美国情景喜剧电视剧概要

Introduction of Sitcom

—A Genre of the US TV Series

Applicant: Benjamin You

Supervisor: Li Hui

Faculty: Communication Engineering

December 10, 2015

East China Normal University

Abstract (ii)

1. Comedy (1)

1.1 Definition (1)

1.2 History ............................................................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

1.2.1Dionysiac origins, Aristophanes and Aristotle ....................... 错误！未定义书签。

1.2.2 In ancient Sanskrit drama ....................................................... 错误！未定义书签。

1.2.3 Shakespearean and Elizabethan comedy ................................ 错误！未定义书签。

1.2.4 19th to early 20th century (3)

1.2.5 20th century film and television (3)

2. Situation Comedy (4)

2.1 Definition (4)

3. Three Typical American Sitcoms (5)

3.1 Friends (5)

3.2 How I Met Your Mother (6)

3.3 Modern Family (7)

4. Comparison between the American and the Chinese Comedy (7)

Bibliography (9)

With the extensive global communication, people in each nation learn something new, mostly from other countries, much more easily. As a part of the culture exchange, TV series, especially the situation comedy, is just a case in point. A successful TV industry always has its vast influence. Take the US TV industry as an example, the situation comedy is one of the major genre of the US TV series, and its wide recognition and acknowledgement has made the entire industry so influential, not only in the mainland America, but even in some other countries and regions as well, like China. This essay is a brief introduction of the situation comedy of the US, and it will present three well-known sitcoms to illustrate the idea.

Key words: US TV series, comedy, situation comedy, daily life, cultural influence

edy

1.1 Definition

In a modern sense, comedy (from the Greek: κωμῳδία, kōmōidía) refers to any discourse or work generally intended to behumorous or to amuse by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy. The origins of the term are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theaters. The theatrical genre of Greek comedy can be described as a dramatic performance which pits two groups or societies against each other in an amusing agon or conflict. Northrop Frye depicted these two opposing sides as a "Society of Youth" and a "Society of the Old". A revised view characterizes the essential agon of comedy as a struggle between a relatively powerless youth and the societal conventions that pose obstacles to his hopes. In this struggle, the youth is understood to be constrained by his lack of social authority, and is left with little choice but to take recourse in ruses which engender very dramatic irony which provokes laughter.

Satire and political satire use comedy to portray persons or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them.

Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy, which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy, which is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly scatological humor, sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize the behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love.

1.2 History

1.2.1 Dionysiac origins, Aristophanes and Aristotle

Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes, a comic playwright and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes