PREP Please copy and paste the text below into your own blog and fill in your own answers, based on the TV sitcom Miranda.
B323 Section B Media Topic: Television and/or Radio comedy
Question 4 b): Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme.
I have chosen to analyse the audience pleasures of watching Miranda (BBC 1). I will give specific examples by close reference to episodes and by quotation.
Miranda is mainstream family viewing, aimed at a target audience who would relate to middle class life. Miranda is a TV sitcom: socially inept Miranda always gets into awkward situations when working in her joke shop with best friend Stevie, being hounded by her pushy mother, and especially when she is around her crush Gary.
A comprehensive review of all four BBC TV channels by the governing trust (July 2014) found that BBC 1 could feel “middle class in focus and target audience" with Miranda cited as an example. They also found that the BBC is falling out of favour with younger people and BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic viewers). The average age of BBC1 viewers is 59, compared with 56 in 2010/11. However, the character of Miranda is also quite like a big child as she is unmarried, always making a fool of herself and getting into trouble with her mother, so I think that audiences such as ....... could relate to her.
Audiences also relate to her relationship with her best friend Stevie because Stevie is the friend that she compares herself with and one that she almost looks up to. Stevie seems to be her polar opposite: petite, blonde, more conventionally attractive. Stevie thinks of herself as more successful socially and romantically, as she boastfully puts it, she has 'allure' whereas she dismisses Miranda as merely having 'wiles' when it comes to attracting men, as in Series 1 Episode 6. Miranda has to compete with Stevie for men, in fact, this is a running gag in many shows, such as Dog in which a man leaves his wallet in the shop and the contents suggest that he could be a potentially exciting date. The comedy arises here when both Stevie and Miranda buy dogs as 'wallet man' has a photo of a dog in his lost wallet. Stevie, who is tiny, buys a Great Dane while Miranda, who is 6 foot 1, buys a chihuaua. This results in slapstick comedy, with Miranda and Stevie walking their dogs in the park each hoping to run into 'wallet guy' and strike up a conversation. When the gates are locked at the end of the day, the competitive girls are locked in by mistake and Miranda gets stuck trying to squeeze through the gap. More slapstick comedy arises when Gary discovers her and tries to hide Miranda's situation from her friends by striking a pose in front of the trapped Miranda.
Miranda offers the pleasures of the sitcom genre, such as characters that are recognizable that the audience can relate to, who are stereotypes. Miranda's mother, for example, ....
Miranda's mother makes us laugh because ...
Miranda's group of girl friends are stereotypes. For example, ....
Her girl friends often make us laugh at Miranda, such as in the episode when her friends say "...."
However, in many ways, Miranda is an anti-stereotype because ...
There are many points of recognition for middle class audiences in the ways in which the sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes, such as Miranda's conflict with her mother as when ....
Another narrative strand that makes audiences relate to her is her trouble love life. To explain: ...
Each episode also features predictable running gags such as, for example, ....
Miranda always manages to lose her clothing, such as in the episode when ....
Stevie and Miranda always compete for boyfriends, such as the episode when ...
Miranda always embarrasses her friends socially, such as ...
The sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes about relationships. Miranda always fails to explain her true feelings for Gary, such as when ... Miranda tells us: "..."
She competes with, quarrels and makes up with Stevie, for example, ...
She gets scolded by her mother, such as in the episode when her mother says "...."
In most sitcoms, the audience is passive consumer but this show is filmed before a live studio audience. In addition, Miranda establishes a relationship with her audience by .... She confides in us, the audience her feelings, saying: "...."
For Blumler and Katz, audiences use media to gratify needs (the uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour). Miranda offers the pleasure of entertainment, escapism and diversion by making us laugh. In particular, both slapstick humour and verbal humour entertain us. Examples of these include (three examples minimum) ....
Audiences also like to relate to the characters in programmes; I have shown that Miranda offers many points of recognition in its characters. It s also important that Miranda is a likeable character who does not hold grudges. For example, ...
Audiences pick programmes with actors that they know and like. It is also significant that Miranda Hart is a well-known .......
Audiences tend to favour programmes that support their values and their sense of their own identity. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgements about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgements we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. The shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold. Therefore, equally important is the upbeat, comic atmosphere of the show. Despite set-backs such as ... Miranda bounces back, for example, ...
Finally, audiences like to know what is going on in the world (surveillance). This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers. In a sitcom, the characters face all sorts of situations that we can experience vicariously, some of which are challenging, such as ...
In conclusion, ....
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