Two things...

[conuly]

1. Why is it that sitcom people inevitably are best friends with/married to people whose sole purpose in life is to make snide comments at their expense? Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I'd marry somebody who jumps at every opportunity to insult my cooking, weight, clothes, mother, dog, whatever.
2. Why are most of those insults so bad? Are they trying to make up for a lack of quality with an idiotic quantity? I mean, your average six year old could generally come up with better insults than most of those characters manage.

Comments

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

tomorrow ... 9pm est ... scifi channel ... BSG miniseries! yay!

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

My first reaction is to say that these are popular for the same reason that, say, Mr. Corruptus Silverspoon, Jr., the politician, can become popular enough (even if only as a puppet) to take over two branches of the government and encroach significantly upon the third...in short: by playing to the lowest common denominator.

Upon more reflection, it gets more and more complex. Perhaps one could argue that the gross (caricaturized) baseness of the most popular characters gives the average viewer a noncommittal opportunity for various forms of crude ego-stroking in a continual sequence, i.e., something to identify with in one moment, and something to feel superior to in the next. The over-the-top crudeness of satire makes it "safer," to wit: the audience can easily laugh with or at the characters, while at the same time, easily dismissing any identifications that might provoke "unpleasant" bouts of self-awareness.

And perhaps, to whatever extent the viewers' own relationships are reflected in the sitcom, it reinforces for them some unconscious pretext for carrying on that same sort of base self-gratification in "real life," even if it does appear more subtle.

Hmmm...one could carry on this "analysis" ad nauseum, and look damned high-brow in the process, without much real effort. I'm not sure how "original" any of the above might be, but I am sure that this has been done to death by idiots and scholors alike. That's just the first layer of the top of my brain. A title leaps to mind, something like "The art of sitcoms: How to covertly exploit bigotry by making the masses feel superior to themselves." Someone else will have to write it though, because given the world we live in, there's no way I could stay "on topic."

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

1. Why is it that sitcom people inevitably are best friends with/married to people whose sole purpose in life is to make snide comments at their expense?

I don't know but it's grossly unhealthy. It's also one of many reasons I don't watch TV very often, and NEVER watch sitcoms. Once Cheers & Seinfeld said goodbye, that was it for me.

2. Why are most of those insults so bad?

Because the writers don't have to try anymore. They don't people will watch their slop no matter what, and clamour for more.

[scottrossi.livejournal.com]

tomorrow ... 9pm est ... scifi channel ... BSG miniseries! yay!

[dkmnow.livejournal.com]

My first reaction is to say that these are popular for the same reason that, say, Mr. Corruptus Silverspoon, Jr., the politician, can become popular enough (even if only as a puppet) to take over two branches of the government and encroach significantly upon the third...in short: by playing to the lowest common denominator.

Upon more reflection, it gets more and more complex. Perhaps one could argue that the gross (caricaturized) baseness of the most popular characters gives the average viewer a noncommittal opportunity for various forms of crude ego-stroking in a continual sequence, i.e., something to identify with in one moment, and something to feel superior to in the next. The over-the-top crudeness of satire makes it "safer," to wit: the audience can easily laugh with or at the characters, while at the same time, easily dismissing any identifications that might provoke "unpleasant" bouts of self-awareness.

And perhaps, to whatever extent the viewers' own relationships are reflected in the sitcom, it reinforces for them some unconscious pretext for carrying on that same sort of base self-gratification in "real life," even if it does appear more subtle.

Hmmm...one could carry on this "analysis" ad nauseum, and look damned high-brow in the process, without much real effort. I'm not sure how "original" any of the above might be, but I am sure that this has been done to death by idiots and scholors alike. That's just the first layer of the top of my brain. A title leaps to mind, something like "The art of sitcoms: How to covertly exploit bigotry by making the masses feel superior to themselves." Someone else will have to write it though, because given the world we live in, there's no way I could stay "on topic."

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

1. Why is it that sitcom people inevitably are best friends with/married to people whose sole purpose in life is to make snide comments at their expense?

I don't know but it's grossly unhealthy. It's also one of many reasons I don't watch TV very often, and NEVER watch sitcoms. Once Cheers & Seinfeld said goodbye, that was it for me.

2. Why are most of those insults so bad?

Because the writers don't have to try anymore. They don't people will watch their slop no matter what, and clamour for more.