"This Is Generally Followed by a Blackout": Power, Resistance, and Carnivalesque in Television Sketch Comedy
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"THIS IS GENERALLY FOLLOWED BY A BLACKOUT": POWER, RESISTANCE, AND CARNIVALESQUE IN TELEVISION SKETCH COMEDY Anthony McCosham A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2007 Committee: Becca Cragin, Advisor Simon Morgan-Russell Montana Miller ii ABSTRACT Becca Cragin, Advisor This thesis offers a genre analysis of North American television sketch comedy. While aiming to offer a proper characterization of the genre as a whole, it is specifically concerned with discussing and analyzing ways the genre negotiates power relationships, especially in its use of political and racial humor. Due to a paucity of scholarly work on sketch comedy, the paper’s initial focus is establishing a history of the development and conventions of television sketch comedy. Overall, the genre, with its mixture of parody and irreverent humor, is positioned as an example of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque that creates a heteroglossic discourse in which both “official” and “unofficial” cultural messages interact. With this interplay of heteroglossia and the carnivalesque in mind, the remainder of the paper examines the genre’s use of political and racial humor and how power is resisted within these comedic topics. The section on political sketch comedy explores to what degree political statements are possible in a corporate owned media environment. Similar limitations are explored in the chapter on racial humor, where the success and controversy of African-American created sketch shows have demonstrated the delicate balance of dealing humorously with stereotypes in a format largely controlled by and aimed at whites. Ultimately, this thesis claims that despite continuing struggles with certain institutional limitations, resistant humor is possible in television sketch comedy through the liberating powers of the medium and an active audience’s quest for such humor. iii For Sarah Jumbo, the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would not exist without the consistent and early support from my committee chair, Dr. Becca Cragin. A good deal of the early research and writing on this thesis began as assignments in her “TV as Popular Culture” course in the fall of 2005. Her encouragement and her patient, guiding hand during composition were huge factors in the paper’s ultimate completion. Gracious thanks are also due to my other committee members, Dr. Simon Morgan- Russell and Dr. Montana Miller. Dr. Morgan-Russell’s flexibility and interest in serving on my committee were greatly appreciated. His insights on comic theory and the work of Mikhail Bakhtin also greatly improved the final form of this thesis. Dr. Miller’s enthusiasm to serve on my committee was most welcome. Her down-to-the-wire review of the final manuscript, help in filling out Human Subjects Review Board applications, and suggestions for YouTube sketch videos were invaluable. Thanks must also be given to Dr. Charles Coletta and Mr. Tim Conway. Dr. Coletta was instrumental in putting me in contact with sketch comedy veteran Mr. Conway. Mr. Conway was wonderfully amiable in my conversation (and phone tag) with him and I greatly appreciate his eagerness to discuss his craft. While the final focus of my project limited the incorporation of his comments into the thesis, his insights certainly helped shape this, and perhaps future, work. As this thesis has its roots in work begun during my undergraduate career, I would be remiss not to acknowledge the help of several professors who guided me on my undergraduate thesis at Xavier University. My thesis advisor Dr. Edmund Cueva and committee members Dr. Graley Herren and Fr. Fred Benda offered wonderful advice and insights during my early adventures in studying television sketch comedy. Dr. Shannon Byrne also contributed v thoughtful comments on my work as it progressed. Dr. George Plasketes of Auburn University is owed thanks for his work on Lorne Michaels and his willingness to speak and give feedback to a novice sketch comedy scholar. Great thanks go to my parents for both their support of my academic endeavors and their subscription to Comedy Central during my developmental years. Too many sunny days may have been spent watching reruns of Saturday Night Live, but I think things could have turned out worse. Thanks also to my brother, Adam, whose love of movie and television quotations have undoubtedly helped me remember some of the examples found on the following pages. The final thanks must go to Miss Sarah Wasserman, who has handled remarkably the stress involved with researching and completing this thesis. I promise that our home will never be as messy as my efficiency during thesis time. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. ANATOMY OF SKETCH COMEDY........................................................... 7 Clinical History.......................................................................................................... 7 Dissecting the Sketch ................................................................................................ 19 Diagnosis Carnivalesque............................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER II. “DON’T STOP THE CARNIVAL”: THE POLITICS OF SKETCH COMEDY ............................................................................ 33 Flak Everywhere You Turn ....................................................................................... 36 Satire as Struggle: Two Briefings, Two Iraq Wars, and a Second Inauguration....... 42 CHAPTER III. SKETCHING THE OTHER........................................................................ 51 The Other Center Stage.............................................................................................. 61 “Now 100% Black”: Race as a Stage ............................................................ 68 “The Way You Do It Ain’t Like the Way I Do It”: Uncle Tom vs. the Urban Black Male..................................................................................................... 73 “No Matter What Your Instrument, Keep Dancing”: Addressing the Audience ........................................................................................................ 77 “I Talk Like Straight Up Gangsta, Bitch”: Polysemics of Racial Humor ..... 79 CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................... 86 WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................... 93 1 INTRODUCTION Seeking to help fill a sizeable gap at the intersections of comedy and television scholarship, this thesis aims at describing and analyzing some of the main conventions and themes found in television sketch comedy. This genre is relatively unstudied by academia, however, with NBC’s premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, the fall 2006 television season saw the number of sketch comedy shows on network television equaled by the number of shows about sketch comedy shows on network television. While these two new series are not specifically the focus of this paper, they raise certain questions about the appeal and cultural effect of shows like Mad TV and Saturday Night Live, American network television’s sketch comedy standard bearers. In the past, it seems, academia has not been as interested in the genre as recent television creators. Timothy Scheurer, writing an entry on the variety show in 1985’s TV Genres: A Handbook and Reference Guide, noted that “Television criticism and scholarship has begun to improve only recently, and writing about the variety show seems to not have improved at all” and called the sketch comedy friendly format “the great neglected genre.”1 And so, sketch comedy and its parent genre the variety show have continued to be a neglected form.2 While there have been pockets of interest around sketch shows like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (with its battles against political censorship) and In Living Color (with its own controversies over race and representation), there is a paucity 3 of work taking a broader look at the genre. 1 Timothy Scheurer, “The Variety Show,” in TV Genres: A Handbook and Reference Guide, ed. Brian Rose, (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985), 322. 2 Writing in 1992 in a Master’s thesis at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, future sketch comedy writer Michael Upchurch (Mr. Show with Bob and David and Blue Collar TV) bemoans this same fact. His thesis examines a full history of sketch comedy across media and features a compelling section categorizing the wide variety of sketch types. Michael Upchurch, “The Poetics of Sketch Comedy,” (M. A. thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 1993). 3 Given the level of topicality that is often found in these shows, be it in the parody of contemporary films and television shows or the mockery of politicians and celebrities in the headlines, it is understandable and not necessarily surprising that the genre has been overlooked by television researchers. 2 In addition to Scheurer’s chapter, highlights include Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik’s book length study Popular Film and Television Comedy as well as Neale’s solo entry on sketch comedy in The Television Genre Book. The work of David Marc, especially his indispensable Comic Visions which lays out