Comedy and British Identity
A National Joke,
Peep Show
Goodness Gracious Me
Peep Show Goodness Gracious Me
Dream Team Fort Boyard Harry Enfield and Friends
Peep Show
Peep Show Peep Show
Goodness Gracious Me Goodness Gracious Me Goodness Gracious Me
1
Introduction
One of the most daunting questions posed to graduate students (or any student for that matter) is the one inquiring about their focus. When asked about this project, I have told friends and family that I study the use of Americanness in British comedy as a means to reassert a sense of British identity. This is the easiest and most concise way I have found to answer the question. It is also a sentence constructed in such a way as to impress those unfamiliar with television studies. For some reason, when people hear “study television,” their body language and faces indicates that this field is a waste of time and just an excuse to watch television rather than do “real” work. Most do not understand that studying television changes the way in which I watch television. This dismissal changes, however, when I explain that I work with British television. There is a release in their body language, a type of acceptance, as if British television has been accepted as canonical, far superior to American television, deserving of study, more meaningful, and better quality. All of a sudden, I am given suggestions as to which program I should work with, which is their favorite and why I should watch it, and how much better they think British television is in comparison to American programs. Somehow, within this conversation, television studies becomes less useless and more insightful. It is the perceived differences and the way we talk about television, especially that of British and American television, that led me to this study of British television and specifically at the reflection of the dynamic of the British and American relationship within television. The purpose of this project
Peep Show
Goodness Gracious Me
Peep Show Goodness Gracious Me
Dream Team Fort Boyard Harry Enfield and Friends
Peep Show
Peep Show Peep Show
Goodness Gracious Me Goodness Gracious Me Goodness Gracious Me
1
Introduction
One of the most daunting questions posed to graduate students (or any student for that matter) is the one inquiring about their focus. When asked about this project, I have told friends and family that I study the use of Americanness in British comedy as a means to reassert a sense of British identity. This is the easiest and most concise way I have found to answer the question. It is also a sentence constructed in such a way as to impress those unfamiliar with television studies. For some reason, when people hear “study television,” their body language and faces indicates that this field is a waste of time and just an excuse to watch television rather than do “real” work. Most do not understand that studying television changes the way in which I watch television. This dismissal changes, however, when I explain that I work with British television. There is a release in their body language, a type of acceptance, as if British television has been accepted as canonical, far superior to American television, deserving of study, more meaningful, and better quality. All of a sudden, I am given suggestions as to which program I should work with, which is their favorite and why I should watch it, and how much better they think British television is in comparison to American programs. Somehow, within this conversation, television studies becomes less useless and more insightful. It is the perceived differences and the way we talk about television, especially that of British and American television, that led me to this study of British television and specifically at the reflection of the dynamic of the British and American relationship within television. The purpose of this project