Kidult Culture, Identity and Nostalgia: the Case of the Regular Show

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How to cite this thesis

Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/vital/access/manager/Index?site_name=Research%20Output (Accessed: Date). Kidult Culture, Identity and Nostalgia: The Case of The Regular Show

By Litlhare Moteetee

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MA Fundamental Communication in the Department of Communication Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg

Supervisor: Prof. Nyasha Mboti

August 2016

1 Declaration Regarding Plagiarism

School of Communication, University of Johannesburg

 I understand what plagiarism entails and am aware of University’s policy is this regard  I declare that this final research script is my own original work. Where someone else’s work was used, due acknowledgement was given and reference made according to the School’s requirements  I did not submit someone else’s work as my own  I did not allow and will not allow anyone to copy my work with the intention of presenting it as his/her own work.

Signed: ______Litlhare Moteetee (200826509)

Date: ______

2 Acknowledgement

1. To my parents, Annah and Leutloa Moteetee, for the unwavering support and uncompromising love 2. To my brothers, Melkai, Kakes, KP and Vinnie, for believing in me always 3. To my children, Hayden-Lee and Angel, who I hope will one day see the value in hard work and creativity 4. To Professor Mboti, for taking the time to understand my passion in cartoons and help me formulate it into what is now a thesis I can be proud of

4 Abstract

Not only are today’s cartoons regarded as entertaining, but they seem to incorporate a twisted, random type of humour that may seem strange to the real world. The characters themselves are fascinating to watch and their exploits and misadventures are relatable to the common person. The study hypothesises that animated-media plays a very important role in fostering identity as much as mainstream media does; the content and characters in cartoons may have a very strong effect in fostering multiple and innovative identities that are in keeping with the complex nature of today’s postmodern society. The study proposes that the kidult culture phenomenon is directly connected to popular culture and the hypothesis of nostalgia. The study draws on the Uses and Gratifications theory to display the high level of audience choice and activity when it comes to the consumption of media. Using The Regular Show as a case study, focus groups were utilised in an effort to understand what the 21st century’s active adult audience finds so appealing about the cartoon show itself and other cartoons that are proposed to be adult directed cartoons. The focus groups also discussed kidult culture as a phenomenon and what it means for identity formation.

5 Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction 1. Introduction 9 2. The Regular Show 9 3. Cartoon animation: a brief background 11 4. Research problem 14 5. Justification/ Rationale 14 6. Research questions 16 7. Aims and objectives 16 8. A note on dramatis personae 16 9. Scope 17 10. Delimitation 18

Chapter Two: Literature Review 1. Introduction 20 2. Kidults and kidult culture 20 3. Nostalgia and Identity 25 4. Popular culture 30 5. Audience 33 6. Animation 35

Chapter Three: Theoretical Framework 1. Introduction 47 2. Uses and Gratifications theory 47 3. Dependency theory 51 4. Deprivation theory 53 5. Demassification 53 6. Criticisms and flaws of the Uses and Gratifications theory 54

6 Chapter Four: Methodology 1. Introduction 56 2. Qualitative Research 56 3. Thematic content analysis 57 4. Focus groups 61 5. Sampling 62 6. Reliability and Validity 63 7. Coding 64 8. Coding high and low comedy 65 9. Limitations of content analysis 66

Chapter Five: Findings, analysis and discussion 1. Introduction 69 2. High and Low comedy analysis 69 3. Focus group findings and discussion 83 4. Limitations 97

Chapter Six: Conclusion Conclusive remarks 99 Directions for further research 102 References 104 Appendices a. Appendix A 113 b. Appendix B 114

7 CHAPTER ONE

8 Introduction

This study is an exploration of the television genre of cartoon animation and the identities of its audiences. The focus is on how and why a form of popular entertainment, originally targeted at children, manages to attract adult audiences, and the nature of this adult audience. In essence, this study turns on an exploration of the “kidult” (kid-adult) phenomenon and “kidult” identities in relation to a selected animated cartoon show, The Regular Show, an animated TV series created by JG Quintel that first aired on Cartoon Network in 2010. The term first appeared in The New York Times on August 11, 1985:

And in the background, on a much less lavish scale, is LBS communications, which doesn't own its own stations but provides a lucrative stream of 'kidult' — children, teenager and young adult — programming to independents. —Peter Martin, in Falconer (2008).

Kidults are adults who seem trapped in the liminal stage between adolescence and adulthood. In its benign form, the kidult identity is reflected in adults who still enjoy and participate in child-like activities such as pranks and constant play, and who have a carefree worldview. As a serious sociological and psychological phenomenon, however, the kidult identity is a whole new weltanschauung. This worldview is regarded by theorists such as Hye Jin Lee, as new culture, or at least a subculture, that signifies “adulthood in crisis”, “the death of the grown- up” and deep seated social anxiety about adulthood (Lee, 2010). In this account, the kidult identity draws on allusions to Peter Pan, the boy character who refused to grow up. This theory will be explored further in the dissertation.

The Regular Show

The Regular Show (Fig. 1) is a plausible case study for two reasons. Firstly, it draws kidult audiences. Secondly, its main characters, Mordecai and Rigby, are themselves kidults. This allows for the study to weave in the text (The Regular Show) with its context (audiences). The Regular Show revolves around Mordecai (a blue jay) and Rigby (a raccoon). The two are 23 year old

9 carefree best friends who work as groundkeepers at “The Park”. The show follows the duo on their daily lives as they attempt to “slack-off” from work in search of mind-blowing fun. Their attempt to slack off constantly infuriates the Park Manager (Benson), who keeps threatening to fire them from their jobs if they do not grow up. In a real sense, the two main characters literally slack off from adulthood, which is associated with seriousness and taking responsibility. Their preference is for childhood, which is carefree. Mordecai and Rigby’s search for fun, however, always ends in surreal and supernatural disasters. For example, in “Peeps” (Season 2, Episode 4), when Benson becomes frustrated with Mordecai and Rigby’s blatant refusal to do their work, he hires a giant eye-ball as a surveillance system. The giant eye-ball causes all sorts of problems at the park and in the house and the episode ends when the eyeball is defeated by Mordecai in an eye blinking contest.

At the heart of The Regular Show is an existential dilemma. The surreal disasters that take place in every episode always end with Mordecai and Rigby having had their fun. Since having fun is at the centre of kidulthood, this means that the two characters have little incentive to grow up. The dilemma is thus a Peter Pan-like problem. Interestingly, the show seems to be an endorsement of the pleasures and benefits of kidulthood. At its extreme, it is an invitation to kidulthood. At the same time, the show allows for reflection on the limits, dilemmas and even dangers of kidulthood by appearing to show Mordecai and Rigby as caricatures that must not be taken at face value. That is, there is a sense in which The Regular Show is best enjoyed with a disclaimer, like entertainment wrestling, “not to do this at home”.

Figure 1: The Regular Show (Source: Comic book resources.)

10 The Regular Show is based loosely on Quintel’s college experiences, and many of the characters originate from some of the student films and previous animation work he created. Quintel attended college with Thurop Van Orman and Pendleton Ward, who both went on to work at Cartoon Network Studios. Van Orman created The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Ward created Adventure Time, two well-known and popular cartoons today. Quintel simultaneously worked on Camp Lazlo and as creative director on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack while completing his degree (O’Leary, 2012).

Cartoon Animation: A Brief Background

Animated cartoons are sequential drawings that are made into films (Bukatman, 2012). Theorists of animation have argued that its appeal is its graphic nature and humour (Ezell, 2002 and Levine, 1969). The earliest recorded beginnings of humorous and satirical caricature (cartoon drawings and illustrations) as a genre can be traced to the Renaissance period, the same epoch within which the idea of the “individual” took centre stage (Majdnia and Fadavi, 2011). Current studies on the genre argue that the caricature is neither a historic recreation nor narrative, but rather a combination of symbols and suggestions (allusions) which elaborate, contract, or disguise people to reveal their many sides at one glance (Philippe, 1980). In this account, the humorous caricature dramatizes ideas more openly, memorably and simply than do speeches and written material (Douglas, 1993).

Traditionally, the audience for ‘Saturday morning cartoons’ and animation was mainly children (Bendazzi, 1994). The first successful primetime animated series in the American context was the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Flintstones, which ran from 1960-66 (Beck, 2005). The notion of a prime-time cartoon is therefore an important one for this study of “kidults”, as it suggests that cartoons were being shown during the block of broadcast programming targeted at whole families and taking place during the middle of the evening. In other words, cartoons were also targeted at and enjoyed by adults.

11 Popular animated cartoons such as The Simpsons, MTV’s Beavis and Butt-head, and South Park are targeted at a specific adult demographic (Barrier, 1999). In the 1990s, The Simpsons became a large part of American popular culture (Mansour, 2005). The Simpsons merchandise also reportedly generated millions in revenue (Stabile and Harrison, 2003). South Park, on the other hand, became one of Comedy Central’s most popular shows (Johnson-Woods, 2007; Arp, Broman and Jacoby, 2006). The “adult” cartoon has since steadily become a universal phenomenon, with popular cartoon characters being absorbed into a variety of local sub-cultures (Johnson-Woods, 2007; Barrier, 1999).

Perhaps not surprisingly, The Regular Show was partly inspired by The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head (Zahed, 2012). Stylistic similarities are seen throughout the program, and will be discussed in Chapter 4 under the textual and content analysis. Quintel was also inspired by video games such as Street Fighter, Shadowrun and ToeJam and Earl, as well as some popular British television programs. Quintel's interest in British television was influenced by his British roommate at college who introduced him to The League of Gentlemen, The IT Crowd, Little Britain (Fig. 2), The Office and The Mighty Boosh (O’Leary, 2012).

Figure 2: Little Britain (Source: Netflix)

12 Establishing the identity of the very first animated cartoon has proven to be rather challenging, but it appears that Winsor McCay introduced the first animation cycle in 1912, with his film How a mosquito operates (Fig. 3). Prior to that, his first project was Little Nemo, however, there is no storyline to Little Nemo; it was more of an experiment in movement. The success of which led him to create the film How a mosquito operates. McCay was also the first to create colour animation, hand colouring every frame by hand (Bosustow and Mahon, 1956). It is thus plausible to claim that cartoons were first created at the beginning of the 20th century, with help from the technological revolution that was sweeping the world at the same time.

Figure 3: Little Nemo (Source: Facweb)

Although the first experiments in image motion took place in Europe, America began to lead animation production after World War 1 and today it is the main worldwide provider of cartoons (Burguera, 2011). These two regions have taken the lead in animation production, the United States being the main source of cartoons globally (Burguera, 2011). Although McCay has been named the pioneer of the medium, Walt Disney has been labelled as the first successful animator. His formula for the “perfect” cartoon included “pleasing aesthetics”, sentimentalism

13 and a supposedly “neutral ideology” (Burguera, 2011). This formula can be seen in cartoons such as Adventure Time and The Amazing World of Gumball. In these cartoons we see a myriad of art styles including both 2D and 3D drawings, puppets and clay characters all in one. Both shows revolve around the relationships between the characters which are highly relatable. Another big name in the industry is Warner brothers. In 1989, the corporation released The Simpsons, a cartoon that is universally regarded as having spearheaded the evolution of adult directed cartoons (Burguera, 2011). JG Quintel, the creator and director of The Regular Show, grew up watching The Simpsons. As an adult he subsequently started producing his own line of popular adult cartoons.

Research Problem

The focus of this study is South African audiences of The Regular Show. Why do they watch the show? The study explores the phenomenon of kidulthood, kidult culture and kidult identity, read through televised popular culture in the form of the cartoon genre. I use The Regular Show, an animated cartoon series, to problematize the meanings and contours of South African kidult identity. Is kidulthood a universal phenomenon? Is it contextually specific? What really motivates South African kidults to watch shows like The Regular Show? What do they aspire to? I was particularly interested in what local kidult culture means, how it is recycled as a media genre, how it helps shape or unshape identity, and what place it holds in popular culture. The research was focused on qualitative meanings, attained through the use of focus groups, as well as content analysis of the specific episodes selected. I hoped to glean, from the findings, a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of local kidult culture and whether or not it is related to the limits and possibilities of contemporary South African society, and what, if anything, it can teach us about contemporary South African society.

Justification and Rationale

The study proposed to investigate why selected South African adult audiences watch animated cartoons such as JG Quintel’s The Regular Show, and if the patronage of such shows

14 plays any part in the formation, production and reproduction of identity of a selected demography: local cartoon-loving adults. According to a Nexus (2015) database search, there have been no reception studies profiling the adult audience of animated cartoons in the South African context. A study focusing on the identities and the nature of local “adult” cartoon audiences is hence relevant.

The choice of The Regular Show was motivated by the fact that it is a cartoon shown on a children’s cartoon channel, but it also displays a sophisticated and risqué humour that may be regarded as suitable for a range of adolescent and adult audiences. The show also features two main characters that self-identify as kidults. The Regular Show’s hybrid belonging to both worlds (children and adults) made it an ideal site for the study of kidult audiences. The study proposes that animated media is as important as mainstream media. The content and characters in popular entertainment such as kidult cartoons may or may not have a role to play in fostering multiple and innovative identities that are in keeping with the mish-mash nature of today’s supposedly postmodern social environments.

South Africa's transition to democracy and modernization has led South Africans to experience a growing scepticism towards narratives about the special role of the Afrikaner and the creation of different peoples, particularly the South African peoples (Lötter, 2006). This means that South Africans can be said to live in a “post-modern” society.

The liberalizing of the South African society has brought about a new sense of awareness and a postmodern attitude that reinforces and foster this trend. The relevance of postmodernity for countries such as South Africa relates to the long and painful experiences of injustice that many citizens have endured. Although these experiences are long over, the fight for the identity of the South African still carries on, it is the remnants of the emotions that still fuel societal outrage and protests fuelled by any form of injustice that is reported on social and mainstream media that attacks people’s social identities.

15 Research Questions

The study sought to address three research questions, which are as follows:

1. Why do selected “kidult” audiences of The Regular Show watch the show? 2. What is the nature of the relationship between The Regular Show and “kidult identity”? 3. How do selected “kidult” audiences of The Regular Show construct their identities in relation to the show?

Aims and Objectives

The study proposed to investigate why selected South African adult audiences watch animated cartoons such as JG Quintel’s The Regular Show. The chosen audience refers to young adults between the ages of 20 to 32, 4 females and 11 males. 2 of the 4 females in the study are currently enrolled in University, 1 is taking a gap year and the other works full-time. Of the 11 males, 8 of them are enrolled in University, and 3 of them are working full-time. More information about the audience/respondents will be discussed during the results portion of the study.

This study aims to examine the nature of the role that cartoons may or may not play in the formation, production and reproduction of identity in a selected local demography of cartoon-loving adults. The objective is thus to critically examine the notion of “kidult culture” in situ, using a selected “kidult” audience of The Regular Show as an example.

A Note on Dramatis Personae

The character of Mordecai embodies Quintel during his college years, “That time when you’re hanging out with your friends and getting into stupid situations, but you’re also taking it seriously enough” (Quintel, 2012). The character of Rigby was randomly developed when Quintel drew a raccoon hula-hooping. He liked the design and developed the character of Rigby to be far

16 less responsible than Mordecai. Mordecai is actually voiced by Quintel himself. He is a young “man” who is learning responsibility, but still loves to have fun. Rigby on the other hand acts like a teenager and shows a lot of immaturity. The character Pops is actually a talking lollipop from “Lolliland”, a fictional place created by Quintel during his time as a university student. Pops is the son of the owner of the park; is the head of the park, and actually has an oversized head to show for it. Pops is quite out of touch with reality and has a child-like demeanor. Benson, the angry, ill- tempered manager of the park, is a gumball machine. He is always clashing with Mordecai and Rigby due their laziness.

Skips is one of the groundskeepers. He is a wise immortal yeti who is always getting Mordecai and Rigby out of their supernatural messes and tight spots. Muscle Man and High Five Ghost are the other two groundskeepers. Muscle Man is an overweight meat-head who loves pulling pranks, and High Five Ghost is his best friend, confidant and fellow prankster. Margaret, a recurring character, is a red-breasted robin who works at the local coffee-shop. Mordecai is completely in love with her. Her best friend is Eileen, who looks human, but has a tail. She has a crush on Rigby, who is perpetually oblivious of this.1

Scope

This study proposes to investigate why selected South African adult audiences watch animated cartoons such as JG Quintel’s Regular Show. At the end of the study, I wish to have established why kidults are drawn to this type of cartoon genre, how they cultivate their own identity and the role popular culture plays in their lives. This will be established through focus groups and literature written on the subject will play a vital role in the analysis phase. The major themes that will be on focus are kidult culture, identity and popular culture.

1 http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/shows/regularshow/characters/

17 Delimitation

Chapter 1 is the “Introduction” to the study. It introduces the study, rationale and lays out the research questions, aims and objectives. Chapter 2 is the “Literature Review”. It presents the critical synthesis of previous research and evaluates selected documents on the study. Chapter 3 is the “Theoretical Framework” which focuses the lens of the study through certain perspectives and theories that I found relevant. Chapter 4 is the “Methodology”. This is the section where the selected process of evaluation is laid out. Chapter 5 is the “Findings, Analysis and Presentation” section. This section outlines the results taken from conducting the research and gives an analysis of the data that was collected. Chapter 6 is the final chapter, the Conclusion. In this chapter, the research questions are answered and the evaluation of the study is summarized.

18 CHAPTER TWO

Chapter Two: Literature Review 1. Introduction 20 2. Kidults and kidult culture 20 3. Nostalgia and Identity 25 4. Popular culture 30 5. Audience 33 6. Animation 35

19 LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter reviews the concepts of kidult culture and how it plays out in the media. Within the concept of kidult culture, the discussion explores how nostalgia as a theory has played a role in driving this culture. It is imperative as it is the longing for youthfulness that drives adults to consume media and products that are packaged to look like they are for a younger audience. The chapter also explores popular culture as another driving force for kidult culture. The trends that favour youthful culture play an equally large role in societal identity. Animation is discussed as one of the products that were enjoyed by children in the past, but now is repurposed for adults. The Regular Show forms part of this bank of media that is directed towards adults although it looks like it should be for children.

Kidults and Kidult Culture

The term kidult is a portmanteau of “kid” and “adult”. It refers to adults who enjoy interests and pastimes often associated with children. Kidults, for instance, are perceived to indulge in transient pleasures and instant gratifications (Crawford, 2006). Kidults are said to be adults in years, but children in outlook. The term kidult has an association with concepts such as puer aeternus and the so-called “Peter Pan syndrome”. Puer aeternus, Latin for “eternal boy”, is a reference to mythology designating a child-god who is seemingly forever young. In Jungian psychology, puer aeternus refers to an older man whose emotional life has remained at the teenage level (Sharp, 1991). As a category of identity, the puer element denotes not just a double life – due to the adult’s guilty fear of being caught indulging in infantile pleasures – but also the apprehension about the possibility of being permanently trapped in the child’s world. The puer aeternus is, typically, a carefree, freedom loving individual, whose imagination easily crosses between real and fantastic worlds.

20 Ultimately, kidults are complicated beings. As noted in Chapter One, they are adults in terms of their age but have managed to retain the weltanschauung of children. Kidults are perceived to indulge in transient pleasures and instant gratifications (Crawford, 2006). Ewen (1998) sees a relationship between kidult culture and nostalgia. He points out that images from the past can easily be revived for commercial recycling, providing the raw material for commercialized displays of nostalgia, and they also provide us with a way of seeing, if not comprehending, the past (Ewen, 1998). In Yearning for Yesterday: Sociology of Nostalgia (1979:8), Fred Davis defines nostalgia as “the material of nostalgic experience is the past”. There is thus a plausible relationship between kidult culture (yearning for one’s receding childhood) and nostalgia.

Peter Pan, we may note, was the archetypal eternal boy character created by JM Barrie who literally and famously refused to grow up. Like the puer aeternus, the Peter Pan character (Fig. 4), moves freely between the divine and human realms (Yeoman, 1998). Significantly, the perception that kidult identity is a problem finds expression in such forms as the “Peter Pan syndrome”, an informal reference in pop-psychology to socially underdeveloped adults (Kiley (1983). The late American pop star, Michael Jackson, for instance, was thought of, by some, as suffering from such a syndrome (Corliss 2009). Noxon (2006), however, defends adults who behave and think in childlike and childish ways, introducing the term “rejuvenile’ to refer to these individuals.

Collectively, concepts such as puer aeternus, the “Peter Pan syndrome” and “rejuvenile”, refer to what this study denotes to as kidults: individuals whose emotional lives remain at the teenage stage, even as the individuals age into adults. Importantly, the entertainment industry appears to have played a part in entrenching the kidult phenomenon in contemporary times, particularly by its introduction of the special “kidult” category for marketing entertainment products targeted at children and adults alike, such as the kidult movie Shrek. In literature, a new marketing category, “crossover fiction”, or the “kidult book”, has recently been born. Karen Brooks (2003) has explored this phenomenon whereby the entertainment industry commodifies

21 what she calls the “teen spirit”. “Youth” is commodified and sold to adults who are nostalgic for their youthful pasts.

Figure 4: Peter Pan (Source: Disney)

Nevertheless, not everyone is impressed by the emergence and the socio cultural implications of the kidult phenomenon. One of the major critics of today’s kidults is the cultural critic, Benjamin Barber. Barber (2007) criticises what he sees as the “infantilization of culture”, and places the blame on hyper commercialism and the demands of consumer capitalism in a global market economy. According to Barber (2007), consumer capitalism has encouraged adults to hold onto, if not follow, the tastes and habits of children so that more consumer goods and services can be sold globally.

The blame for this infantilised culture is generally placed on groups of adults who are considered to be avoiding “adult” responsibilities. These adults who refuse to grow up are called a variety of names such as adolescents, Peter Panners, rejuvenators, boomerangers, rejuveniles and kidults. All of these categories signify the social anxiety of “adulthood in crisis” or “the death of the grown-up” (Lee, 2010). Like Barber, Danesi (2003) decries how today’s culture is becoming more and more juvenilized. Danesi is of the view that teen tastes are becoming homogenised

22 because of the demands of the economic system. In the “juvenilized” culture, opines Danesi, images of youth are gradually normalised and mainstreamed due to a never-ending barrage and saturation of mass media images. This is the so-called ‘fountain of youth’ effect for adults (Danesi, 2003). One only needs to constantly purchase these goods endorsed by the youth to stay young, it is a form of drinking from the proverbial fountain of youth (Danesi, 2003). Barthes (1983) calls this classification of symptoms a “perpetual craving for novelty where “newness” itself has a purchase value or becomes the reason to buy.”

West (2007) has provided data that suggests that, in fact, more adults between the ages of 18 and 49 watch Cartoon Network. Interestingly, this is more than the figures for the news network CNN. Furthermore, one-third of the 56 million Americans watching Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Square Pants (Fig. 5) each month in 2002 were adults between the ages of 18 and 49. In the words of Andrew Calcutt (2000: 98), a “viable sense of adult agency” is now being eroded by what seems to be a victory for the “inner child” over the “inner adult”, and contemporary society seems to be struggling to uphold its established “adult paradigm”. Calcutt (2000: 179) calls this “a conscious resignation of adult responsibility in favour of fantasy and play”, which seems to be most prominent in contemporary advertising and marketing. This observation ﬁts with what little academic literature currently exists on infantilization. By consuming infantilized cultural products that provide pure escapism and has little meaning in everyday life, critics argue that “perpetual childishness is grafted onto adults who indulge in puerility without pleasure, and indolence without innocence” (Barber, 2007). These criticisms are clearly grounded in the

23 Figure 5: Spongebob Square Pants (Source: Nickelodeon) theories of media effects by the likes of George Gerbner’s “cultivation” school, which deplored the media’s gradual hold and influence over societal attitudes and worldviews.

Although cartoons were never overtly designed just for children, children were considered to be the primary audience in the 1950s (Mittell, 2003). The main reason can be attributed to the basic quality of early cartoons. Cartoons were mostly relegated to being low- budget fillers, the clear exception being Disney cartoons, which had “cultural legitimacy” because of Disney’s cinematic reputation. The cultural assumption at the time seemed to be that children lacked developed taste, compared to adults, an assumption that tended to reinforce and fix the connection between cartoons and children (Mittell, 2003). In the late 1950s, as various sponsors began to see the potential of children as their target market, cartoons became significant tools for marketers to reach the child audience. The emergence of Hanna-Barbera, which produced a large serial collection of cartoons, and television industry’s gradual construction of children’s audience to sell to the sponsors, gradually facilitated the place of cartoons on the Saturday morning line-up (Mittell, 2003; Seiter, 1995).

In the 1960s an attempt to change the assumption of television cartoons as a children’s genre was made through framing animation as having “established itself as having legitimate ‘kidult’ appeal within syndicated late-afternoon and early-evening time slots” (Mittell, 2003: 44). To compete against the existing networks (CBS and NBC), the growing network, ABC, took a risk by placing three animated programs in its primetime line-up including The Flintstones and The Jetsons, which were made for the adult audience as a primary target (Booker, 2006; Mittell, 2003). The Flintstones, which borrowed its conversations from popular sitcoms such as The Honeymooners, was perceived as more adult oriented because it appropriated cultural assumptions of the day and seemed more adult friendly (Booker, 2006; Mittell, 2003). Negative ratings of these primetime cartoon shows, however, eventually led to the disappearance of cartoons from primetime. The networks decided that the failing of the ratings was due to cartoons’ inability to appeal to adult audiences (Mittel, 2003). The failure of primetime animations in the 1960s and cartoons’ ‘demotion’ to Saturday morning programming for children, reinforced the notion of cartoons as a children’s genre. This situation lasted until the

24 late 1980s when Fox picked up The Simpsons for its Sunday night line-up. The Simpsons played a major role in the rise in popularity of cartoons as adult genre. This point will be discussed further later in the chapter.

While the notion of “lifestyle advertising” has been around for at least two decades (Shields, 1992), the start of the 21st century has seen an apparent intensiﬁcation of this phenomenon based on marketing techniques that seek to progressively demolish traditional life stages (Schor, 2006). In 2008, Toyota released a TV advert with the tag-line “Give a little time to the child within you”. In 2012, a movie called Young Adult debuted with the catch phrase “Everybody grows old. Not everybody grows up!” Advertisers Becky Ebenkamp and Jeff Odiorne (in Paterson, 2006: 167), for instance, describe the trend in the following terms: “People in their twenties and thirties are clamouring for comfort in purchases and products, and sensory experiences that remind them of a happier, more innocent time – childhood”.

This display of the apparent retreat by adults back into childhood is the main focus of this study. TV shows like Adult Swim, The Simpsons, and most recently The Regular Show, Adventure Time and The Amazing World of Gumball are prime examples of this. We also see this in the “toyiﬁcation” of new technology (Noxon, 2006), to the desire of young adults to extend their childhood through a concept we will cover in the next section: “instant nostalgia” (De Zengotita, 2005: 35). Although Adult Swim is specifically an adult-orientated programming block, because of its “juvenile, obscene, irrelevant, profane”, and often violent messages, appropriation and parody of kid culture and adult culture, it has become a good representation of today’s kidult culture. A critical interrogation of the condemnation and criticisms of kidult culture by cultural critics suggests the existence of cultural, economic, and political contexts of kidult culture.

Nostalgia and Identity

Famous poet Don Mattera opens his memoir, Memory is the Weapon (1987), with a recollection of the emotions he felt while watching the bulldozing of his grandfather’s house in 1963. He recounts “the voices and sounds that had echoed in the streets of Sophiatown before

25 the apartheid warlords came with their death machines and ordered us out of our homes, rang in my ears in an onslaught of nostalgia and longing” (1987: 16). Similarly, Ritivoi states “I can see less because I’m so captivated by the past, or I can see more because I add the vision of the past” (Ritivoi, 2002: 37). Both of these writers are referring to the intangible but real emotion of nostalgia. The word, the idea and the thing itself has famously come to define a moment of South African public culture and critique.

Swiss physician, Johannes Hofer, first used the term nostalgia in the late 17th century, while referring to nostalgia as a “physiological, diagnosable medical condition” categorised by “the sad mood originating from the desire for return to one’s native land” (Hofer, 1688), and affecting the body through bouts of melancholy, weakness and anxiety (McCann, 1941). Although this definition has swiftly been dismissed as false, modern definitions still use his idea of ‘home’ and the homeland. The specific “home” that was spoken of by Hofer has been replaced in modern usage by a more metaphorical use of the term, one that signifies a place in time where an individual recognizes and romanticizes certain aspects of comfort and happiness that are lost in the present.

Despite the existence of a large corpus of literature on nostalgia (cf. Coontz 1992; Hutcheon 1998; Boym 2001; Piot 2010), Leswin Laubscher (2012) notes that the concept is itself actually relatively under-researched and underdeveloped, and that “if the [conceptual] literature on nostalgia is limited in general, that which traces the dynamic of memory therein is even more so” (Laubscher 2012: 218). Rationally, the fact that public culture is saturated with nostalgia as feeling, means public critique has embraced nostalgia as a concept; but also that the concept can be manipulated rather easily.

The culture of immaturity is associated with the historical factors of the struggle of different generations. The baby boom generation denied and rejected the culture of elders, not being able to propose a new model of maturity, but creating a model of pleasure and freedom from nostalgia for boyhood. Generation Y, or Millennials (those born between 1980 and the early 2000s), are paving their own path, just as their predecessors did. Characteristics of Millennials

26 vary by region and rely heavily on social and economic conditions, although this generation is marked by an increase in the usage of digital communications and media platforms to engage with each other.

The social context of South Africa in general post-apartheid is still of one freedom fighting across all ages. Unlike the baby boom generation who rejected the culture of their elders, South African Millennials have carried on the culture of their elders; the culture of liberation and freedom, but are doing so using their own methods, particularly social media mobilisation. E.g. 2016 and 2017’s Fees Must Fall (#feesmustfall) marches.

From an anthropological point of view, the new generation of adults is seeking better ways to become partners and parents by refusing a culture based on the social inequalities marked by gender, race, sexual preference or religious affiliations. However they fail to find the alternative way of reaching maturity, thus losing the identity of the adult (Cross, 2008).

Disputing the historical clinical perspective, social psychologists argue that individuals’ nostalgia about regular aspects of their past (for example, people, places, and events) can increase their psychological well-being and their ability to cope with challenges in the present (Sedikides et al., 2008). Nostalgia is defined as a “sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past” (The New Oxford Dictionary of English, 2011). This emotion can be experienced about a range of targets, including individuals, groups, animals, events, places, and periods of time (Kessous and Roux, 2008; Wildschut et al., 2006). As a result, nostalgia can be differentiated from more specific emotions such as homesickness for a place. Recently, psychological frameworks have conceptualized nostalgia as a positive emotion that has functional utility (Sedikides et al., 2008). It is the manipulation of this “utility” that this study is investigating, the idea of nostalgia as a tool or instrument to shape people’s preferences, ideas and identities.

This psychological approach suggests that people feel nostalgia when faced with some sort of threat (facing an “adult crisis” like paying the bills), because nostalgia serves a restorative

27 function by producing beneficial effects for psychological functioning (Sedikides et al., 2008). Wildschut et al. (2006) generated a series of experiments that successfully manipulated individuals’ mood to show that nostalgia is elicited by higher levels of negative affect and loneliness (Wildschut et al., 2006, Studies 3 and 4). We could then easily link this concept to the communication approach called “cognitive dissonance theory”, where advertisers or communicators create discomfort in a consumer’s way of being, and way of thinking before offering a ‘solution’ (their product) to counteract the dissonance or discomfort. One example that directly relates to the concept of nostalgia would be adverts about youth, reminding people of the value of being, acting or looking young then offering products that could help them be “younger.”

Another set of studies has demonstrated that nostalgia can also strengthen individuals’ resolve to cope with threats including threats to livelihood and youth, and has been conceptualized more broadly as helping individuals cope with existential threat (Sedikides et al., 2008). Furthermore, nostalgia can increase perceptions of social support in the face of loneliness (Zhou et al., 2008); especially among those individuals who tend to rely on social bonds to regulate distress (Wildschut et al., 2010). This resonates with the previous discussion of “cognitive dissonance theory”, using nostalgia as dissonance to persuade consumers or shape identity.

Theories of nostalgia propose that experiencing nostalgia has positive consequences for individuals because of the emotional links an individual has to his or her past (Davis, 1979). Nostalgia can increase individuals’ perceptions of identity continuity, such that “who we are now” is connected to their sense of “who we were in the past” (Sedikides et al., 2008). We can then say that nostalgia creates the idea of the death of a part of an individual; perhaps even the death of one’s childhood and youth. These observations about nostalgia would suggest that the phenomenon of “kidult culture”, refers to partially nostalgic adults pining for their youth by engaging in what was previously reserved for children. This would include behaviour such as watching cartoons.

28 The construction of “the self” includes such aspects as “roles and activities, attitudes and beliefs, interpersonal relationships, group memberships, and culture” (Bluck and Alea, 2008; Chandler and Proulx, 2008; Iyer et al., 2008; Sedikides, et al., 2008). The nostalgic past, whether or not it ever truly existed, has significant consequences on the formation of present and, subsequently, future actions, including what we do in our spare time, what we buy and what we watch or listen to (Ruppel, 2009). The construction of the self in this context can be said to be “fluid”, having a basis in both reflection of the past and expectation of the future. Thus, the nostalgic self can be viewed as a means through which we create an “idealized past-self” (Ruppel, M. 2009). It is an image of our younger selves or what we would have liked our younger selves to be.

Empirical research linking nostalgia to consumer behaviour remains relatively scarce and largely focused on accounting for the market success of certain products (Holak and Havlena, 1998; Schindler and Holbrook, 2003). Research in this dimension demonstrates how products that were popular during one’s youth (for instance, songs, TV programs, toys etc.) can influence one’s lifelong preferences (Zhou et al. 2008). It is clear here that the mass media has the capability of harnessing nostalgia and using it to shape one’s identity and preferences.

Iyer and Jetten (2011) investigated the independent and interactive effects of nostalgia and identity continuity on three dependent variables identified as positive consequences of nostalgia: psychological well-being, ability to cope with challenges, and willingness to take advantage of new opportunities. They sought to examine the effects of nostalgia and identity continuity on psychological well-being; ability to cope with challenges and obstacles; and life choices with respect to taking advantage of new opportunities or trying to hold onto familiar experiences. The results appeared to reveal that nostalgia and identity continuity can be independently manipulated.

Research has demonstrated that nostalgia for the past can have positive consequences for an individual’s psychological well-being as well their ability to cope with challenges of the world today (Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, and Routledge, 2006). They propose that this back-

29 tracking into the past only works if individuals have maintained a form of “identity continuity” between the past and the present, referring to adults, who never really grew up to begin with, or those who hold on to who they were and deny who they “should be” now.

Conceptually, identity can be said to bridge the gap between the ‘inside’ and the “outside”- between the personal and the public worlds (Hall et al., 1992). People feel that their identities are part of their essential nature; they project ‘themselves’ into these cultural identities, at the same time internalizing their meanings and values (making them “part of us”) (Hall, et al., 1992). Identity stabilizes the subject (us) and the cultural worlds they inhabit, this makes them both more unifie + and predictable - making the navigation of day-to-day living more manageable (Hall et al., 1992). This concept would then have implications on where and how we build and recognise our identities.

Popular Culture

In X-Rated! The Power of Mythic Symbolism in Popular Culture, Marcel Danesi (2009) defines popular culture as “a mythic culture and, as such, has great emotional (rather than logical) appeal”. The culture of the “common people” has always been an object of interest for those with social and political power. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw a collapse in what was then “traditional” popular culture. Industrialization, urbanization, and the emergence of an urban-industrial working class was the awakening of many European and American intellectuals captivated by the culture of the “folk” (Burke, 1996). Middle-class men and women began to demand stories and songs from the people from whom they had previously demanded only labour and respect. Over a period of about 140 years the idea of popular culture was developed by intellectuals across Europe and the USA. New towns were built and social lines blurred, the middle-class fearing that these developments would weaken social authority and destroy cultural cohesion (Storey, 2003).

30 Dyer (1993) finds that the majority of texts embody utopian hopes and wishes for a better world. These hopes can be found in many forms of popular culture (Fiske, 1989). A useful example is found in Dyer’s (1993) study of Hollywood musicals. For him, a utopian sensibility is found in both the representational and non-representational aspects of movie musicals. Both aspects are used to bridge the gap between how things are in a capitalist society and how things might be in a better future, a nostalgic identity continuity. More instructional research texts seem to have the need to embody an instrumental rationality that focuses on the means rather than a discussion of valued future ends (Apple, 1990; Giroux, 1983).

In the history of human culture, popular culture stands out as uncommon. It is mass culture “by the people for the people.” Unlike what was referred to as traditional culture, popular culture has no clear leaders or upper class who dictates what is to be produced or disseminated (Danesi, 2009). The marketplace can be said to be the prime “sponsor” of popular culture, and as such, must abide by its laws. This is where its appeal-factor is found, as it assures the “common-people” that culture is, and can be shaped by anyone. As such, because the tastes of masses of people are bound to be inconsistent, pop culture is consequently changeable and often unpredictable, and trends within it come and go quickly (Danesi, 2009).

Popular culture was the first cultural form that compressed a wide variety of activities that were previously considered diverse. It has managed to engage diverse groups and classes of people in one common environment, anywhere, including the television screen, in the shopping mall, even on the computer (Betts, 2004). Not all are in agreement with this theory though, Simone (2008) cites that territorial and cultural proximities do not facilitate collaboration or negotiation- a point exemplified brutally by the example of Africa; where even in the 21st century, South Africa is still at war with itself and rife with xenophobia. Even still, Simone (2008) believes that popular culture may posit a range of possible methods of mutual engagement.

The instigators behind the spread of pop culture at the turn of the twentieth century in America were the youth (Danesi, 2009). Setting themselves apart from often restrictive and conservative adult culture of the era, the youth of the 1920s sought to express sexual freedom

31 through music, dance, fashion, and a generally carefree lifestyle. Not surprisingly, the older generation rejected the new trends, labelling them as immoral and vulgar. The youth cultures however caught on for the simple reason that they had mass appeal (Danesi, 2009). This view suggests that popular culture engages the masses emotionally and interactively. Everything from comic books to TV shows (even cartoons) has wide-ranging appeal because they originate from a “pleasure dynamic.” This means that unlike any other previous widespread development, popular culture has an internal dynamism of rapid change (Betts, 2004). Kidult culture, like popular culture, has mass appeal. This means that society will be saturated in products and messages promoting kidult culture, affecting audience identity formation.

Fifty years have passed since the introduction of television. Television became the all- encompassing medium, joining the advantages of the other major popular media (movies, radio and newspapers) into one, affordable domestic experience (Betts, 2004). In the past forty years, television has changed from the miracle box in the centre of the family room, seemingly, to the family room itself (Betts, 2004). The new generation reaching adulthood “have no memory of a world without such electronic definition” (Wallace, 1988). It is assumed that these “second generation” viewers have a different relationship with the television environment than their preceding generation (Bellamy and Walker, 1996). This relationship is more active and interactive, and a lot less trusting (Howe, Strauss, Williams and Matson, 1993).

Subsequently, the TV environment has embedded itself everywhere and in everything. “Cartoons, comic strips, fabric prints, sculpture, music, paintings, flip books, T-shirts, jewellery, movies, and TV itself” have all featured television blatantly, often critically, both attacking the medium while exploiting its resources. Either way, this only affirms and validates the TV environment. Television is by now universal in almost every cultural format and venue in 21st century media (Tichi, 1991). The media, as described by Tichi and Rushkoff (1991), “is a complex, dynamic system, feeding itself upon itself in an endless cycle of iteration” (Daspit and Weaver, 2000). Kidult culture in media is thus easily spread through the society’s consistent consumption of TV programmes, like the variety of adult cartoons that have flooded the screens.

32 Audience

In his definition of audience, Hartley (2002: 11) draws only on the former meaning of “mass” when he states:

The term audience is used to describe a large number of unidentifiable people, usually united by their participation in media use. Given the varying demographics of this group, not to mention variations between nations, the concept itself is a means by which such an unknowable group can be imagined. Naming an audience usually also involves homogenising it, ascribing to it certain characteristics, needs, desires and concerns. The audience is a construction motivated by the paradigm in which it is imagined.

It would be beneficial to identify the characteristics that make up the audience who consume kidult culture programming. In both developed and developing countries around the world, watching TV is a major trait of modern life. Although the TV set and its stories become key conversation points, the viewer generally has nothing to show for the hours spent sitting in front of their TV (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). There are many on-going debates about whether the TV is a waste of time (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988), if it can be run better and most importantly, about the ‘coverage of sex, violence, profanity, politics, social issues such as the stereotyping of minority or underprivileged groups’(Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988); its role in education and cultural improvement. In all these debates, what seems to be missing is any real reference or qualitative concern with the real worlds of audiences. Yet, the overall nature of the medium can easily be meaningfully understood by how viewers consume it (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988).

In most industrialized countries, television is found in more than 95 percent of homes (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). In 2011, the South African Census stated that more South African households owned televisions than they do refrigerators. Of the 14.5 million homes around the country in that year, almost 10.7 million had a TV. According to the document, more than 12.8 million households have a cell phone (Independent Online News, 2011). TV is not always consumed on its own, but is often combined with other activities such as housework or eating. This means that it only requires a low level of concentration and is consumed passively at times.

33 Even so, the audience ratings give a close to accurate indication of how much television people are exposed to (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988).

What makes TV so popular is the fact that it requires very little effort from the audience and provides hours of relaxation with little cost (Ang, 1991). TV can also be an educator, it provides the public with information (whether accurate or false), and many people have said that they watch TV partially “to keep in touch with what is going on in the world”, without referring solely to news programmes (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). Nonetheless, TV’s educational feature cannot account for the amounts of time spent watching it. Entertainment is the main reason for watching (Ang, 1991), as it seems to stimulate as well as sooth (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). It seems inevitable that with so many hours spent watching TV the audience becomes attached to particular programs and genres (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). To some degree, only a fan will understand and appreciate the gratifications that come from the consumption of particular programs and the importance of those programs that helps them cope with everyday life.

Most people are fans of something. Furthermore, most fans are able to distinguish and form commitments. It may be possible that by endeavouring to understand the fan impulse, we ultimately move towards a greater understanding of ourselves. In one view, the audience is thought of as a discriminating mass that does not just consume whatever is on (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). In fact, fans discriminate aggressively: the boundaries between what falls within their fandom and what does not are sharply drawn (Fiske, in Lewis, 1992).

Individuals can differ greatly in their choice of programs, and different programs are mostly watched by different people, and a lot of programs appear as a series of episodes (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). Research shows that viewers do show some loyalty to the programs and episodes (Jenson, in Lewis, 1992). TV is said to be a relaxing medium because it takes our minds off of the issues or troubles of the day (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988). This includes the types of programs people watch in order to achieve what to them is relaxing, like sitcoms, cartoons, sports etc. (Barwise and Ehrenberg, 1988).

34 Most of the pleasure that people get by being fans of particular programs lies in the “fan talk” that it produces (Fiske in Lewis 1992: 38). A lot of fans have reported that their fandom came into being by the oral community they wanted to join or engage with (Fiske, in Lewis, 1992). For example if you are at the office or school and people are continually talking about a certain program or episode, you become drawn to that conversation, and then of course, ensure that you have watched that program (Fiske, in Lewis, 1992). This is not to say that the choices and tastes are unauthentic, but just to illustrate the close relationship between textual and social preferences (Fiske, in Lewis, 1992). There is very little literature that explores fandom as a normal, everyday cultural or social phenomenon (Jenson, in Lewis, 1992). This may be due to fandom being discussed within the context of the celebrity and fame.

In Fiske’s (1992) view, fandom is a common feature of popular culture in industrial societies. It selects from a large assortment of mass-produced entertainment, including certain performers, narratives as well as genres. The notion of fandom is usually connected with cultural forms that the dominant value system alienates. This includes “pop music, romance novels, and comic books”. The implication here is that fandom is associated with the cultural tastes of subordinated formations of people and minorities (that have been disempowered because of their race, age, gender et cetera) (Fiske in Lewis, 1992). These minorities play such a huge role in the formation of identity and cultural norms, there is greater need for research on fandom as it relates to popular culture.

Animation

Why this long-running love affair with cartoons? Why do so many people still watch their favourite cartoon characters in countless television reruns? And why do new characters and new ideas still turn on audiences today? The reason for this amazing phenomenon is simple: Animated cartoons are the embodiment of a fantasy world worth treasuring, worth enjoying and, most of all, worth remembering over and over again, no matter what place in time or what changes have occurred in the real world around it. (Lenburg, 2008)

35 In this section, the thread about the rise of cartoons as mainstream fare is discussed. The Simpsons (Fig. 6), described by some as the world’s most famous dysfunctional family, started life as a series of short episodes on The Tracey Ullman Show. It ﬁrst appeared in 1987 and ran in this format for three seasons until 1989 (Whitehead, 2004). Now in its 24th season, The Simpsons is one of TV’s longest running prime time animation series (Sito, 2006). There has been much debate over why the cartoons have been so successful, both among the youth and the older generations. The Simpsons is a satire of contemporary American life, which allows people to see themselves in the mirror of the bizarre. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, claims that “you can get away with all sorts of unusual ideas if you present them with a smile on your face,” (Rushkoff, 1994, p. 109). The ideas include keeping up to date with all popular current affairs from the president to new music.

To Reeves (in Rushkoff, 1994), The Simpsons has always been mainly about education (amongst other important social issues). His opinion stems from the large proportion of the show and episodes that represent schooling. “The Simpsons” original animators Klasky-Csupo also created several more popular children’s series, including Rugrats, AAAHH! Real Monsters and The Wild Thornberrys, all of which kept Nickelodeon with cartoons for some time (Whitehead, 2004); these shows are currently still being aired in South Africa daily. According to a 2012 study from Discovery Networks, The Rise of the TV Everywhere Audience, conducted across 10 countries- including South Africa, Central Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) region - looking at the changing nature of TV consumption - 53% of South Africans agree (40% agree;

36 Figure 6: The Simpsons (Source: The Simpsons’ Anniversary BBC Radio Interview) another 13% strongly agree) that there's more good TV content today than there used to be (Ferreira, 2012).

In the late 20th century, animation underwent big changes. Before this, animation was used as just another form of studio production in the early days of filmmaking. The turn of the century marked the rise of animation giants such as Walt Disney. Disney animators came with a different approach to animation that led to regular short film features, where Micky Mouse (Fig. 7) and Donald Duck appeared. In 1937 Disney released its first full-length feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Cohen, 1998). From 1968 a noticeable shift in style occurred with the Beatles’ animated film, Yellow Submarine, which saw artists and animators blend different styles and colours together (Cohen, 1998). By this time, animators spent most of their energies on full- length animated movies and less on TV, which was doing shorter daily features.

The Regular Show episodes run between 10 and 15 minutes. The shapes, background and characters are drawn with very little depth and artistic effort which is seemingly done on purpose, the better to focus on their unusual and elaborate stories.

Figure 7: Mickey Mouse. (Source: IBN Live) The period between 1928 and 1955 saw an explosion of characters and films on American animation, most of which are still famous today, and able to carry a diversity of representational positions.

37 At the same time, such characters can be beasts and humans, or neither, and can prompt a wide variety of issues (Wells, 2009).2 After 1945, the United Productions of America (UPA) expanded the range of animation into new styles and modern interpretations with Mr. Magoo, Gerald McBoing-Boing and the Telltale Heart’ (Sito, 2006). Sito (2006) regards this period as the Golden Age, not only because of the animation art, but because of the working conditions. In the 30s and 40s, there was less corporate pressure and the love of cartoons was what fuelled animators to produce. Pessimistically, Sito feels that nowadays animation is all about business. The zeitgeist of the times are a major influence on an artist’s work, and Sito feels that historians do not understand this and do not see that artists are not separated by politics (as with many other professions). One example is that the American film emerged from the newspaper business, which meant that the animators brought their “white-male-dominated” world with them into film (Sito, 2006). This meant that females and African Americans had huge hurdles to jump through before being recognized as talented.

Figure 8: The Flintstones (Source: Museum of Broadcast Communications)

Asians and Latinos didn’t have as hard a time though. Only in the 1950s were African Americans allowed into drawing jobs (Sito, 2006).

2 ‘The Max Fleischer studio had Betty Boop, Koko and Popeye. The “Leon Schlesinger’s studio” (Now “Warner Brothers”) had “Bugs Bunny”, “Daffy Duck”, “Porky Pig”, “Elmer Fudd”, “the Road Runner” and “Wile E. Coyote”. Walt Disney had “Mickey Mouse” (Fig. 2), “Donald Duck”, “Goofy”, and the Big Five feature-length films: “Snow White”, “Fantasia”, “Bambi”, “Pinocchio” and “Dumbo”. “MGM” had “Tom and Jerry”, “Droopy Dog”, and the “Tex Avery” cartoons. “Walter Lantz” had “Woody Woodpecker”, “Andy Panda” and “Chilly Willy”. “Terrytoons” had “Gandy Goose”, “Barney Bear”, “Mighty Mouse” and “Heckle and Jeckle”.

38 The “New wave” of TV animation can be said to have begun in 1987 with the release of Ralph Bakshi’s The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse (Whitehead, 2004). This renewed interest in TV animation saw scores of animators rebelling against conventional cartoons. These traditional long feature cartoons were seen as predictable, an example would be cartoons made by Filmnation and Hanna-Barbera (Whitehead, 2004). William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were actually first paired together as a team in 1939 for the production of animated shorts for Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). This relationship blossomed and their success (mostly with Tom and Jerry shorts) led to them going into business together. They founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, responsible for The Flintstones (Fig. 8) (Booker, 2006) which turned out to be one of ABC’s most successful programs. Nevertheless, animators turned their backs on this conventional way of creating cartoons and they returned to their original inspirations like Tex Avery or other ‘limited animation’ styles (Whitehead, 2004).

In 1991, MTV’s Liquid TV first aired and played ‘various artists’ package of animated shorts and cartoons, but the show became bogged down in too many serials instead of quirky one-offs, and ratings declined. Success came again with the debut of Celebrity Death-Match, which pitted clay animated celebrities against each other in a boxing ring for a fight to the death. Another cult success was Beavis and Butthead. The show followed two dim teens that sat and watched TV and snickered uncontrollably at music videos, merged in with actual storylines where they would try to do something which turns into a giant flop (Whitehead, 2004). This mirrors the plot of The Regular Show, which starts off with what seems like a harmless storyline and then ends with a whirlwind of supernatural and surreal events.

Popular children’s channel Cartoon Network (which was devoted to rerunning Warner and Hanna-Barbera cartoons), started producing its own shows. The first was in 1993 with 2 Stupid Dogs.

39 Figure 9: Boomerang (Source: Waiching's Thoughts)

More iconic shows emerged, including Cow and Chicken, Johnny Bravo, Ed, Edd ‘n Eddy, the weird and sometimes frightening Courage the cowardly dog as well as Sheep in the big City (Whitehead, 2004).In order to make space for the next era of cartoons, these shows were moved to Cartoon Network’s spin-off classic cartoon channel Boomerang (Fig. 9), which became a stand- alone station in 2000.3 The station also airs Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky’s Powerpuff girls, Dexter’s laboratory as well as Samurai Jack (a cartoon whose action sequences are beautifully choreographed and graphically violent, but acceptable to TV because the victims are usually androids and spurt oil rather than blood) (Whitehead, 2004). As the years progress, we see cartoons become riskier and more creative, The Regular Show falling perfectly into this timeline.

Keeping with this trajectory, Comedy Central aired controversial cartoon South Park (Fig. 6) in 1997. South Park focuses on four children: Kyle, Stan, Kenny (who always dies in each episode but is resurrected for the next) and Eric Cartman, who live in a small town in Colorado

3 http://cartoonnetwork.wikia.com/wiki/Boomerang

40 USA around deviant adults (Whitehead, 2004). Like “The Simpsons”, “South Park” is an American satire, albeit more vulgar, and has gained a large following. South Park violates moral and social boundaries. Every episode begins with a parody disclaimer (similar to the disclaimer of Beavis and Butt-head) and reads: “All characters and events in this show – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…Poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.” This ‘warning’, however, does nothing but spark the interest of its fans (Booker, 2006).

In 1999, The Griffin family was introduced in the new show Family Guy. Very similar to The Simpsons, Family Guy is also satirical in nature of American society. But in some ways, it is more realistic than most cartoons (Booker, 2006). From the dawn of The Simpsons, TV animation shifted toward an adult audience but still designed to be relatively kid-friendly family fare. Then, in 2001, Adult Swim was introduced. Adult Swim is a prime time viewing slot for adult orientated cartoons. Its original programs are said to have the most innovative animated programs that play in 15 minute shorts (Booker, 2006). A lot of these shows falling under the boundary pushing genre akin to South Park (Fig. 10) and Futurama. One program that sets itself apart from all the other shows is The Boondocks, which began airing in 2005. The show addresses a large number of social and political issues, mostly centred on race and racism, as seen through the eyes of its child protagonist Huey (Booker, 2006).

On the surface, The Regular Show - seems to be a crazy, fantastic display, but one of course could easily argue its sociological underpinnings. It shows the world as it is, the daily situations that the average person is exposed to.

In 2006, a spate of controversial animated features (computer generated) aired on cinema screens, awakening debates on the status and quality of talking animal movies. This is an important discussion to have considering the Regular Show’s main characters are in fact animals (and others are inanimate objects) with real feelings and emotions, as human beings would have.

41 Figure 10: South Park (Source: Digital Spy)

One particular movie that came under fire was Steve Oederkerk’s Barnyard (Fig. 11), a comedy about animals in a barnyard who can talk and walk upright when the humans are not watching. According to Bradshaw (2006: 9), “This could be the ﬁlm that snaps everyone’s patience with Hollywood animations which have a Dell computer chip where their heart should be”. Debates surrounding the Barnyard foregrounded concerns about the place of creativity aesthetics in contemporary animations. It is supposed to be artists, and not computers, who create artwork and surreal playfulness is a large part of the tradition of the talking animal film, two aspects that Barnyard supposedly flouts carelessly.

One clear example that outraged critics was that bulls had udders:

Cows who are guys? I kid you not. These cows are trans-gendered. They have udders – udders! – that poke out front as they stride manfully about. Speaking in male voices. Huh? Now, the last time I checked, udders are the exclusive preserve of the female. (One of these is pregnant, incidentally. I wonder how that is supposed to have happened.) Do the city slickers making this animation have the smallest clue what a cow is – in real life, that is, and not one they have seen in other cartoons? (Bradshaw 2006, 9).

42 Figure 11: Barnyard (Source: Nickelodeon)

This outraged rant draws upon a few points. Firstly, it seems that reality’s consistency was abandoned when creating this film, and on the other side talking animals are deemed alright. It is not uncommon for cartoons often blur gender boundaries, but the ﬁlm’s “lack of reference to a real cow and the orthodoxies of procreation is apparently its core failure.” (Wells, 2009). This brings an important issue to light; the perceptions and definitions of animal and human. Deleuze and Guattari distinguish three types of animals:

First, individuated animals, family pets, sentimental oedipal animals each with its own petty history, “my” cat, “my” dog. These animals invite us to regress, draw us in to narcissistic contemplation, and they are the only kind of animal psychoanalysis understands, the better to discover a daddy, a mommy, a little brother behind them (when psychoanalysis talks about animals, animals learn to laugh): anyone who likes cats or dogs is a fool. And then there is a second kind: animals with characteristics or attributes; genus, classiﬁcation, or State animals; animals as they are treated in the great divine myths, in such a way as to extract them from series or structures, archetypes or models (Jung is in any event profounder than Freud). Finally, there are more demonic animals, pack or aﬀect animals that form a multiplicity, a becoming, a population, a tale. . . . Or once again, cannot any animal be treated in all three ways? (Deleuze and Guattari, 2004; 265).

43 Their definitions of types of animals show that animals can be domesticated creatures (pets), or creatures gifted with almost human abilities, and also symbolic or metaphoric beings. The animated film as well as art has tried to incorporate all three aspects. The issue lies in the conceptual polarities and definitions of animals (Wells, 2009). The animal story has a rich tradition in art and literature, and animated film has embraced this tradition in many ways. Animal animation gives artists’ more creative freedom to recreate the human experience in a surreal and supernatural manner. Desmond Morris (1977) says:

“[Humankind] has viewed other species of animals in many lights. He has looked upon them as predators, prey, pests, partners and pets. He has exploited them economically, studied them scientiﬁcally, appreciated them aesthetically and exaggerated them symbolically. Above all, [humankind] has competed with them for living space, dominated them, and all too often exterminated them” (Morris 1977, 260).

Apparently, animal characters liberate humans from inhibitions and limitations. Sergei Eisenstein remarked:

It’s interesting that the same kind of ‘ﬂight’ into an animal skin and the humanization of animals is apparently characteristic for many ages, and is especially sharply expressed as a lack of humaneness in systems of social government or philosophy (Leyda, 1988: 33).

At the heart of the Disney aesthetic is a model of what became known as “hyperrealism,” underpinned by Walt Disney’s own conviction that animals had very real personalities, expressed through their bodies, which it was the responsibility of the animator to understand, embrace, and re-create (Wells, 2009). “Cartoons teach us not only how to combine words and pictures in symbolic ways, but also how to confront the significant issues that all societies face” (Lester, 2013). These two ideas are portrayed perfectly in Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book’, where a young boy holds a multitude of relationships in the jungle with various animals (Whitley, 2008). The story opens up space for reﬂection on relationships between culture and nature in many ways (Whitley, 2008).

44 One other very prominent example of boundary pushing is the idea of Cross-species coupling, is a widespread frequency of the animated cartoon. Some see it as innocent, others as boundary-pushing, or even subversive or shocking (Wells, 2009). One example is Well’s inquisition into the gender of ’Jerry’ from Hanna-Barbera’s ’Tom and Jerry’. To Wells, this was just to illustrate how open and potentially challenging animated text can be. Of course, this is a highly controversial question, receiving scores of letters with polar opposite answers that either Jerry “is definitely a boy”. And on the other side, people claiming that Jerry is the “queerest” character after Bugs Bunny (Wells, 2009).

Novelist and popular culture writer Jeff Rovin, in the quote below says:

The number of drawings needed to produce an animated cartoon’s… dictated “look” that was simpler than illustrative technique used by Tenniel for Alice in Wonderland or realistic paintings of Beatrix Potter. Figures and expressions were caricatured and, freed from the more “realistic” treatment of animals in the past; writers came up with plots that were equally exaggerated. Moreover, because the comic and theatrical cartoon presentations were by necessity shorter, they tended to be gag driven than dependant on a great deal of plot. That made animal stories more comical than they’d been in the past, and in a world soon to be engulfed with world wars and a fiscal depression, funny animals became a beloved and much-needed respite… Cartoons are now the accepted lingua franca of animals, the media of greatest impact and widest appeal. […] It was important, however, to continue to embrace animal stories and fairy-tales because of their intrinsic popularity with adults and children alike, so it was necessary to create less realistic designs, which in their graphic realization were based on simpler forms- “ropes” and “circles. […] Simply put, funny animals in modern cartoons were a cure for the ills of modern life.

Like many of these modern cartoons, the main characters of The Regular Show are animals. Furthermore, the characters are a wide variety of objects (Benson the gumball machine), supernatural entities (High Five Ghost) and mythical creatures (Skips the Yeti). The popularity of this show echoes Rovin’s notion that cartoons are a “cure for ills of modern life”.

45 CHAPTER THREE

46 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Introduction

This chapter discusses the Uses and Gratifications theory within the context of media consumption. The theory rings true within the realm of cartoon consumption by adults. In a nutshell, it states that people pick what media they will consume depending on the gratifications they will receive by choosing said media. The Regular Show is popular for adults for a variety of reasons, and the theory proposes that there is high gratification from watching the show. Within the theory, the chapter also discusses dependency and deprivation theories. The theories suggest that an attachment is formed by audiences towards their favourite media products.

The Uses and Gratifications theory

The “uses and gratifications” approach, according to Katz (1959), begins with the assumption that any media consumed by an audience is incapable of influencing an individual who has no actual ‘use’ for it. In essence, consumers of The Regular Show watch it because they have ‘use’ for it. The theory also assumes that an audience’s values, interests, associations and social positions selectively shape what they see and hear (Katz, 1959). The most relevant questions to this study are ones that most mass media audience researchers have grappled with: “What does the media do for people? And what do people do with the media?”

Earlier studies tended to list a variety of media functions without specifying for whom each function was appropriate. As compared with the older studies, there is something fundamentally new in the older use studies that have been reported. One early example is a study conducted by Riley and Riley (1951) that showed that children with good personal interpersonal relationships with their peers ‘use’ stories from the media for group play and interaction, whereas less integrated children use the same stories for the purposes of day-dreaming on their own. Stories or shows played on television have the capacity to bring people together, it gives them something to talk about, and something that connects them to their peers. The Regular

47 Show takes this theory a step further as it brings in the dimension of nostalgia. This means that the show gives people something to talk about, while allowing them to reminisce about the past. The study also found that children who are well integrated with their peers prefer to go to the movies, whereas children who are closer to their parents prefer to watch TV at home.

Other media effects research sought to discover motives and selection patterns of audiences for the new mass media. All of these studies formulated a list of functions served either by some specific content or by the medium itself. In the 21st century, the internet has given people an even wider variety of mediums to pick from and engage with. These research results bring to light the importance of the criteria used to classify audience; and their different uses for the media (Katz, 1959). Nevertheless, the uses and gratifications approach today is still generally seen as a sub-tradition of mass media research (McQuail, 1994).

“Moral panic” has been cited as the reason the uses and gratifications theory came to be. The Payne Fund studies are said to be the forerunners of the uses approach. The Payne Fund studies came about in the 1920s when the Motion Picture Research Council wanted to discover how movie viewing was affecting the youth of America. Leading psychologists included Herbert Blumer (Ruggiero, 2000), whose research is still a prominent frame of reference for the theory today. One popular study that has circulated the communication field is Cantril’s (1940) study of a radio broadcast “War of the World’s” by Orson Welles. The broadcast of the story saw millions of people fleeing their homes in fear, believing the alien invasion in the story was real. The study was more interested in sociological and psychological factors associated with panic behaviour (more than effects of mass communication) (Ruggiero, 2000).

In contrast, according to Wimmer and Dominick (1994), the uses and gratifications theory started in the 1940s when they believe researchers became interested in why audiences engaged in various types of media. What is an interesting dimension here is that over time, different age groups watch different programmes to fulfil whatever gratifications they are looking for. For instance, it has become more acceptable now for adults to be watching cartoons (as displayed in the growing number of animated programming during prime time television slots) as it was

48 before. One can speculate that this current epoch has a greater need for nostalgic television viewing than before. In his study into fandom, Steve Bailey, explored the rock band KISS as his main case study, which was spurred by his own childhood experiences with these legends. His nostalgic feelings toward the band led to great research conducted on rock music fans, especially those who listen to bands they used to listen to in their younger years. This notion equates to adults who still watch cartoons. Nevertheless, most researchers agree that early research of the uses and gratifications approach displayed little theoretical consistency, and was chiefly behaviourist and individualist in its methodological tendencies (McQuail, 1994). They were not interested in the relationships between the gratifications gained and the psychological nor sociological origins of the needs satisfied.

In spite of disagreement by communication scholars on the roots of the uses and gratifications approach, the 1950s and 1960s saw researchers identify and put to action many social and psychological variables that were presumed to be the forerunners of different patterns of consumption of gratifications (Wimmer and Dominick, 1994). It was during the 1970s that uses and gratifications researchers closely studied audience motivations for media consumption. But even so, critics still saw four conceptual problems: It had a vague conceptual framework, it lacked precision in major theories, and the theory also confused explanatory apparatus and failed to consider audiences’ sensitivities of media content. Several uses and gratifications researchers began compiling responses to these critics, and Rubin (1983) noted that gratifications researchers were beginning to generate a valid response to critics. He concluded that his colleagues were making a methodical attempt to conduct modified reproductions of studies, refine methodology, comparatively analyse the findings of separate investigations, and treat mass media use as an integrated communication and social phenomenon.

The 1980s saw a re-evaluation of the idea of an active audience. Several researchers, including Rubin, Levy and Windahl, began to argue that a passive audience did not exist, and that audiences are “super rational and very selective” (Windahl, 1986). He argued that “audience activity covers a range of possible orientations to the communication process, a range that varies across phases of the communication sequence” (Levy and Windahl, 1984. p. 73). McQuail et al.,

49 (1972) also put forward a typology consisting of the following categories: ‘diversion (including escape from the constraints of routine and the burdens of problems, and emotional release); personal relationships (including substitute companionship as well as social utility); personal identity (including personal reference, reality exploration, and value reinforcement); and surveillance.’

Many scholars of popular culture are beginning to recognize the pleasure that audiences develop from television, romance novels, and other popular texts (Fiske, 1989). Research into the uses and gratifications of television tells us that people say they watch to be entertained, to relax, to 'kill time', or to 'escape from worries'. But it also seems to be a force for social cohesion. As stated in the previous chapter, a lot of fans have reported that their fandom came into being by the oral community they wanted to join or engage with (Fiske, J in Lewis, L. 1992). Television offers a pleasant and reasonably neutral topic of conversation (Barwise, 1988), and a sense of belonging. “Being part of an elite force where everyone is welcome”, these are the words of Bailey (2005:112) on fandom and rock band KISS. While Bailey interviewed many KISS fans, one stated that “Being a Kiss fan – I really do not care if anyone else likes their music or not. It is akin to having a real neat secret that no one else knows.” And another said, “Kiss fans stick together as a community even when the rest of the world, peers included, shun them and their heroes.” Fandom is a phenomenon that is parallel to the uses and gratifications theory, fans watch and listen to what they want because they get their own gratifications from it.

In the past, the notion of media was limited to a handful of mass communication tools (newspapers, radio, TV or film), but today, media comes in a wide range of devices and tools (e.g. smart-phones and internet). This gives the audience the ability to interact with the media instead of just consuming it (Sundar and Limperos, 2013). It was Liechtenstein and Rosenfield (1983) who first proposed that medium-specific gratifications are derived mostly from the media itself and not the perceptions of use. This means that certain gratifications can be predicted by using a variety of different technologies. The technology of the medium itself can change the nature of user gratifications drastically, and Ruggiero (2000) suggests that aspects of technology are important for future research into uses and gratifications research. Along with technological

50 advancements in medium, there is a far wider variety of programmes and channels to choose from. One is also not restrained by programming times; the audience is now able to watch anything, at any time, and anywhere. This implies that those who watch The Regular Show do so while having a host of other programmes that they can choose from.

One interesting notion is the idea that identity and the uses and gratifications approach have a direct relationship. A large number of scholars have begun to take interest in how social identity can be synthesized into the process of media and content consumption (Harwood, 1999). Scholars in social identity theory usually examine how different types of social identity can have an influence on group members’ behaviours, including what media they engage or interact with. The behavioural influence through self-categorization on given groups has also been widely understood in the context of audiences’ selection or preference for specific content (Harwood, 1999). Quite a few scholars now believe that people can formulate (or strengthen) their social identity with or in a particular social group by selectively viewing television programs or engaging in specific media and media tools. That is to say, “people are gratified with selectively or purposely being exposed to television programs representing their social identity related to age, race, and class groups to which they belong.” The Regular Show ’s characters break age, race and class group divisions. There is no actual race as the lead characters are animals or objects. The only clear age is that of the protagonists Mordecai and Rigby (aged 23). This theory may be application to a host of programming, but not to the show. Thus, there is a different reason for the show’s popularity.

Dependency theory

Media dependency theory (fig. 13) itself suggests that media influence is determined by the interrelations between the media, its audience, and society (DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982). The individual’s desire for information from the media is the primary variable in explaining why media messages have cognitive, affective, or variable effects. Media dependency is high when an individual’s goal satisfaction relies on information from the media system (Ball-Rokeach,1985). Rubin and Windahl (1986) augmented the dependency model to include the gratifications sought

51 by the audience as an interactive component with media dependency. They argued that dependency on a medium or a message results when individuals either intentionally seek out information or ritualistically use specific communication media channels or messages. For example, McIlwraith (1998) found that self-labelled “TV addicts” often used television to distract themselves from unpleasant thoughts, to regulate moods, and to fill time. This link between dependency and functional alternatives illustrates how the uses and gratifications theory is “capable of interfacing personal and mediated communication” (Rubin, 1994: 428). This would apply better to The Regular Show than the social cohesion theory.

Figure 13: Dependency theory model (Source: Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976)

52 Deprivation theory

A study was conducted on Newspapers that went on strike in 1945 by Berelson (1949), and since then, more and more studies focused on audience behaviour in relation to shortages of media products have emerged. Windahl et al. (1986) suggested that consequences on adolescents experiencing media shortages would be directly connected to “the total degree of perceived deprivation of television as well as the specific content such as entertainment, information, and fiction.” (Recently, scholars have increasingly paid attention to age group as a meaningful social category in which individuals self-identify (Harwood, 1999)). The trio connected the media deprivations to variables such as exposure, involvement, and motives. They also connected the deprivations to non-media variables such as “socio concept orientation” and activities with friends and parents. Windahl et al. (1986) found that individuals in more socially oriented environments tended to feel more deprived than those in conceptually oriented settings (Ruggiero, 2000). The Regular Show itself focuses on narrative that is difficult to orient, it follows Mordecai and Rigby in what seems to be normal day to day life, but turns completely upside down at the drop of the hat. The show has no real orientation, but takes what is the mundane and turns it into an escape where people find entertainment in normal day to day activities.

Demassification

Williams et al. (1988:12) defined demassification as “the control of the individual over the medium, which likens the new media to face-to-face interpersonal communication”. Demassification is the skill that allows today’s audience to select and reject media from a large selection. Due to new technologies, the individual media consumer is able to select what he or she wants to watch or listen to. Unlike traditional mass media, new media (e.g. the Internet) provide selectivity characteristics that allow individuals to tailor messages to their needs (Ruggiero, 2000). As previously stated, more attention needs to be paid to the programming that people select, because they chose to select said programme for a specific reason.

53 Criticisms and flaws of the Uses and Gratifications theory

Critics have cited a variety of flaws inherent in the Uses and Gratifications theory. Stanford (1983), for instance, has cited an apparent lack of internal consistency, and a lack of theoretical justification for the model as his top two issues with the theory. Stanford (1983) complained that “the discussion ranges far from the results, which do not support their theoretical underpinnings” (p. 247). A lot of contemporary criticism of uses and gratifications challenges assumptions that include the idea of media selection being initiated by the individual and expectations for media use that are produced from individual predispositions (Wimmer and Dominick, 1994). But said “assumptions” can be challenged by the mere number of viewing options to choose from and technological advancements that allow the viewer to select exactly how and what they wish to consume.

Despite attempts to produce a more thorough and inclusive theory, several flaws continue to spate the theory; researchers and advocates for the theory have acknowledged this. The first reason is that the theory can become too individualistic as it focuses on audience consumption. Although this study focuses on audience consumption of The Regular Show, it also focuses on the reasons behind this behaviour. The second reason is the lack of consistency within the theory, this is due to the variety of typologies that emerge. This study has attempted to bypass this issue by selecting a typology that seems to have a larger following than the rest. Thirdly, there is a lack of clarity among central concepts, thus it is advisable to attempt consolidating these concepts for a broader perspective. Fourth, these concepts have been given different meanings by different scholars and researchers (Severin and Tankard, 1997). Again, this research study has attempted to consolidate the different meanings in order to attain more comprehensive results. This is why so many critics argue that methodologies of the theory are dependent on self-reported results and focus less on observable behaviour are doubtful. The actual interpretation of the behaviour is ignored (Rosenstein and Grant, 1997), but not in this study.

54 CHAPTER FOUR

Chapter Four: Methodology 10. Introduction 56 11. Qualitative Research 56 12. Thematic content analysis 57 13. Focus groups 61 14. Sampling 62 15. Reliability and Validity 63 16. Coding 64 17. Coding high and low comedy 65 18. Limitations of content analysis 66

55 METHODOLOGY

Introduction

This chapter discusses how the research was conducted. It argues why qualitative research was used instead of quantitative research methodologies. Focus groups as well as a content analysis were the main methods used to determine who watches cartoons like The Regular Show, and why. In order for real discussions to take place, self-reflection as well as open ended questions, focus groups were able to provide profound insights into why the show (and similar shows) has become so popular. Through careful data preparation, coding and interpretation, that the results of the qualitative content analysis will support and validate existing theories on uses and gratifications, identity formation, nostalgia and kidult culture. The focus in this chapter was on the methodology the researcher used to examine the kidult culture phenomenon through the eyes of kidults – who watch The Regular Show.

Qualitative research

The qualitative research paradigm has been selected for the purposes of this research project. This research paradigm can be defined as a research approach in social research where the research takes its point of departure as the insider perspective on social action. This means that the researcher is interested in studying human interaction from the insiders’ point of view (Babbie and Mouton, 2009). The qualitative method aims to clarify, interpret and to explain. What distinguishes qualitative and quantitative researchers is not the nature, but rather the methods of research (Heyink and Tymstra 1993).

One of the most popular methods of qualitative research is the interview or group interviews (focus groups included). This is one method that successfully separates the qualitative and quantitative research paradigms as it clearly demonstrates the opinion based dimension of qualitative research as opposed to the numerically based results of quantitative research. The

56 methods chosen for this study include thematic content analysis using different methods of caricature and animation analysis from different authors as well as audience focus groups.

Thematic Content analysis

Content analysis is the data analysis method that the study will use. There are a number of definitions for qualitative content analysis. Du Plooy (2002) stated that content analysis is used to record the frequency with which certain symbols of themes appear in a message. The main objective of qualitative content analysis is to provide an understanding of areas where limited or no prior information exists (Du Plooy, 2002: 156). Qualitative content analysis uses a flexible questioning approach, and the researcher’s job is to use an inductive method to understand people and their experiences through communication. Wigston (2009) highlights the importance of understanding where content analysis fits in to the communication process, in order to use it as a worthwhile research method (Fig. 14).

Figure 14: The position of content analysis in the communication process (Source: Fourie, 2009: 7) 57 According to his model, content analysis makes inferences about antecedents of a communication: in order for the researcher to analyse the episodes from The Regular Show, they need to understand popular culture’s current state, which led to the creation of the cartoon. Secondly, the model describes and makes inferences about the forms and characteristics of the communication within popular culture’s mediums. The model focuses on the message, although, it is important to note that it is not limited to the message only (2009).

In defining content analysis, three concepts need to be dealt with: content analysis must be systematic, objective and quantitative (Wimmer and Dominick, 2011)

1. Systematic: This means that in analysing the content, the researcher needs to follow precise rules and a set procedure that is applied to the sample being analysed. The evaluation process must also be systematic, and in the context all content under consideration should be treated in exactly the same manner. This means that there needs to be uniformity in the coding and analysis procedures. The researcher's sample selection ensured that all episodes from The Regular Show had equal chance of being selected. All current seasons of the show were also equally weighted against each other. 2. Objectivity: This is achieved by defining the methodology precisely, so that should another researcher want to duplicate the study, they can apply it to the same content, and get the same results. In order for the results to be objective and reliable, the researcher needs to establish a clear set of criteria and procedures that fully explains the sampling and categorisation methods. Perfect objectivity is hardly achieved in content analysis (for example the snowball sampling method used in this research), because the research exercises subjective choice in defining the units of analysis and categories. The study ensured objectivity by using several methods outlined further in the dissertation. 3. Quantitative: The aim of content analysis is to provide an accurate representation of the material. As such, quantification is important in achieving the aim as it assists the researcher in the search for accuracy. Quantitative research is

58 always given in either numerical values or frequencies. The study was able to provide numerical values in the findings section, where responses and themes (as well as votes taken) were taken into consideration.

Content analysis is the study of social artefacts. By social artefacts, the study is referring to human creations like books, laws, art and media. Highly detailed data from these artefacts, e.g. a series of TV episodes, are made more manageable by analysing a small sample within the social artefact. The data gathered is then divided into different categories and coded (coding to be discussed in next section). The point of this is to find and explain patterns. In this case, patterns of adult directed cartoons that fall within kidult culture (Messinger, 2012). Different methods will be used to identify patterns and recurring themes, which will give the study validity.

Wigston (2009) lists the below as advantages of content analysis: 1. The influence of the researcher is indirect; this is because we are studying mediated messages and not the behaviour of people. 2. Content analysis is flexible. This means that it can be used for longitudinal studies if we want to study changes over time, such as the growth of the characters in The Regular Show in relation to the growth of its fan base. 3. In nature, content analysis is unobstructive and non-reactive. 4. Content analysis is sensitive to context and symbolic forms; it allows the researcher to study situational, semantic and political aspects of messages. 5. It has the ability to cope with large volumes of data; although it can easily become overwhelming, researchers are able to hire additional workers to assist in processing the data.

The study will use a variety of different methods of caricature analysis. Bal et al (2009) elucidates that for a cartoon to ‘work’, there are necessary conditions and elements that have to be present for a specific phenomenon to be generated. They highlight three conditions: sympathy (identification), gap and differentiation. That is to say, the audience must be able to identify with or relate to the object of satire. Also, for satire to occur there must be a perceived gap or

59 dissonance between image and reality. The undifferentiated cannot be caricatured. The object of caricature must have some sort of unique attribute that differentiates the object from other objects in a given context; either physically (physical characteristics such as colour, size) or ideologically (intangible characteristics e.g. intelligence, luck).

They emphasize building a context for the cartoons; current, political and historical. They then encourage the decoding of the images individually, identifying key issues, remembering their context. Rose (2001) contends that the interpretation of images is a straight forward interpretation of said images, not the discovery of their ‘truth’, thus it is important to justify one’s interpretation. And to do that, one must have an explicit methodology which she discusses in her book Visual Methodologies. Images can be studied through what is called compositional interpretation. Compositional analysis pays some attention to the actual production of images but is mostly concerned with the image itself in its compositional existence and how it’s experienced. According to compositional analysis, some of the key components of an image are its content, colour, special organization, light, and expressive content. This method calls for a careful attention to the image itself. One downfall is that it shows little interest in the social practices of graphic imagery (Rose, 2001).

A cartoons analysis guide on the Library of Congress website4 claims that a good guide is to study the following: Symbolism, Exaggeration, Labelling, Analogy and Irony, all of which are discussed in relation to the show. Fink (2013) has studied and read a lot of material on The Simpsons since the show first aired. In the article, “Writing The Simpsons: A Case Study of Comic Theory”, Fink brings to light categories of humour that he feels make the show successful. He reviews the theories of high and low comedy, incongruity, superiority, psychoanalysis (relief) of humour, and the structure of comedy writing.

It is demonstrated that the writers of this episode apply each of these elements of comic theory in some way, as they do in all episodes of this series.

60 4 Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/activities/political- cartoon/cag.html The study will adapt Fink’s different categories and levels of humour to study The Regular Show In the next section (coding), a list of the elements that will be looked for and used as coding headings for the content analysis portion of the research will be discussed, all results will be discussed in the next chapter.

Focus groups

Focus groups are a form of group interview that take advantage of communication between research participants (Kitzinger, 1995). In fact, this form of intergroup elicitation is how data is generated. The group interaction itself and the conversation that occurs between participants is one of the main focuses of the focus group. This helps the research move faster as the researcher does not have to ask each member of the focus group separately. The focus group also fosters an environment where people are encouraged to talk to each other. They then ask each other questions, comment on each other’s viewpoints and even encourage others to join the conversation or elaborate a point. Focus groups thus help explore people’s experiences, knowledge and feelings on a particular topic (Kitzinger, 1995). It is also beneficial to this study as it allows for a series of open ended questions to be asked, giving participants full reign over where the conversation goes.

But as with all research methods, there are downsides. In focus groups, the presence of other participants can compromise the confidentiality of the research session, especially if the topic is controversial or personal. Such group dynamics raise ethical issues and may limit the usefulness of the data. Thus focus groups are inappropriate when researching sensitive issues. Although it is not out of the question to find situations where group conversations facilitate the discussion of topics considered to be taboo (Kitzinger, 1995). These issues shouldn’t be an issue in this research study as the topic and questions are not of a sensitive nature. Focus groups are particularly appropriate for this topic as they place participants in a group dynamic setting that demonstrates how TV programmes bring people together in shared identity.

61 Running the group sessions should be relaxed: a comfortable setting, refreshments, and sitting round in a circle will help to establish the right atmosphere (Kitzinger, 1995). The focus groups will be conducted at the researcher’s house in Northcliff Johannesburg, where refreshments will be served and comfort ensured. The sessions will last an hour and half; with 45 minutes dedicated to watching three 15 minute episodes of The Regular Show and 45 minutes dedicated to discussion. It will also be beneficial to present research participants with a quick questionnaire before and after the focus group sessions. All the sessions will be recorded on video as well as tape recorder and then transcribed.

Sampling

When it comes to finding participants for a study, there are two types of sampling methods: probability and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling involves the selection of a random sample from a list containing the names of everyone in the population you are interested in studying. But many research situations often make probability sampling impossible or inappropriate, like in this particular study, thus non- probability samples are used (Babbie et al., 2009).

A few examples of non-probability sampling include reliance on available subjects (such as stopping people at a street corner), purposive or judgmental sampling (selecting a sample on the basis of one’s own knowledge of the sample), and quota sampling which is based on knowledge of the characteristics of the population being sampled. These proportions can be extended to age groups, race and various other variables. Then there is snowball sampling which is only appropriate when the members of a special population are difficult to locate. This is done by collecting information from a few of the members of that population then asking those individuals to refer you to more members of the same populations or their locations (Babbie et al., 2009; Barnett, 2002). This study will use this method of snowball sampling to locate participants. This is because adults who watch cartoons are likely to know other adults who watch cartoons.

62 The 3 episodes that were chosen were ‘Really real wrestling’ from the second season, ‘Butt dial’ from the third season, and ‘Pie contest’ from the fourth season. ‘Really real wrestling’ focuses on the characters’ love for wrestling and shows a tougher side of Pops that the viewer was unaware of. In ‘Butt dial’, Mordecai accidentally leaves a message on Margaret’s cell phone and tries to delete it before she hears it- aggravating the keepers of messages. In ‘Pie contest’, Mordecai and Rigby’s honesty is tested as they become judges of a ‘Pie contest’ with life or death implications. To pick the 3 episodes, non-probability sampling was used. The sampling method used was purposive sampling.

The number of participants and the composition of the group the number of participants required for a focus group discussion appears to be a very important defining characteristic of focus groups according to the existing literature (Hopkins, 2007). When it comes to the sample size of the study, focus groups generally consist of between 6 to over 50 people, depending on what the purpose of the research is (Kitzinger, 1995). For the purposes of this study, 5 participants will be selected for each focus group.

Most focus groups reflect a range of the total study in order to test a particular hypothesis. In order to maximize the exploration of different perspectives, a diverse group of people will be chosen for the study; they will be above the age of 18- which is widely considered as the adult age in South Africa. The groups will be naturally occurring in many cases in that some of them will know each other through mutual friends, acquaintances or colleagues (snowball sampling technique). An advantage here is that it allows for the observation of fragments of interactions (Kitzinger, 1995). An advantage is that participants who know each other can relate to each other’s incidents in their shared daily lives. They will be able to challenge each other’s statements if they do not fit the mould they have portrayed before.

Reliability and Validity

To measure reliability in a study, the instrument used must be repeated. Reliability is the degree to which our methods stand up to the test of time. In traditional norm-referenced

63 assessment, reliability is the confidence we have in our test scores to be consistent from one testing session to the next. The stability, consistency, and predictability of our scores across time are important as we make decisions about our students or clients and the educational and psychosocial opportunities they are afforded (Goodman and Carey, 2004). Four major forms of reliability testing include: alternate forms reliability, internal consistency reliability, inter-ratter reliability and test-retest reliability, which will be the most relevant for this study. Test retest reliability is the extent to which the scores obtained by a particular student or client on one test are consistent with the scores the same student obtains on the same test at a later date, hence the use of 3 different focus groups.

To measure the validity of a study, the results must be the same even when a different instrument of study is used (Heyink and Tymstra, 1993). Validity is defined as the degree to which a construct measures what it purports to measure. There are three major types of validity that are discussed in most research literature: content validity, criterion-related validity including predictive and concurrent validity, and construct validity. Content validity (the most relevant for this study) is the degree to which the content of a particular instrument, test, or construct is fair and representative of the domain in question. This is why a wide variety of people (adults) will be involved in the study as well as why more than one episode will be screened and discussed. Both are not the easiest to measure in qualitative research as no qualitative study is exactly the same or completely different (Heyink and Tymstra, 1993).

Coding

For the purposes of this study, the focus group discussion as well as content analysis from The Regular Show will form the results of the study. The script of the discussion will be coded, and it is worth using special categories for certain types of narrative, such as jokes and anecdotes, and types of interaction, such as “questions,” “deferring to the opinion of others,” “censorship,” or “changes of mind”. The interaction between the participants will help determine the nostalgic nature of cartoon watching by adults as well as the dynamics of kidult culture in the formation of identity. A focus group research report that is true to its data should also usually include at least

64 some illustrations of the talk between participants, rather than simply presenting isolated quotations taken out of context (Kitzinger, 1995). To accomplish this, all focus groups will be transcribed, and patterns will be noted and coded manually in order to ensure that nothing is missed. Next is a list of the elements that will be looked for.

Coding high and low comedy

Comic theorists have been studying comedy since Aristotle began analysing dramatic poetry. Studying texts from the 1800s from authors such as Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Anton Chekhov, theorists began to see comedy is two separate types: high and low comedy. High comedy was first applied to the 17th century British play called “Restoration comedy”. It refers to humour that is witty and sophisticated in dialogue. It considered more high-brow as those who partook in it were wealthy and snobbish. It requires a level of intelligence from the viewer in order to understand the jokes. Low comedy is the opposite of high comedy. It involves more physical slapstick humour than dialogue or witty banter. A lot of the time it involves violence (like in many cartoons) but none of the characters are ever left harmed. It satirizes what is considered to be the “lower class”. One finds a lot of falling down and hitting, exerting a lot of energy to complete a simple task. According to Fiske (2013), we laugh because we are “better than them” and enjoy the German philosophy of schadenfreude - finding enjoyment in other people’s misery. It is also worth mentioning that some scholars also draw on the idea of “mudita”. This concept states that it is also in our nature to get joy from other people (character)’s success.

Additionally, high comedy requires some intelligence on the part of the viewers to appreciate the humour. In The Regular Show, the audience needs to be knowledgeable of cultural references. For example, in “Skunked”, Mordecai and Rigby have been tasked to pick up road-kill on the park grounds. To make it more interesting, Benson has turned it into a game of bingo. For the audience to understand, they would need to have background information on the original game of Bingo. As the plot continues, Mordecai and Rigby come across what they think is a dead skunk lying in the middle of the road. The skunk turns out to be alive and sprays Rigby, which

65 would turn him into a “Wereskunk”. One would have to have some form of knowledge related to tales of werewolves and how one becomes a werewolf, for them to understand the storyline.

Returning to the broader concept of low comedy, every episode of The Regular Show is filled with physical, simplistic antics, often including some pain that lets the viewer’s experience schadenfreude, as well as some gain that elicits mudita. Examples of mudita can be found in ‘Really real wrestling’, when Pops (surprisingly) defeats the Real wrestlers and saves Mordecai and Rigby in the wrestling match. For schadenfreude, Skips accidentally kills Rigby in “Over the top”, although he did die, the audience experiences schadenfreude because he got “his comeuppance after putting Skips through hell over arm-wrestling”. In the same episode, Skips has to arm-wrestle Death to get Rigby’s soul back- a match he wins by pulling the same prank on Death.

In the next chapter, we have a look at the results from the 3 focus groups, and relate the results to the following comedic codes: Incongruity Theory, Fish Out of Water, Unexpected Surprise, Self-Reflexivity, Illogical, Absurd, Exaggeration, Logical extremes, Stereotypes, Superiority theory, Meta-Textual, Contextual, Dialogue and action, Aggression and violence, Psychoanalytic or relief theory, Guilt, Discomfort, No lasting harm, Happy ending, Three-act structure, Rule of Threes, Running Gags, Double whammy, Innuendo and double entendre, One- liners and put downs and Sight Gags. These will be discussed in the next chapter.

Limitations of content analysis:

At this point, it is imperative to point out that although content analysis may be the chosen method of study, it too has faults. Wimmer and Dominick (2011) list the below as limitations of content analysis: 1. Content analysis alone cannot serve as the basis for making statements about the effects of content on the audience. The researcher understood this critique, and thus opted to use 2 different kinds of content analysis: thematic content analysis and focus groups.

66 2. It cannot serve as the sole basis for claims about media. True as it may be, it is able to highlight themes about the media and media consumption such as nostalgia as a commodity and popular culture as the driver of fostering identity. 3. Another possible limitation lies in the problem of using the method for a latent analysis of messages with a high degree of reliability. It is true that focus groups may have a flaw in getting genuine reactions from the participants. But because some people in the groups actually knew each other (or of each other) through the snowball sampling method, they were comfortable to speak freely and express their true outlook toward the show. 4. The findings of a particular study are limited to the framework of the categories and the definitions used in that analysis. Although different researchers may use different definitions and category systems to measure a single concept, successful research will uncover the same result even when alternate methods are used – this is the reliability of the results. It is true that different categories and definitions exist, thus the researcher opted to use multiple category systems in order to ensure validity of the study. 5. It is time consuming. The task of examining and categorising large volumes of content is often tedious. Quantitative measures are just as time consuming depending on the amount of data compiled. All comprehensive and well-rounded research will be said to be time consuming.

67 CHAPTER FIVE

Chapter Five: Findings, analysis and discussion 5. Introduction 69 6. High and Low comedy analysis 69 7. Focus group findings and discussion 83 8. Limitations 97

68 FINDINGS, ANALYSIS and DISCUSSION

Introduction

This chapter discusses the findings and analyses that the research uncovered. It will start by an analysis of the structural and textual elements of the three Regular Show episodes and then relate this analysis to the context of kidult identity and to the focus group findings. These textual aspects are discussed here because they explain the show’s appeal to its older audiences.

High and Low Comedy analysis

Edward Fink has studied and read a lot of material on The Simpsons since the show first aired. In his article, “Writing The Simpsons: A Case Study of Comic Theory”, Fink (1989) brings to light all sorts of humour that he feels makes the show successful. He reviews the theories of high and low comedy, incongruity, superiority, psychoanalysis (relief) of humour, and the structure of comedy writing. It is demonstrated that the writers of this episode apply each of these elements of comic theory in some way, as they do in all episodes of this series. The study will use his different categories and levels of humour to study The Regular Show. Here is a list of the elements that will be looked for.

Incongruity Theory

Incongruity theory includes humour that contrasts things in new or unusual ways. Often, a character faces a situation for which he or she is totally unprepared (a "fish out of water") or some other match-up of things that do not belong together occurs. Whatever the incongruity, the unusual juxtaposition often catches viewers off- they are surprised by something unexpected, illogical, absurd, or exaggerated.

69 Fish Out of Water

When a character faces elements outside his or her normal world, the person becomes a ’fish out of water’" The fun ensues when the character attempts to deal with the new situation, by trying to adapt to it, overcome it, or get away from it. The characters in The Regular Show often find themselves in this predicament. In ‘A bunch of baby ducks’, Mordecai and Rigby are forced to take care of baby ducks. The fun ensues when Rigby imprints on them and they think he is their mother. He and Mordecai must quickly figure out what to do with them or who to give them to. In the hands of experienced comedy writers, these situations generate laughs.

Unexpected Surprise

Behind the humour of incongruity lies an element of surprise. In ‘Really real wrestling’, we do not anticipate Pop’s great athletic ability given his child-like demeanour and naive nature. We are surprised when Benson admits in the “cool court” that Mordecai and Rigby are the coolest guys he knows (unknowingly finding them guilty of being too cool, sentencing them to death). We are also surprised when Benson proves that the drum solo made famous by popular rock band “hair to the thrown” was originally played by him.

Self-Reflexivity

Self-reflexive jokes refer to observations that are made within the program itself. Sometimes surprises include self-reflexive jokes: observations about a program within the program itself. Other cartoons of the same genre including The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time (where JG Quintel was part of the creation team) and Chowder do well with self- reflexive jokes. In many episodes, they have to fight against great odds (like being erased or removed off air) so that their show stays on the TV, or directly talk to the audience.

70 Illogical

Also within the incongruity theory is the illogical. We find humour when something happens that we know just does not make sense. These (along with the absurd and exaggeration) are The Regular Show’s strongest comedic references. From the storylines to the characters themselves. Mordecai and Rigby are talking animals, Benson is a gumball machine, Pops is a lollipop, High Five Ghost is a ghost and Skips is an immortal yeti. They live (more or less) like the average human being; which is quite illogical.

Absurd

Then, related to the illogical, is the absurd; what we consider to be utterly ridiculous. It is common place to find the majority of The Regular Show to have vast elements of absurdness. In ‘A bunch of baby ducks’, both Mordecai and Rigby are saved from a hunter by the 4 baby ducks when they turned into one giant human with a bird’s head. It was absurd when Rigby’s body left him because he was feeding it too much junk food. It was absurd that Skips had to fight Klorgbane the Destroyer (a giant evil baby) in ‘Fists of justice’ or fight the manifestation of his stress in ‘Skip’s stress’.

Exaggeration

Comedy of exaggeration is part and parcel of incongruity theory, another piece of the foundation of The Regular Show. In ‘Peeps’, Benson is so frustrated with Mordecai and Rigby’s slacking that he sets up cameras everywhere. When this doesn’t work, the surveillance company sends a giant eye-ball to the park to watch all the employees.

Logical Extremes

Incongruity also means comedy of logical extremes. In ‘Cool cubed’, Mordecai, Rigby and Pops accidentally freeze Thomas’ brain with a giant smoothie in a brain freeze contest. The brain

71 freeze is an idea we can relate to, but it is taken to the extreme when Mordecai and Rigby have to shrink down to molecule size in order to get into Thomas’ head and defeat the ice monster that is attempting to freeze his brain permanently. In ‘Dizzy is another example of logical extremes. When Pops is too nervous to make a speech, Rigby suggests that he spins around until he is dizzy to get his mind off of his nerves. Of course spinning around and getting dizzy is logical, but it went to the extreme when he spun too hard and ended falling into a world in his head (where speeches are illegal). Mordecai and Rigby (with the help of Skips) must enter Pops’ head and fetch him. In ‘Fancy restaurant’, Muscle Man has to take Muscle Woman and her parents to a fancy restaurant. It is logical that one must dress and behave appropriately in a “fancy” restaurant, but it is exaggerated when they are accosted by the restaurant staff for “faking fancy”.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes also fit into incongruity theory. Comic writers rely on stereotyping when they need a quick gag and have neither the time nor the need in a story to create nuance through dialogue or subtle characterization. The stereotyped characters often appear quickly, with the incongruity stemming from their juxtaposition with other story elements. In “TGI Tuesday”, Mordecai wants to throw Margaret a party so they can hang out one last time, Benson allows them to use the park ballroom, which turns out to be haunted by ghosts from the 80s. They were stereotyped from their slang (Let’s school these fools!), their names (Johnny Emp'r'r and Cool Shadé), hair (flat-tops and mullets), clothes (neon multi-coloured oversized clothes), as well as dance moves (“Yeah, your moves got no 80's effects, or hand claps, or nothin'!”). Superiority Theory

Another of the three grand theories of comedy is superiority. We laugh, outwardly or inwardly, openly or suppressed, when we feel better than or triumphant over others. In ‘More smarter’, we are alerted to the fact that Rigby dropped out of high-school. He feels that “[He] don't need no high school education.” You can't use everything from school in everyday life.” This is until a food truck pulls up serving free burgers to people with high school diplomas only. Superiority theory works on the levels of both meta-text and context. On the meta-textual level,

72 we viewers laugh at Rigby’s stupidity. In addition to the meta-textual viewers laughing through their superiority at the inferiority of The Regular Show characters, those characters within the context of the show’s world often generate laughs via superiority theory as well. Like when Muscle Man displays his superiority when he calls Rigby out on his grammatical error.

Rigby: STOP TALKING!!! Just because I couldn’t solve some math problem, doesn’t make you more smarter than me! Muscle Man: Check that grammar, bro! Rigby: Huh? Muscle Man: “More Smart”, not “More Smarter”. High Five Ghost: Didn’t you learn that in high school?

Aggression and Violence

Aggression and violence are often part of superiority theory. Sometimes the aggression is verbal, as in the insults and put-downs. Other times, the violence is physical, including beatings and pain, as in Rigby’s painful death or Muscle Man’s death as well. Humorous violence or aggression has long been a part of the superior-inferior relationships in comedy even though pain and laughter rarely occur simultaneously in real life, representing “a psychologically incongruent combination” (Mustonen and Pulkkinen, 1993, pg. 183). Whether the humour is violent or not, and whether it is revealed through dialogue or action.

Guilt

What secret guilt causes us to laugh at so many episodes? There is sex and unsavoury language and violence. Psychoanalytic theory states that we feel guilt and then release it through laughter as we watch Mordecai walk into Pops’ room while he is naked, or Skips, Mordecai and Rigby seeing Benson’s ‘private parts’ or when Mordecai fantasizes about Margaret in her skimpy clothes. We feel guilty and then laugh for relief as we see Rigby take a beating from Skips or various other violent encounters that is common in The Regular Show.

73 Discomfort

Related to guilt is the broader concept of all types of discomfort. According to psychoanalytic theory, any feelings of discomfort can bring about laughter as relief. We might be a little uncomfortable at the beginning when Mordecai and Rigby taunt Muscle Man into going down a slide that isn’t ready, the discomfort increases in the middle when he crashes down, into a tree and onto a car and at the end when Death appears to collect his soul.

No Lasting Harm

A significant part of psychoanalytic theory is the longstanding comedy rule that there can be no lasting harm. If characters are truly hurt or killed, and the pain or death is lasting, then we cannot laugh; we can only feel sympathy, or pathos. To be sure, comedy draws us into a story with sympathetic portrayals of characters who elicit pathos. Like in the previous episode example, Muscle Man survives as Mordecai and Rigby babysit Death’s baby in a trade for Muscle Man’s soul. Or when Rigby comes back from the dead after Skips wins the arm wrestling competition with Death. We keep watching because we know everything will be ok in the end. An example of a cartoon that stretches the boundary on this is Adventure Time. Countless characters actually die and others are left paralyzed. For example, the main character Finn the Human loses his arm to a cursed sword. Another character, Tree Trunks actually explodes and the episode ends. But in The Regular Show, no lasting harm comes to any of the characters. These examples of "no lasting harm" reinforce the notion that comedy must have a ‘happy ending’. To be sure, characters can suffer some temporary harm along the way, but in the end everything turns out for the best.

Double Whammy

A useful structure for a comic gag is the double whammy. This is a verbal or sight gag that has two punches instead of one. In ’Just set up the chairs’, Mordecai and Rigby fail to set up chairs for a children’s birthday party and release a video game demon who starts destroying the park.

74 The first punch comes in when they manage to defeat the demon using a character protagonist from another game; the second comes in when Mordecai and Rigby rejoice at the fact that Benson won’t make them “set up the chairs next time.” In ‘Ello’Govner’, Rigby and Mordecai watch a scary movie which leaves Rigby believing that he is actually being chased by a haunted British taxi. The first punch comes in when the British taxi actually appears and starts chasing them through the forest, and the second whammy comes in when we realize that the taxi is actually a man dressed up like a taxi. All he wants is for Rigby to return the movie to the movie store.

Innuendo and Double Entendre

Innuendo and double entendre have been part of comic structure since the beginning. Innuendo is a veiled reference to something sexual. No actual sexual object or action is stated or depicted, but the context of the sentence hints at something sexual. This is seen when Mordecai, Rigby and Skips see Benson’s gumball slot open up, the look of embarrassment on everyone’s face as well as the fact that the whole episode revolved around helping Mordecai get the image Pops’ naked body out of his mind. We are not told what they saw, but we know that Benson’s private parts were put on display.

One-Liners and Put-Downs

Another structure for comic writers is the one liner: a word or a brief phrase or sentence that draws laughter. One liners like “My Mom!” This is what Muscle Man mistakenly uses as an insult, where the line should actually be “Your mom!” In this episode, Mordecai gets tired of hearing Muscle Man use the insult in such a wrong way and calls him out on it, which in turn leads to an intense altercation and elaborate prank from Muscle Man. Benson is another character that uses one liners most of the time. “Clean up this mess, or you’re fired!” “Rake those leaves, or you’re fired!” “If you grill these hotdogs, you’re fired!” Put-downs are also common- place in The Regular Show, this is displayed in “Prank callers” when Mordecai and Rigby are

75 constantly put down by the master of prank calls. Benson’s outburst is a prime example of a put- down:

You lazy no good slackers drive me nuts! Can't you just listen to me once in your worthless lives?! ‘Cause if you did, you'd see I’m trying to teach you some simple responsibility, some pride in doing a job well done! But you wouldn't know a job well done if you paid someone to do it for you! And even then you'd screw it all up on the account that you can't even follow the simplest of instructions, worrying more about looking cool than doing your job!!

Sight Gags

Sight gags are also a useful element of comic structure. An example is Mordecai and Rigby’s TV games; the sight gag is how poor quality they actually are even though they think they have the best graphics. More sight gags are seen in the appearance of the characters, especially Muscle Man and Muscle Woman who are short unattractive green people.

All these elements that are used in The Regular Show explain (in part) the continuous appeal to its audience. Comedic theory remains relevant in creating cartoons, whether it is for children or adults. Both high and low comedy is employed in The Regular Show; the audience is entertained both by the occasional witty banter from the characters as well as the low-brow or slapstick comedy. The illogical, absurd and exaggerated characters and actions, including logical extremes are the winning ingredients that create the show. Discomfort and guilt also come into play in some instances; this is mostly due the sexual innuendo and violence sometimes employed in the episodes. One-liners, including putdowns, add to the audience’s satisfaction. The writers of The Regular Show demonstrate that the elements of comic theory and structure continue to be vital to the writer's craft in this age of multiple storytelling technologies and platforms. They show that cartoons that are aimed at adults often employ themes that are relatable to adults but also funny and entertaining at the same time (logical extremes). The irony of the show is that both characters are Kidults themselves. They find themselves in ridiculous situations simply because they would rather avoid responsibility, slack off and play video games all day.

76 For the purposes of this study, the most important categories in terms of The Regular Show are symbolism and analogy. Symbolism refers to when cartoonists are said to use simple objects, or symbols that stand for larger concepts or ideas. After one identifies the symbols in a cartoon, you need to think about what the cartoonist means each symbol to stand for. An analogy is a comparison between two different things. By comparing a complex issue or situation with a more familiar one, cartoonists can help their readers see it in a different light. Then ask yourself what the analogy is, and if it makes the cartoons’ point clearer. Symbolism is seen in almost every episode of The Regular Show. First, a six-point discussion about the characters is important here:

1. The Regular Show takes normal everyday objects and humanizes them; Benson, for instance, is a gumball machine. Pops’ character is neither human nor animal, but a cross between a man and a lollipop. However, he doesn’t look strange, more like a man with a giant head. Rigby is an animal portrayed with human qualities. Mordecai is a young ’man’ who is learning responsibility, but still loves to have fun. Although he is a man, Mordecai is portrayed as a blue-jay bird that walks and talks like a real human. It's common in media to allow inanimate objects the power of motion. Sometimes this is done for plot reasons. Sometimes this is done to add an element of surprise or the supernatural. Whatever the reason, this trope is used when typically inanimate objects are self- animated in a story.

When this happens, it is always obvious to the viewer and to any characters aware of the process. Depending on the object and whether there's a pretense going on; it might be obvious to everyone. Often objects that have this trope applied to them are incarnated to a degree. Normally they are just given faces, but they may also be able to interact with their environment and hold things in ways that you wouldn't think a table would be able to.

How and why this happens varies, but there are some common variations. They were always animate to begin with, but they often have to maintain a façade (e.g. Toy story, Gnomeo and Juliet), they were made animate by the power of love, they absorbed

77 some kind of applied phlebotinum, are haunted, or a wizard did It. They are transformed humans (The princess and the frog) or simply possessed.

The Regular Show and the newer modern cartoons and animated movies (e.g. Adventure Time, The amazing world of Gumball) have adopted this trope as normality. Where in older cartoons the movement or animation of inanimate objects was always a surprise (Disney cartoons such as Beauty and the Beast and more recent Frozen) it has become the way of life. This progression into the next level of adult cartoons brings up the question as to whether the things society found normal in the past are becoming more and more accepted today. It also begs the question on the acceptance of individuals who may and sound different; it removes race, gender and age as human judgment variables and places all the characters on equal playing ground. This is an achievement that the world is trying to accomplish, with movement toward equality and the development of individual identities.

The respondents in the focus groups were able to identify themselves in some of the characters in the show, using only the personality of the character and not his/her physical appearance. This cartoon, and study, shows that what once bound identities within race, age and gender is becoming blurred, and society is digging deeper to find its identity.

2. Skips (formally known as Walks), as a wise immortal yeti, signifies mystery. Yetis are mystical creatures with no valid reported sightings. Skips acts as Mordecai and Rigby’s protector. More often than not, he is the one who has to get them out of tight spots.

One reason people love mysteries is because they are a safe thrill, similar to roller coasters when you’re a kid. They’re a safe adventure, as well. Skips is the epitome of mystery. As the series and show progress, more and more about his incredible journeys come to light. His travels and romances are the perfect escape for an adult audience. Skips embodies the fantasy of living freely and life to fullest.

78 His immortality is a contributing factor to his mystery, living with no fear of death is a sure fire way for adults to live exciting adventurous lives, but responsibilities of adulthood usually get in the way. Skips’ ability to run headfirst into adventure makes him the perfect character for adults looking to escape.

3. Muscle Man and High Five Ghost, the other two groundskeepers, are Benson’s favorites as they always seem to do their jobs and never get caught slacking off. High Five Ghost and Muscle Man are best bros, and have been since high school. In the episode ’Gut Model’, High Five Ghost officially told Muscle Man that he was his best friend. Muscle Man explains how he and High Five Ghost met, and became friends after he saved him from a falling into the crash pit. Muscle Man usually addresses High Five Ghost as ’Fives’.

High Five Ghost is shown to be a ghost and lives and interacts with others, even though he's a ghost. He possesses several human qualities, including being shown to age in his flashbacks, for example in ’Exit 9B’ (where his mother is apparently human), and also dying in both ‘Halloween specials’, though his ghost-form in those stories is identical to his normal appearance. Despite his name, High Five Ghost is shown to only have four fingers. His name may reference the 'high-five' position his main hand is in. Despite having the usual traits attributed to a ghost, such as levitation and transparency, High Five Ghost can be touched, as evidenced by his usual hand slaps and high fives with Muscle Man. He can also get hurt, as he sustained some bruises in the episodes ’Rage against the TV’, ‘The Night Owl’, ’The Heart of a Stuntman’, and when Muscle Man punches High Five Ghost in "Jinx". In "Exit 9B", he was shown as a baby ghost in the past, with what appears to be a human mother holding him. He was also shown as a high school student, with shaggy brown hair and a green army-style jacket.

In Exit 9B’, identity files about him show his height to be 5'7". In the same files, his weight is listed as N/A, which may indicate he weighs nothing at all. In the episode "’Trucker Hall of Fame’, High Five Ghost is seen crying hysterically at Muscle Dad’s funeral,

79 which is why Benson wants Mordecai and Rigby to go with Muscle Man because “High Five Ghost doesn't handle these sorts of things well.”

High Five Ghost is the most undeveloped main character in the show, his story unfolding in the background while the other main characters get the spotlight. Ghosts in “the real world” are not seen or heard, and it could be possible that High Five Ghost is portrayed as a ghost as a representation of the type of person he is; quiet, always in the background and never without his best friend, Muscle Man. During the focus group discussions conducted, many of the respondents named him as one of the least favorite characters, because they didn’t understand his role, he is, like a ghost, without an identity. One participant in one of the focus groups stated that “he must be relevant because he’s a ghost. He’s that ominous character […] this is concept art which means all the characters are designed to have a symbolic meaning.” It will be interesting to see how his character is developed by Quintel in later episodes.

Muscle Man is a green, short, obese man with large breasts- his name clearly an irony. In ‘Power tower’, it is revealed that he was in fact very muscular in his youth, but let himself go as years went by (Mordecai and Rigby admit they assumed the name "Muscle Man" was ironic). However, while he is extremely out of shape, it is shown that he still possesses excellent bodybuilder posing technique, including the ability to pull off the deadly pose "the shredder." Muscle Man is also 23 years old, although he appears to be a lot older than Mordecai and Rigby. Muscle Man was one of the characters that some of the respondents responded well to, due to his “craziness” and bad temper. He is a relatable character for those who watch the show because he is the embodiment of disappointment.

He never wanted to be a body builder, but his father pushed him towards it because he was so good at it, but he never showed any passion for it, hence the great fall from fame. He was once very popular in school, and won numerous prizes for having an amazing physique - which he has now lost. The pressures of everyday life make failure

80 taboo, but Muscle Man’s happiness even with his failures gives viewers hope and eases the pressures to always be on top.

4. Eileen has a crush on Rigby, who is ignorant of this in the first few episodes she appears in. In later episodes, it is revealed that Rigby has been secretly dating her for a while, and is actually a very good boyfriend. It is important to note that Rigby’s character is one that evolves the most in the show. He begins by being inconsiderate and the laziest slacker in the park. And while we are focused on Mordecai’s failing love life, Rigby starts dating Eileen and becomes a little more responsible. The later episodes (not seen by participants) show that he has ditched his laissez-faire attitude towards school and goes back to high school to get his diploma. Eileen’s arrival was when the change in Rigby began to transpire and she acts as his saviour, the woman who made him realise that he needs to grow up, unlike Margaret or CJ, who both break Mordecai’s heart.

5. Death becomes a close friend to the gang, and although they are afraid of him, it seems that they trust him. He even plays a key role on Muscle Man’s elaborate proposal to Starla in the later episodes. Death is the grim reaper in The Regular Show’s universe; he collects the souls of characters that have died. He has battles with Skips for his immortal soul, but eventually becomes an acquaintance of the main characters.

As mentioned before, mortality is an element that society’s adults grapple with, and hinders one living life ’to the fullest’. In The Regular Show, the concept of dying is negotiable, as seen in a few episodes where some of the main characters die, but are brought back to life through a series of negotiations and deals made with death. In many children’s cartoons (Tom and Jerry, The Roadrunner or Mickey Mouse), characters get brutally injured but never actually die; although characters in a variety of Disney movies die, it is always covered up well enough not to be noticeable or mentioned again (e.g. In Beauty and the beast, the wardrobe crushes a man. In Tarzan, Clayton hangs by the neck till he dies. The avalanche caused by Mulan that kills thousands of soldiers). The Regular

81 Show brings back this concept of safety and fearlessness in its antics, helping audiences feel more comfortable through existential crises.

Essentially, the character Death humanises death itself and gives it a face, making it less scary. Although there have been characters that have actually died in the show (e.g. Muscle Dad and Ace Balthazar), they return in ghost form and are able to participate in shenanigans. The anxiety of dying grows with age, but the character plays on the nostalgic feeling of childhood and never being afraid of death and dying, even though it will happen eventually.

6. The Guardians of Eternal Youth, (formally known as the Immortal Student Council), are a group of babies that guard and give the gift of eternal youth. Skips worships them so he doesn't die. The Guardians of Eternal Youth are five (four with the death of Archibald) big chubby babies with deep voices who become friends of Skips, as seen when they accompany him to a club as his ’wing men’. Their appearance is ironic as they are immortal, but are babies who sound like grown men. Skips also protects them from their bully brother Klorgbane the destroyer.

Each guardian wears a gold hat, brown bib and what looks like a white diaper. It is revealed in ’Skips in the saddle’ that their 'diapers' aren't actually diapers, shown when Archibald angrily tells Skips that they aren't diapers. But we never know what they actually are. This could prove that they are in fact, not giant babies, although they look it. One of the giant babies goes on a date with Skips and goes home with a woman, again proving that he is a grown man. They embody the extreme of what eternal “youth” is and thus appear to be babies. Although their appearance is comical, it is important to note the youth paradox they bring to the show. They are the embodiments of eternal youth that kidult culture seeks to attain.

82 Focus Group Findings and discussion

Three separate focus groups were held, consisting of 5 people each, all of which signed a release form stating that they do not oppose their names being used. For the purpose of this study, the names of the participants will used and the focus group they were in will also be stated as ’Focus Group 1/2/3’ (FG1, FG2, FG3). The study found that people find cartoons of this generation more entertaining than educational. All of the participants found cartoons to be entertaining, but only a few found that they were made for educational purposes.

Vincent FG2: The Regular Show, Adventure Time, they tell you about relationships, for example in Adventure Time we have Finn and that fire lady, fire princess or whatever her name is. There’s Gumball, they teach you about rejection

A strong claim that was put forward was that cartoons these days are made with different intentions, some are made for educational purposes, while others were made purely to entertain.

Keketso FG1: Not every cartoon would have educational value or parts to it, but all cartoons, depending on the target market would be entertaining.

All participants also agreed that all age groups should watch cartoons, as there is a clear distinction between adult cartoons and children’s cartoons. It seems from this study that participants classify children’s cartoons as those that have been made purely for educational purposes, cartoons like Dora the explorer or Takalani Sesame being an example. Echoing Barber (2007), the results have shown that adults are following the tastes and habits of children’s media consumption. Children are no longer the primary audience for cartoons and the study shows that South African audiences are no different.

Jabu FG1: I say every age group. I think everyone should watch cartoons, because like it takes you back, and boosts creativity, keeps your humour there.

Victor FG3: I think you get more entertainment value, but like what he (referring to Mokha FG3) said, you do learn a lot of words. Like that’s how a lot of us started speaking English, because we watched a lot of cartoons. But in terms of educational

83 value, the cartoons that we watched back then, the go-bots, and stuff like that, they had a lot of educational value. Now it’s just entertainment.

Some participants cautioned that the educational aspect of cartoons can be confused for sociological life lessons. For example, it was suggested that cartoons do not actually teach adults anything apart from what is popular among their peers and other people, e.g. dance moves (dabbing and the Durban Kwasa), slang and fashion.

According to the study, cartoons also teach adults how to be less “serious”, it gives them the opportunity to relieve stress. Cartoons offer adults the opportunity to feel like children again, with no responsibilities. Out of the 15 participants in the study, 4 participants mentioned anime movies as one of their favorites when it came to cartoons (Death Note being mentioned twice in 2 separate groups). Those that mentioned anime cartoons cited their love for the genre’s action packed scenes as well as elaborate storylines.

Mokha FG3: I like Bleach. I like Death Note. Interviewer: Is that anime? Mokha FG3: Yeah it’s anime. Interviewer: What is it about them that attracts you? Mokha FG3: Well, Bleach, had a lot of action, and there was a lot of plotting involved in it. It wasn’t necessarily just cartoons; you could see that every character had their own traits. You can see someone is scheming; yeah it was just very complex. If I was younger I probably would have never understood it.

Adventure Time was also mentioned as a favourite cartoon by the participants, which is interesting as JG Quintel, creator of The Regular Show, was part of the team that created Adventure Time. Adventure Time, The Regular Show and The amazing world of Gumball are among the prime time viewing cartoons on Cartoon Network. These results support Ewen’s (1998) view that kidult culture and nostalgia are directly related. The consumption of so called ’children’s’ media gives adults an escape from the stresses and pressures that come with being an adult. Sedikides et al. (2008) also echo these assumptions that nostalgia has the ability to strengthen individuals’ resolve to cope with threats including threats to livelihood and youth.

84 Coming from a nation still bruised by the past, South Africans can be said to not want to go back and experience the horrors of the past, but it is evident through isolated news reports of racist acts that the country is still holding on to remnants of the past. Those that were oppressed are still fighting and those who were the oppressors are still either apologizing or trying to hold on to the power they once had. Here, one needs to remember that nostalgia isn’t only a longing for the good past, but a longing for what once was – whatever that may be. Could some South Africans thus be considered to be suffering from Stockholm syndrome (a condition that causes hostages to develop a psychological alliance with their captors as a survival strategy during captivity)? Are young South African kidults holding on to their youth because they are following the way of the West, are they holding on to their youth because they are yet to discover their own identity, or do they want to experience a past that was different to their own upbringing? It could be all of the above. But the South African landscape is far to complex to pin down what reasons there are for holding on to the past.

Brinley FG2: I like Clarence (new show on Cartoon Network), I don’t know if you guys have ever watched it. […] He’s so cute! He like reminds me of what a child should be like. He’s very chilled, and easy going.

Kopano FG2: I would say The Regular Show for me because it’s current, I can relate to what they are doing. I can see why they behave like that.

Kundai FG3: I think for me now, it’s Spongebob Square Pants. Like seriously, I just like how they’ve put an intellectual trail of though behind a funny looking cartoon. I just enjoy that part of it. That’s pretty much why I watch it. Growing up, I loved Dexter’s lab, I just liked the way he always had a plan. Project. As much as he had a sibling, they always had this sibling rivalry going, so that’s something I also enjoyed back then.

Jabu FG1: I would say Adventure Time. AND Regular Show. Gumball. Yeah, like those 3.

Ditshaba FG1: Regular Show! Mainly because I’m Rigby.

Keketso FG1: I watch cartoons all the time! I have a few, uhm, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Gumball, Flapjack, and also a few animes. Or even DBZ. Yeah

13 out of 15 participants admitted to watching cartoons at least once a week, and 2 out of 15 admitting to watching cartoons on a daily basis. It seems there is wide variety of people

85 that the participants watch cartoons with, including friends, siblings or alone. Apart from watching cartoons, participants seemed to watch a lot of series shows. This includes shows like Power, Empire and “whatever else is trending”. It seems that popular culture is a big driver in determining what people watch. Whatever is the most popular at the time is what people will be drawn to.

Vincent FG2: If it’s current it’s dope

Ngaa FG3: I watch Grey’s anatomy religiously, every time it’s on. I like Power. I watch a whole array of series. It depends on what’s trending. What has a hot lead, what has a powerful woman, what has a whole lot of things that are contrary to my reality.

Dyer (1993) stated that he found that the majority of texts he came across embodied utopian hopes and wishes for a better world. Popular culture’s mass appeal talks to the formation of identity and the need to fit in, or be part of something larger than the individual. These results agree with Danesi (2009) and Betts’ (2004) views that popular culture invokes emotional and interactive appeal.

All the participants acknowledged the existence of kidults, 14 out of 15 admitted to being kidults themselves. One focus group (FG3) decided that everyone is a kidult because these days, they claim that everyone is engaging in things they used to do when they were younger and things that are perceived to be for children.

Vincent FG2: I don’t want to grow up. I like the way I am right now. I want my kids to be like me, and be cool with my kids when they’re older. And when I’m a granddad I want to be exactly the same.

Victor FG3: I think that’s everyone on the planet. Well, Everybody… I’m still the same Victor that I was when I was a child growing up. I’m a kidult! I just have some responsibilities now. So I can’t really do the things I REALLY want to do. You know. But yeah, I’m a kidult.

Less than 30 years ago, Fiske (1989) saw the trend and popularity amongst scholars who began to realise the magnitude of popular culture, and the pleasure that audiences develop from

86 consuming them. As the Uses and Gratifications theory suggests, participants of this study consume this media because of the pleasures they receive from it. The mass appeal of kidult culture has been embraced by society.

After watching the three episodes of The Regular Show, 10 out of 15 participants felt that The Regular Show was for adults. This is due to the dialogue of the show containing humor that they felt children would not be able to understand.

Mpho FG2: I think it’s for adults. Because when you’re watching this, you’re having nostalgic moments of the experiences that they are having. Rather than kids who know nothing about those things, so they won’t be able to understand those things.

The remaining 5 believe that the show is for both adults and children, meaning that none of the participants saw the cartoons as directed solely at children. They argue that although the jokes and situations would not be relatable to children, the simplicity of the drawings and explosiveness of the situations would still make the cartoon entertaining for children. The concept of humour is appealing to all ages, the comedic codes that run through the show display that a wide range of audiences would be able to enjoy the show. For example the code of innuendo would only be expected to have a comedic effect on adults, whereas children would find an appeal in the sight gags.

Mokha FG3: The minor details that they’ve added, you’ll only get if you have a certain level of maturity. But it’s very fun and explosive here and there, so it’s entertaining for a child. I was watching this concept art show and the artists said that the aim for today’s cartoons was to try draw like a child. Because a child’s eyes always sees what’s important. Like a child’s drawing is straight forward, like a house is square with a triangle roof. Cartoons of today are doing that because when you think of a tree, you think of leaves and a trunk and it’s that simple. Victor FG3: Yeah for sure. Mokha FG3: Yeah very low detail, they trying to play more to your subconscious as opposed to putting it as high detail.

All the participants took the view that The Regular Show was “just about every day experiences”. It’s a show that follows straight forward relatable characters that go through their

87 daily lives doing normal things, but the twist is that these things are always exaggerated and blown out of proportion. This is what makes the show more relatable to adults, as it portrays the menial tasks that adults go through on a daily basis. Adults (kidults) across the globe all have different experinces, but there are some very common occurrences that seem to be a trend among all adults; this includes matters of the heart, the stresses of jobs or taking strain from responsibilities.

Mittell (2003) stated that the main reason for cartoons being targeted at children was the basic quality of early cartoons. It follows then that because Disney cartoons had “cultural legitimacy”, they were also enjoyed by some adults. The study has shown that The Regular Show indeed holds a level of cultural legitimacy (seen by how the participants were able to spot cultural and societal themes that they were able to relate to), thus adults would be drawn to it. As mentioned above, across all cultures, South Africans included, adults all have some very basic and common life events that they will have to experience. But the basic quality seen in The Regular Show (and similar cartoons) would still be appealing for children.

The fact that Mordecai and Rigby are 23 years old surprised 10 of the participants who sighted that Mordecai and Rigby act like teenagers who are working a holiday job. Interviewer: Would you say that Mordecai and Rigby are 23 years old? Kopano FG2: Are they 23?! Vincent FG2: I thought they were 19! *Laughter and agreement Interviewer: Why would you say 19? Vincent FG2: They just seem like teenagers, the way they act, that’s teenager stuff. I also thought they were on holiday, doing a summer job type thing, at the park. Mpho FG2: Yeah like they’re looking for something to do.

However, 5 of participants felt that that is how 23 year olds act these days. They felt that they could see the level of responsibility in the duo, even though they slacked off. But they always worked hard at the end to get out of trouble and ultimately keep their jobs.

88 Kundai FG3: I would say that they’re 23 because they’re always worried about losing their jobs.

Mokha FG3: Like we were saying earlier, people mature at a different rate, so really from 19 to 23 could all be the same thing.

All of the participants felt that Mordecai and Rigby were relatable characters. They would be able to converse with the duo on the same level that they would to their friends on a daily basis. They do feel that Rigby is irresponsible and always getting Mordecai in trouble, and although Mordecai also has his faults, he is the more responsible mature one of the two. The characters’ identities were mirrored in the identities of the participants. The results of the study show that one only needs to watch the show to profile the identities of kidults.

Vincent FG2: Mordecai has more sense and Rigby is the one that messes the situation up. Mordecai is the level-headed one. I don’t know, but peer pressure gets Mordecai all the time though. Rigby’s peer pressure

Ditshaba FG1: Rigby, I would say, look at me, and you would get the gist of him. So lazy, wild, always wants the easy way out, hella chilled, hella loud at the same time. Mordecai, I’d say he’s the less lazier version of Rigby, but they’re best bros.

The majority of participants were very quick to find a character that best relates to them, and the main characters, Mordecai and Rigby, were the ones that participants saw themselves as the most. This is an indication that popular culture drives the identities and selections of media consuming people, and they are drawn to the media that talks to their lives and is able to satirise adult situations, like The Regular Show.

On the list of characters listed as favorites, Mordecai and Rigby won five (each) of the votes. Muscle Man and Benson each won two of the votes and Pops had one vote. Mordecai was sighted as a favorite due to his ability to be crazy but still have a sense of responsibility. Those who loved Rigby the most said it was because of his sheer insanity, they found his laziness and craziness entertaining and some wished they could live like him. Muscle Man and Benson’s tempers won the participants over as they felt that it was funny when Benson and Muscle Man lost their tempers. The participants who like Pops like his care-free attitude and child-like

89 ignorance. The craziness and childlike aspects that the participants seem to be drawn to have a nostalgic dimension (one respondent mentioning his sense of nostalgia that cartoons give him) that is evident in how participants are drawn to the less responsible characters. This echoes Danesi’s (2003) notion of a ’juvenilized’ culture, where images of youth are gradually normalised and mainstreamed. The South African landscape has been drenched in Western products, norms and ways, so it is more than likely that South Africans follow the trends of the Westerners, including the juventilized culture.

Keketso FG1: For me it’s Benson. Just because uhm, I like the character that he is. He’s like just gotten over that level where he’s a kidult and he’s fully an adult, but still has some elements of kid in him. But he’s more responsible and has to deal with these kidults who are going through, let’s say what he went through- that’s why he keeps them around.

Jabu FG1: Muscle Man and Benson, purely because like when they get angry, their tempers just hit the roof.

Kopano FG2: I just like the way he carries himself, the more mature side. He’s more responsible. Like the setting up chairs episode. Also the hotdog episode.

Chris FG3: Like he’s so entertaining to watch (Rigby). Even though the other guy is very sarcastic in an entertaining way, Rigby is refreshing.

This is further cemented by the list of least favorite characters that the participants voted on. Six of the votes went to Benson, High Five Ghost received five votes, Muscle Man, Pops, Skips and Starla each got one vote. Benson, who was labeled as the face of responsibility by the 3rd focus group, received the highest votes of least favorite characters because he is seen to be too harsh and always in a bad and angry mood. High Five Ghost received five of the votes because participants didn’t feel like they got to know him and questioned his relevance in the show. The remaining characters on the list were also seen as irrelevant. What the research has taken note of is that these characters were only in the background in these three particular episodes, so their personalities were unseen. This is an interesting finding as Harwood (1999), stated that more and more scholars are believing that people can formulate (or strengthen) their social identity with or in a particular social group by selectively viewing television programs. These

90 results also show that people enjoy watching shows and characters that they are able to sympathise with. They are affirmed by watching characters similar to them live out their lives.

When it came to choosing the favorite episode of the three watched, seven of the votes went to ‘Butt dial’, four went to ‘Pie contest’ and the other four went to ‘Really real wrestling’. ‘Butt dial’ was the most popular because participants felt that it was the most relatable.

Vincent FG2: I liked Butt dial because it was funny! You can relate easily to Butt dial. Like with someone of our age. There’s always been a moment when you’ve accidentally dialled someone. We had that the other day actually! (Pointing at Mpho FG2)

Those that liked ‘Really real wrestling’ stated that this was the case because it reminded them of their childhood.

Kopano FG2: It reminded me of how we wrestled and watched wrestling when we were kids. With pillows.

When it came to choosing the least favorite episode, nine of participants elected not to pick one as they felt they were happy with all the episodes and wouldn’t select one as inferior to the others. Three of participants voted for ‘Pie contest’ and the other three voted for ‘Really real wrestling’. Those that voted for ‘Pie contest’ as their least favorite did so because the story took too long to climax and they couldn’t relate. Those that voted for ‘Really real wrestling’ did so because they do not like Pops, and they could not relate. Thus cementing the idea that adults’ viewing selection is driven by popular culture, as well as shows and situations they can relate to or aspire to.

In relation to the concept of friendship, 12 of the participants felt that Rigby is a good friend to Mordecai, and all believed that Mordecai is a good friend to Rigby. Overall, the participants believed that the show had many lessons about friendship and loyalty.

Keketso FG1: I feel like it’s a 50-50 thing, where they would be looking out for each other, but at the same time they’re both bad influences on each other

91 Ditshaba FG1: I’d say they are good bros, pretty much the stuff that we do. We all look out for each other in a certain way. I know if someone slips, we’re clowning. It’s part of life. It’s what happens. It builds bonds and you just become better friends

Victor FG3: I think Mordecai is a good friend to Rigby, but I think Rigby is a bad friend to Mordecai. Right now, if Mordecai didn’t have Rigby, he would probably have Margaret and they would be dating at least by now. Rigby is always messing up Mordecai’s stuff and getting him in trouble.

Participants also agreed to the description of the show as “odd, weird, random, zany, bizarre and hilarious.” Only one respondent found the show entertaining but not hilarious, and another found that the word odd was misused. This again relates back to the notion of cultural legitimacy.

Interviewer: Terms like odd, weird and random have been used to describe The Regular Show. Do you agree with them? Vincent FG2: Yeah I guess so. Random… Brinley FG2: I think relatable should be added onto the list.

All participants concurred that The Regular Show had similarities with Beavis and Butthead as well as The Simpsons. With Beavis and Butthead, they saw similarities with the friendship dynamic, the ridiculous irresponsibility of the show, and the drawing style. When it came to The Simpsons, they saw similarities in the plots of the shows, as they were real life experiences as well as based on current events.

Interviewer: It has been said that the show was inspired by other shows such as The Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead. Do you see any similarities? Chris FG3: Yeah in terms of the humour and props yes. Victor FG3: Yeah Beavis and Butthead are Mordecai and Rigby. Mokha FG3: I think it’s the way they socialize is realistic. Victor FG3: The only similarities I see between The Regular Show and The Simpsons is the current events. They talk about politics also, its stuff that is relevant in our day. Like, now.

92 14 of participants wouldn’t change anything about the show and love the dynamics, and one would have added more characters for the sake of diversity. Overall, they love and can relate to the show.

Ditshaba FG1: […] because it takes you back to the younger days, like Samurai Jack! The kids next door, the old stuff, it has that nostalgia. It’s good.

Mpho FG2: […] when you’re watching this, you’re having nostalgic moments of the experiences that they are having.

Overall, the coding themes outlined at the start of this chapter (types of narrative, such as jokes and anecdotes, and types of interaction, such as ’questions’, ’deferring to the opinion of others’, ‘censorship’, or ’changes of mind’) were all displayed through the narratives of the focus groups.

Jokes and anecdotes

Throughout the interview session, jokes and anecdotes were thrown out regularly – particularly from the male respondents; some of whom already knew each other, thus making them more comfortable to make jokes, as well as openly discuss the jokes from the show. Interviewer: At what age did you start watching cartoons? Ditshaba FG1: I came out the womb watching cartoons! *Laughter

Interviewer: Ok, where and how often do you watch cartoons? Vincent FG2: Every day. Like twice a day. I watch them on my PC. Brinley FG2: Maybe twice or three times a week. I watch them with my friends from school Kopano FG2: I’d say maybe once or twice a week. Mpho FG2: Same here, like twice a week. Vincent FG2: But when you’re watching them once or twice a week, how long are you watching them for? Mpho FG2: Well, probably in the afternoon until I go to bed at night Vincent FG2: Yeah you see that’s a lot. I spread my hours *Laughter

93 Questions

The respondents learned a lot from each other through asking questions to each other, specifically around TV programmes and cartoons. Ngaa FG3: I wouldn’t have said they are 23, I mean of the fact that they drive, but Johnny Bravo is also 5 years old, and he’s always running around… Chris FG3: Johnny Bravo is 5?! Ngaa FG3: Yes he’s 5. My point is that they don’t act like 23 year olds, they’re very child-like.

Differing to the opinion of others

The respondents agreed with each other on a variety of opinions, but were still comfortable enough to disagree with each other; one group was quite vocal about their differing opinions, particularly the older participants.

Victor FG3: I think Mordecai is a good friend to Rigby, but I think Rigby is a bad friend to Mordecai. *Laughter Victor FG3: Right now, if Mordecai didn’t have Rigby, he would probably have Margaret and they would be dating at least by now. Rigby is always messing up Mordecai’s stuff and getting him in trouble. Mokha FG3: I think he’s a good friend, Rigby is just not a great person. *Laughter Victor FG3: I guess so

Censorship

There was no censorship displayed within any of the focus groups. Participants were all very comfortable with the language they used with their peers. Slang words such as “dog” or the derogatory “N” word when referring to another person seemed to be the norm. One of the participants in FG3 mentioned homosexuality in cartoons, although a topic that could spark high emotions, the participant did not hesitate to voice his views that “there are a lot of homosexual things happening in cartoons on Cartoon Network.” A short debate ensued but it ran smoothly.

94 Changes of mind

One of the participants admitting to having stopped watching cartoons “a long time ago because [he] didn’t have time.” He stated that he still wouldn’t watch cartoons, but didn’t seem convincing.

Chris FG3: I wouldn’t change anything [about the show]. I think it’s actually put together really well. My favourite character, I really like him. I found it entertaining. Ngaa FG3: Would you watch it again? Chris FG3: Not necessarily… Victor FG3: But you were sitting there laughing so hard. Chris FG3: Well… *Laughter

All the participants did notice that the main characters were not human, but that fact did not impact how they saw the show, and 2 respondents actually preferred the characters as “non-human”.

Mokha FG3: I feel like it makes it easier to relate to the character and easier to put yourself in their shoes.

Keketso FG1: It’s the same as I feel watching another show with human characters. I think I actually like it more knowing they’re not human for some reason.

Bradshaw (2006) and Wells (2009) pointed to the fact that in today’s times, reality’s consistency is continually abandoned when creating cartoons and talking animals are deemed alright. Now it seems, that inanimate objects who have lives, feelings and personalities like humans (and have not been created by some sort of wizardry and are ’born’ that way) have also been deemed alright. The complaints that came out of the animated movie Barnyard seem to have done nothing to ensure real reference to a Blue jay (Mordecai) or Racoon (Rigby), and any of the other characters. What does this mean for society? It is clear that we have become more comfortable with accepting surreal and

95 supernatural ideas as the norm and finding it easy (and often easier) to relate to beings that are not human at all.

Another issue that had critics in a tiff was the blurred gender lines in the movie (Bulls with udders). A similar issue is seen in The Regular Show, where characters have romantic relationships with ’people’ not within their own species. For example, Skips the Yeti was in love with a human woman, Benson the gumball machine dates human women, Rigby the racoon dates Eileen; a cross between a human and another creature. The participants had very interesting responses to this fact.

Keketso FG1: For the most part I didn’t [notice], it only occurred to me later in the season when Mordecai met Margaret’s dad, who is a human whereas the rest of the family were birds… I don’t know if the creators of the show did this on purpose? Most likely… But prior to that I didn’t really notice.

Victor FG3: It doesn’t raise an eyebrow for me. I actually hadn’t thought about it.

This again highlights the perceptions and definitions of animal and human. What The Regular Show has effectively done is remove physicality and physical appearance to the definition of a human, and blurred the lines of these definitions by giving animals abilities primarily deemed exclusive to humans. What they have identified humans through personalities, beliefs and emotions. In chapter 2, Deleuze and Guattari (2007) describe Three types of animals: the pet, the mystical deity animal and the “more demonic animals, pack or aﬀect animals that form a multiplicity, a becoming, a population, a tale” (265). This third kind is clearly how we see the main characters. But as they also stated, why can they not all be treated in all three ways? The show does indeed portray all three types/definitions of animals. Pet animals are present in the show (Benson’s cat, or the park walker’s dog) and so are deity-like animals, such as Koko the Owl; and keeper of the “sleep cycle”.

96 Limitations

All studies are faced with limitations; this one is no different. The first concern is of the generalizability and a level of bias of the study. Using the snowball effect to recruit subjects for the focus groups means that it is likely that they are well acquainted with each other; leaving the sample narrow. One way to alleviate this issue was to hold 3 different sets of focus groups that range in age and gender in an effort to get a wider range of opinions. Focus groups that consist of people who know each other may be beneficial as they feel more comfortable disclosing their opinions and conversation will flow a lot easier.

Another limitation that faced the study was that The Regular Show episodes are always very diverse and none is the same as the other, which means that the shows will feature different sets of characters. Because only 3 shows could be shown, participants were unable to get a good feel of some of the support characters. A future solution would be to request that participants watch a few episodes prior to the focus group, or set a date for all of them to watch more episodes before the focus group dates.

It is also important to note that due to the parameters within the study, the results may not be able to be generalised to other studies and may be grounded in subjective reasoning. The size of the sample group was limited to only three shows from The Regular Show, thus the findings cannot be generalised due to the vast number and diversity of the different shows. The number and sizes of the focus groups could also be argued as too small to be generalised, thus larger groups would be ideal.

The merits of a longitudinal study are apparent here as the show progresses through the lives of the characters, seeing them change and their relationships grow, for example in the first few episodes of the show, Rigby is seen as a crazy, lazy employee. But towards the last few seasons, he grows more mature and begins a great relationship with Eileen.

97 CHAPTER SIX

Chapter Six: Conclusion Conclusive remarks 99 Directions for further research 102 References 104 Appendices a. Appendix A 113 b. Appendix B 114

98 CONCLUSION

Conclusive remarks

This study explored why selected South African adult audiences watch animated cartoons such as JG Quintel’s The Regular Show. In an effort to examine the nature of the role that cartoons play (if any) in the formation of identity, focus groups from a selected local demography of cartoon-loving adults were held. The notions of “kidult culture” and “kidult identity” were explored, with The Regular Show as an example, in order to get a better understanding of the dynamics of local kidult culture. The study answered the questions “why do selected ’kidult’ audiences of The Regular Show watch the show? What is the nature of the relationship between The Regular Show and ’kidult identity’? And how do selected ’kidult’ audiences of The Regular Show construct their identities in relation to the show? A Nexus database search conducted in 2015 showed that there have been no reception studies profiling the adult audience of animated cartoons in the South African context, and this study begins to close that gap.

What the study has uncovered is that the traditional Saturday morning cartoons that were made for children have now become Prime Time viewing for adults. Cartoons such as The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, Cleveland, and South Park have found their way onto mainstream channels such as MTV and Comedy Central instead of Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon, showing that the age we are in is more accepting of adults enjoying cartoons. Another phenomenon is that these traditional cartoon channels have also begun showing cartoons that the research has established have been made for, and are enjoyed by adults. These include Adventure Time, The amazing world of Gumball, and The Regular Show; all popular among American kidults, but as well as South African kidults.

These American cartoons are still dominating the animation arena, surpassing their European counterparts who played a large part in the origins of cartoons. According to the media and cultural imperialism thesis, hegemonic Western popular culture continues to dictate the world’s entertainment preferences and to shape its cultural mores. The particular form of kidult

99 culture that I studied suggests a globalisation of tastes in the manner observed by Danesi (2003). All participants saw a bit of the kidult in themselves and regarded some of their everyday practices as approximating kidult culture. Though they could not speak for other South African kidults elsewhere, they felt that kidult culture existed in variety of forms. Indeed, a majority of them openly stated that they were comfortable with being called kidults. Some went as far as proclaiming that they believe everyone is a kidult one way or another, engaging in activities that they used to in their youths including, of course, watching cartoons. This identity is not only inspired by popular culture, but also by nostalgia that leads adults to participate in practices that are normatively thought of as childish or at least reserved for children.

From the focus groups, participants spoke about cartoons as a way to escape from the daily responsibility of being an adult, and encouraged other adults to watch cartoons in an effort “not to be so serious all the time”. The Regular Show, as unanimously agreed upon by participants, is about the daily mundane lives of two park groundskeepers. The show is reminiscent of young adults going through their daily lives, performing their adult responsibilities, like paying the bills. But what has attracted the participants to the show are the ’zany’ adventures that come out of Mordecai and Rigby’s lack of sense of responsibility and laziness. Their efforts to fix their mistakes and try to keep from being fired lead them through bizarre and often supernatural situations which are a norm for them. This is displayed in ‘Butt dial’ where Mordecai is cleaning up the morning after a game night where he proclaims how happy he is with how the night went, “I mean, Margaret and Eileen over for "Game Night", and nothing went wrong. No space portals, no video demons, nobody got hurt.” The show’s events are usually ’exaggerated’, which gives it a high entertainment value for the participants.

One other reason that the show is so popular relates to its relatability. The characters Mordecai and Rigby are kidults themselves who have responsibilities but try by all means to avoid them, which lands them in trouble and great adventures to try and save their jobs. The research also revealed that many of the participants saw themselves in the characters. Although most of them love Rigby’s crazy, lazy character, they felt that they could relate to Mordecai. Their formations of their own identities is echoed in Mordecai’s character, who is also lazy and wants

100 to have fun, but who has a higher sense of responsibility and gives the sense that he wants to do something more with his life. The participants, like Mordecai, and many other kidults, are looking for a balance between being an adult and being a kid. That is, fulfilling their responsibilities while having care-free and fun moments. Popular culture in the 21st century favours youth, thus, for one to stay relevant, one has to engage in ‘youthful’ activities.

Although the study has demonstrated that the kidult culture phenomenon does exist among the selected participants in one form or another, and that this may suggest that certain adults are comfortable displaying youthful characteristics, the findings seem to go against Lee Hye Jin’s (2010) social anxiety of ’adulthood in crisis’ or ’the death of the grown-up’ thesis. Participants did not feel that they were ’trapped’ between being an adult and kid; rather, they felt that kidult culture refers to those who do want to grow up and fulfil their responsibilities (like Mordecai), but want to still be able to engage in activities that they enjoyed during their childhood years. They do not feel that there is a crisis, but rather a movement for adults with hearts and the playfulness of children. The fountain of youth effect mentioned by Danesi (2003) is accepted, as cartoons trigger nostalgic moments that make adults feel younger again, and less ’stressed’ about the day’s events. It does seem that nostalgia is a common factor when it comes to dealing with adult responsibilities. As proclaimed by Sedikies et al. (2004), nostalgia seems to strengthen individuals’ resolve to cope with threats including threats to livelihood and youth (the preferred standard) and even existential threat (to grow up, or not grow up).

As opposed to the early stages of early TV viewing, today’s society has control over what they wish to view. The notion of a passive audience is a thing of the past, and ‘creatives’ need to fight to acquire and retain an audience; because viewers can now decide to watch something completely different, at their own time and device of their choosing. Some of the participants watch these cartoons on their computers and not TVs. They also watch them whenever they feel like it as it is always readily available. This shows that the choice to watch cartoons is theirs and theirs alone. One should still bear in mind that popular culture still has the power to formulate a person’s preferences, and plays a role in swaying one to watch a particular programme over another.

101 Because the choice is now the consumer’s, they are able to decide what programming they want to watch, in relation to what they need or want out of the programme. The Uses and Gratifications theory is proven correct in this study, which proposes that audiences receive certain pleasures from the consumption of media. As more scholars of popular culture begin to realise this, the theory has once again taken centre stage as the notion of fandom becomes more prevalent. Furthermore, as more and more scholars in social identity theory examine how different types of social identity can have an influence on group members’ behaviours, including what media they engage or interact with, social identity can now be directly linked to the Uses and Gratifications. The results of the study have proven that animated media plays a very important role in fostering identity as much as mainstream media does. It has also proven the notions of nostalgia and popular culture feed kidult culture and identity formation in the 21st century, leading to a higher consumption of perceived youthful products by adults, including cartoons such as The Regular Show.

Directions for Further Research

The limitations discussed previously showed gaps that could guide further research. Further research should focus on acquiring larger focus groups to increase the validity and credibility of the results. Half the groups should comprise of people who know each other (again, so that they feel more comfortable disclosing their opinions and conversation will flow a lot easier) and the other half comprise of strangers who just met, in order to spot differences and themes that may give better insight into the study. Further research could also include more than three episodes of the show, a full season would be better ideal to get a good feel of all the characters, their development and the chronological stories that follow. As mentioned in the limitations section, a longitudinal study might be highly beneficial in studying the growth of participants in relation to the growth of the characters.

One important question that the study neglected to ask was what participants thought about the character representations as animals and inanimate objects. A trend that is seen in

102 The Regular Show , Adventure Time, Uncle Grandpa as well as The Amazing world of Gumball, all of which play on Cartoon Network on a daily basis. This would make for a great insight into the identity formation aspect of cartoons today, which remove gender and race from the picture completely. Cartoons such as Clarence and Steven Universe also illustrate issues of homosexuality (Garnet from Steven Universe is a fusion of 2 female gems who are in a relationship, and Clarence’s best friend has 2 lesbian moms). These cartoons play a huge role in the timeline and evolution of cartoons, and the question then is, are cartoons reflective of today’s society, or is society’s identity shaped by today’s cartoons and media?

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Images:

Barnyard: http://www.nickelodeonafrica.com/search?q=barnyard

Beevis and Butthead: http://www.museum.tv/eotv/flintstones.htm

Boomerang: http://waichingsthoughts81.blogspot.com/2013/08/8-steps-in-fixing-boomerang- channel.html

Boondocks: http://www.zap2it.com/tv/the-boondocks/SH007753880000

Flinstones: http://www.museum.tv/eotv/flintstones.htm

Little Britain: http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Little-Britain/70140407

Little Nemo: http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/sgrais/winsor_mccay.htm

Mickey Mouse: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mickey-mouse-rides-an-autorickshaw-on-his-86th- birthday-these-14-pictures-show-how-mickey-mouse-has-changed-since-1928/513490-79.html

Peter Pan: http://disney.co.za

Snow white and the seven dwarfs: http://iwantedwings.com/2015/01/20/wicked-wiles-snow- white-and-the-seven-dwarfs-1937/

111 South Park: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/news/a524136/south-park-misses-episode- deadline-for-first-time-in-13-years.html#~pcEPj5hkbv1iPX

Spongebob Squarepants: http://www.nickelodeonafrica.com/search?q=spongebob

The Beetles yellow submarine: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9159778/Beatles-Yellow-Submarine- remastered-and-reissued.html

The Simpsons: http://blog.slurpystudios.com/simpsons-anniversary-radio-interview/

112 APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Focus group consent form: The questions that will be asked during the focus group will be based on the research conducted by Litlhare Moteetee (200826509), MA candidate the University of Johannesburg. All questions will be based on the topic of “Kidult culture, Identity and Nostalgia in Mass media; Case Study: The Regular Show”.

I______hereby grant consent/assent that the information I share during the group discussions (focus group interviews) may be used by the researcher, [name of researcher], for research purposes. I am aware that the group discussions will be digitally recorded and grant consent/assent for these recordings, provided that my privacy will be protected. I undertake not to divulge any information that is shared in the group discussions to any person outside the group in order to maintain confidentiality. Age: ______Gender: M [ ] F [ ] Other [ ]

Participant Signature: ______Date: ______

Researcher’s Signature: ______Date: ______

For participants/interviewees who wish to remain anonymous please place your signature below stating that you agree to the terms and conditions of this focus group discussion, which implies that the researcher can record and transcribe the focus group discussion and that no participant will be paid in any form for participating in this interview.

______Participants signature Date

113 APPENDIX B Focus Group Questions

Pre-screening Questions a) In your view, do cartoons have any entertainment and educational value? Explain and give examples. b) In your view, which age group should watch cartoons? Why? c) If adults were to watch cartoons, what would they gain? d) What is/are your favorite cartoon(s), if any? Why? e) Where and how often do you watch cartoons, if at all? f) At what age did you start watching cartoons? g) Who do you watch cartoons with? h) What other TV programs do you enjoy watching? i) Apart from watching TV, what other activities do you enjoy doing? j) The word “kidult” has been used to refer to people who are a cross between an adult and a kid, or who are trapped between growing up and remaining a kid. Others see them as adults who are children emotionally. Do such people exist at all? Would you consider yourself a “kidult”? Why or why not?

Post-screening Questions k) In your view, is Regular Show a show for children or adults? Or both? Explain. l) After watching the 3 episodes, what would you say Regular Show is about? m) After watching the 3 episodes, would you say Mordecai and Rigby are 23-year-olds? Explain. n) Please comment briefly on i) the behaviour of each of the main characters ii) how the characters speak. o) Which character or characters would you say is your favourite? Explain. p) Which character or characters would you say is your least favourite? Explain. q) Which of the 3 episodes we have watched was your favourite, and why? r) Which episode was your least favourite and why?

114 s) Do you think Modercai is a good friend to Rigby, and vice versa? Explain. t) Does the show teach you anything about friendship? u) Comment briefly on the representation Pops, Benson, Skips and Muscleman in the 3 episodes that we watched. v) Terms such as “odd”, “weird”, and “random” have been used to describe Regular Show’s characters. Do you agree? If you do, in what way are they “odd”, “weird” or “random”? w) Others have said Regular Show’s tickles their “funny bone”. Does the show tickle your funny bone? Why or why not? x) What is your comment about the often surreal, extreme, and supernatural dimension of the show? y) It has been said that Regular Show was inspired by such shows as The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head. Have you watched The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head? Do you see any elements of these two shows in Regular Show? z) A reviewer has called Regular Show “zany, absurd, bizarre, and hilarious” do you agree? Explain. aa) If you were JG Quintel, the creator of the show, what would you change about the show? bb) Did you notice that the main characters are either animals or inanimate objects? cc) How does that affect how you feel about the show? dd) Does the fact that the characters aren’t human effect how you relate to them? ee) Does the fact that they have relationships with other “species” raise an eyebrow for you, or did you not think about it?

115