Humor in Television Sitcoms

While watching television sitcoms there are lots of humor in various parts of the episodes. The humor can all relate to communication class in different ways. These include verbal and nonverbal messages, facial expressions, listening skills, diversity with communication and abstract and specific language. Humor in The Office is presented by the use of language, nonverbal communication and listening. These factors that create humor are the main reasons why the show is so popular.
Listening skills are very important along with the others that were stated. It makes up forty-five percent of one’s communication time. Listening is a complex process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to verbal and nonverbal messages (Beebe, 115). There are five activities that factor into listening and they include selecting, attending, understanding, remembering and responding (Beebe, 115-7). Conquering these five activities is important to becoming an effective listener for your friends and others. Also, being a good listener means you have to stop all competing messages in your head, step away from your own thoughts and try to experience the thoughts of others and look and listen with your eyes. Lastly six strategies to improve one’s listening skills are, identify the listening goal, mentally summarize details, link details to major ideas, practice with difficult material, transform listening barriers into goals and listen actively (Beebe, 129-30). This is only one important factor of communication in which humor as an impact on.
There are many types of diversity in humor sitcoms and in humor in general. A lot of people think making jokes about diversity is hilarious but sometimes it is not the case. Culture is the learned system of knowledge, behavior, attitudes, beliefs, values and norms shared by a group. There are obvious differences in verbal and nonverbal messages especially when it comes to humor (Beebe, 9). Not all people adapt in the same way to statements made or jokes that are said. Different languages have different meanings for a lot of sayings (Beebe, 9). People just need to be understanding of their surroundings and realize what they are about to say before they say it, because one never knows when that we affect someone’s feelings in a negative way. Diversity can be a problem when it comes to humor in sitcoms because most of the humor is made based off of diversity situations.
The types of language a person uses especially in humor can be powerful. There are two ways a person can use language such as using abstract rather than specific language. Words affect emotions, actions and thoughts of another person (Beebe, 62). Abstract language is meaning resulting from inability to experience a referent with one of senses and specific or concrete language is related to being able to experience a referent with one of our senses (Beebe, 63). Language has the power to create and label experiences, impact thoughts and actions, shape and reflect culture and can make or break relationships with another person or people (Beebe, 66-8). Yes, language can be used for humor in a variety of ways especially in sitcoms like The Office but sometimes one has to be careful of what they are saying because like stated before it can be a powerful message to another person and can affect many things with a person inside and out. Sometimes abstract language is better to use in some situations but sometimes concrete/specific language can be better as well, one just has to pick the right time to use both types of languages.
In the article, written by Sam Lunt, “NBC’s The Office has Jumped the Shark.” Talks about how this hilarious sitcom has made it past the crucial part of being a television show. The term, jump the shark means that a show that has been past its prime needs to get over the hump to see be a good show and The Office has done that just recently. They actually had to change the humor in The Office while they were trying to “jump the shark”. “The Office has, unfortunately, seen a dramatic shift in the style of everything from the office where the action takes place to the actors’ wardrobe to the humor to the plots of episodes” (Lunt, 1). Before the change is humor the first part of The Office, the humor was understated and wry (Lunt, 1). Although the show has made it over the shark and has continued to be watched by its viewers there is a question about the humor being used in the show. “Each of the characters had their own identity, quirks, and personalities. Now, the episodes feel like any other sitcom” (Lunt, 1). So even over time a show can lose its humor but still be able to last in the show biz. The changing of the humor in this show changes all of the types of messages, listening, and other uses of language that are being used. The writer now has to change everything to cope with the change in humor. So over the time that the show has lasted from season one until season seven, there have been multiple changes in the uses of language to show humor but they are still doing well with the changes.