Thank you for posting this article. I thought it was interesting the reasons they came up with for the failure of modern comedy. The idea that people are so diverse that you can’t “make all people laugh all of the time” seems especially ludicrous. The concept that different people find different things funny didn’t just happen in the last 30 years. “Lack of talk about ability” is an interesting view. It indicates that drama is doing better overall because of peer pressure to fit in and not get left out of the discussion. They say there is an overload of choices, especially from America. I don’t know, I live here, and I can tell you there is very little currently airing that speaks to me.
I don’t think the suggestion to make a show go on for more episodes makes it better, unless you are an American show hoping for syndication. In a time when the concept of families seems more likely to create conflict, calling for more sitcoms based around families seems an odd request.
In the end they never answered the question, where are the new classic sitcoms? Or, to put it another way, why won’t most of the sitcoms today be remembered 30 years from now?
I suspect each one of us has an answer to that. For me it’s the human element. Maybe we don’t all laugh at the same things, but we all can identify with the common human experience. What may be the big buzz around the watercooler today will be forgotten tomorrow, touching no one more deeply than for the moment, until the next big thing.
They say that the best lie holds a grain of truth. The same is true for comedy. Modern comedy seeks to maintain a level of excessive hilarity for hilarity’s sake that is exhausting and hollow. We need those sudden moments of lucidity, Clegg’s poignant allusions to brightly colored birds gone before their time, a quiet moment in a chilly alley (I never saw Love Story either), Foggy’s real desire to feel useful. We need those bits of truth, that connection to the common experience, because really, the joke is on us. The characters may be exaggerated, the situations absurd but those are OUR poignant truths, half regrets, and need for acknowledgement cleverly, and safely disguised. A show can have great writing, the best actors, and inspired direction, but what makes it memorable is how it touches us, allows us to lower our guard, and lets us laugh at ourselves.