Critical Approches Unit 6

Blackadder vs Fawlty towers – Sit com rivalries By Alex Clinton

TV sitcom

There are a lot of different ways comedy can be delivered.

Anarchic comedy - Anarchic refers to a sub-genre of comedy that uses stream-of-consciousness humour. This sort of comedy is seen in films like Monty python meaning of life.

Action comedy - Action-Comedy relies on the characters to bring out the humour, while the action scenes tend to be less intense than in the traditional action movie. For example these films consist of Beverly Hills cop, rush hour and Bad boys

Horror comedy -Horror-Comedy films aim to scare the audience, but also provide comical scenes to keep the film in a sort of light mood. Shaun of the dead is a prime example of these films.

Parody -These films impersonate or ridicule at serious situations and people. These films rely heavily on irony and over exaggeration and can be used as a means of social or political commentary. An example of these films is Monty python’s life of Brian and Scary movie.

Romantic comedy - This sub-genre is light-hearted and usually places the two protagonists in humours situations. For example 50 first dates and 40 year old virgins are romantic comedies.

Situation comedy’s (sit-com) have always been a popular form of television ever since the first sitcom in 1946 which was a hit called ‘I love Lucy’. The UK is famed for making some of the best sitcoms the world. The BBC has made some of the best sitcoms including ‘Dads army’, ‘Blackadder’ and ‘Alan Partridge’ as voted for by the daily telegraph. Over the recent decade the making of good sitcoms has gone over to America where sit coms such as ‘Friends’, ‘Big bang theory’, ‘How I met your mother’ and ‘Two and a half men’ are all great sitcoms. Every year these sitcoms collect large amounts of awards and all fight over the prize to be most watched sitcoms in the world.

The codes and conventions of a sitcom are that the theme tune is often catchy, enjoyable and easy to listen too. The location used should be identifiable to the viewing audience member and they should feel like they can relate the situation they can see on screen.  Situation is often being trapped especially in UK sitcoms for example in the sitcom ‘Porridge’ they were trapped in a prison and in ‘Only fools and horses’ they are trapped in London’s east end.  This is the characters sense of being trapped and this creates a situation in every episode in which they try to escape from this loop.



 

The characters codes and conventions are that you cannot have too many characters or the audience will feel nothing for certain characters. The relationships between the characters are important for example every character must act in their own way with other characters and their personality must shine though in order to keep the audience watching a great example of this is friends where the six characters all interact with each other in a friendly manor bringing their own qualities into the group. It’s always best to stick to character stereotypes so that means that even if people don’t like the character they can still relate to them.

 

 

The dialogue with which the characters speak should be witty with incredible timing with will get the most laughs out of the audience. The timing is what makes the comedy funny and this means that the actors must work closely with the writers to find out the times between lines.

The Opening credits will be the ‘make or break’ point at the start of the show it gives the audience a view of what the show would be like and what the characters are like too. For example on ‘friends’ we see them playing on in a fountain giving the impression they are playful and comfortable with each other.

The humour varies from American to the British humour. The British humour is the slapstick way where they like the physical humour is favoured but in America it is very much a verbal way of making people laugh.

The way that actors, act is in the same category of what continent they are acting on. For example because the British enjoy physical comedy therefore the actors should have some sort of physical presence be that the way they walk, the way that they act, the way they look or the way they talk to other characters an example of the way the character looks is Mr Bean. In America they prefer more verbal humour that is why the way that the character talk is more important. An example is Barry Kripke in big bang theory since he has a lisp he attracts a funny side out of his own faults.

The storyline is the most important part of a sitcom. In a lot of sitcoms we see there to be  the same start sit coms rarely carry a storyline for example if a character wins the lottery he/she will eventually lose it all and it will all go back to normal ready for the next show and the event probably won’t be mentioned again.

Representation of characters

With Fawlty towers, we see in the first episode Basil Fawlty trying to run his hotel with the minimalist effort possible he is also very arrogant. He sees other people as out of tune with modern society. He feels that everyone should be like him and that he feels life is going to quick and that it should slow down. Despite the hotel just scraping by basil feels that attracting a better class of person may take him to where he wants to be in the world. Basil Fawlty is an underachiever and feels that if he can get people around him that have done good with their life then he will achieve greatness by being with them. To Fawlty class is everything and he thinks that people who are of higher class deserve more than the lower class. He feels that people who have money should look like they do and not be modest about their achievements.

Fawlty towers shows us how not to run a hotel but somehow every time he just manages to scrap by. Fawlty towers are a very unconventional programme because we see the show and we know that if you were to run a hotel this way you would be closed down. Basil Fawlty notices everyone’s faults and flaws because we in society have been taught to accept and not talk about people’s flaws but Basil Fawlty notes all of them and reveals them to the world and this gains him a truthful nature. His wife rules Basil Fawlty, because she tells him what to do, when to do it and how do to do something. The British public love to see a man so powerful controlled by what is seen to the average person a small woman with a big mouth. When we see Sybil Fawlty control her husband and she keeps Basil from going right of the rails and taking the hotel in the ground. He is represented as a angry and old fashioned man who enjoys the simple pleasures of life and feels that everyoens hould be the same as him in both body and mind with his values clear for all to see.

Basil Fawlty has no problems as such but he relies on the guests to help him let out his complaints and his harsh comments. Basil Fawlty always over thinks the consequences when he finds a problem. He wants to keep everything above board because he hates people getting involved with his business and this is because you can clearly see that he hates people unless he has got to know them we see this when he talks to Manuel. When you look at Basil Fawlty you can see the element of because his wife bullies him, therefore he bullies other people to make it even to himself.

Edmund Blackadder does not have the same outlook on life. Blackadder feels that he can trick his way through life until he reaches the top and then he can do and say whatever he wants. He also gives of the social view that you can always trick people and stay out of trouble because that is what Blackadder does he is also favoured by all classes because every human being wants to be successful and this is what we see from him. The programme is a content written show because they go through times.

Blackadder uses the other characters around him to shape his life the way he wants it and not the way others want their lives to be therefore he bullies his way around the hierarchy. Edmund Blackadder’s desire to be the best he can and to please everyone makes him look like he is sucking up to everyone and this makes him stand out from the crowd because when they suck up like he does it never works for them but he always gets away with it.

 The fact that Blackadder always gets away with his plan to take from the people higher up is unusual because in the traditional comedy sketch the protagonist always loses. This is the difference between Basil Fawlty and Edmund Blackadder is the fact that Basil Fawlty never gets what he wants and that Edmund Blackadder always gets what he wants despite the two characters having the same personalities. When we look at them, we can the differences we see that because Basil’s wife controls his antics and his behaviour to stop it getting out of hand.

Narrative Structure

In the first episode of Fawlty towers we see basil Fawlty sorting everything out behind a desk at this point everything is calm. At this point we see everything go wrong for basil Fawlty as his wife Sybil comes and tells him he missed room 12’s alarm call and basil is also told to put up a painting and before basil can to the two jobs already at hand he is interrupted by the arrival of Manuel who has too much butter on some trays. In the first episode we see that basil Fawlty has trouble dealing with situations and this lays the ground work on what it will be like in the future episodes. The story of this episode all unfolds when the couple from room 12 come down to get their bill so basil has to put down the painting to serve them. We follow basils journey as he tries to fix all of the problems at once.

The narrative is run by the people around him and the people around him keep him busy with keeps the audience interested in what he is doing and how he intends to deal with the situation. Basil Fawlty doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve he keeps himself to himself so hits hard for the audience to get any sort of emotional connection to him. In the pilot episode we see the natural habitat of basil Fawlty as he talks a booking for the hotel. Basil is never introduced to the audience leaving to the audience to figure out what he is about on their own. Within seconds the audience is caught up in the crowded life of Basil Fawlty and drawn into his ways of doing things

The narrative of Blackadder is run by himself he gets himself into those situations.  He is the one who goes looking for trouble. He finds himself in need of help and so he hires more help but this is any normal help this is a woman dressed as a man. When we see this the audience is aware of the situation confronting Blackadder although he himself is not. Blackadder’s love for power is put to on side for love but this is when the audience sees what rules over Blackadder’s world and that is Queen Elizabeth and she says Blackadder can’t get married.

When the audience sees the queen in the first episode they finally get the knowhow on just how Blackadder’s world is ruled because when we see him in the first opening scenes he gives of the air that he is the boss and is in control of himself when in actual fact he has little power. There are few gaps in the storyline as it is kept simple but given the feel by the way its written of things being a lot more complicated than they really are.

Fawlty towers and Blackadder are two completely different sitcoms. In Fawlty Towers we see Basil Fawlty with a whole heap of situations to deal with whereas in Blackadder he only has the one situation all the way though the episode but it is dragged out by people getting in the way of his final goal.
 

The narrative structures of both shows are linear and are both following usual stories found in dramas and situation comedies a like. The difference in the structures of sitcoms is that in the next episode the story always goes back to being normal but the linear structure stays the same. As the name suggests, linear narratives follow a straight line, starting at the beginning, moving to the middle and proceeding to the end of the story. In contrast, a non-linear narrative often starts at the middle of a story or the height of a conflict and then double-backs to the beginning. Another, albeit more challenging, non-linear narrative form employs flashbacks and “flashforwards” to keep the reader on his toes as the writer tells the full story.

In conclusion Blackadder and Fawlty towers are similar texts but only connected though the sit com genre. This is because both stay out of line with the conventions of comedy giving both characters have their problems and they themselves in their own little way must sort it out. They don’t stay within the stereotypes of their characters for example basil Fawlty is meant to be helpful and always have a smile on his face but instead he is rude and obscene to all of the guests and Blackadder who is meant to obey his queen really doesn’t care what she says or does and thinks that if he keeps her happy he can do as he pleases. Both of these characters go to the edge of the earth to make sure they are so far out of line with the concept of what their characters should be.