Should SitComs Ever Try And Be Serious?(Rant)

[BeBMan]

Now whenever a sitcom is totally unfunny, they can sell it as being serious.

[Q Classic]

Yeah, like any sitcom from Germany.

[Silver14]

I dunno, Germany's offshoot of the bad sitcom That's My Bush aka "That's my Fuhrer" would have been funny.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, but they would have banned it there for hate speech

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Yeah, but George Lopez sucks.

[Imran Siddiqui]

No, Q is right. Lopez is like the Hispanic Bill Cosby (ie, playing it safe).

Unfortunately he also is not funny.

[GhengisFarb™]

Re: Should SitComs Ever Try And Be Serious?(Rant)

Originally posted by Japher
IMO, NO!

I think it's a crime to the art of comedy. To all of a sudden have an episode that is serious! Who cares if Wally is a pothead, at least it wasn't crack like we all thought! Oh, oh! Mom has cancer! That's not funny!!!

Totally agree. A sitcom without comedy is a sit-something boring. I have no interest in a sitbor.

[ajbera]

It really depends on the sitcom. It works best when the show is set in an environment where terribly serious things often happen - war (of all the sitcoms, M*A*S*H did it best), hospitals (Scrubs also does a top-notch job). Barney Miller (police station) had some serious moments, IIRC. Families often go through tough times, so a well-done serious episode on a family sitcom may make the characters more believable and sympathetic.

But as Seinfeld amply demonstrates, a sitcom need not go that route. My Name is Earl is my favorite (along with Scrubs) of the crop of current sitcoms, and there's not a heavy moment to be found.

[Drake Tungsten]

Lopez is like the Hispanic Bill Cosby

There's nothing wrong with being the Bill Cosby of anything.

[Q Classic]

BIll Cosby was funny. George Lopez is not.

[Q Classic]

So I downloaded and watched tonight's Scrubs (for one recently having found interest in the advertising industry, I probably should actually watch some of those ads I can so easily sidestep with bittorrent/iTunes...)

...and yeah, while it was a good episode (one of the stronger ones they've had this season), it's no more serious than say, My Butterfly (which follows two alternate time paths which lead to the same conclusion--death resulting from an aortic dissection~it's a meditation on how chance both affects the choices we make, and how some things are still immutable, as if fated), or My Screw Up, (which shows the immediate reaction of Dr. Cox to his best friend/ex-brother-in-law's relatively sudden death.)

Scrubs has been serious on that level before. It's nothing new for that stellar show.

[Japher]

that wasn't as serious as I thought it would be

you can always count on The Todd

[Imran Siddiqui]

The 2nd half of it was almost all serious.. it's episodes like that that makes Scrubs such a good show

[Japher]

No, it's episodes when New Becky (Dr. Reid) wears low cut shirts that make it such a good show

[Imran Siddiqui]

She's not even that hot.