1. Situation Comedy Conventions

2. The situation can be mental and physical.
Situation comedy is centred around a character being caught in a situation that they cannot escape.
The situation can be mental and physical.

3. Situation is usually connected with work or home.
The comedy grows out of the tensions or conflicts between the characters.

4. The main characters are usually a family or group of friends.
Usually only several characters.
Characters from outside this group usually have a comic function.

5. Narrative Rarely continues from one episode to the next.
Each episode has a situation which is resolved at the end of the episode.
Heavily reliant on repetition.

6. We are laughing at aspects of ourselves.
We can identify with the characters.
Disasters build to a climax at the end of the episode.

7. Dramatic irony:
when the words and actions of the characters have a different meaning for the reader than they do for the characters. This is the result of the reader having a greater knowledge than the characters themselves.

8. Enigma:
Similar to ‘dramatic irony’. Comic surprise and suspense, involving the giving or withholding of information, in terms of characters' knowledge or self-knowledge.

9. Recently sitcoms have gone some way to converting conventions.
E.G ‘The Office’, ‘The Young Ones’, ‘Extras’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’

10. What makes people laugh?
How does this vary between different places, countries or people?