Implied...or implode? The Simpsons' carnivalesque Treehouse of Horror

Since 1990, The Simpsons’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have constituted a production sub-context within the series, having their own conventions and historical trajectory. These specials incorporate horror plots and devices, as well as general references to science fiction, into the series’ base in situation comedy. The Halloween specials disrupt the series usual family-oriented sitcom structure, dissolving the ideological balances that stabilise that society. By depicting the Family and community in extreme circumstances, in seeing the horror of ‘how things could be’, the Treehouse episode leave us with hanging questions about the nature of social being that bleed into the regular sitcom-style episodes. By breaking from the comparatively realistic social-satire that characterizes the series as a whole, the Halloween specials cast a reflexive gaze back onto “The Simpsons” itself. As a result, the “Treehouse” episodes are valuable as a means of examining the strategies and implications of the series as a whole. Bakhtin’s model of the carnivalesque is utilised to underscore these disruptive traits that characterise the Treehouse episodes

Los sitcoms como herramienta para el aprendizaje cultural en el aula de inglés

Con la llegada de la globalización y la consolidación definitiva del inglés como lengua internacional, el lugar de la cultura en el proceso de aprendizaje de esta lengua también ha cambiado. De este modo, focalizar la enseñanza en hechos culturales de países anglófonos resulta insuficiente en el mundo en el que vivimos, donde la amplia mayoría de las interacciones en inglés se producen entre hablantes no nativos. Desde un punto de vista culturalmente descentralizado (Holliday, 2009), el desarrollo de la competencia intercultural y la conciencia crítica deben constituir una parte esencial del aprendizaje de idiomas (Byram, 2014). Sin embargo, la mayoría de los libros de texto utilizados no promueven este aprendizaje (inter)cultural. En este trabajo, proponemos que la televisión sea un recurso pedagógico complementario para lograr este objetivo. Nos hemos centrado en “sitcoms” (comedias de situación) para elaborar una lista de episodios que pueden ser utilizados en el entorno de la Educación Superior para desarrollar esta competencia cultural.With the emergence of globalization and English becoming a lingua franca for international communication, the place for culture in the language learning process has shifted as well. Thus, concentrating on cultural facts about English-speaking countries is insufficient for today’s world, where the vast majority of interactions happen among non-native speakers. From a culturally decentered standpoint (Holliday, 2009), intercultural competence and critical awareness constitute an essential part of language learning (Byram, 2014). However, most ELT textbooks do not promote complete (inter) cultural learning. In this article, we argue that TV can be an additional pedagogical tool to help achieve this goal. We focus on sitcoms compiling a list of episodes that can be used at tertiary level to develop cultural competence

The “Golden Girls”: A Sociological Analysis Of One Model Of Communal Living For The 21st Century

Does art imitate life? Is that an important explanation for why certain television shows have developed a following, even years after the show moved from prime time to syndication? Beside their entertainment value, what else do we find in the episodes? This paper offers a sociological analysis of a shared housing arrangement as modeled in the popular sitcom, The Golden Girls. The author addresses the question of what it takes sociologically to build a successful, liveable community on the micro level of a single household comprised of four older very different women who decide to share a house by pooling financial and other resources. Through laughs, disagreements, late-night talks over cheese cake, and sometimes tears, Dorothy, Blanche, Rose and Sofia become like family and discover a much more meaningful and sustaining life together than they had imagined

Losers, food, and sex: clerical masculinity in the BBC sitcom Rev

Clerical masculinities, much like their lay/secular counterparts, often appear unchanging because they are the products of naturalization processes. Clerical masculinities, however, are far from being stable but the live and breathe the dynamics of both their socio-religious context and their secular ‘others’. The BBC sitcom Rev. (2010-2011) is a refreshing take on the everyday life and problems of a vicar in the Church of England trying to avoid stereotypes that often come with clerical roles. Rev. can be interpreted as an attempt to explore the negotiation processes of masculinity within an institution that is involved in the “production” of religion and gender roles. It shows that being a man in an institutional setting is as much a performance as it is a more or less successful negotiation of other people’s expectations and one’s own world view. In particular, the main male clerical characters in Rev. inhabit a position of power but all have their flaws. They can best be understood as losers who clash with masculine systems rendering them more human

That \u2770s Show: A Realistic Depiction of Sexism

Overview: I have been a loyal viewer of the hit sitcom, That ‘70s Show, for years. In total, I have probably watched the entire series two or three times. However, it was not until recently that it struck me how sexist the show was. Upon first watching That ‘70s Show, I thought it was a surface-level sitcom celebrating the colorful and hazy 1970s. After rewatching and evaluating the stances presented in multiple episodes, however, I see that it is more representative of society’s view on women than I originally thought. I believe that both the subtle and obvious sexism in That ‘70s Show, which is shown throughout the entire series, is an accurate representation of the time period the show is based on and made in, but many of the viewers, including myself, overlook the problematic nature of the show because it is shown in a light hearted and joking manner. Author\u27s Reflection: My name is Meleah Hartnett, and I am a Media and Communication major here at St. John Fisher College. I minor in Film and TV Studies. My research paper focuses on the sexism shown in That ‘70s Show. I wrote about That ‘70s Show because it has been a favorite of my family’s for years; we actually have the box set of all of the seasons on DVD. I was rewatching it, for probably the third time, when I was deciding what I wanted my 199 research project to be, and finally caught on to the sexist undertones of the show. The process of writing this paper was more enjoyable than I anticipated it would be, probably because the majority of my research involved watching a show. A challenging aspect of the process was finding perfect moments in the show to illustrate my point. There were plenty of sexist scenes to choose from, but I wanted ones that had a punch to them. It was also very time consuming. When it came to writing, I found it difficult to focus on a few major topics. Once I started looking for issues in the show, it was hard to stop. Originally, I was going to also discuss the issue of race and racism in my paper, but my professor advised me to narrow my focus. The 199 experience has helped me grow comfortable with writing in a more structured form. I have always loved writing, but had never found it enjoyable to write in a research-based writing style. This class taught me that there could be just as much freedom and creativity in this style of writing as creative writing. The intimidation of writing in such a long form has also lessened after taking this class. Professor Styrt\u27s Reflection: Meleah was a very focused student. She grasped the course’s emphasis on how we depict other times quickly and went immediately to the topic of That ’70s Show. The most impressive element of her progress was her dogged pursuit of sources; as you can imagine, ’90s TV does not have a lot of scholarly material written on it yet, and so she had to rely extensively on primary documents mixed with her own cogent analysis. One of her main areas of work was on her counterargument, where she had to do a lot to portray the opposing voices carefully and fairly

PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVES OF VERBAL HUMOR IN THE BIG BANG THEORY

AbstractKeywords: Pragmatic, Illocutionary Acts, Maxim Flouting, Sitcom, HumorThis study aimed at finding out the types of illocutionary acts which creates humor effect in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory episode The Thespian Catalyst (S04E14). A descriptively qualitative study with pragmatic approach was undertaken by observing the utterances spoken by all the characters in the sitcom. The results of the study showed that there were four types of illocutionary acts found in the sitcom; assertive, directive, commissive, and expressive. Those illocutionary acts also flouted the maxim of cooperative principles, i.e. quality, quantity, relevance, and manner. In conclusion, it can be known that the humor that occurred in the sitcom is the result of the way the characters conveyed illocutionary acts that also have flouted the maxim as in the Cooperative Principles

Roman comedy and TV fiction: Plautus and sitcom

Este trabajo ofrece un análisis comparativo de las características propias de la comedia palliata de Plauto (comediógrafo romano del siglo II a.C.) y de los elementos definitorios de la sitcom, género televisivo de gran aceptación popular. A través de este planteamiento, los autores pretenden poner de manifiesto la existencia de una tradición cómica que, de forma continua, ha ido transmitiendo una serie de rasgos sin conciencia de su origen remoto. Desde esta perspectiva, la sitcom permite explicar con un enfoque contemporáneo el rotundo éxito que en su momento gozó la comedia plautina y, a la inversa, ciertos patrones compositivos del teatro antiguo dan la pauta para entender la gran influencia del fenómeno televisivo que supone la sitcomThis paper offers a comparative analysis of the features of fabula togata by Plautus, a Roman writer of comedies of the 2nd century, and the defining characteristics of the successful TV genre, the sitcom. Using this approach, the authors aim to demonstrate the existence of a continuous tradition through which several comical features have been transmitted, without consciousness of their distant origin. Thus, the sitcom offers us an explanation, from a contemporary point of view, for the resounding success of the Plautinian comedy. Conversely, several composite elements of ancient theatre provide us with the key to understanding the reasons behind the great influence of the sitcom as a TV phenomenonEste trabajo ha sido realizado en el marco del proyecto de investigación «La comedia y la tragedia romanas. Estudio y tradición» (FFI2008-01611/FILO), subvencionado por el MICINN

Discourse Markers Used in Short Series Movie ‘Friends' and Its Relation with English Language Teaching

Language is primarily speech. This paper discusses discourse markers. They are used for various purposes like to create a smooth flow of thoughts and to make the interlocutors easily understand. This way is supposed to be handy in improving the speaking ability. The data were collected from a sitcom entitled ‘Friends'. They were analyzed in a descriptive and qualitative method. The data were classified and then described their function contextually. There are seventeen discourse markers encountered in sitcom. Yeah is the most discourse marker used and by the way is the least discourse marker used in the sitcom. Discourse markers are used to make the language of conversation to be natural. They are useful for the students to learn Thus, the use of discourse markers should be inserted and learned in the textbook for high schools