British TV Comedies: Cultural Concepts, Contexts and Controversies

Front Matter....Pages i-xiii
Introduction: The Aesthetics and Politics of British TV Comedy....Pages 1-20
Front Matter....Pages 21-21
A Golden Age of British Sitcom? Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son....Pages 23-35
‘Your Little Game’: Myth and War in Dad’s Army....Pages 36-50
‘The Struggle of Class against Class is a What Struggle?’ Monty Python’s Flying Circus and its Politics....Pages 51-65
The Rag Trade: ‘Everybody Out!’ Gender, Politics and Class on the Factory Floor....Pages 66-79
Front Matter....Pages 81-81
‘Sambo’ and ‘Snowflake’: Race and Race Relations in Love Thy Neighbour....Pages 83-98
‘You Snobs! You Stupid… Stuck-Up… Toffee-Nosed… Half-Witted… Upper-Class Piles of… Pus!’ Basil Fawlty’s Touch of Class and Other Hotel Matters in Fawlty Towers....Pages 99-113
Ignorant Master, Capable Servants: The Politics of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister....Pages 114-135
Zany ‘Alternative Comedy’: The Young Ones vs. Margaret Thatcher....Pages 136-152
The Uses of History in Blackadder....Pages 153-166
Black British Comedy: Desmond’s and the Changing Face of Television....Pages 167-182
Front Matter....Pages 183-183
Laughing at Racism or Laughing with the Racists? The ‘Indian Comedy’ of Goodness Gracious Me....Pages 185-196
Exploding Family Values, Lampooning Feminism, Exposing Consumerism: Absolutely Fabulous....Pages 197-211
Comic Strategies of Inclusion and ‘Normalisation’ in The Vicar of Dibley....Pages 212-224
Subverting the Sitcom from Within: Form, Ideology and Father Ted....Pages 225-239
‘The Lady of the House Speaking’: The Conservative Portrayal of English Class Stereotypes in Keeping Up Appearances....Pages 240-253
Family Life in Front of the Telly: The Royle Family....Pages 254-264
Old Jokes: One Foot in the Grave, Comedy and the Elderly....Pages 265-277
Front Matter....Pages 279-279
Spin, Swearing and Slapstick: The Thick of It....Pages 281-294
Life is Stationary: Mockumentary and Embarrassment in The Office....Pages 295-310
Front Matter....Pages 279-279
From Ever-Lusting Individuals to Ever-Lasting Couples: Coupling and Emotional Capitalism....Pages 311-325
The Comic Nation: Little Britain and the Politics of Representation....Pages 326-340
Laughing in Horror: Hybrid Genre and the Grotesque Body in Psychoville....Pages 341-358
Back Matter....Pages 359-363