AUDIENCE PLEASURES: THE IT CROWD

You look at the exam essays marked and returned today. You take note of suggestions for improvement. For example:

• In your written examination answers, you need to give specific examples by close reference to episodes and by quotation. 
• We read the script for the episode Yesterday's Jam looking for specific examples of what audiences find funny. We make notes under the essay handed back today.
• Yesterday's Jam script HERE 
• We draw attention to genre conventions that contribute to audience pleasures.
• Claremont blog post on audience pleasures HERE 
• When you use Blumler and Katz's framework for audience pleasures, it should serve as a prompt rather than be reproduced without being applied. Your English  needs to be natural and your grammar needs to make sense. Err on the side of writing naturally.
• We watch some of the episode Are We Not Men?
  Series 1 Episode 1 First Broadcast: 10PM Thu 31 December 2009
  The unloved and socially-awkward Roy and Moss give computer-illiterate Jen a less than lukewarm welcome to the IT department. Soon, however, they realise a female presence in their team can have its benefits...
  Script for episode: http://www.theitcrowd.co.uk/script/1.1/en/1-1.2-yesterdays-jam.htm
  Yesterday’s Jam
  Series 3 Episode 2 First Broadcast: 10.35PM Wed 14 January 2009
  A new football website allows Roy and Moss to pass as 'proper' men for a momentous couple of days. Meanwhile, Jen is trying to date a man who looks like a magician.
  Niche audience young adults behaving like teens; geekdom with computer bits lying around, comics, CDs; boys better with technology than people
  Addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes
  Characters are small cogs in a big anonymous organization; mystery about what the company actually does; the are buried in the basement & ignored unless trchnology goes wrong; the boys are desperate to belong (‘be real men’) and have a social life & girlfriend (Roy). The show tries to add a large number of references to geek culture and professionalism, mostly in set dressing and props. Dialogue (both technical and cultural) is usually authentic and any technobabble used often contains in-jokes for viewers knowledgeable in such subjects. Roy regularly wears shirts that feature Leet speak, such as the acronyms OMFG and RTFM. Roy wears the Music Elitism Venn Diagram tee and I Screw Robots sticker from the webcomic Diesel Sweeties. On occasion, there will be movie-style scenes that parody fight scenes and melodrama.
  Audience also placed in position of power (positioned as superior)
  Sense of superiority: we feel superior to the foolish behaviour; we can predict some of the characters’ foolish responses; computer savvy audiences can understand the jokes made at the expense of those ignorant (‘Have you tried turning it off and on again?’)
  With predictable running gags Jen shows her computer ignorance; her restaurant date goes wrong;
  Roy fails to impress the girls;
  Moss speaks the truth at the wrong moments (trip to Amsterdam);
  Points of recognition & identification offered:
  Audiences relate to the characters
  Recognizable, familiar types (stereotypes) ‘standard nerds, that’s what we are to them’; in jokes; buddies-bonded-by-loserdom; updates old-school physical shtick for the high-tech age; three dysfunctional people thrown together
  Moss: highly intelligent with a lack of social skills, Moss is a "standard nerd" computer geek who struggles to communicate with anything that does not have a keyboard. Moss lives at home with his mother, who also dresses him and packs him lunch; reclusive & avoids social contact, struggles to communicate with anything that doesn’t have a keyboard; takes everything literally, butt of jokes, buttoned-up clothes, large glasses, awful hair; tries to mimic "proper men" by taking online course in how to talk like football fans;
  Roy: a laid-back IT technician from Ireland, Roy goes to great lengths to fob off workmates so he can sit around doing nothing. However, when something does happen, he is always the one who gets the wrong end of the stick and is constantly either injured or in distress. He and his co-worker Moss are described as "standard nerds" computer geek; desperate for girlfriend but despised by rest of company; wears teenage T shirts/behaves immaturely; sexist jokes; wants to be a ‘real man’
  Jen: made Head of IT computer illiterate so she lands in ludicrous situations, agony aunt to boys, people person
  Slapstick humour Expertly crafted by writer-director Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books), The IT Crowd proves that nothing beats funny walks or electroshock-therapy pants when it comes to getting a big-ass belly laugh.
  Verbal humour
  Basement geekdom with computer bits lying around, comics, CDs
  Studio audience filmed in front of live studio audience; laughter
  Upbeat, optimistic, people you’re supposed to like; contains no strong language or violence so ‘old-fashioned, sweet’ comedy; depiction done with real affection
  Audience is passive consumer but the show is filmed before a live studio audience
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd
  The IT Crowd: Season 2

  http://www.barb.co.uk/index

  C4 Ratings: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/W/wtc4/audience/tvratings.html
  C4 Audience: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/W/wtc4/audience/index.html
  C4 Scheduling: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/W/wtc4/scheduling/index.html
  BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes
  About the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/
  BBC Audience: http://www.barb.co.uk/index