What Will We Be Mocking in 25 Years?

It may be cliché, but New Year’s Eve is typically a day for thinking about the future. After all, tomorrow will be a brand new year, and the next 365 days are just waiting to be filled with good things.

What’s on my mind today is the future of comedy. More specifically, what the comedy writers of tomorrow will think of the comedy series of today. And the reason I’m pondering this, of all subjects, is because the most successful comedies of the day are drenched to the skin in parody.

The TV parody trend really started gaining momentum around the time The Brady Bunch Movie came out in 1995. Sure, spoofs and satires had been around for centuries before then, but The Brady Bunch Movie, despite being a film, was a significant milestone in TV history.

(The movie takes the Brady family out of the ‘70s and places them in the ‘90s, where they are exceptionally out of touch with reality. Their heartfelt cheesiness and utter ignorance of the ways of the world tend to bewilder the people around them, but the Bradys are oblivious. They just keep on movin’ and keep on groovin’ to their own rhythm, their over-the-top smiles never leaving their faces.)

The film was more than just a playful spoof—it completely redefined the TV show. These characters that Sherwood Schwartz had created with utmost sincerity were so out of place in the “real world,” it made you wonder if the Bradys ever were hip, even in their own time. It gave the audience this idea to consider: Wasn’t The Brady Bunch kind of stupid?

And thus started the craze of mocking old TV shows. A slew of movies followed.

Will the next generation make fun of The Office?

Fifteen years later, mockery and television had formed a different kind of relationship. In light of movies spoofing old shows for taking themselves too seriously, networks started coming out with new shows that spoofed themselves by pretending to take themselves seriously. Confused? I’m talking about mockumentaries—The Office, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, that sort of thing. I’m also talking about satires like 30 Rock. These programs are all cut from the same dry-humored cloth. They’re written to be spoofs of real life, and none of them takes itself seriously. At all.

So my question is: Where will comedy go from here? The sitcom genre has evolved from cutesy slices of life into sarcastic jabs at life spoken with mock seriousness. And yes, it’s hilarious. There’s no doubt about that. But… where can we go from here?

And what will we be mocking in 25 years? Can we expect a How I Met Your Mother movie making fun of Barney’s catchphrases and Robin’s pop star past… which are somewhat spoofs of themselves already? How do you spoof a spoof?

Will the next generation make fun of Grey's Anatomy?

My conjecture is that in a few decades' time, the butt of the joke will be police and medical dramas such as CSI and Grey’s Anatomy. Sure, people take these shows very seriously now, but I assure you the emotional attachment will have worn off by 2036. Today’s comedies, on the other hand, have already covered their tracks. They’re immune to future ridicule because they’re already making fun of themselves now. And perhaps that will render them—dare I say it?—timeless.

Overall, with this offbeat brand of comedy in the air, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of sitcoms come later. My gut tells me, however, that regardless of what other trends come along, the classic three-camera sitcom will live on forever, sincerity and all, no matter how cheesy it may look to us in a quarter of a century.

What do you think?

Psst... Happy New Year!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Sitcom

With the Christmas season already here and Christmas day approaching fast, most everybody has already commenced the festive holiday traditions that get them into a yuletide spirit this time of year. Typical activities include: keeping the radio at nonstop Christmas music starting December 1st, spending your Christmas bonus at Walmart so none of the relatives will feel left out of the gift exchange, getting sick of Christmas music by the 12th, and of course, hauling an evergreen tree into the middle of your living room, which you adorn with lights, strips of foil, and little glass balls.

Legend has it that holidays of yore also included caroling, roasting chestnuts, and sending Christmas cards, which in this day and age seems to have been replaced by mass texts and Facebook statuses along the lines of “Merry Xmas! #yule.”

But there’s another tradition I uphold that somehow never quite caught on. I’m not sure why—it’s fun, festive, and funny. You guessed it! Every December I watch the Christmas episodes of my favorite TV shows.

Most people bring out holiday movies to get in a merry mood, but not me. This time of year, I always rely on the sitcoms. While they may not be as deep and thought-provoking as the likes of It’s a Wonderful Life, they still achieve their ultimate goal—putting a smile on the viewers’ faces.

A great example is the Family Ties episode “A Keaton Christmas Carol,” where Alex’s Scrooge-like behavior provokes a visit from the ghosts of Christmas Past and Christmas Future, who bear striking resemblances to his sisters, Jennifer and Mallory. This clip includes my favorite scene, starting at 3:15: in the future, Alex is rich, fat, and bald, and his impoverished family ecstatically grovels at his feet.

Another classic is the one and only Dick Van Dyke Show Christmas episode. Written as a holiday-themed Alan Brady Show, it features the cast doing what they do best—singing, dancing, and being funny, all with a holiday twist. Here’s a small taste of the merriment, featuring actress Rose Marie singing her wish list to Santa. What do you think the perpetually single Sally Rogers wants for Christmas? A husband, of course! This song features one of the best holiday puns I’ve ever heard: “Give me an Adam on Christmas Eve.”

But the sitcom whose holiday episodes really take the fruitcake is Family Matters. In its nine-season run, the series had seven shows for Christmas and five for Halloween, plus the occasional Valentine’s Day. And the stories always fit the spirit of the holiday. The yuletide episodes, for instance, customarily included the singing of a hymn and even occasional allusions to the real Christmas story—the birth of Jesus Christ. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas shows, and Family Matters’ just always seem a cut above the rest. Here’s the full episode of “Christmas is Where the Heart Is,” complete with Dutch subtitles, where Carl and Steve get stuck on the El on their way back from Christmas shopping.

So, perhaps this tradition of watching festive sitcoms won’t catch on with the general public anytime soon, but I’ve been doing it for about ten years now and will probably continue for another ten, if not longer. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without them.

And since you made it to the end of the post, here’s my gift to you—Jo and Natalie from The Facts of Life singing “We Need a Little Christmas” to entertain some inmates. Unfortunately the intro is cut off, but it’s still gobs of fun. Merry Christmas!