British TV Comedies [electronic resource] : Cultural Concepts, Contexts and Controversies /
Kamm, Juergen.editor.
Neumann, Birgit.editor.
This collection offers an overview of British TV comedies, ranging from the beginnings of sitcoms in the 1950s to the current boom of 'Britcoms'. It provides in-depth analyses of major comedies, systematically addressing their generic properties, filmic history, humour politics and cultural impact.
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: the aesthetics and politics of British tv comedy -- The 1950s and 1960s: beginnings of the British sitcom and the satire boom. Richard Kilborn (Stirling): A golden age of British sitcom? Hancock's half hour and Steptoe and son -- Bernd Lenz (Passau): "Your little game": myth and war in Dad's army (1968-1977) -- Alexander Brock (Halle/Saale): The struggle of class against class is a what struggle? Monty Python's Flying circus and its politics -- Mary Irwin (Northumbria): the rag trade: "everybody out!" gender, politics and class on the factory floor -- The 1970s and 1980s: new loyalties, histories and collective identities: post-familiar paradigms. Nora Plesske (Braunschweig): "Sambo" and "Snowflake": race and race relations in Love thy neighbour -- Paul Davies (Passau): "You snobs! you stupid stuck-up toffee-nosed half-witted upper-class piles of pus! Basil Fawlty's touch of class and other hotel matters in Fawlty towers -- Jürgen Kamm (Passau): Ignorant master, capable servants: the politics of Yes minister and Yes prime minister -- Eckart Voigts (Braunschweig): Zany "alternative comedy": The young ones vs. Margaret Thatcher -- Gerold Sedlmayr (Dortmund): The uses of history in Blackadder -- Deirdre Osborne (London): With some additional information from Stephen Bourne (London): Black British comedy: Desmond's and the changing face of television -- The 1990s: (un)doing gender and race. Jochen Petzold (Regensburg): Laughing at racism or laughing with the racists? the "Indian comedy" of Goodness gracious me -- Rainer Emig (Mainz): Exploding family values, lampooning feminism, exposing consumerism: Absolutely fabulous -- Lucia Krämer (Hanover): Comic strategies of inclusion and "normalisation" in the Vicar of Dibley -- John Hill (London): Subverting the sitcom from within: form, ideology and Father Ted -- Marion Gymnich (Bonn): "The lady of the house speaking": the conservative portrayal of English class stereotypes in Keeping up appearances -- Angela Krewani (Marburg): Family life in front of the telly: The Royle family -- Brett Mills (Norwich): Old jokes: One foot in the grave, comedy and the elderly -- The 2000s: Britcom boom "new Britain = "cool Britannia"? -- Anette Pankratz (Bochum): Spin, swearing and slapstick: The thick of it (2005-2012) -- Philip Jacobi (Passau): Life is stationary: mockumentary and embarrassment in The office (2001-2003) -- Joanna Rostek and Dorothea Will (Passau): From ever-lusting individuals to ever-lasting couples: Coupling (2000-2004) and emotional capitalism -- Oliver Lindner (Kiel): The comic nation: Little Britain and the politics of representation -- Stephan Karschay (Passau): Laughing in horror: hybrid genre and the grotesque body in Psychoville.
This collection offers an overview of British TV comedies, ranging from the beginnings of sitcoms in the 1950s to the current boom of 'Britcoms'. It provides in-depth analyses of major comedies, systematically addressing their generic properties, filmic history, humour politics and cultural impact.
Culture—Study and teaching.
Motion pictures and television.
Communication.
Motion pictures—History.
Sociology.
Arts.
Regional and Cultural Studies.
Screen Studies.
Media Studies.
Film History.
Media Research.
Arts.