Sitcoms

[lozzy_seward]

why have sitcoms changed over time and what humour has the royle family got ???

[lankeela]

Its like the emperors new clothes, people are told it is funny but it is absolutely void of all comedy, just buttock clenching embarrassing drivel like the office.

[saxy_jag]

I think sitcoms have changed because society has changed - its politics, ideals and expectations.

The Royle Family has zero humour.

[VHG]

Asking WHY sitcoms have changed is like asking why films have changed, or books, or TV shows, or fashion.

All of these things change over time, they adapt as society changes.

I think a lot of early sitcoms were based on "class" (1950s and 1960s), but as the class system has changed this is no longer funny.

Also, now we are very "PC" in this country a lot of humour from the 60s and 70s now seems embarrising.

Programs like Love Thy Neighbour (black family next door to white family) or On the Buses (two aging men chatting up young dolly birds) just makes you squirm.

"Mind your language", set in an evening class where people (black, asian, chineese) were trying to learn English, got most of its laughs by taking the micky out of peoples misunderstanding of English and got "easy laughs".

Some sitcoms (the good ones) still stand the test of time and Porridge, or Steptoe and Son, with excellent scripts, would still stand up today.

Both of them were like mini dramas with laughs and both Steptoe and Porridge had their serious moments.

Only Fools and Horses has its serious moments and was often more like a play with laughs than an out and out comedy.

But a comedy like say "My Family" is an old fashioned comedy that still works today, so in some sense they have not changed that much.

[andy-hughes]

VHG jas summed up the changes perfectly.

Cultural changes are reflected in comedy, as in all other aspects of art.

The Royle Family and The Officce are observational - their humour depends on the interaction of characters, rather than witty lines.

A lot of the memorable sitcoms are based on the 'trapped' syndrome - a major character fighting against the systems which conspire to make his life difficult - these incldude the original - Hancock, and go on to Steptoe, One Foot, Fawlty Towers, Reggie Perrin, Butterflies,Open All Hours, and so on.

For comedy to really hit the spot, it has to be a hairsbreadth away from tragedy, and able to slip in and out of it seemlessly. Witness the moment in One Foot when a single reference was made to the Meldrews' son who had died as a child. Never referred to again, but that few moments made the comedy all the more poignant.

The Royles are superbly drawn sterotypes - blind to their own foibles while pointing them out in others. It is a 'marmite' idea - I love it,