TV Comedy - Question 4
4(a) Pick two TV comedies you have studied. Discuss why they were scheduled:
- On the channels that chose them
- On the days and times they were transmitted
You will need to know two programmes on two different television channels. (Answers that only discuss one programme or discuss two programmes on the same channel are highly unlikely to gain marks above level 2).
You should discuss two contrasting comedy programmes and show how they fit their different institutional contexts. However, you could discuss how very similar comedies are used on different channels.
The question asks for a discussion of the relationship between institutional context and scheduling practices, on the one hand, and the texts you have studied, on the other.
Do not simply focus on your chosen texts OR simply list facts about the institution. You need to explain how your texts fit the institution (brand/ethos/identity) and its scheduling.
Briefly identify other programmes on those channels and the ways the channels market themselves. Has the institution branded a time slot, e.g. ‘Thursdays are funny’.
You should mention regulatory requirements (e.g. Public Service Broadcasting) in terms of the watershed and limitations on content.
Mention the channel ethos and history in relation to the distinctiveness of the BBC or Channel 4, for example, if these are relevant to your texts. You should state whether the texts are scheduled on mass audience or niche audience channel. Try to explain the nature of those niche audiences. Better answers will make reference to viewing figures so use these to illustrate institutional context.
You need to identify the days and times of transmission for both your two texts and be able to discuss which programmes were scheduled before and after them. You could even mention which programmes were scheduled on competing channels/stations at the same times.
Attempt to evaluate how these time slots would attract the target audience for the texts, whether this is a mass or niche audience. Use evidence from the schedules to back up this evaluation, Don’t just guess. Identify scheduling techniques e.g.: stacking or blocking.
Level 3 (9-11 marks)
- Clear comparisons of the two chosen texts
- Some accurate use of terminology
- Shows sound knowledge of TV or radio channels and scheduling with some understanding of how programmes reflect institutional contexts
- Sound understanding of how channels use scheduling to reach audiences
- Ideas expressed with some clarity and fluency; errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar do not obscure meaning.
- Excellent comparison of the two chosen texts
- Precise and accurate use of terminology
- Shows detailed knowledge of TV or radio channels and scheduling with understanding of how programmes reflect institutional contexts
- Thorough understanding of how channels use scheduling to reach audiences
- Ideas expressed clearly and fluently in well structured sentences with few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
4b Show how these two
programmes offer their audiences different pleasures.
Higher level answers will explicitly identify and contrast a range of pleasures
offered by the text with detailed examples of these pleasures by reference to one or more episodes of the
programmes. These pleasures may range through comedic effect (types of humour) to
narrative pleasures (e.g. opportunities for identification and narrative
resolution), generic pleasures, audience uses and gratifications, pleasurable
themes, and so on.
Middle level answers are likely to discuss fewer pleasures,
with little or no explicit contrasting, and more limited examples, probably
from only one programme or part of a programme.
Lower level answers are likely to describe the texts with
little identification of pleasure beyond the text ‘being funny’.
Level 3 (9-11 marks)
Shows sound
knowledge of different audience pleasures Sound understanding of how programmes offer audience pleasures
Some understanding of differences between programmes
Relevant textual exemplification
Ideas expressed with some clarity and fluency; errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar do not obscure meaning.
Level 4 (12-15 marks)
Shows
detailed knowledge of audience pleasures Thorough understanding of how programmes offer audience pleasures
Thorough understanding of differences between programmes
Detailed and appropriate exemplification
Ideas expressed clearly and fluently in well structured sentences with few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.
REVISION VIDEOS
OCR Guidance Videos are available by clicking here. This playlist contains basic camera movement, shots and angles.
Good examples for Questions 4a and 4b (based on 'Friends' and 'Have I got News For You')
Types of humour:
There are several different types of humour. Some types may appeal to one person but not to another, or they may be enjoyed in alternation or in combination.
1. Innuendo: a figure of speech which indicates an indirect or subtle, usually derogatory implication in expression; an insinuation. Sexual innuendo (also called double-entendre) plays on a possibly sexual interpretation of an otherwise innocent uttering.
2. Dark/Gallows/Morbid: Grim or depressing humour dealing with misfortune and/or death and with a pessimistic outlook.
3. Deadpan/Dry: Delivered with an impassive, expressionless, matter-of-fact presentation.
4. Farcical: Comedy based on improbable coincidences and with satirical elements, punctuated at times with overwrought, frantic action. (It, like screwball comedy — see below — shares many elements with a comedy of errors.) Movies and plays featuring the Marx Brothers are epitomes of farce. The adjective also refers to incidents or proceedings that seem too ridiculous to be true.
5. Irony: Humour involving incongruity and discordance with norms, in which the intended meaning is opposite, or nearly opposite, to the literal meaning. (Not all irony is humorous, however.)
6. Juvenile/sophomoric: Humour involving childish themes such as pranks, name-calling, and other immature behavior.
7. Parody: Comic imitation often intended to ridicule an author, an artistic endeavor, or a genre.
8. Satirical: Humour that mocks human weaknesses or aspects of society.
9. Screwball: Akin to farce in that it deals with unlikely situations and responses to those situations; distinguished, like farcical humour, by exaggerated characterizations and episodes of fast-paced action.
10. Situational: Humour arising out of daily situations; it is the basis of sitcoms, or situation comedies. Situational comedies employ elements of farce, screwball, slapstick, and other types of humour.
11. Slapstick: Comedy in which mock violence and simulated bodily harm are staged for comic effect; also called physical comedy. The name derives from a prop consisting of a stick with an attached piece of wood that slapped loudly against it when one comedian struck another with it, enhancing the effect. The Three Stooges were renowned for their slapstick comedy.
12. Stand-up: A form of comedy delivery in which a comic entertains an audience with jokes and humorous stories. A stand-up comedian may employ one or more of the types of humour described here.
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