The Ballad of Eric Cartman

      I was brushing up on the latest episodes of South Park when I came upon E12 S15 "1%". It struck me as one of these episodes where comedy takes the back seat and lets "tragedy" drive for a bit. The entire episode isn't tragic of course, but the ending has a heavy touch of pathos making the situation funny and something else as well. You rarely see Death in Sitcoms, although South Park changed that a lot, so when it shows up we aren't really comfortable. See, the Sitcom genre doesn't evolve or it does very slowly, so if you break it down, you'll see many times the same thing between series, seasons and episodes. Thus, we like Sitcoms because of the familiar feeling like we are part of the family, group of friend, town... in which the characters lead their lives. 

      So, when Death appears, since we are not used to seing it in Sitcoms, we don't really know how to feel. Some people laugh much harder, others cry... doesn't matter. What matters is the concept of reciprocity between our feelings and the feelings exposed in the episode. If a character is sad and that makes us laugh, then there is a reason for that opposite reaction, as there would be if if the reaction was the same.

Tales From The Public Domain and Other Stories

What I really like is when animated sitcoms take on novels, poems, movies or any kind of past production and adapt them to their characters. Making a spoof of Stephen King like Family Guy did in S07E15 or completely re-doing Die Hard like the Cleveland Show did recently in S03E07.

    This happens frequently and especially in The Simpsons. Spoofs usually highlight the characters' personalities and mix them in with a story that doesn't seem appropriate to fit these out-of-context characters. 

     I like spoofs for two reasons. First, because they're really funny and second because they open the show and give a something more to their audience than the weekly jokes. This helps making TV a legitimate art form capable of building on the stones of past and present productions. So that's something good ! 

Let's take a look at a few of these spoofs : 

Oops....

    So.... Sorry everyone. I got caught up doing twenty thousand and a half things. No post today....
But Monday there will be a post and so will there be next thursday and so on after that FOREVER !!!

Shame too,... There were some very interesting things I wanted to say; but, too bad, I'll bring them up next week !

Kisses


and again, sorry


TRJ

Following Malcolm - Sitcom Schizophrenia

     What the X-Mas break gave me was time to brush up on some oldies. I had started watching Breaking Bad a few months ago and seing Bryan Cranston as Walter White made me want to revisit Malcolm in the Middle (MITM) to appreciate the acting range Cranston displays throughout his work. I very much like MITM, without being a hardcore fan, because several things make the show stand out from standard Sitcoms that we forget a month after they are canceled. 

      The first seasons center our attention around Malcolm obviously but as you may have noticed in eponymous Sitcoms, rarely is the "hero" the best part of the show. By "best" I mean funny, interesting and worth studying. The adventures Malcolm has don't really matter to me, but the decorum and method of presenting them are particularly fascinating. 

    The whole show is based on Malcolm growing up in a dysfunctional household that manages nonetheless to get through money problems, criminal problems, moral problems, and so on. With a weird father, Hal, very passionate about everything he does, but then abandons after a week, and an overly authoritative mother, Lois, that meddles way too much in her sons' personal life, Malcolm wanders through his teens as an awkward genius. 

Let's take a look at the "Middle" part of the show's name. 

Malcolm is in the middle in every aspect of his life :