humour barriers

[deird_lj]

You know, it’s really quite hard to introduce people to a show by watching funny episodes.


Take BtVS. If you decide to show someone all the really great episodes, that they absolutely must watch, it’s fairly simple to come up with a list. (For the record – no matter who you ask, you’ll get at least five of the following suggestions: Hush, Once More With Feeling, Fool For Love, The Body, The Gift, Conversations With Dead People, Restless, Becoming, and Normal Again. Every time.)

Funny episodes, though?


I’ve seen people trying to get their friends into Buffy by saying “Hey, we should watch Something Blue! That episode’s hilarious!” And I sit there and think “Well, yeah, it is. But why?”

…because Something Blue is brilliant and very fun. Mostly because Buffy and Spike are together – which they’d never do, and it’s so funny watching them acting in such a silly, out-of-character way.

It’s extremely fun. If you’ve seen them being normal in other episodes.


The Zeppo? Really fun parody of the normal angsty-saving-the-world that the show does.

…which is hilarious, if you know what they’re making fun of.


And Superstar? Brilliant episode. Which completely loses its appeal if you don’t know how weird the situation actually is.


The same seems to be true of a lot of shows, actually. The best funny episodes are side-splittingly hilarious… and rely on the viewers knowing exactly what things are like in the not-so-funny episodes.

Which means the new viewers end up going “Meh. Can’t really see the appeal…” and waltzing off to watch more Days Of Our Lives instead…

Comments

[gg-83.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the first episode of Buffy I watched was when I happened to catch Triangle on TV, and the funny bits struck me as annoying and stupid, and I didn't realize that there were some bits with deliberate overacting and ridiculousness for the lulz, so I was wondering what people saw in the show. I didn't really watch Buffy again for ages, but then when a friend re-introduced me to it, I quickly got hooked. (For the record, we watched Gingerbread first, as sort of a light introductory episode, and then School Hard. YES.)