Quote: chipolata @ March 3 2009, 10:54 AM GMTDisagree. If you're going through tough times in your own life, it's often nice to see characters in sitcoms also going through tough times.
Fair point. Gallows humour - laugh at the thing which upsets us.
Quote: Chuck D @ March 3 2009, 9:00 AM GMTI think laughs have to be moderated. You need to bring it down and then push it up again. If you have a few lows, the laughs are worth more.
Well, take The Old Guys; one of the characters, Mark, is solemnly announced as having died, and immediately the script gets some dark humour from it as Tom is trying to suppress a smirk. The 'down' is not allowed to sadden us, and is there only for the purpose of lifting us yet higher. That 'down' is not there to moderate the laughs, it's there to generate them.
Quote: Chuck D @ March 3 2009, 11:19 AM GMTGallows humour - laugh at the thing which upsets us.
My Favourite is when Charles Hawtrey as the Duc Du Pomfritt is about to be guillotined and a flunky comes runing up saying he has a letter from him and Hawtrey replies, 'Chuck it in the basket I'll read it later.'