I always love open-ended questions, like the one that graces the title of this post and was asked Sunday at Games Day. The question burned in my mind for hours after I got home, and I may have come to a greater understanding of the scope of the question. The problem with this question lies with the timescale involved with the sitcom genre – that of over 40 years. During such a time, not only would socio-economic conditions change [the staple of sitcoms], but there would also be changes in technology and the way we entertain ourselves. As such, I am no longer surprised that we were unable to arrive at a common definition for this genre. Still, there is no reason not to keep poking at it and try to see what results.
A lot of what was discussed on Sunday concerned plot and continuity. While those are certainly key differences between dramas and sitcoms, we didn’t discuss one aspect that bugged me till now. I find that a large difference between dramas and pure sitcoms is how each major character is motivated. Dramas, I find, have characters that are highly motivated towards a specific goal, be that of saving the world, protecting the border, or what have you. On the other hand, I find that many sitcoms nowadays feature characters that have an inherent lack of motivation [other than to be renewed for another season]. Is this one of the key defining factors for a sitcom? I’m not sure. What do you think?
I would wonder if characters in sitcoms are motivated comparably to things like CSI. Each episode, the characters are presented with some odd situation, and either we play through it, or they attempt to resolve it (if its resolvable). Be it a mother-in-law coming over, a new brand of coffee at the shop, or some dead, semen-filled corpse found hanging from a fire escape. Sitcoms tend to have more down to earth every-day events that can be related to the common person – and result in humourous outcomes. Seeing people saving the world, or protecting the border or whatnot tend to be shows that individuals can’t necessarily identify with, but enjoy exploring as something different than what they encounter daily. There again, you can have shows like Police Academy which are sitcoms (no? is/was Monty Python classified as a sitcom?).
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