British Comedy Guide

Gagging up

Two people looking at a laptop

Jokes. You can't have a sitcom without jokes (though some shows have tried - fnarr fnarr).

Jokes in sitcoms and narrative comedies come in all sorts of packages. Verbal jokes, visual jokes. Character lines. Easily deconstructable gags.

The combination of all these jokes mixed with the characters and storylines will create the overall tone of the sitcom.

Now different sitcoms have very different tones. Broad and bawdy. Warm and comforting. Melancholy and wistful. And sitcoms tend to combine these tones as they develop.

Some sitcoms are very rude, some are clean. A joke that might seem very naughty in an...

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Published: Tuesday 23rd July 2024

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