Tag: Gender

Both of these sitcoms are studio based, around 30 minutes and incorporate stereotypical characters. The fundamental difference between the two is that Men Behaving Badly is British, which is usually written by individuals or pairs and built around males who constantly aspire to be better but constantly fail. Frasier on the other hand id written by a team of US writers and particularly seems to concentrate on funny women or in this case funny men who have feminine characteristics. The funny women, although present in British sitcoms, act more as support.

 

In MBB the opening credits reveals a lot about the gulf between the sexes. We see Tony and Gary fooling around, and drinking and the girls looking ashamed and embarrassed by them. This shows them to be very childish and immature. From Gary’s apartment it is also clear from the posters of red cars, nodding dogs, dartboard etc that this is the apartment of a male living alone or with another male as there is nothing feminine.

 

In the dinner Party episode Gary has just been dumped by Dorothy and we first see them in serious discussion bringing their relationship to an end. Symbolically Gary is then dumped on twice by a pigeon, this is important as it brings humour into the conversation that the two of them are having and also shows how Gary is feeling – unlucky. Gary is also shown in this episode to be very bitter and jealous. He tries to outdo Dorothy’s new boyfriend which shows the competitiveness of male characters. When Gary learns that Dorothy’s new boyfriend owns a Harley Davidson his competitiveness is revealed as the camera pans to see Gary snigger,” A Harley Davidson”. Gary goes to Debs for advice, who suggests that Gary go out and meet new people. He shows his insecurities and lack of independence when he replies, “Meet new people, good idea….how do i do that then?” When she states that Gary will need time to prepare for a dinner party it is a challenge to his masculinity competitiveness so he decides to compete with hers.

 

In this episode we also see how Tony lets Gary down. First of all he is not tactful with his words and comforting Gary about losing Dorothy “Never mind mate, he’s probably just better with his knob.” Tony also fails to attend Gary’s revenge dinner party as he is preoccupied with his girlfriend. Only when he gets dumped does he finally find Gary and joins him in his drunken state. During the dinner parties of Gray and debs who is also throwing one, the editing allows the audience to compare the two. This again creates a difference between the genders. Gary who has a beer mug as his candle holder and a bed sheet as his table sloth is contrasted dramatically to Debs soft lighting and crystal glasses.

 

In this episode then Tony has a girlfriend and Gary does not but equilibrium is restored by the end when Tony also gets dumped and the two are once again single. It ends with them both singing the “wanker” song. Tony refuses to give up his stash of

 

Pornography at the expense of his girlfriend this shows him as shallow and his inability to understand women. His defence to his girlfriend why he wants to keep the Magazine is “But she’s naked!”

 

The male persona is created largely in MBB by the humour which is slapstick and the use of verbal humour ‘knob’, ‘wanker’ etc. Visual gags are also used cleverly when Tony cleans a class on his shirt and the camera angle makes it look mush ruder!

 

“Frasier” on the other hand contrasts greatly with MBB. The men are portrayed as very successful, both having good jobs and immaculate apartment. Like Gary and Tony who are very similar in MBB – unsuccessful in love and work, Niles and Frasier are also alike. They dress similarly and share the same profession and lifestyle. They both fail to conform to any stereotypes and both adopt feminine characteristics. A number of episodes rely on the tensions created by father and son to make their points about masculinity. Martin Crane cannot understand how he produced two sons like Niles and Frasier.

 

The cranes are interested in fine foods and unlike Gary enjoy and succeed in throwing dinner parties on a regular basis. When Niles tells Frasier that Daphne will be cooking the food, Frasier is shown to be very hurt and annoyed with Niles that he will not be included and cannot stand the fact that he will be “just a guest” so refuses to go. This shows Frasier to be very moody and stubborn to characteristics more commonly associated with women. When the dinner party goes wrong and Frasier has to come to the rescue he has already prepared food which shows his doubt in Daphne. He offers to help with anyone knowing though, which shows the audience that he genuinely wants to be involved and cook his “signature sauce”.

 

In this episode Martin is able to criticize Niles’ artwork as he is mistaken for a famous painter. Martin enjoys his revenge on his pretensions of his son, “You have to believe me, cos I’m a fancy ass painter.” High farce is created in this episode as we have an establishing shot of the kitchen and characters constantly coming in the two doors with Frasier and Martin trying to avoid Niles. Niles is banned from the kitchen by Daphne which shows her control and dominance. Daphne is also shown at the beginning to deal firmly with the workman while Niles sits back on a chair in sheer amazement. The women in Frasier are in the more subservient jobs, and whilst stronger in many ways are also financially and professionally less of a threat.

 

A great deal of the humour in Frasier is the fact that the know their failure of being very feminine. Verbal humour is again used is again used when Frasier says his signature sauce will be “reduced to a monogram, I’m using humour!” The fact that both the males characters are presented as wimps and the use of one-liners.

The episodes ‘Pornography’ from Men Behaving Badly and ‘Daphne Does Dinner’ from Frasier provide good material for comparisons when studying how gender is represented in situation comedies.

 

Coming from completely different historical traditions MBB is the classic British Sit com built around failing males, here Gary and Tony are both seen in this light, with women being the straight counterpart to them, Deb and Dorothy get few funny lines thought Martin Clunes states that Caroline Quentin demanded her fair share of funny lines. Frasier, on the other hand, might seem to go against the general mould of US sit coms which have been based around funny women since the time of Lucille Ball but on closer inspection it can be seen that Frasier and Niles Crane act as the funny women in this programme. They are what are called ‘feminised men’ they may look like smart (never seen in anything but a suit and usually cashmere at that!), professional men, but they act like women from their obsession with décor, through Frasier’s much vaunted cooking skills (his ‘signature sauce’ is in danger of becoming a ‘monogram’ in this episode) to their chosen professions being psychiatrists ( a source of unending mystery and contempt for their father, ex-policeman Martin Crane)

 

‘Pornography’ which begins with Gary having been dumped by girlfriend Dorothy ends with, as he calls it, ‘a sophisticated dinner party’ which he has in competition with one Debs is having in the flat above and to which Dorothy and her new man have been invited. Naturally for Gary, as is traditional in British sit com, he fails miserably. While in Frasier Daphne and Niles have a dinner party for some art buff friends to show off a new painting by popular artist Mike Shaw. Naturally it too fails, and although it is Daphne’s dinner party, she ends up having to ask Frasier, ‘the Lord Mayor of party town’ for help having earlier snubbed him ‘I thought you’d be happy to be just a guest for once’ his brother Niles said, which provides great satisfaction for him ‘Once again Frasier has to save the day.’

 

The three dinner parties are treated very differently in terms of editing and lighting. In Men Behaving Badly jump cut editing and the deliberate juxtaposition of images is used to make the contrast between Gary’s and Deb’s tables. The candle lit ambience of Deb’s with the crystal wine glasses, polished wood table, muted laughter of her guests and background of classical music increases the pathos of Gary’s lonely table under the glare of the overhead light bulb, with its sheet for a cloth (now soaked in red wine from the stabbed wine box), plain Paris goblets, place cards denoting ‘totty’ or ‘girl guest 2’, the single candle in the pint beer glass, the crackers and party hats all underscored by the haunting harmonica playing blues. To cap it all off Gary is alone, his ‘only friend’ has let him down having had a ‘better offer’ from the girls he was bringing, and Tony and Jill, the girlfriend of the day, are having noisy sex in the next room. Gary’s failure is complete; he is dumped on as thoroughly as he was earlier in the episode when he is pooped upon twice by a bird while sitting in the park talking to Dorothy and trying but failing to see what she sees in her new man, ‘What’s so special about him?’ he asks but as soon as she says ‘he’s wonderful’ Gary says ‘No don’t tell me.’ He is the stereotypical failing male, a failure in all aspects of his life from his work, to his social life to his love life.

 

In Frasier the party is set in Niles and Daphne’s apartment with its heavy wood furniture and fittings connoting the old world classic elegance and upper class sophistication to which both Niles and Frasier aspire. To show off to their art club circle Niles has bought a new painting and is going to unveil it at this party. The scene is set for him to be humiliated in front of his ‘phony’ friends, as his dad says ‘Who’d spot another fake in there?’ and eventually gives Martin the opportunity to really vent his feelings about Niles’ art collection, ‘I’ve wanted to do that for years.’

 

Martin Crane and Gertrude Moon, Daphne’s mother, Deb and Dorothy act as the more obvious representations of masculinity and femininity.