Introductory description

n/a

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Indicative Screening List: I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951 - 1957); The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970 - 1977); Seinfeld (NBC, 1989 - 1998); Friends (NBC, 1994 - 2004); Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, 2000 - ); Arrested Development (FOX, 2003 - 2006); Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1975 - ); Scrubs (NBC, 2001 - 2010); Girls (HBO, 2012 - 2017); Love (Netflix, 2016 - 2018); The Simpsons (FOX, 1989 - ); Jackass (MTV, 2000 - 2001); Bo Burnham: Inside (Netflix, 2021).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an ability to closely analyse comedy texts and be able to discuss their significance within the genre.
• Demonstrate a detailed understanding of one or more comedy sub-genres and the key debates surrounding them.
• Use precise and engaging language to describe and analyse comedic moments from the texts.
• Develop research questions with the module leader that intervene in or develop existing debates surrounding US comedy television.

Indicative reading list

Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik, Popular Film and Television Comedy (New York: Routledge, 1990). Lori Landay, I Love Lucy (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010). John Mundy and Glyn White, Laughing Matters: Understanding Film, Television and Radio Comedy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012). Jeremy G. Butler, The Sitcom (New York: Routledge, 2019). Brett Mills, The Sitcom (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009). Extracts from Glen Creeber (ed.), The Television Genre Book – Third Edition (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). David Lavery and Sara Lewis Dunne (eds.), Seinfeld: Master of its Domain (New York: Continuum International Pub. Group, 2006). Nicholas Mirzoeff, Seinfeld (London: BFI, 2007). Jason Mittell, Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling (New York: New York University Press, 2015). Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock (eds.), Television Aesthetics and Style (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live – 40th Anniversary Edition (New York: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2015). Jim Whalley, Saturday Night Live, Hollywood Comedy, and American Culture: From Chevy Chase to Tina Fey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). Mareike Jenner, Netflix and the Re-invention of Television (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Faye Woods, ‘Girls Talk: Authorship and Authenticity in the Reception of Lena Dunham’s Girls’, Critical Studies in Television, 10:2 (2015). Matthew A. Henry, The Simpsons, Satire, and American Culture (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Carol A. Stabile and Mark Harrison (eds.), Prime Time Animation: Television Animation and American Culture (London: Routledge, 2003). David Marc, Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture (London: Unwin Hyman, Ltd, 1989).

Research element

Students will have to write an essay that will involve research into concepts, contexts and texts.

Subject specific skills

This module develops skills of audio-visual literacy, through close textual and/or contextual analysis in relation to the moving image and sound. It also develops understandings of historical, theoretical and conceptual frameworks relevant to screen arts and cultures.

Transferable skills

• critical and analytical thinking in relation • independent research skills • team work • clarity and effectiveness of communication, oral and written • accurate, concise and persuasive writing • audio-visual literacy