More creators are rethinking the boundaries of comedic expression: what kind of humor is appropriate in what context?In this era of division and controversy, how can comedy continue?
The hot searches related to American dramas in 2023 will probably be as follows: At the beginning of the year, "The Last of Us" became the "New Year's drama" in the minds of American drama fans, and there were a lot of discussions about the plot and its comparison with games every week;In April, "Angry Life" relayed, and many quotations that accurately summarized the "current situation of East Asians" were cut out of the circle;In May, "Idol Vortex", which was "blessed" by K-pop artists and various off-screen controversies, and the Netflix version of "Three-Body Problem", which was considered "difficult to evaluate", released a trailer. The above basically constitutes all the moments of American dramas out of the circle this year.
A question also emerged in the excitement: At this moment 10 years ago, what American drama was everyone watching?What am I looking at again?
I think the answer for most people is "comedy".
The comedy of "ignoring awards, people don't love".
That year, "The Romance of Mom and Dad" entered the final season, and people were worried about the final ownership of "Little Yellow Umbrella", waiting to see how the screenwriter would wrap it up;"Modern Family" is enjoying its Emmy Award for "four consecutive titles" for best comedy series, and "Lily," then 6-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, one of the youngest child stars on the red carpet;"Life Big**" has rushed from the 60th in the annual list of dramas to the top 3 at the beginning of the broadcast, and the total number of viewers of a single episode is approaching 20 million;"Annoying Detective", "Best Mother" and many other new dramas that will last for ** years in the future are also about to be broadcast;At that time, "Friends" will usher in the "first ten years of commemoration" after the end of the series, and after the subtitle team improved the translation effect and the platform won the copyright, it took advantage of the popularity of the Internet at that time to gain more audiences.
You may wonder why it's been a long time since there have been comedies like the ones mentioned above that have been broadcast on radio networks
November 1, 2023, Shanghai. Fans of "Friends" gathered at a café to mourn the sudden death of Chandler Bing actor Matthew Perry. (Photo: Visual China).
Looking back at the list of winners and nominees for the Emmy Awards comedy category in recent years, whether it is "Barry", which is more well-known for its "mourning" and "melancholy" styles, and is explored more deeply by the creator's personal emotions, "Atlanta", which completely integrates more serious issues into the story, or "Bear's Restaurant", which boldly tries in the form of a single episode, most of them come from streams** and cable stations that have more talent budgets and can allow for more flexible expression, which has deviated from the traditional sense of "comedy". The top-rated programs of the broadcast network, which has suffered a heavy blow in ratings and aims to "fill the schedule", have long since become all kinds of procedural crime dramas and various sports competitions that follow a fixed routine.
Ignore the award, people don't love" has become a common situation faced by most radio network comedies.
The specific definition of "comedy" alone can be written in thousands of words, so this article locks comedy into "sitcom" (sitcom) in a simple and narrow sense, that is, those comedies that we click on an episode in our leisure time such as eating and going to bed, and each episode is usually less than 20 minutes long.
Stills from the fourth season of the American drama "Barry". (Photo: Barry).
According to FX research, a total of 599 original series were produced in the United States in 2022. This data has basically maintained the trend in the past 10 years, but comedy production is actually declining: just take NBC, a radio and television network that has been familiar with a large number of people in the past such as "Friends", "Office", and "I'm a Comedy Maniac", and has absolute appeal in comedy, for example, only 2 new comedies will be released in the next season.
The once proud comedy show "Thursday Must See" also died two years ago and has become a past that can only be recalled in the history of television.
At the same time, the streaming ** and cable stations that continue to invest in the production of original programs and the number of explosive programs are almost not choosing comedy as the focus of development. Netflix, which has a relatively high comedy content, whether it is "Life ** Annoying" with Chuck Lorre, who has produced dramas such as "Life **", or "Ranch Fun Facts", which attracts Ashton Kutcher (Ashton Kutcher) to join the lead, does not have enough influence. Nowadays, looking at the development news of this popular comedy, it is almost rare to see enough eye-catching names, mainly young actors, born on special holiday themes, or set to a more subdivided project such as a certain ethnicity.
Who would have thought that what was once a "must see on Thursday" has become a thing of the past. (Picture "Life Big**.")
Comedy is no longer popular, and the overall depression of the radio network has a lot to do with the changes in traditional TV viewing Xi (real-time **, recorded broadcasting). In the past, comedies mostly adopted a weekly broadcast mode, so that the production could be more timely and close to the laughter, and at the same time, it could also adapt to hot events and holidays to create theme collections. The "one-time release" model, which conforms to the production of streaming ** and is more suitable for many dramas, is not suitable for comedy, which also exposes the contradiction between "production and broadcast".
As for the "quick laughs" brought about by the gradually emerging trend of short ** starting with YouTube and TikTok relay, it is easier to impress the audience, and it also allows comedy to skip character design, action construction and any foreshadowing, and directly fast-forward to "canned" production. These jokes are repurposed into the production of regular episodes, often appearing repetitive and awkward.
A variety of different forms of comedy content supplements, such as stand-up comedy, variety shows, and late-night talk shows, reach more regions through the streaming platform, and the audience no longer has to be limited by the creation of comedy in a single country and a single language, but can find more suitable works.
In addition, the development of the Internet and the massive increase in program production have given the audience more choices, which has also invisibly diluted the fragmented time of watching dramas in real time and waiting for updates in the past. Even if there are occasional masterpieces, one or two dramas are not enough to save the overall decline. The Xi of "squatting and renewing" has long since changed, and the attention has decreased.
In a time of controversy,
How does comedy continue?
Whether it's the "slap in the face" staged at the Oscars earlier, or the criticism and even threats to the lives of a series of comedians for their performances, or the "blackface" episode of "The Office" is back on Netflix, more creators are beginning to rethink the boundaries of comedic expression: what kind of humor is appropriate in what kind of occasion?In this era of division and controversy, how can comedy continue?
Now it's a little tricky because you have to be very careful;It's really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life....Everyone needs to be funny!The world needs humor!In May, when promoting his new movie "** Mystery 2", the words of "Friends" heroine Jennifer Aniston (Jennifer Aniston) in an interview were quoted by many **. She candidly expressed her views on the dilemma of comedy creation, and also expressed everyone's desire for comedy.
Jennifer Aniston's concerns about comedy creation have struck a chord. (Picture "Friends").
Even classics such as "Friends" have come under greater scrutiny in recent years: the production of an earlier grand reunion special has been accompanied by criticism of the show's lack of diversity. Lisa Kurdow, who plays "Phoebe", has previously said that if the show were to be produced today (2020 at the time of the interview), "of course...It won't be an all-white cast." She also mentioned that the show should not be judged harshly by "today's standards", but rather as a "time capsule".
The audience doesn't want to accept the character's preaching when they open a drama, they want to find the embarrassment and embarrassment in the lives of the characters, so as to trigger happiness. People are also reluctant to check whether the character groups are balanced in terms of gender, race, social class, sexuality, etc., like a checklist. As for the jokes that swarmed in response to the changes in current politics in the past few years, the audience has long since turned from fresh to numb.
Good comedy should be a response to and a reflection of hot issues and phenomena, creating a "space" for people to forget the pressures and disagreements of the real world in the midst of jokes. When the audience struggles to find this "space", comedy also loses most of its color.
Instead of imitating, look back
On the one hand, Paramount+'s "Happy Family" is on the way, and Hulu's only current multi-camera comedy "Mom and Dad's Romance" is a "sexual rewrite" of the previous work "Mom and Dad's Romance", and at the end of last year, it was reported that Dragon TV would remake "Bankruptcy Sisters", "Seinfeld" and "Ugly Betty";On the other hand, dramas such as "Friends" and "The Office" have occupied the forefront of Netflix, Peacock and other streams all year round, and have become the most popular programs during the epidemic.
This exposes many of the problems and realities of current comedy creation: many episodes are being rebooted or reset, which is difficult to capture a new generation of audiences, and it is difficult to impress former audiences. The audience would rather look back on the classics of the past than watch new dramas.
Many comedies that try to keep up with the pace of the times end up "not docking at both ends". (Picture "Happy Family").
And the jokes of "** reuse", the routine plot development and canned jokes are also eating away at the audience's expectations and curiosity.
This reminds me of a short ** creation account called "Rich White Lady Nicholasflannery" that I accidentally clicked on during my stay at home last year, and its ** is basically an imitation of the classic scenes of film and television dramas that people are familiar with, most of which are only about a minute, which is better than vividness.
Looking through the comments below each **, you will be surprised to find that the friends who leave the message can very well list the "plot" that will be staged next**, and can immediately say the name of the work with a similar design.
The creator's original intention is to bring out everyone's memories of Hollywood movies and American dramas in a nostalgic way. And behind these **, in fact, it also reflects that many content creations have embarked on the helpless road of "old wine in new bottles".
But is comedy really all there is to it?
Today, when comedy is declining, there are still people working hard. (Picture "Primary School Storm").
First of all, "Joy for All" is becoming "Joy for Everyone".
There are still good comedies launched on different types of platforms, even in the context of radio networks, there are still comedies of good quality such as "Primary School" and "Haunted House Happy Delivery", which are of good quality and have *** ratings and renewals, are being broadcast.
As the definition of comedy has changed, many comedies have conducted genre experimentation and more accurate market capture (especially discussions on the ethnicity, gender, social class and other identities of the core creators), which have also made it continue to be refined. Rather than seeking more general resonance, today's comedy is more about "expression" as the core creative appeal.
You may no longer be able to find a "homepage pushed" "Douban 9"., the comedy of "God at the beginning of the broadcast", but there are always some "treasure dramas" that are a bit niche and escorted by the personality creator are waiting for you.
Comedy, which has become vertical, has also lost its "popularity". (Photo: "Baiwei Supermarket").
Take NBC's "Baiwei Supermarket" as an example, it was broadcast in 2015 and officially ended after the sixth season in 2020, and the number of "watched" people on Douban only reached four figures in the first season, and the last season was only evaluated by more than 400 people. What struck me about it was that it was always at the forefront of caring about labor rights, professional ethics, work safety and other topics between the hilarious character interactions and sharp lines.
The dilemma of comedy is also the dilemma of the entire American drama industry and American television content and production. The decline in instant viewership, the harsh production ecosystem, and the depletion of creativity that we talked about earlier seem to be an answer to other similar questions.
The strike, which began in the spring of 2023, finally came to an end not long ago: the Writers Guild of America reached an agreement after 148 days, and the Screen Actors Guild was able to start again after a 118-day shutdown. It will take time to assess its (near-devastating) impact, and it will be even harder to ignore the central divide of the crisis. In particular, the widely mentioned "AI screenwriter" may be able to provide a solution for drama, but those unique jokes, which need to mobilize the body and accent at the same time to bring out the real humor, still seem to be difficult to create.
Some time ago, I watched a variety show called "Songs That Listen to the Drama", and when I traced the good memories brought by "I Love My Home" and "Wulin Gaiden" through the singer's singing in the sixth issue, I realized that there has been no outstanding comedy output on the mainland screen for a long time.
We are all facing more challenges and pressures, and the comedies that once comforted people in countless moments are getting farther and farther away. The memories of ten, twenty, thirty years ago are still incomparably precious, preserving all our retrospectives.
Comedy is still moving forward, and we want it to go a little faster and catch up with the good old days.