Little Privacy in Present-Day Sitcoms?

This fall’s sitcom line-up may have officially entered a new level of gross-out humor. Many have begun resorting to this type of humor as their only means of attracting an audience and not surprisingly, they are also becoming the first television genre to get the axe by networks. This fall, already, FOX was the first to cancel its brand-new sitcom Do Not Disturb, of which only three episodes aired. I watched Do Not Disturb and was not surprised it was cancelled. My attention to the series was first focused on the set, and then found the characters to be quite linear and not very funny. The set was supposed to be a hotel, but I became very confused as the set was constructed of metal and there were no distinct rooms that made it obvious they were in a hotel. The humor mostly consisted of gross-out humor, a trend in new sitcoms this fall.
CBS may be the most successful so far with this form of comedy. Its new sitcom, Worst Week, is based on getting laughs from gross-out humor. The sitcom, which is now one of my favorites, is basically like the Ben Stiller movie Meet the Parents except in a half-hour format every week. Like Meet the Parents, Worst Week’s comedy is rooted in physical and situational comedy in which the main character is victim to progressively worse and worse misunderstandings that keep him from his one goal. Worst Week manages to feature situations of vomit, urine, nudity and diaper-wearing all in the very first episode. This type of gross-out humor is only beginning to become more popular within live-action sitcoms as a way to grasp more ratings for the slowly-slipping genre. Sitcoms are increasingly leaving no social taboo unturned. Nothing is left private, everything under the sun is game for comedy. This can be looked at as either bad or good, and I have arguments for both, but as the article “Sitcoms’ Burden: To Few Taboos” states, “Comedians try to stretch the limits of humor by turning to even lewder and more offensive about gender, race, infirmity and sexuality. But when sensitivities harden and taboos are so easily tumbled, it tougher and tougher and find fresh forms of adult-only material. Comedy reverts to childlike mix of silliness and bathroom crudity - the humor of bodily dysfunctions.”
This gross-out humor form cannot really have sustaining power in television and is instead just a device to keep an audience watching network television. People have many more options than ever before for how and where they get their entertainment. The internet is beginning to offer seemingly well-produced TV shows and is starting to build a fan base. The article “Sitcoms’ Burden: To Few Taboos” comments on this: “Every new season brings more reality shows and drama, while the traditional half-hour comedies dwindle, an endangered species. There are lots of reasons, including competition from comedy channels on cable and the Internet, but a fundamental one is that network sitcoms are still seeking broad appeal at a time when writers can no longer rely on common values or widely shared forms of inhibition.” The taboos that are consistently broken by these shows will eventually leave it so that nothing can be surprising or funny anymore. However, I think that there will be a time when network sitcoms are able to balance themselves out with competing audiences of the internet and other alternative media. EVERY medium now is trying to find their niche within the new technological media world, and they will all eventually find that happy medium place.