- Read the article below from Media Magazine about comedy - what do you think?
- In small groups - create a blog post on what you might consider another example of postmodern comedy. It does not have to be a TV show. It should NOT be something you have posted on previously.
- Give a couple of specific examples, like the author does below for The Inbetweeners, Gavin and Stacey and The Mighty Boosh
- Try to include some video
- Try to include reference to one or more of the concepts below:
- intertextualityparodypastichehomagebricolagesimulacrahyperrealityfragmentation
Ha ha ha ha – can postmodernism make us laugh?
Tina Dixon explores the nature of humour in three postmodern TV comedies.
We frequently hear it said that ‘we are living in a postmodern world.’ Are we? How do we know? And how is postmodernism as a theoretical perspective applicable to Media Studies? And, so that we can have some fun with this, how is it applicable to ‘what makes us laugh?’.
Where do we start? How about some definitions? George Ritzer (1996) suggested that postmodernism usually refers to a cultural movement – postmodernist cultural products such as architecture, art, music, films, TV, adverts etc.
Where do we start? How about some definitions? George Ritzer (1996) suggested that postmodernism usually refers to a cultural movement – postmodernist cultural products such as architecture, art, music, films, TV, adverts etc.
That definition seems to encompass what we need to look at, if we stick to comedy on television. Ritzer also suggested that postmodern culture is signified by the following:
• The breakdown of the distinction between high culture and mass culture. Think: drama about Dame Margot Fonteyn, a famous prima ballerina, on BBC4.
• The breakdown of barriers between genres and styles. Think: Shaun of the Dead a rom-com-zom.
• Mixing up of time, space and narrative. Think Pulp Fiction or The Mighty Boosh.
• Emphasis on style rather than content. Think: Girls Aloud.
• The blurring of the distinction between representation and reality. Think, Katie Price or Celebrity Big Brother.
The French theorist Baudrillard argues that contemporary society increasingly reflects the media; that the surface image becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from the reality. Think about all the times you have heard an actor on a soap-opera say, that when they are out and about, people refer to them by their character’s name. Look at The Sun’s website and search stories on Nicholas Hoult when he was in Skins: he is predominantly written about as though he is ‘Tony’, his character in Skins.
Key terms
Among all the theoretical writing on postmodernism (and you might like to look up George Ritzer, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Frederic Jameson and Dominic Strinati), there are a few key terms that you’ll find it useful to know. These terms can form the basis of analysis when looking at a text from a postmodern perspective:
• intertextuality – one media text referring to another
• parody – mocking something in an original way
• pastiche – a stylistic mask, a form of self-conscious imitation
• homage – imitation from a respectful standpoint
• bricolage – mixing up and using different genres and styles
• simulacra – simulations or copies that are replacing ‘real’ artefacts
• hyperreality – a situation where images cease to be rooted in reality
• fragmentation – used frequently to describe most aspects of society, often in relation to identity.
So, what has all of this got to do with comedy? Pretty much everything, I would argue, and I intend to show this by analysing a cross-section of contemporary TV comedy: The Inbetweeners, Gavin and Stacey and The Mighty Boosh.
The Inbetweeners
Although it can be argued that comedy is subjective, a good deal of comedy on our television screens draws on universal values and beliefs. Let’s start with The Inbetweeners (made by Bwark Productions, and shown on E4 and Channel 4 from May 2008). When first shown, the pilot episode attracted an audience of 238,000; the series as a whole averaged 459,000 viewers. Series Two, Episode One attracted 958,000 and the series averaged just over a million. The producers must, therefore, have done something right. The situation is set around four male A-Level students attending a local comprehensive school; however, the focal point of the comedy comes from Will (Simon Bird) who joins the school, when his wealthy parents divorce and his mum can’t afford private school fees.
The situation is ordinary enough. It happens to lots of people, starting a new school and making friends with an existing friendship group. However, for all of its ordinariness I would argue that this sitcom is quite postmodern.
Firstly, in some respects it parodies previous school-based texts such as Grange Hill (1978-2008) in that it sets the drama/action around characters at school, but makes those characters all the things the Grange Hill characters weren’t. They swear (frequently), they constantly talk about sex and bodily functions, and appear naked in several episodes. None of which would ever have happened in Grange Hill, which was much more wholesome and moral, as appropriate for its young adult audience. I would also argue that it uses bricolage, in that it mixes comedy, drama, romance, realistic issues and slapstick. A scene where Will is thrown in a lake in his underpants by the mechanics at the garage where he is doing work experience, is pure slapstick. The love of Simon (Joe Thomas) for Carli is quite touching and romantic. The representation of Jay’s father as an absolute monster, never missing an opportunity to humiliate him, is quite realistic: it provides a psychological reason as to why Jay is such a liar, as a result of a huge inferiority complex. Neil (Blake Harrison) has an almost surreal spin on life. And the Dickensian Head of Sixth Form Mr Gilbert is a sadist. All of which creates a rich bricolage or layering of meaning.
Series One, Episode Three, ‘Thorpe Park’, parodies the archetypally sleazy male driving instructor, turning it on its head: Simon is the object of the female instructor’s desire.
Any episode (for example, ‘Will’s Birthday’ )reveals numerous intertextual references, such as posters in the common room for ‘Run DMC’ and ‘NWA’. The boys discuss porn on the internet, and use Live Messenger. There are other references to Russell Brand, Take That and Supersize Me, all of which, like bricolage, create layers of meaning. They are there to be read by the audience if they get the reference, but it does not matter if they do not see or hear them. The reference to Supersize Me makes the joke funnier if you know what they are talking about, but is still funny, even if you do not.
Gavin and Stacey
If we look at another successful contemporary comedy, Gavin and Stacey (written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, 2007-2010, produced by Baby Cow Productions for the BBC), we can see further elements of postmodernism to analyse. Like The Inbetweeners it started out on a digital channel (in this case BBC3) before moving to BBC1. An audience of 543,000 watched the first episode, and 8,700,000 the last one. Again, though ordinary in its situation, a young couple Gavin (Matthew Horne) and Stacey (Jo Pope) who work for companies in Essex and Wales strike up a telephone friendship, decide to meet in London, both bringing along a friend, Smithy (Corden) and Nessa (Jones). They fall in love, get engaged and then married. The comedy derives from the situations that their friends and families bring about. And, again, for all of its ordinariness, there are numerous ways to apply postmodernism.
Firstly, you could argue that as a consequence of their fictional characters Gavin and Smithy, Matt Horne and James Corden go on to host their own comedy show Horne and Corden, as themselves – never really escaping their fictional personas, creating both a hyperreality and simulacrum. There are other such instances as this with the character who plays the Wests’ neighbour ‘Doris’, the blunt and vulgar-mouthed pensioner who also appears in Little Britain as an incredibly blunt and vulgar-mouthed pensioner in the sketch based around ‘the only gay in the village’.
Taking one particular episode at random, in this case Series Three, Episode Four, there are a huge number of intertextual references, including references to Twitter, Facebook, Angelina Jolie, Om Puri, The Blues Brothers, Puff Daddy, Patch Adams, Beaches, Doubt, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Boat that Rocked, Smack my Bitch up, Fix You, and Ben. These intertextual references help construct layers of meaning within the text, making the comedy richer.
Another rich vein of comedy comes from the fact that all of the characters are named after serial killers, for example: Gavin’s family are the Shipmans named after the serial killer Dr Harold Shipman. Stacey’s family are the Wests, named after Fred and Rosemary West, notorious serial killers. And the characters Dawn and Pete Sutcliffe, are named after Peter Sutcliffe, otherwise known as ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’. There is also an interesting mixing up of time and space, in that though the Shipmans live in Essex, these scenes are actually filmed in Cardiff.
The Mighty Boosh
Finally, I want to look at The Mighty Boosh, a more surreal comedy written by, and starring, Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding, and made by Baby Cow Productions for BBC3. The Mighty Boosh started life as a stage show, moved to radio, then TV in 2004. Unlike The Inbetweeners and Gavin and Stacey, Boosh is anything but realist. Drawing on previous comedy of a surreal nature such as The Goodies and Monty Python, it is about two main characters – Howard Moon (Barratt) and Vince Noir (Fielding), and various other strange characters, including Bollo the Gorilla and the enigmatic Naboo. It is not set in a regular location like other sitcoms but each series is set in a different place. It could be argued that everything about The Mighty Boosh is postmodern. Noel Fielding’s character Vince has an extremely fragmented identity: his mixing fashions from various periods and sub-cultures, for example Glam Rock, Punk, Goth and Emo, is compounded by his references to the rock stars he also emulates (Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Gary Numan).
Time and space boundaries are blurred as the characters travel to other places, usually other worldly places, and through time.
To understand some of the jokes you have to recognise the intertextual references. For example, in Series One, Howard discusses his favourite heroes such as Livingstone, and Vince asserts that Mick Jagger is his hero. When challenged on this by Howard as to what Jagger would do when staring into the abyss, Vince does an imitation of Mick Jagger’s stage dancing. This is extremely funny – as long as you are aware of Mick Jagger’s stage persona.
Bricolage is used, referencing numerous styles and genres, such as fashion, musical genres, surreal humour. And it could be argued that the female audience’s attraction to Noel Fielding is in part as a result of his character’s fashion creations as Vince, blurring the distinction between the real and the hyper-real.
By way of a conclusion to this look at contemporary comedy from a postmodern perspective, I think it is fair to say that it is almost impossible to imagine contemporary comedy without these intertextual references; they are peppered throughout the narratives. And being able to read them certainly enhances our experience of the comedy. I would also argue that understanding bricolage, parody, hyperreality, simulacrum and fragmentation help us to enjoy the comedy at a deeper level. It only remains to be said that whatever you watch, enjoy; but try to go below the surface really to get the most out of it.
This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 32, April 2010.
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