Imagine you’ve just come back home from a long, exhausting day. Your feet ache, your brain is nothing but static, and you desperately need light-hearted entertainment. I’ve got a good suggestion for you. Turn on your TV and watch a horror movie.
Bazinga. Alright, in all seriousness, I’d recommend watching a sitcom.
From the Big Bang Theory to The Office, Seinfeld, Friends, and many more, sitcoms have become a universally adored staple of comedic media with variations ranging from adult cartoon comedy to teenage drama. But why? Why do we find ourselves enamored with this genre?
For starters, it is essential to know what makes a sitcom unique to other categories.
A sitcom or “situational comedy” refers to a comedic television series that revolves around a fixed set of characters—a main cast of any number—who navigate humorous and exaggerated circumstances.
For example, in Parks & Recreation season 2, episode 21, “94 Meetings,” one of the main cast members, April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), accidentally overbooks the director of the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) with 94 meetings knowing that he hates meetings.
In a desperate attempt to save himself, Ron calls for the aid of another main cast member, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), who is known as a workaholic overachiever. However, Leslie gets comedically wrapped up in one of her meetings, causing her to abandon Ron to his doom.
And this was all because April thought March 31 wasn’t a real date.
Another aspect of sitcoms is their episodic nature. Sitcoms typically work within the confines of single-episode scenarios, meaning they don’t follow the hero’s journey cycle where they establish a cause at the beginning and work their way up to the goal throughout the season. Instead, they focus on entertaining the audience with a narrative that stays within the bounds of the episode.
However, depending on the sitcom, that summary isn’t completely accurate.
Some sitcoms like Family Guy rarely allow for content within one episode to affect the next episode—and if they do, it usually stops by the second or third episode. This allows the show to be even more exaggerated with the cast’s actions because consequences are nonexistent.
However, the majority of sitcoms tend to have minor plot growth throughout their season. For example, in The Office, the Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) love story develops. This gives sitcoms that feeling of maturing alongside their audience as viewers watch them evolve throughout seasons.
And that leads to one of the main features of what makes the best sitcoms so popular. They provide a way for watchers to reflect themselves and their loved ones onto the world in a heartwarming and comedic twist.
Life can be hard, cruel, and tiring. There will always be days when we are unable to see the good or purpose in our lives. Where we feel lost or unable to handle our emotions.
Sitcoms allow people to find laughter within the absurdities of everyday life, to find joy in the most mundane of places, and to make them realize that they don’t need to be posh or wealthy to have worthwhile experiences or deep connections with people.
It’s something we desperately need as a society to remember and it’s why we love these shows so dearly.
