Family
Guy: Even in the Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
America's truth telling, ground breaking comedy programs
have attracted attention.
Calling a 'Spade a
Spade': What Sitcoms Tell Us about America (Dar Al Hayat,
Saudi Arabic)
"There is
an ongoing interaction between U.S. sitcoms and American society, and these
programs provide a reflection of this society. ... The early years of the 21st
century witnessed the spread of animated series for adults, which surpassed all
that came before them in their mockery of American society and its values. ... These
series call a 'spade a spade,' sometimes eliciting huge reactions among the
public."
Months ago, when President Barack Obama and his challenger
Mitt Romney were in the midst of the election campaign, about their favorite sitcom, both of them
chose Modern Family which
has been on ABC for the past three
years.
If Obama's pick of this program was no surprise, it was very
strange for his conservative Christian opponent, who represented a right-wing
party that upholds the banner of protecting the "traditional family,"
to choose a series that depicts gay people adopting a child and which constantly
mocks traditional methods of child rearing, especially when it comes to the
sexual education of children.
Perhaps the choice of the series by both politicians stems
simply from an attempt to burnish their image among undecided voters and ride
the sitcom's tremendous popularity in America. What is certain is that there is
an ongoing interaction between U.S. sitcoms and American society, and that
these programs provide a reflection of
this society. That relationship became the subject of a British program by the
BBC titled Family
Guys - What do Sitcoms Say about America Now?
Modern Family: Surprisingly, a favorite show of both President
Obama and his former Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.
That program looks back to the 1970s, which is the period in
which sitcoms established themselves as a cornerstone of American television,
and provides examples from series of the time that dared tackle issues that
were taboo for American TV at the time, such as abortion, the emotion of
relationships among different races in American society, homosexuality, and the
relationships between Americans and religion.
The BBC program contains
interviews with sociologists and TV critics who all confirm that the most popular
American comedy series are those that foresee and document the social and
economic changes in American society, and present stories inspired by them. Paradoxically,
the secret of the success of any sitcom is based on the portrayal of a serious
problem that is in essence extremely sad. Ultimately, the balance between
comedy and drama is what opens the door for these programs to expose the American
subconscious, which is how they win popular acceptance and approval.
A recent examples provided by the BBC program is a series
called The Middle, which was first broadcast in 2009
and portrays the daily life of an American family that is cruelly exposed to
the economic crisis. One of the famous scenes in the series is in the form if a
flashback for the couple in the story, as they return home after buying new appliances
purchased on credit to be paid back in installments over three years. Those
years will pass quickly for the couple and many Americans, who find themselves
at the end of this period paying the price for their undisciplined spending.
With the advent of the new millennium, the sitcom and its
network of writers felt that the time was right to depict stories and people
that are bolder than those that emerged in the last. For instance, the first
decade of the new millennium has witnessed very successful TV series like Will and Grace, which portray lesbian people
living a normal life in New York.
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
Will and Grace: To people in much of the world, portraying
- shock of all shock -
homosexuals living normal lives.
The early years of the 21st century also witnessed the
spread of animated series for adults, which surpassed all that came before them
in their mockery of American society and its values. These series have become famous
for their attacks on conservative forces in America, and they also mock the
political correctness that has so dominated U.S. media over the past two
decades. These series call a "spade a spade," sometimes eliciting huge
reactions among the public. They reflect the uncertainties and beliefs of large
portions of the nation's youth, also known as the Internet generation. Although
they are considered somewhat religious, American young people have found in these
series a spirit of rebellion that they yearn to express.
