Workin’ Moms: The Comedy Working Parents Need

If you’ve watched any series from the past decade that touch on the idea of what it’s like to be  a working mother trying to do it all, just the title of Workin’ Moms might drive your eyes to the back of your head. TV is already filled with many mom figures: Women like Mad Men’s Joan Harris, Grey’s Anatomy’s Meredith Grey, and Friends’ Rachel Green reclaim their ambition after having a baby by climbing the corporate ladder and knocking back whiskey like one of the guys without missing a beat. In reality, working mothers in the trenches often feel the pressure to “parent like they don’t have a job and to work like they don’t have children.” But also feel pressure to balance personal time, female friendships, and a loving relationship with their partner without ever complaining about how hard it all actually is, about what weird things are happening to their bodies, or about the fact that all they really want to do is watch TV or take a nap.

Thankfully there’s a growing body of TV shows, movies, and standup specials pushing past one-dimensional portraits of parenting to dive into its realistic, darker side, especially when it comes to motherhood. Now, we also have the serialized Canadian comedy Workin’ Moms to add to that list. The show which is streaming on Netflix  was Canada’s highest-rated new comedy when it debuted in 2017. In five seasons, Workin’ Moms explores themes of motherhood through the lens of a Mommy and Me group, and like a toddler temper tantrum, it can bounce from sunny to real to dark and back all within a 22-minute episode. At its core, the show presents an often scary, cringeworthy world in which women secretly pump breast milk in office bathroom stalls and disappoint their partners by pulling away emotionally or chasing a job promotion instead of racing home to oversee bedtime. And this is all under the gaze of a society that has opinions on what they say, do, and even eat. The workin’ moms of the show’s title aren’t always likable and they definitely aren’t selfless, but they keep going. It’s perhaps the most truthful journey any show about parenting can take.

By:Chanel Dawson

Disability, Trauma, and Indian-American Representation in “Never Have I Ever”

By: Elvie Sellers

With the current push and need for representation within today’s modern day society, one show in particular which I believe touches on many issues we have learned about in COM 318 is Mindy Kaling’s and Lane Fisher’s coming of age hit TV series Never Have I Ever. With Mindy Kaling as one of the producers for this canon television series, you would think it would be riddled in comedy and silly plot lines due to her role of Kelly Kapoor on The Office; yet this show displays serious topics such as death, disability, and even the main character’s own coming to terms of her place as an Indian-American girl living in the suburbs of California.

The plot and storyline is centered around Devi Vishwakumar, a 15-year-old first-generation Indian-American from San Fernando Valley, California. The audience is thrust into her chaotic world of dealing with the untimely death of her father, resulting in Devi being in such shock from his sudden passing that she loses the functionality of her legs, being wheelchair bound at the beginning of this show. As our protagonist Devi goes from being “wheelchair-girl” to trying to navigate the rough waters of high school, the viewers cant but help but relate to the trumotous journey of adolescents in America, while also being exposed to struggles of first-generation Indian-Americans audiences may never have seen before. 

Kaling breaks boundaries and offers a coming-of-age story similar to her own upbringing and struggles, and it is one which has been absent from screens until now. I personally feel as though the fact that Kaling made sure to also display the hardship associated with not only losing a family member, but also how our protagonist was confined to a wheelchair and had a debilitating disability allowed for a new type of narrative and normalization to take place, similar to James Schultz’s piece, Disability and Sitcome: A Legit Analysis in our COM 318 class text.

Still from Never Have I Ever, “Pilot,” (Season 1, Episode 1, 2020.)

A link to the episode can be found here: https://www.netflix.com/title/80179190.

Furthermore, besides this being one of the few mainstream shows on Netflix to display a lead character with a disability, this show also shows the amount of therapy our main character experiences when trying to work through her own trauma of witnessing her father’s death and how she uses teenage boys to fill the void of loss and as a distraction from facing her inner demons. In conjunction to the hardships we see Devi navigate which some audience members might be able to relate to, we also see her struggle with her mother’s own desire to move her family back to India and the amount of stress with arranged marriages, the viewer experience is exposed to another type of norm not commonly discussed or displayed on everyday television screens. Never Have I Ever seeks to take a modern day approach to struggles facing marginalized groups historically never given a platform or stage to discuss such hardships, and through Kaling telling her own narrative and story, this now allows for millions of other girls to have their stories displayed as well.

Gender Roles in the 70s: Toxic Masculinity and Stereotypical Women

Looking back on That ’70s Show, it is impossible to ignore the overwhelming blatant racism, homophobia, and gender discrimination that occurs throughout the series.  The show, which was filmed in the 90s, accurately portrayed the ’70s, but utilized inappropriate and offensive language and jokes in the process.  Gender roles are a major part of the plot and are embedded into every episode.  The conflicting portrayal of women through Jackie and Donna leads to both backwards-thinking and forward-thinking conversations.  Donna tends to create feminist arguments within the storyline while Jackie is always there to tell her what a woman is supposed to do.  Additionally, Red is a major source of toxic masculinity as he raises his son Eric with a traditional, conservative mindset of how a man should act.

Still from That ’70s Show, “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” (Season 1, Episode 10, 1998.) Image from here

Jackie Burkhart is the only other female character in the That ’70s Show gang.  Jackie is portrayed as a very selfish and cocky person in general.  Compared to Donna, Jackie doesn’t seem like she has a lot going for her: she is portrayed as a total airhead with little to offer besides her good looks.  She is the stereotypical female in media – she is a typical “girly girl” and is extremely feminine.  Jackie comes from a wealthy family, but unlike the powerful male characters who come from money, she is portrayed as a spoiled brat who can get whatever she wants.  Looking at Jackie, it is important to note the stereotypes that come along with feminine women.  Gender is a spectrum; if women want to be very feminine, they should be able to do so without people making the assumptions that they are dumb and spoiled.

Donna is the other woman in their friend group and is the opposite of Jackie.  She is portrayed as a tomboy who fits in easily with the guys.  Donna makes a lot of important feminist plot points for the series.  For example, in “Battle of the Sexists”, Donna beats her boyfriend Eric at basketball.  However, the other characters are uncomfortable by Donna’s ability to beat Eric since she is a woman.  Eric doesn’t think it’s a big deal, but the other characters are quick to throw derogatory meninist language at him.  Jackie calls Donna and tells her she has to let Eric win or else he’ll never be her boyfriend.  So although Donna has these moments of being just as good as men, she is quickly knocked down by the other characters.

Eric struggles with toxic masculinity throughout the entire show.  As mentioned above, the other characters bullied him for losing basketball against his girlfriend.  He also constantly receives toxic masculinity from his father, Red.  The Forman family is a very traditional American family – Red is the conservative, masculine father who goes to work every day while his wife, Kitty, cooks and cleans the house.  Throughout the series, Red maintains his focus on Eric becoming a man.  Red pokes fun of Eric for being too skinny, not athletic enough and not manly enough several times.  Although Red can be quite the aggressive character, it seems as if he may have a softer side to him.  Red grew up in an era where men were supposed to hide their feelings and stay strong.  He projects these values on to Eric.

Still from That ’70s Show, “The Forgotten Son” (Season 4, Episode 9, 2001.) Image from here.

Gender is a major part of That ’70’s Show.  In a friend group dominated by men, gender roles are bound to be a major part of the plot.  Clearly, women are not the only ones placed in a box, but men are constricted to values of toxic masculinity.  That 70’s Show, although problematic in many ways, can teach us a lot about gender stereotypes and why they are harmful.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Police Portrayal

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a police-procedure centered sitcom that garnered a cult following recently decided to stop production of the show following the unrest caused from the death of George Floyd and polarization of police public opinion. In an interview with people magazine following the show’s conclusion, star Andy Samberg commented, “We’re all in touch and kind of discussing how you make a comedy show about police right now, and if we can find a way of doing that that we all feel morally okay about.” Brooklyn Nine-Nine displayed for the most part, however, a positive and progressive model of police behavior. Besides an overabundance of traditional workplace antics, the show generally depicted police as friendly, diplomatic, and cooperative. The shows anchor, Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) displays an unorthodox level of organization and adherence to policy scrupulously enforced to the audience amusement. Melanie McFarland of Salon writes that within the show “The cops of the 99th also care for the people on their beat, a feeling that’s been established subtly but solidly throughout the show’s six-season run.” The portrayal of police within the show is explicitly positive. Moreover, the show often seeks to highlight a minority perspective, namely a racist cop arresting one of the casts Black officers (Terry Crews), and another detective’s (Stephanie Beatriz) struggle in coming out as homosexual. Nonetheless, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine ended as show-runners see it too difficult to maintain in the current social climate.

Still from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Manhunter” (Season 7, Episode 1)

The show’s demise begs the question towards the safety of other police programming. Recently, more reality-based cop shows such as the Cops television series and Live PD ended for the similar reasons. Naturally, critics have brought into question to cable staples such as NCIS and Law and Order. In an interview with Today, Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Andre Braugher stated a problematic trope often portrayed in these television mainstays, “Cops breaking the law to quote, ‘defend the law,’ is a real terrible slippery slope. It has given license to the breaking of law everywhere, justified it and excused it. That’s something that we’re going to have to collectively address — all cop shows.” Despite this, however, the trope remains strong. Narratives frequently involve a character going outside his jurisdiction for the “greater good”. Just recently Law and Order launched an additionally spinoff show, centered on the detective of Elliot Stabler, a previously established problematic cop emblematic of the Machiavellian ideology. Despite being the show now being off the air, Brooklyn Nine-Nine maintains one of the most progressive and constructive portrayals of police behavior in modern television.

How an Accurate Portrayal of Mental Illness on Television Influences People and Culture

By: Lexi Zyskowski

Only mentioned on “very special episodes” or not mentioned at all, mental illness and mental health have been taboo topics in both American television and society until very recently. As celebrities, athletes, and companies have become more comfortable talking about mental illness and creating spaces for mental health resources, the stigma around mental illness has started to decrease. It’s not a sign of weakness to see a therapist; it doesn’t make you less of a person, and recent TV series, like BoJack Horseman, have depicted a much more realistic view on mental illness. It’s become more well-known that just because someone is funny, goofy, or optimistic doesn’t mean that they can’t have anxiety, depression, or any other type of mental illness, which the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso is a notable example of.

Still from Ted Lasso, “The Hope That Kills You” (Season 1, Episode 10, 2020.)

On the surface, Ted Lasso is a light-hearted sports comedy filled with too many hysterical one-liners and coaching metaphors, but the show also deals with much deeper and more serious themes like abusive family members, depression, and anxiety. Ted Lasso is an American football coach with no soccer experience who has just been hired by a soccer team in the Premier League, the highest level of soccer in Great Britain. Ted imparts wisdom and belief back in the team using team-building exercises and humor to make the team a force to be reckoned with. One of the reasons Ted took the job was because his wife told him she wanted some space. Now living in England, Ted struggles to keep in touch with his wife and son back home, and when they come visit in “Make Rebecca Great Again,” his wife asks for a divorce. Later in the episode while out celebrating after a massive win against a rival team, Ted has a panic attack.

Still from Ted Lasso, “Make Rebecca Great Again” (Season 1, Episode 7, 2020.)

TVLine gave Jason Sudeikis’ the award of “Performer of the Week” for his portrayal of the anxiety surrounding his divorce in the episode. During an interview with some of the cast and crew of the show, co-creator Bill Lawrence mentions that his youngest son really responded to the panic attack in the seventh episode. His son was glad to see that Ted didn’t miraculously recover because it was much more realistic. Lawrence goes on to explain that was essential for Ted not to be magically cured a few scenes later, like has been done on sitcoms and television in the past, because of the serious nature behind mental illness. For any people watching the show, more accurate portrayals of mental illness can influence how they view the topic and their comfort discussing it. Although most of the serious themes in Ted Lasso are toned down with comic relief, it is a step in the right direction for future sitcoms and shows in general to integrate mental illness and mental health into the plot to increase intertextuality and help promote an eventual widespread acceptance.

Scrubs: Does it Hold Up?

Scrubs is a hospital sitcom that built off of and paid homage to the shows that came before it (General Hospital and M*A*S*H). Although many of the jokes and gags are seen as offensive today, the show was still progressive and holds up well today. The narrative follows J.D. (a hospital intern), his best friend Turk, and other friends as they enter a new chapter working at a hospital and eventually climb through the ranks. The show addresses moral dilemmas and difficult topics, but not without its fair share of comedic relief.

Still from Scrubs, “My Day Off,” (Season 1, Episode 9, 2001.)

There are several things that allow this show to hold up, the first is the sense of closeness that is established between the audience and the characters. Scrubs is told from the perspective of the main character, J.D., this provides the audience with a sense of comfort and closeness to the cast that is rare in television. J.D. speaks directly to the audience like a caring friend rather than an authority figure talking down to their audience. In the end of each episode, J.D. gives a monologue to the audience. This allows him to summarize the lessons learned in the episode, and in certain situations, provide hope for the future. These monologues only strengthen the proximity that the audience feels to these characters.

The second aspect of the show that enables it to hold up today is the characters and the experiences that they share. Because the ninth season focused on an entirely new cast, fans of the show often think of this season as a spinoff from the original series. In the eight seasons prior, the audience witnesses a large cast of doctors grow and bond together. Much like real life, there are ups and downs in the relationships of these characters. Even when things are bad, Scrubs gives its audience comfort by pointing them towards the positive in a situation. Scrubs can be looked at as a moral guide that helps its audience with difficult decisions. There is a sense of realism in this show that stems from the characters and their experiences, that isn’t commonly found in sitcoms. The series uses real scenarios as told to the writers by physicians and other doctors, this helped the show to be appreciated by doctors and regular citizens.

Another reason that this show holds up is because of its on location set, the lack of a live studio audience, and the single camera format. Prior to this show, almost all sitcoms were shot on set in front of a studio audience. Scrubs decided against this in order to increase realism. They used an old hospital building that also housed the characters’ apartments and other “sets”. This allowed them to freely move about the space with their camera in order to film.

In an interview with Will Chalk, the main actors Zach Braff (J.D.) and Donald Faison (Turk) stated that the show writers took influence from the real life friendship between the two. These two actors became very close friends after the series launched and because of this, they spent a lot of time together outside of shooting. They would often tell the writers about their experiences together and the writers would occasionally use these experiences in the script. The real life relationship between Braff and Faison began to mirror their on screen relationship. The realism in this show was groundbreaking in the world of sitcoms and it paved the way for many of the modern sitcoms that we love.

What Is The Deal With Family Guy

By: Isaiah Parente

The Griffin family. From the left: Chris, Peter, Stewie (in baby carrier), Lois, Meg, and Brian (dog in front).

19 seasons and over 350 episodes the adult animated sitcom has had an impact on the world but why has there even been so many seasons and episodes aired on television? Episode “The Turban Cowboy” which contained a cutaway gag showing Peter committing mass murder driving his car through runners at the Boston Marathon to later detonating and blowing up the vehicle. Another episode, “Extra Large Medium” in which down syndrome is being made fun of. Sara Palin wrote as this was a target on her and her family “if the writers of a particularly pathetic cartoon show thought they were being clever in mocking my brother and my family yesterday, they failed. All they proved is that they’re heartless jerks.” Again another episode, “The Simpsons Guy” which consisted of jokes about rape which were flagged before the episode even aired how are these being put forth to help in any which way to make our society a safer, cleaner, and welcoming place? There are numerous other episodes that make fun of or disrespect greatly transgender people and religion. 

Tying this into the course can be on a multitude of different levels as the series Family Guy really is intertwined itself amongst many controversial topics. These topics being transgender individuals in media, disabled people in media, and lastly domestic violence in media. It is quoted by an American media critic from the Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker  “has frequently panned the show, grading it with a “D”, and naming it the worst show of the 1999-2000 television season.” 

In all, after researching more of the ins and outs of Family Guy they have taken some low blows since they first aired. As a viewer personally I can not enjoy a show that has so many mistakes as such. I can forgive once or twice but that is not enough in this case. What are some of the thoughts and ideas that lie behind Family Guy as to why people still highly rate this series and continue to watch this series today? 

Saturday Night Live Skits Developed Into Feature Films

By: Adelaide Brown

Watching Saturday Night Live skits via YouTube is one of my favorite ways to procrastinate on a Sunday afternoon. They are short enough that I do not feel like I am wasting too much time and the characters are always engaging in the funniest of ways. Between 1980 and the early 2000s SNL began developing feature length films based on some of their more iconic characters. The first attempt at transitioning recurring sketch characters into the focus of a film was Blues Brothers, starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the eponymous brothers. Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World are the two most notable attempts at the expanding specific sketch character narratives because following films like Coneheads and It’s Pat received only negative reviews.

The exact appeal that I find in the relatively quick and easily delivered format of the Saturday Night Live sketches are the same reason why the films so often failed at the box office. Many of the beloved characters on SNL are exaggerated versions of television or film tropes and are created to deliver a slew of punchlines. If one were to sit down and watch 90 minutes of one whole sketch, viewers would grow tired of what had previously been an endearing gag or quirk associated with a character. This is exactly what happened with the popular character Mary Katherine Gallagher. Molly Shannon plays the “Catholic schoolgirl who was always nervous but hyper at the same time.” While this character was beloved every Saturday night that she appeared to perform her bit, appearing a total of 20 times during Molly Shannon’s run on SNL, it quickly became clear that there was not enough material to give Mary Katherine a full-length film. Yet, after the financial success of Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World, Lorne Michael’s chose to produce the movie.

Still from Superstar (1999).

I found this character development on Saturday Night Live to be incredibly interesting. Popular characters would first repeat their features in other sketches throughout seasons and, after liminal success on the sketch show, producers would gradually work on developing a team to move forward with a film based on that character. Oftentimes the writers who originally developed the character, and the performer who debuted the character would sign onto the film project and develop a script. It clearly is very difficult to expand a key character’s bit into a full film because these productions were often given horrible reviews. With the first two successes, Lorne Michaels clearly thought the Saturday Night Live team had struck gold with this development strategy.

Despite the relative success of Wayne’s World, the structure of the film set the tone for future SNL films: “take popular, possibly one-joke characters from the show and fill 90 minutes with a thin plot while referencing the original sketches as often as possible.” With eight more movies following Wayne’s World, Saturday Night Live producers quickly realized that this was not a successful or financially beneficial formula to follow with future characters. Writers often got too caught up in the original bits of the sketches or focused too much on the specific moments that had first made a character popular. While Saturday Night Live attempted to develop an additional branch from their popular sketch comedy show and potentially influence the structure of the comedy film,  reviews and box office numbers quickly made it clear that a film has to be based on more than the few quirks and taglines that often make a sketch character so memorable.

Still from Wayne’s World (1992).

Big Mouth: The Awkward Time That is Puberty

People describe puberty as being one of the most “awkward” phases of your life because you are still trying to figure out your body but Netflix’s new animated comedy Big Mouth reminds you how going through puberty can be really disgusting. Created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett Big Mouth tells the stories of a group of 7th grade students as they go through the horrors, wonders, and many embarrassments that we call puberty. To make things a little more interesting the characters are all given Hormone Monsters one being Maurice who is played by Nick Kroll and Connie who is played by Maya Rudolph who can be seen as guides them a push to figure out their bodies and what they are discovering along the way.

Still from Big Mouth Season 4 Trailer

Being that the show is based on Kroll and Goldberg’s teenage years after watching the first episode of Big Mouth, I wasn’t sure if the show would be able to sustain itself for 10 episodes because I thought it was another show about adolescent boys and them figuring out what sex is. But in its second episode, Big Mouth makes a smart move by bringing both Nick and Andrew’s friend Jessi and Andrew’s nerdy crush Missy (Jenny Slate) into the spotlight. Once Jessi is visited by her first period and her own hormone monster she starts flying into the kinds of random rages and inexplicable bouts of attraction that often define puberty for young girls, an experience that’s much more rare to see depicted on TV than that of boys like Nick and Andrew. This was really well done because for one they are all different and represent different points that people go through. The producers did a really good job at showing everybody what teenagers really go through especially girls because it changes a lot about your body.

If Big Mouth was just another series of jokes about how weird and gross puberty is, it wouldn’t be much more than a decent way to kill some time during a slow weekend. But the show achieves a new, deeper level of comedy by remaining hyper aware of the fact that puberty isn’t just about bodies changing, but about what it means to grow up at all.

By:Chanel Dawson 

Jewishness Popularized & Explored in Seinfeld

By: Elvie Sellers

During the year 1989, the Berlin Wall came crumbling down, the Iron Curtain came to an end, and the first ever episode of The Seinfeld Chronicles aired on NBC. This time period was not only significant in terms of historical advancements and achievements made in the world, but it also was a time of cultural acceptance and inclusion of various faiths on American television networks. With anti-Semitism still alive and well during this period (and even today), the very show content and setting itself scared show runners and TV networks, labeling it as, “…Too Jewish…Too New York,” as seen in our class reading, The Sitcom Reader: America Re-viewed, Still Skewed. 

 Seinfeld aims to redefine the definition of what constitutes a “traditional sitcom,” while also displaying Jewish Americans in a positive light and at the forefront of the show. Not only did this show give a newly found attraction and respect for New York City, a city essentially serving just as important of a role in this series as the characters themselves, but it also highlighted Judaism in a way never before seen or displayed on a successful canon television show. In a 2016 published article by Medium, this concept of popularizing and demonstrating Jewish culture was taken “mainstream,” allowing a vast majority of Americans to become more educated about Jewish traditions, life, and also the darker-not-widely-displayed side of anti-Semitism. 

In an episode of Seinfeld titled, The Yada Yada, Jerry’s dentist is in the process of converting to Judaism, yet continues to make jokes about the Holocause and Jewish stereotypes. The scene begine with Jerry and George sitting in their local dinner when Jerry’s dentist approaches the two, states that he, “…is a Jew,” before making an ignorant Holocaust joke before saying he would see Jerry the next day for his dentist appointment. This scene was meant to serve as comical relief, but it actually did a beneficial job of educating the vast public of Americans of how ignorance and anti-Semitism is more common than the general Christian-populated – American- public may think. By displaying our protagonist as the quintessential victim of a joke centered in anti-Semitism, the audience is able to further emphasize and see the pertinent issue of discrimination faced by so many Jewish Americans.

Still from Seinfeld, “The Yada,” (Season 8, Episode 19, 1997.)

A link to the episode can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QMIYv-y98. Throughout the remainder of the episode, it also seeks to shed light on some Jewish traditions not traditionally thought of to be Jewish, like when Jerry and Elaine are present for their god son’s bris (circumcision). By highlighting these aspects of Jewish culture, this seemingly “show about nothing” allowed for deeper perspectives to be displayed, and further discussion about cultural acceptance to come about.