edited by Jürgen Kamm, University of Passau, Germany ; Birgit Neumann, University of Düsseldorf, Germany
1 online resource (xiii, 363 pages.)
Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index
Introduction: the aesthetics and politics of British tv comedy -- The 1950s and 1960s: beginnings of the British sitcom and the satire boom. Richard Kilborn (Stirling): A golden age of British sitcom? Hancock's half hour and Steptoe and son -- Bernd Lenz (Passau): "Your little game": myth and war in Dad's army (1968-1977) -- Alexander Brock (Halle/Saale): The struggle of class against class is a what struggle? Monty Python's Flying circus and its politics -- Mary Irwin (Northumbria): the rag trade: "everybody out!" gender, politics and class on the factory floor -- The 1970s and 1980s: new loyalties, histories and collective identities: post-familiar paradigms. Nora Plesske (Braunschweig): "Sambo" and "Snowflake": race and race relations in Love thy neighbour -- Paul Davies (Passau): "You snobs! you stupid stuck-up toffee-nosed half-witted upper-class piles of pus! Basil Fawlty's touch of class and other hotel matters in Fawlty towers -- Jürgen Kamm (Passau): Ignorant master, capable servants: the politics of Yes minister and Yes prime minister -- Eckart Voigts (Braunschweig): Zany "alternative comedy": The young ones vs. Margaret Thatcher -- Gerold Sedlmayr (Dortmund): The uses of history in Blackadder -- Deirdre Osborne (London): With some additional information from Stephen Bourne (London): Black British comedy: Desmond's and the changing face of television -- The 1990s: (un)doing gender and race. Jochen Petzold (Regensburg): Laughing at racism or laughing with the racists? the "Indian comedy" of Goodness gracious me -- Rainer Emig (Mainz): Exploding family values, lampooning feminism, exposing consumerism: Absolutely fabulous -- Lucia Krämer (Hanover): Comic strategies of inclusion and "normalisation" in the Vicar of Dibley -- John Hill (London): Subverting the sitcom from within: form, ideology and Father Ted -- Marion Gymnich (Bonn): "The lady of the house speaking": the conservative portrayal of English class stereotypes in Keeping up appearances -- Angela Krewani (Marburg): Family life in front of the telly: The Royle family -- Brett Mills (Norwich): Old jokes: One foot in the grave, comedy and the elderly -- The 2000s: Britcom boom "new Britain = "cool Britannia"? -- Anette Pankratz (Bochum): Spin, swearing and slapstick: The thick of it (2005-2012) -- Philip Jacobi (Passau): Life is stationary: mockumentary and embarrassment in The office (2001-2003) -- Joanna Rostek and Dorothea Will (Passau): From ever-lusting individuals to ever-lasting couples: Coupling (2000-2004) and emotional capitalism -- Oliver Lindner (Kiel): The comic nation: Little Britain and the politics of representation -- Stephan Karschay (Passau): Laughing in horror: hybrid genre and the grotesque body in Psychoville
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This collection offers an overview of British TV comedies, ranging from the beginnings of sitcoms in the 1950s to the current boom of 'Britcoms'. It provides in-depth analyses of major comedies, systematically addressing their generic properties, filmic history, humour politics and cultural impact
1137552948
British television comedies
Situation comedies (Television programs)-- Great Britain-- History and criticism.
Television comedies-- Great Britain-- History and criticism.