Lo To analyse the audience pleasures in Harry Hill’s TV Burp

1. Lo To analyse the audience pleasures in Harry Hill’s TV Burp Question: Discuss in detail how one comedy programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. Harry is a prime time comedy show, aimed at all of the family. Most of the jokes are accessible to all, however some offer innuendo that only adults would find funny. For example, when Hill shows a butcher, they repeat the phrase ‘I had no confidence in my sausage’. This would appeal to a younger audience as the show uses repetition. An older audience would recognise the reference to a man’s penis. Another audience pleasure that Harry Hill offers is a play on words or ‘pun’. He makes a cup of tea with guinnea pig poo. He says ‘Typoo’ instead of Typhoo, a well known brand of tea. This offers audience recognition of a branded product. Prop comedy is another type of comedy used. A woman is shown pulling a car door out of her car. This is unexpected and Hill gives a voiceover explaining that this is her spare. Later in the show, he repeats the joke. This continuity offers the audience pleasure, as they are being rewarded for watching the show and seeing a previous funny joke repeated again. Harry Hill’s delivery of his jokes is deadpan. This means that he says ridiculous things with a straight face. This offers the audience pleasure, as it almost emphasizes the humour in what he is saying. An example of this is when he talks about a failed wax, and we cut to a woman in a hospital bed saying she feels ‘fuzzy’. The show uses canned laughter. This is now considered quite cheesey. It offers the audience pleasure as they realise that he show is not to be taken seriously. It offers them escapism from their lives and entertains them. Harry Hill uses ‘goofs’. These are mistakes made during filming. He does a voice over to commentate on a lady posting an invisible letter in Emmerdale. This is amusing, as there is no such thing as an invisible letter and it makes the actress look silly.

2. LO To analyse the audience pleasures offered by TV comedy Example answer • 4b: Compare the audience pleasures offered by two comedy programmes. Give examples from the programmes. • With Gavin and Stacey you have to watch every episode as they follow on whereas Harry Hill you don’t. • Harry Hill’s audience pleasures offer slapstick humour. This happens when Harry falls off his chair on purpose or hits himself to make people laugh as he is taking the mickey and using catch phrases from Alan Sugar and his show. • Familiarity is used when he says things like ‘fight’. The audience are used to this saying as it’s used in every episode so they feel like they can join in. Identification as he shows clips from TV shows. This is a pleasure as people may have seen them and they can now identify the funny bits the parts they have missed. • Escapism is offered as this show is full of jokes and humour. The viewers feel like they can just turn this on and forget about their situations at home or work/school. • Competitions are also on offer to win a knitted cuddly toy. As this shows TV clips from the week people do not need to watch this every week which can suit viewers. This offers no emotional investment just pure humour. • Verbal humour is offered when he takes the mickey out of celebrity voices. This is an audience pleasure as it can make you laugh. This can also tie in with visual humour as sometimes for example someone dresses up as Heather from ‘Eastenders’ but puts on the voice as well as the look.

3. Audience PleasuresWhat you have to cover according to the exam board • Setting – how may audiences relate to the series? The notion of all-inclusive package holidays • Characters / cast / presenters – how many are there? Do we recognise any stereotypes? Audience identification. Which characters are most successful and why? • Accessible themes – identify them (eg relationships, family, friendship…) How important are these themes for audiences? • Representation of social issues. Eg, social class, culture, sexuality). What do audiences see? • Consumption of the familiar. An important audience pleasure. Audiences feel ‘comfortable’ dropping in and meeting the same group of characters regularly. Which characters and situations in ‘Benidorm’ will encourage this? • Generic conventions – How does ‘Benidorm’ differ from other sitcoms? It lacks a laughter track / canned laughter, it’s filmed using a single camera technique (audiences may like this as it resembles reality TV). It is filmed entirely on location • Narrative resolution. How is the status quo disrupted and resolved by the end of the episode? • Comedy entertainment. What is the main source of comedy in the series? Cast, location, celebrity? What is actually funny and who would the humour appeal to?