Situational comedy or sitcom is a very popular television genre. This genre has its own rather strict canons. Currently, a huge number of sitcoms are filmed in various countries of the world.
An ancient genre of comedy
We can say that, in general, situational comedy is a very ancient genre. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans wrote and staged plays in which the effect of comicity was based on incredible coincidences and assumptions. Sitcom in the modern sense originated in the twenties of the twentieth century on the radio. In the mid-twenties, the show Sam & Harry aired in Chicago, which was based on a series of humorous comics. A couple of years later, CBS radio launched the sitcom Amos & Andy, which was voted one of the best comedy shows of the twenties and thirties. The term sitcom itself only appeared in the early fifties, thanks to the wonderful show I love Lucy. This show is about a young and beautiful, but completely untalented housewife who does not like to sit around, so she tries to break into show business, start her own business, and so on. Bright, charismatic characters and funny plot moves made this show one of the most popular in the twentieth century.
Formation and change of sitcom standards
The traditional duration of a sitcom series is thirty minutes (of which eight minutes of advertising and twenty-two of the actual show). Permanent characters almost never change, within the framework of one episode, the storyline begins and ends safely, and in most cases, in subsequent episodes, the events of the previous ones do not affect anything and are not even mentioned. High-budget sitcoms are filmed in front of a live audience (first used in I love Lucy), and it is this circumstance that is "responsible" for laughter. Sitcoms on a budget often acquire this laugh after the fact by adding a recorded laugh. Modern sitcoms often refuse this laughter, "allowing" viewers to choose funny moments for themselves and respond to them adequately. The most striking example of this "smart" approach is the Scrubs series or "Clinic". This series in a comic vein depicts the life of interns at a public clinic in America. Along the way, the authors of this series also touch upon serious moral and ethical topics.
Typical sitcom plots are based on the behavior of the characters in an unfamiliar environment. Funny Lucy from I love Lucy looked ridiculous in most situations and acted in the least logical way, which earned her such success. The contrast of characters, the parody of social norms, the grotesque - all this served as the basis for the creation of an impressive number of comedy series.
