Essay Plan
How accurately is youth culture represented 'The
Inbetweeners'?
Introduction:
·
Primary text- The Inbetweeners: sitcom –
reflects youth culture with comedy purpose
·
Discuss how The Inbetweeners is a differentiated
comedy: sexual jokes over-exaggerated
for comedy purposes and how the show could represent topics which may cause
moral panics – such as excessive drinking - not a typical sit-com as their
school journey remains linear
·
Hypothesis - 'The Inbetweeners' is the only
franchise which accurately presents how British teenagers are in terms of their
attitudes towards studies, work and taking on adult responsibilities.
Potential quotes:
·
“Youth culture challenges and
sustains larger cultural norms and shapes young people’s identities”
·
Today’s youth come to understand and
navigate their way through the world”
Primary text:
·
“Focal
point of the comedy”
·
“The Inbetweeners although it can be argued that
comedy is subjective; a good deal of comedy on our television screens draws on universal
values and beliefs.”
This paragraph will focus on how the programme does present
youth culture and how this reflects British culture in particular:
Representation:
Accurate representation as the
characters could relate a lot to British school boys as elements of their
lifestyle, such as going to parties, pulling girls and drinking, are all
stereotypical acts of an average college boy.
However, some of the sexual jokes
over-exaggerated for comedy purposes
·
Mise-en-scene: the characters wearing brands
which are massively popular in the UK: Hollister, Lacoste - trendy clothing -
marketing technique to engage younger audiences
·
British accents with all the cast
·
Crude humour - highlights comedic element and in
context, e.g. having an embarrassing first car further assists in enabling
people to relate to it
Genre:
Film genre: through the sexual
jokes made and awkward conventions
For instance: Simon's continuing obsession with Carly –
refer to clip where Simon pukes on Carly’s little brother
Generic conventions:
characterisation of Neil, who is naturally naive and submissive and this tends
to create humour
Ideology and Values:
> Dominant ideology:
traditional values of British culture, such as their lifestyle, how they dress,
the fact the just finished education successfully and are rewarding themselves
with a holiday
> Positive values:
demonstrates how if you work hard in school you can reward yourself with a nice
holiday
Narrative:
>Todorov's narrative structure
of equilibrium:
Equilibrium - they have just
finished school and decide to take a lads holiday to Malia
Disequilibrium - meet a girl from
their school, she causes a group divide
New equilibrium - at the end the
group is back together and the girl is out the way again
MIGRAIN
Media Language:
·
No canned laughter: not a typical comedy, this
differentiates it
·
Modern and social school environment - suburban
and more realistic
·
Mise-en-scene: No non-diegetic music whilst
characters in direct conversation makes the dialogue mor realistic
·
Non-diegetic' and diegetic music when the
characters are traveling in a car, makes
the traveling seem more instant, thus creating a greater sense of excitement
and interest for what would otherwise be seen as a boring, pointless scene.
·
In addition to this, the use of narration, in
these sequences, not only helps to continue the narrative through these scenes,
but allows the viewer to establish a more personal relationship with
characters. This appeals to the target audience more, because the characters are put into situations
which the target audience can easily relate to - the more personal link with
them, causes the viewer to feel as if
they too are experiencing the characters experiences with them.
·
Other camera angles are used for comedic effect,
like long shots focusing on the yellow car (a figure of fun, and main joke
point of the segment). This helps
contribute to the comedic aspect of the show and ultimately helps the show fit
into its purpose of making the audience laugh and entertaining them. However
the yellow car is only successful as a comedic device, in the context that it
has been given to a young adult male, whereas stereotypically, the colour
yellow is associated with females.
·
Lighting is kept fairly high key. This is to fit
in with the genre and humour of the programme, to appeal to and entertain the
target audience. The high key lighting, promotes general light heartedness,
which links to the crude humour in the show, as it connotes that it is not
something to be taken too seriously and is generally there to be laughed at.
This light hearted atmosphere achieved from the lighting, also helps to anchor
the shows in the comedy genre. This appeals to the target audience as they find
that with this they can simply watch this show, be entertained and laugh at it,
without taking it too seriously. This appeals to THIS shows target audience as
they, (young people aged 15-25), are people who are stereotypically thought to
enjoy comedy shows more than drama.
·
Masculine-dominated stories with little time for
female characters
·
Steadicam movement with long flowing shots
following characters through their environment
Theme song – Gone Up in Flames – Rock song, reflects time era, how
society is changing, upbeat, urban realism
Media Text
Articles (primary text)
The Telegraph –
“The Inbetweeners:
'Lad culture doesn’t represent young men in this country”
“Most young men, or the ones I know, are quite nice and
normal and good people.”
Daily Mail Online described the movie brand (26th Aug
2011):
“This is essentially a British rip-off of The Hangover 2,
with four actors in their late 20s impersonating 18-year-old half-wits going on
a holiday in Greece, where they get drunk, vomit and use foul language a lot —
and unaccountably attract a quartet of physically attractive young women by
doing so.”
“The combination of excitement, adventure, teenage bravado —
plus a dollop of fear when things suddenly start to go wrong — is what the show
is about.”
“Four boys still vainly pursuing women, along with alcohol
and suntans”
“There’s the usual mix of schoolboy jokes and visual gags”
Empire magazine: “The Inbetweeners has always been
about its central friendship and amidst the vomit and the virginity losing, the
film delivers a realistic believable portrait of young blokes - look out for a
touching discussion as the penny drops that university might spell the end of
the friendship”
Year of the wolf - “The boys occupy that twilight
zone between adolescence and maturity, trapped frustratingly between two
freedoms: the innocence of childhood and the financial independence of
adulthood. Thrown in with that general angst is the awkwardness of
unreciprocated crushes and embarrassing drunken misdemeanours which almost
everyone can relate to.”
"The Inbetweeners’ is successful not only because it
works brilliantly as a sitcom, but because people truly connect with it. For
that reason alone, it fully deserves its success.”
Secondary text (Topboy)
In this paragraph I will compare the two types of youth
culture
Lad culture vs. Gang culture --
The Guardian - It's
about young people in a deprived estate struggling to survive, dealing with the
temptations of violence, gangs and drugs, and touching on themes of mental
health, single-parent families, neglected children and loyalty.
Crime fell 18% in the
12 months ending in September 2011, and murders fell from six to three,
according to police statistics
Literacy London -Top Boy plays as quality melodramatic social
realism, touting location-based shooting, authentic East London accents, the
evocation of poverty and a visual style based on immediacy, favouring hand-held
close-ups over staginess.
· Wildly
successful at telling a touching story that shows the various dangers of drugs
and violence on poor youth, but it does this at the cost of formal
experimentation or the bucking of genre expectation.
· A focus on
black youth, the cyclical, escalating nature of drug-related murders, the drug
trade’s exploitation of children
Media Magazines
Media Magazine – April 2010 – MM32
· One
paragraph in essay: discuss how Inbetweeners represents youth from a comedic
perspective
“Comedy is a peculiar and subjective phenomenon”
Emma Louise Howard states how sitcoms now have a “narrow
audience”
Sense of humour: “The British and American sense of humour
is different”
Key concepts of ‘surrealism’, ‘oddities’ and ‘nuttiness’ are
seen as being “British”
· “ Most comedy from The Inbetweeners
based around theme of sex. This is breaking social taboos but also from
transgressive behaviour that has sometimes fatal consequences. Some forms of
modern comedy ask us to enjoy the embarrassment and humiliation of others.
· “Sexist
jokes are damaging to society”
“The digital media
stream is closing both the physical and cultural gap, and when it comes to
comedy, it could be argued that any rigid sense of cultural identity is
softening in the wake of schedules which incorporate more” Emma Louise Howard
Characterisation:
· As each
narrative unfolds, it becomes apparent that the Loser is, in fact, an
individual who conceals a profound lack of confidence, struggling as they do
not only to overcome this personality trait but also to prove themselves – e.g.
Simon’s numerous attempts to get with a girl
Article MM41
"Much of the charm of the original TV series lay in the
fact that the four friends were "inbetweeners," perched between
adolescence and adulthood. There was a naiveté about them that helped atone for
their excesses."
The naivety aspect is presented through the character of
Neil who usually is submissive to the jokes the rest of the group make. He is
usually the central subject to the jokes that are made
Geoffrey Macnab
Article MM47
David Buckingham – “Does the market simply exploit and
manipulate young people, or does it offer them opportunities to fulfil their
needs, to express themselves, and to create their own identities”
Is The Inbetweeners an accurate representation?
Academic books
Provenzo, E. (2009). Encyclopedia of the social and cultural foundations
of education. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
“Many Western definitions of youth culture present young people in
terms of what they are not – they are not children, they are not adults, and
they are not economic or social contributors to the wider society”
“Today’s youth come to
understand and navigate their way through the world” – the boys are seen as
having more independence as they are now young adults. They have more
responsibility- such as pressure to do well in order to go university and they
have a lad’s holiday to mark their freedom.
S, J. (1995). Youth culture in late modernity. London: Sage
Publications.
Youth describes as “signs of sings and transgression of modernity”
“Culture of exploitation” – youth
exposed for what they really get to. This relates to the majority of the target
audience as they’d be faced with the same obstacles and complications
Royle, E., & Ebrary, I. (n.d.). Modern
Britain: A Social History, 1750-2010. (3rd ed.). New York: Bloomsbury
Publishing;.
“Laddish culture” described through “sex, sport, fast cars” – the sex
element is prominent for The Inbetweeners.
This generation of teenagers described as “having more freedom” and
“appeared to have more money to spend” – this is evident as the boys have no
restrictions and proves how youth culture in a modern day society allows teens
to have more freedom.
Falk, G., & Falk, U. (2005). Youth culture
and the generation gap. New York, N.Y.: Algora.
“Adolescents and young adults, particularly
those of high school and college age, engage in social situations which
pressure participants to drink far more alcohol than they would ever choose
without that pressure.” This is evident from the scene where Simon drinks too
much and ends up puking on his crush’s little brother. This creates
awkwardness, yet comedy at the same time.
Weight, R. (n.d.). Mod! From bebop to Britpop, Britain's biggest youth movement.
“’Youth’, as Oscar Wilde, famously observed, is a ’wasted on the young,”
“Youth culture lives on, across generations, not simply in commercially
exploitative revivals or in smart ‘post-modern’ references to a digital archive
of pop culture, but in the daily choices and interactions that people make.”
Vorhaus, J. (n.d.). The little book of sitcom.
“Certain small number of characters” – a sitcom like The
Inbetweeners doesn’t need an excessive amount of characters to create comedy,
the banter between the boys is what creates humour.
“Choice of scenes is limited to your show’s standing sets and maybe one
or two swing sets or outside locations” – most of the filming takes place in a
high school, only in the movie there are multiple locations because they are on
vacation.
Issues/Debates
· Discuss British youth and moral panics – use statistics on studies and drinking
· Discuss British youth and moral panics – use statistics on studies and drinking
·
Discuss - US reports stated the language barrier
was an issue which prevented people from watching the movie
·
The movie could influence teenagers to be
focussed on partying, rather than studying
·
Media technology and the digital revolution –
the movie released on Netflix, was huge success - the option to add subtitles
makes it easier for foreign audiences – discuss from an institutional
perspective
·
Area for debate: Can Postmodernism make us
laugh?
·
Key terms to refer to:
·
•
Hyperreality – a situation where images cease to be rooted in reality
·
• Fragmentation – used frequently to describe
most aspects of society, often in relation to identity. So, what
·
• Bricolage – mixing up and using different
genres and styles
·
• Intertextuality – one media text referring to
another
·
• Parody – mocking something in an original way
·
Dehumanisation of working class: “disturbing
icons of youth gone wild” “dehumanised”
·
“Impression that youths have recently become an
unruly bunch; but remember that ‘youth crime has always been around, we just
hear about it a lot more now’ (Heath, 2011)”
·
Sara Mills describes time era as a “youthful
rebellion” and “the rejection of mainstream values”
·
BBC, Mark Easton: “Sex, drugs, booze, fags,
crime - teenage problems with these have all fallen hugely in the past few
years.”
Historical text:
Saved by the Bell –
·
Discuss how British culture is more
sexual/liberal-minded with their jokes, scatalogical
·
US – less comedic, more traditional and family
values – discuss Southern part of America being religious and the pressure the
puts onto cable to produce programmes which do not cross boundaries
·
Similarities – characterisation
Theories
Gender and ethnicity - Patriarchy - all male cast, females
seen as sex objects and are degraded as they're only useful for sex and
partying. All white cast highlights British element
Audience theories - Todorov's theory
Genre theories - comedy presented thoroughly, links to
Richard Dyer's argues that genre are "pleasurable"
Hegemony - audience relates to the four main characters
because they have a feature they the share or admire with the star. Some fans
may attempt to replicate the star in their behaviour, what they and what they
do. But this could also be a negative impact as some stars often are heavy
drinkers and focussed on who can "pull" the most girls.
Hebdige - theory of sub cultures
Uses and Gratifications - escapsism and entertainment, also
building personal identity as the target audience can contextually relate to
certain aspects and incidents
Theory-
The superiority theory’: laughing at the misfortunes of
others. While this may appear cruel, think about slapstick and also those
‘cringeworthy’ moments in British comedies like The Office, Peep Show and The
Inbetweeners in which the characters embarrass themselves horribly or make a
social faux pas. We squirm for them, but there’s catharsis in thinking, ‘Thank
goodness that’s not me.’ While these shows will often end at the moment in
which the failure or embarrassment reaches its horrible pinnacle
“I would also argue
that it uses bricolage, in that it mixes comedy, drama, romance, realistic
issues and slapstick.”
“All of which creates a rich bricolage or layering of
meaning”
Examples:
· The love of
Simon (Joe Thomas) for Carli is quite touching and romantic.
· Neil (Blake
Harrison) has an almost surreal spin on life. And the Dickensian Head of Sixth
Form Mr Gilbert is a sadist.
· Series One,
Episode Three, ‘Thorpe Park’, parodies the archetypally sleazy male driving
instructor, turning it on its head: Simon is the object of the female
instructor’s desire.
The Nature of Comedy:
· Greek
Theorist ‘Aristotle’ stated there are two modes of drama broken down into a
“tragedy” tends to end badly and “comedy” usually ends happily.
Theoretical study of comedy comes from Richard F. Taflinger,
who put together six ‘rules’ which allow a situation to be humorous.
Comedy must:
1 Appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions.
2 Be mechanical.
3 Be inherently human, with the capability of reminding us
of humanity.
4 Have a set of established societal norms with which the
observer is familiar.
5 The situation and its component parts must be inconsistent
or unsuitable to the societal norms.
6 Be perceived by the
observer as harmless or painless to the participants.
Narrative structures:
Binary oppositions:
male/female
“Humour derives from contrasting those values”
Difficult in sitcoms as they are too “excessive” to be
“realistic” - males are seen as creating banter, feature of female characters,
such as Carly as being too serious and temperamental.
Academic book:
Gauntlett, D. (2002). Media, gender, and identity: An introduction.
London: Routledge.
Laura Mulvey and the male gaze: “females subject of their (males)
desiring gaze” – Carly, Simon’s crush, is displayed as an object of affection.
The fact she is white, has blond hair makes it more prominent that she is a
standard female that is used as an object of affection.
“Women are denied a viewpoint” – the all-male cast proves this.
Women are “positioned so that they admire the male lead for his actions,
and adopt his romantic/erotic view of the women.” – Carly seems to make Simon
appear more passionate and almost obsessed with her.
