From Bored to Death to 30 Rock to The Trip, writers are putting themselves on screen ? but how near reality are the characters?
It is one of the stranger TV fictions out there ? the tale of Jonathan Ames, a struggling writer who moonlights as a bungling detective and stumbles through his caseload like a neurotic Clouseau. And the writer of HBO's hit Bored to Death? New York writer Jonathan Ames.
Autobiographical sitcoms used to be a novelty but have rapidly become the norm. Ever since Seinfeld became the syndicated colossus all other sitcoms aspire to others have followed suit with stars playing fictional versions of themselves (shows sometimes called simcoms). You've got 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Louie produced in the US and Lead Balloon, Grandma's House and The Trip from the BBC. It certainly reduces the writing workload. Why go to the trouble of creating a new comic character when you live with one every day?
Yet that raises the question of how close to reality these versions are. What strikes you while watching these shows is how they tend to portray socially inept versions of the real person. 30 Rock's Liz Lemon is a singleton showrunner on a crappy sketch show, Tina Fey is married and a highly successful Hollywood screenwriter and comedian. Lead Balloon's Rick Spleen is a third division gag writer and micro-celeb, Jack Dee is a Perrier award-winning household name. Ames writes extensively about his neuroses, but he's still a critically acclaimed novelist who dates Fiona Apple ? not quite the engaging chump we see on Bored to Death.
It makes sense ? exaggerate your flaws and you get your laughs. But it's also about the need of a comedian to be liked. Revealing vulnerability makes you sympathetic and connecting with your audience through klutziness is a sitcom tradition dating back to I Love Lucy. It's also true that standup comics are more comfortable playing a character close to their stage persona as they're using material already field tested and honed in the unforgiving stand-up environment. They can even play with the audience's pre-existing public perceptions. The Trip does this brilliantly with Steve Coogan as the insecure malcontent womaniser and Rob Brydon the one-trick pony who got lucky.
And just occasionally the simcom produces magic that would not be possible elsewhere. There is an extraordinarily tense episode of Louie where Louis CK and fellow comic Dane Cook have out their real-life plagiarism controversy face-to-face. It's ballsy on the part of both men and hugely illuminating on the comic's creative process for the viewer. In the best possible way, you feel like a voyeur.
When it works like that, autobiographical comedy is terrific but it can also backfire ? for me, Grandma's House too often showed Simon Amstell's limitations as an actor. Bored to Death sidesteps this problem by having Jason Schwartzman play Jonathan Ames, leaving Ames the writer to explore the delusion, rejection and squalor the struggling writer faces, all the while paying homage to his beloved Raymond Chandler.
The success of such shows doesn't mean the death of traditional sitcom, but it does show how playing with their own persona can liberate the comic writer and allow them to take the sitcom into new territory. And while it's bringing out the best in writers like Ames, Fey and Louis CK, I for one am not complaining.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/nov/22/autobiographical-sitcoms-tv-comedy
Local government Alexander Litvinenko Comedy Manchester United Alliance & Leicester Awards and prizes
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