Modern Comedy

The mockumentary style is very interesting. I actually have written about it a couple of times now.  They’ve been becoming more and more common with many very popular examples these days.  There’s the Office, but also Modern Family, Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and 7 Days in Hell. There has even been some pretty interesting kids shows like The Naked Brothers Band or the Total Drama Series. They function in different ways, the Office and Parks and Rec provide a sort of a western “slice of life” show. The shows take the viewer into the everyday, if out of the ordinary, lives of these coworkers. Modern Family is similar in that it follows the life of an unconventional family, but still gives you the perspective of each character thought the reality TV style  “confession cameras.” Meanwhile 7 Days in Hell and Arrested Development simulate actual documentaries. It all provides a different framing for comedy than the standard sitcom.  Rather than a straightforward story telling, the mockumentary allows for that story, but with the ability to insert those interview like portions that give an extra chance for jokes and the chance to give characters real opinions.

The popularity of these shows coincides with the rise of popularity of actual reality shows.  Modern Family came just after Keeping Up with the Kardashians, another show about the daily lives of a family.  The Total Drama series, a made up competition series pitting teens against each other in ridiculously dangerous challenges, came out while Survivor was still culturally relevant.  People seem to enjoy these shows that take everything that is inherently incongruous with these cultural phenomenons and dial it up to make it even more ridiculous.

I'd Like to Cutaway From Whatever Channel Family Guy is On.

The cutaway gag is certainly a staple of the show Family Guy.  They do allow the writers to add in another joke, but is it a good one?  On the whole, they really don’t fit in with the rest of the scenes they are in. They’re barely ever tied into the scene itself, almost always falling back on “This is worse than the time…” It’s barely enough to prevent what they call a “Big Lipped Alligator Moment.”  Where a scene is included but has no real impact on the plot without even being a distraction enough to be a red herring.  Interruptions like those are funny free standing, but in a scene, they interrupt what's really going on.  Constant random cutaways can come across as sloppy and cause the show to become tiresome.
The reason the writers for this show use them so often is because they give them the chance to throw in a quick joke that they couldn’t sustain in a whole episode without having it make any difference in the plot of the episode.  It’s the same way Stewie works a large majority of the time, making comments and acting out in ways that only really Brian ever notices.  As such the writers are able to put in those jokes without having to come up with the reactions or results of the actions.
Perhaps part of the humor is found in these outrageous other lives the characters are apparently living off screen.  American Dad, which in my opinion is the better Seth Macfarlane does the same thing, most of the time through Roger who seems to live multiple lives simultaneously.  With Roger, though, this is worked into the plot, at times being the center of an episode, and even being the source of ridicule for the way the show is constantly using it as an out, as in the scene where they take the horse to a therapist and the following happens (couldn’t find a copy online that didn’t seem like it was filmed on a Samsung Juke):

Stan: Everything depends on this horse.
Roger:Luckily, I know a guy who might be able to help us. Let's just pray that for once, when we get there, he doesn't turn out to be me.
_______
Roger: Aw, crap.
Roger in a wig: Can I help you?
Stan: I had an appointment
with the horse whisperer.
Roger in a wig: Oh, yes, he'll be right with you.
Roger: Thank God I'm just his secretary.
Roger in a wig:I'm an associate.

Self parody is always appreciated.  It’s nice to see the show realize its own shortcomings and bad habits.  It’s similar to when Monty Python ended a sketch with policeman after policeman arresting each other for overusing the same trick of using a policeman to end a sketch.  The fact that the writers are aware of the habit is funny, but so is the fact that within the context of the show, Roger realizes that he’s crazy and is frankly upset that his habit inconveniences himself more than anyone else.  There’s a point at which a bit like the cutaway gags or Roger’s characters become overused and lazy, but they have the potential to once again be funny.  The show just has to double down and mock its own use of the trick.

Please Laugh - JEB

I actually did my essay more or less on this topic. I found it very interesting the way people see the laugh track. (If you’re curious here’s the article I used, but if it doesn’t work it’s “Laughing Together” on Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.furman.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=66469859&site=ehost-live) It’s basically a focus group that watches sitcoms with and without a laugh track and then talks about what their perception of the laugh track is.  Essentially, they were all fairly aware of the laugh track in watching the show, and all but two really disliked the laugh track believing it was almost condescending, telling them when to laugh. And yet, the average sitcom still feels the need to use it, and those shows are still popular. As much as people don’t like the laugh track in theory, they in practice, it doesn’t seem as though they mind it all that much.  If anything, it seems to really help shows reach the mainstream.  

Why is that though? Everyone seems so opposed to it, but at least on some level, they must like or rely on it. Two of the people in the study openly liked it. One of them said it turned it into a group experience which I found interesting.  Humans are social creatures so it would make sense that the impression of having multiple people there would make a difference.  It’s sort of similar to the screens in Fahrenheit 451 which served the purpose of giving the feeling of being surrounded by other people, providing a sense of society without being social.  On the other hand though, another person in the group argued that it served simply as a cue to the jokes.  It’s like someone walking you through the humor.  Though this is precisely why some don’t like it, maybe they still rely on and appreciate it. Lots of other shows that don't use a laugh track still will have some way of pointing moments of comedy out with moments of silence as characters in the show react or with complete breaks from the scene in shows like Modern Family or the Office with the interviews or the narrator in Arrested Development. It's a function that producers really seem to find necessary.