part of one of your case studies for
the exam.
• There are also full episodes of sitcoms on YouTube, e.g. Fawlty
Towers, One Foot in the Grave, The Inbetweeners. E4
broadcast the following daily: How I Met Your Mother, The Big
Bang Theory, Melissa and Joey, Two Broke Girls, and many
more. There is no excuse – they are everywhere!!