Thursday, March 20, 2008

We Know Your Out There


When reading the X-files article i was particularly fascinated with the description and analysis of the episode “Hollywood AD”. This sort of self-conscious tongue and cheek parody is endlessly amusing and particularly intriguing to me. It got me thinking of other shows today that try and accomplish the same kind of self parody without being too overt about it.

South Park, for one, accomplished this notably in its first season through “Terrence & Phillip”, the foul television show watched by the children. “T&P” stands as a representation of “South Park” as it is a cartoon that should not be watched by children or, as the intro states, anyone for that matter. Yet time after time the children sat and watched the two characters use inappropriate language and make vulgar and disgusting jokes. As for myself, I, at the tender age of 12 or 13, watched them watching the program, and became equally corrupted.

Scrubs, on occasion, has been known to flaunt its self consciousness from time to time as well. Once a season an episode will come around where the narration will be taken over be another character, giving the program a chance to show us what the lead character look like in another point of view. I think this works particularly well in “Their Story” where we finally get to see what the lead, JD, looks like when he goes off into one of his day dreams, all from the point of view of an entirely different character. The humor of this scene is played upon quite well by the fact that not only do we see how ridiculous he looks, but also how much it annoys the other characters.

I feel the self conscious humor of shows like these play an important part in making the audience feel as though the show they are watching is aware that they are there, and that they know how how the show looks to them, rather than to just itself. It adds a level of interactivity to television which i feel is very well received.

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