There is Much to be Learned From Wholesome Sitcoms
By: Nadine Fahmy
Managing English Editor
I’ve always loved comedies. To watch them at the movie theater and laugh with people, or watch them alone at home after a long day, or with just one companion chatting all the way through has always felt like a special experience.
It’s not something you get out of drama, where your whole being is immersed in what you’re watching and you forget everything else.
No, with comedy you’re actually in tune with your surroundings. And episode by episode, you’re learning things about those surroundings through a medium many would deem as frivolous, wasteful, and meaningless.
I was watching one of my favorite comedy shows a few days ago, and one episode centered around a black cop, a main character, who was painfully confronted with the reality of institutionalized racism within his own field of work when he was stopped suddenly by another cop in the street as he walked around, searching for his daughter’s toy.
The episode was not only self-reflexive, wholesome and of course, with its own abundance of funny moments, very critical, meaningful and, with a plotline of how to deal with children on the topic of racism, educational.
Closing in at approximately 20 minutes, comedy shows provide short, witty and wholesome entertainment that is not always without its drama, reflection and criticism.
In fact, sometimes social justice issues are more evident in comedies than in any other genre of TV, precisely because the medium makes it so light-hearted that one can virtually see how ironic those issues are in the first place.
They make you think.
But they also make you realize that no one needs to think to come up with those conclusions: racism, sexism, homophobia—all these things are so harmful and infuriating that when they come up in the plotlines of your favorite sitcoms you will feel so enraged for that character you love so much, and you will want the bad guy out of the picture.
That’s why I believe that comedies have become the perfect mediums to instill those human qualities in those who may forget them—they are embodiments of love, friendship and empathy.
All comedies exist on the basis of close, personal relationships just like those we have in our everyday lives, but their compactness and straightforwardness make them easier to appreciate.
The same goes for the bad stuff in comedies: you get to feel them more deeply because they show up so rarely, and they do so in compact, direct ways that make them all the more powerful.
When the cop went through that painfully eye-opening experience, we all went through it with him, and we all rooted for him.
It is not only that comedies are funny, witty and entertaining then, but they are also emotional and communal. And it is through those communal acts that we learn how to be compassionate.
I believe comedy to be the most wholesome and interesting genre at the moment, and I hope to continue to discover the ways in which comedy can help us deal with our own – and others’ – daily struggles and hardships.
