British Comedy Guide

Snobbery and sitcoms

Young Hyacinth. Hyacinth (Kerry Howard). Copyright: BBC

There can be a lot of snobbery around comedy writing - a sense that the successful sitcom is not as clever, nor as wide-ranging, as a celebrated drama, or other piece of art. For some reason, we tend to respect drama more than comedy.

Studio audience sitcoms in particular are often poorly reviewed - regardless, really, of the content.

Furthermore, the criteria such offerings are judged by often seem very unfair: sitcoms are robust, populists beasts. They're not built for the sort of analyses - appropriate perhaps for an intense novel, play or "high end" drama - columnists (and snarky...

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Published: Tuesday 16th January 2024

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