Whilst working on certain elements of the show, I have decided that the mockumentary genre is not the right fit.
GENRE CHANGE: MOCKUMENTARY TO COMEDY
What is Comedy (in reference to television)?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, comedy is 'professional entertainment consisting of jokes and sketches, intended to make an audience laugh'. In terms of genre, it's defined as the 'style or genre represented by comedy films, plays, and broadcast programmes'. So basically the jist of it is that whatever you claim is a comedy, must be funny and entertaining. I believe Pleasure Park fits into this category as it is a humourous take on the world of the amusement park.
Comedy, like most things, originates from Ancient Greece. It was originally used as a term to describe stage plays that had happy endings. Aristotle himself once said that comedy is an imitation of men worse than average. To this day it is still true that your typical comedy characters are not like your average man or woman, and it's often this difference that makes them humourous.
It has also been said that the early Greek comedy plays influenced what we now call satire, which is different to comedy. Pleasure Park can also been seen as a form of satire as it is using humour to exaggerate the world of amusement parks, by criticising the types of characters you might find in that type of workplace.
In terms of television, comedy has always played a part. Television is a form of entertainment, and comedy is entertaining, hence why it's always been present. Over the year different types of comedy programme have come about like comedy drama (or dramedy), comedy romance (or rom-com), and even zombie comedy romance (or zom-rom-com). As well as this, my original choice of genre, mockumentary, came about as a branch of the comedy genre.
Why Comedy Instead of Mockumentary?
- The direction I wanted the show to go in fits better with the comedy genre than it does with the mockumentary genre.
- I feel the mockumentary genre limited what I could do with the show, how I could style it, how I could brand it, and who I could cast in it.
- By changing to a generic comedy programme, I can keep a majority of the cast members I originally wanted. I can also now keep the style of branding I wanted.
- Overall I feel the show will work better as a normal comedy, than as a mockumentary.
Sky One champion their original comedy productions, and so a comedy like this will fit into their schedule nicely, better than a mockumentary would.
Similar comedy programmes
Other similar comedy programmes have been produced in the past, these are:
- The Office UK/US
- Trollied
- Modern Family
- Benidorm
- The Inbetweeners
- And in terms of film, Adventureland
I will carry out contextual research on these programmes to help aide the continued development of Pleasure Park.
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