Character Construction:
- Jen - She is constructed as a optimistic young women who is practically completely helpless when it comes to computers and technology. She is friendly and seems to be capable of making friends instantly. Although her IT skills are lacking she doesn't come across as a stereotypical 'blonde bimbo' - she is relatively intelligent, yet does still possess many stereotypical female qualities/ characteristics.
- Roy - He is quite a sloth-like human and spends a lot of his time at the IT desk answering the phone with the same bored voice. He is represented as the sort of guy who is unlucky with love and unable to hold onto a girlfriend. He does attempt to impress women but fails quite dramatically. Although he is rude to customers he does seem to be a all round nice guy.
- Moss - He is constructed as a very stereotypical geek. Both Moss and Roy alienate the customers but Moss' approach is not rude, in fact he confuses them by being too helpful and using complicated IT terms. He doesn't understand any form of flirting and seems to be confused by anything to do with relationships. He is very awkward and this makes his character very comical.
A lot of sensible observations about character here but as the question is on audience pleasures, we need to shift from textual analysis to analysis of the audience pleasures.
ReplyDeleteTopic sentence: stereotypes are part of sitcom genre.
You should use the 4 audience pleasures framework
'Standard Nerds': who is the target audience for the show? Men mostly, 15-45, computer savvy
Is the audience positioned on equal terms /omniscient (yes as we understand the jargon and the jokes against the other staff).
Are we positioned as superior?(yes, as M and R are social failures and Jen is IT illiterate).
You do well to give examples of how R and M are socially inept / inadequate and how Jen is computer illiterate.
Grade C