Identifying the audience pleasures in Situation Comedy Carshare

Task: How many Audience Pleasures can you identify in the first episode? Create a blog post exploring your ideas, using your notes from today's lesson.


The pleasures of recognition, familiarity and anticipation are developed early on, even though the audience have only just met the two characters. Recognition and familiarity is established through the soundtrack which is built into the narrative as diegetic sound. The music has a nostalgic element which would appeal to the target audience. The context of a daily commute is maybe familiar to many of the audience, who travel to work in the same way. In fact the sound is important as it reinforces the familiarity of the commute but it is also part of the comedy with radio adverts that parody local radio marketing with adverts for mediocre college places and sheds. There are also other gags that are tied into the background of the narrative events.


Many Situation Comedies are built on this pleasure of familiarity as it develops a fondness for the characters. Why do you think this would be important for the success of a SitCom? How does the audience feel about the two main characters by the end of the episode and why?


In the first episode it uses the elements of comedy to engage the audience as they get to know the two main characters. However, its success is built on the name of Peter Kay. Refer to your research into this comedian to help you explain the specific pleasures associated with performers or personalities.

The use of transgressive pleasures is introduced quickly emphasizing the awkward relationship between the two colleagues. This is evidenced through the language and the spillage scene at the start. What is the prediction for the rest of the series? How is that linked to the narrative pleasures such as those of narrative resolution?