Likeability
Monday 29th June 2015
How many of the following would you invite to your next dinner party?
Alf Garnett
Albert Steptoe
Alan Partridge
Rimmer
Rigsby
Patsy
Edina
Hyacinth Bouquet
Vyvyan from The Young Ones
Superhans
Bernard Black
Basil Fawlty
Larry David
David Brent
Rab C Nesbitt
We don't have to like sitcom characters to want to spend time with them every week. We just have to understand them, which isn't at all the same thing.
Of course we only have to spend 30 minutes with them each week, and those characters are there for a couple of reasons:
1) To show that there are bosses/neighbours out there that are just as bad as or worse than our own (David Brent, Victor Meldrew)
2) We bottle up what we'd like to say or do to those people. People in sitcoms get to say or do them.