Cult Television ENGL 6650/7650: Special Topics in Popular Culture Cult Television Spring 2011 Room: PH 308 Day/Time: Tuesday, pm

Cult Television

2/8/11 | Week 4 Cult TV Series of the Week: British Cult Comedy [Absolutely Fabulous, Blackadder, Black Books, Father Ted, The League of Gentlemen, Little Britain, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Red Dwarf, Shameless, Spaced] Required Reading: Amy-Chinn, ECTVR 208; Hunt, ECTVR, 134; Karpovich, ECTVR 7; Landy, ECTVR 166 Recommended Reading: TBA Special Topics/Readings: The Cult of Cult TV?—Fiddy (225)

Comedy Theory Notoriously incomplete and lacking in definitive answers. May well be a “fourth tray”* phenomenon. Plessner’s thesis in Laughing and Crying. * “A Civil Servant used to keep four trays on his desk to put his papers in. The first was marked Incoming, the second Outgoing, the third Pending, and the fourth Too difficult.”--Owen Barfield Helmuth Plessner, author of Laughing and Crying

Comedy Theory Three basic camps Superiority--laughter reinforces social power. Incongruity--humor the result of the “clash of incompatible discourses.” Relief--the comic as a vent for repression.

Key Questions: Do we laugh at or with? Is comedy innately subversive? Is comedy congenitally offensive/politically incorrect? What is the connection between the body and the comic?

Henri Bergson ( )

“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.” --Horace Walpole, 18th Century

Comedy on TV Sitcoms Dramedy Sketch Comedy Stand-Up Animation/Adult Animation Satire Comedy in other genres: talk shows, fake news, drama, advertising, etc.

The Sitcom A comedic television genre (originating in radio), ordinarily 30 minutes in length, in which a group of characters, related by family, a workplace, or as friends, exhibiting little or no development as individuals, encounters and seeks to resolve on a weekly basis a situation (or situations) in which they find themselves embroiled. Sitcoms on American television are often accompanied by laugh tracks. Sitcom Traits Exportable and seemingly universal in appeal; Tolerant of commercial interruptions; Dependent on gags, slapstick, and jokes; Episodic but customarily without memory; Often the site of controversy

The Sitcom Workplace (think The Office) Family (think The Simpsons) Friend Families (think Seinfeld, Friends) Unruly Woman (think Roseanne) Gay and Lesbian (think Will & Grace)

Studying TV Comedy The sitcom is one of the most popular and yet least studied television genres. Like the late/great Rodney Dangerfield, it “can’t get no respect.”

The Laugh Track The result, in part, of the production practice of taping before a live audience. Use of older laughter on American shows. “Make me funnier here”--in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy. It is unrelenting; the news, the stock exchange reports, and the weather forecast are about the only things spared. But so obsessive is it that you go on hearing it behind the voice of Reagan or the Marines disaster in Beirut. Even behind the adverts. It is the monster from Alien prowling around in all the corridors of the spaceship. it is the sarcastic exhilaration of a puritan culture. In other countries the business of laughing is left to the viewers. here, their laughter is put on the screen, integrated into the show. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time. You are simply left alone with your consternation. (49)

UK Television  BBC: The Mothership  BBC2, BBC3, BBC4: Boutiquish spin-offs  BBC Wales: A regional branch of the BBC which rebooted Doctor Who and Life on Mars (among others)  Channel 4: An independent known for its arts programing; a frequent producer of independent British film  ITV: Sir Lewis Grade’s more mainsteam independent channel—gave us The Prisoner

British vs. American Humor Someone once wrote a definition of the difference between English and American humor.... He said that the English treat the commonplace as if it were remarkable and the Americans treat the remarkable as if it were commonplace. --James Thurber

 Alexandria Palace

What makes comedy cult?

Cult Television Absolutely Fabulous (BBC, , 2001, 2004). Created by Jennifer Saunders (pictured).

Cult Television Blackadder (BBC, ). Created by Richard Curtis (l) & Rowan Atkinson (r).

Cult Television Black Books (Channel 4, ). Created by Dylan Moran (l) and Graham Linehan (r).

Cult Television Extras (BBC, ). Created by Ricky Gervais (l) and Stephen Merchant (r).

Cult Television Fawlty Towers (BBC2, ). Created by John Cleese (l) and Connie Booth (r).

Cult Television Father Ted (Channel 4, ). Created by Graham Linehan (l) & Arthur Mathews (r)

Cult Television The League of Gentlemen (BBC Two, ). Created by Mark Gatiss (l) & Jeremy Dyson (r) (pictured) Steve Pemberton, Reece Searsmith.

Cult Television

Little Britain (BBC Three and One, ). Created by David Walliams (l) and Matt Lucas (r).

Cult Television Monty Python’s Flying Circus (BBC1, ; BBC2 (1974). Created by John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman.

Cult Television Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Cult Television The Office (BBC, ). Created by Ricky Gervais (l) and Stephen Merchant (r).

Cult Television Red Dwarf (BBC Two, ). Created by Grant Naylor (Rob Grant [above] and Doug Naylor [below]).

Cult Television Shameless (Channel 4, ). Created by Paul Abbott (pictured)

Cult Television Spaced (Channel 4, ). Created by Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (pictured)