B323 Section B Media Topic: Television and/or Radio comedy

Question 4 b): Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. 

Miranda is mainstream family viewing, aimed at a target audience who would relate to middle class life. Miranda is a TV sitcom: socially inept Miranda always gets into awkward situations when working in her joke shop with best friend Stevie, being hounded by her pushy mother, and especially when she is around her crush Gary.

A comprehensive review of all four BBC TV channels by the governing trust (July 2014) found that BBC 1 could feel “middle class in focus and target audience" with Miranda cited as an example. They also found that the BBC is falling out of favour with younger people and BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic viewers). The average age of BBC1 viewers is 59, compared with 56 in 2010/11. However, the character of Miranda is also quite like a big child as she is unmarried, always making a fool of herself and getting into trouble with her mother, so I think that audiences such as young adults entering their thirties and who are not married and struggle with getting life together unlike their peers.  Even teenagers could relate to her as they can relate to always feeling pressurized to be perfect and have everything in order.

Audiences also relate to her relationship with her best friend Stevie  because  they are the typical example of childhood best friends. They are always around each other feeding each other the company that the other friend needs. Sometimes this however causes them to have comical quarells and competitons to see who is the best between the both of them. Stevie remind the audience of the type of  friends who your parents often compare you to.  She is Physically more attractive(blond hair, slim figure and beautiful) than Miranda and is capable of capturing any man she wanted, She is confident and witty and is seen by the audience as the person who you as a friend looks up to.

Miranda offers the pleasures of the sitcom genre, such as characters that are recognizable that the audience can relate to, who are stereotypes. Miranda's mother, for example,  is portrayed is an established upper middle-class woman from Surrey with a posh accent and an impeccable fashion sense.
Miranda's mother makes us laugh because she is the opposite of her daughter. She just like Stevie have physical attraction and is  facially beautiful. She often has to nag at Miranda like a mother would to a teenager about acting her age and bugging her about not being able to find a man who she can share a life with.
Miranda's group of girl friends are stereotypes. For example, Middle-class white women who watch out for their weight and go to yoga.
Her girl friends often make us laugh at Miranda, such as in the episode when her friends say "Queen Kong"  whilst ordering food at a resturaunt in order to mock Miranda's shape and size.
However, in many ways, Miranda is an anti-stereotype because she is someone who is portrayed in a non physically attractive manner. She doesn't have blonde hair or blue eyes and doesn't bother to take care of her physical appearance (seen in her fashion sense). Unlike women her age in their thirties she is not married and struggles to find a husband/ man. However Miranda is independent and hard working, she has her own business unlike her friends who probably are stay-at-home wives or are married to someone who works in a good occupation. Miranda is portrayed as overweight compared to her friends (Stevie) who are slim and conscious about their weight. Miranda doesn't care about what think about her except for Gary and is portrayed as a woman who is emotionally strong and physically strong and doing things her own way.

  There are many points of recognition for middle class audiences in the ways in which the sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes, such as Miranda's conflict with her mother when she educates Miranda in how to behave like a middle class woman. for example she teaches Miranda how to speak in a posh mumble, tell people how hard it is to find workmen, show no emotion and when someone starts to show emotion cut the conversation short and don't take off your clothes!

Another narrative strand that makes audiences relate to her is her trouble love life. To explain: for example when she and Stevie open Wallet Guy's credit card to figure out his name; she reads his name "Robert" and ends his surname with husbands indicating to the audience that she is looking for a husband. Her and Stevie try their best to go out of their way to impress the guys they like. During the Gary's departure to Singapore Miranda shows the audience how she feels about Gary however when she is near him many distractions fall her way.

Each episode also features predictable running gags such as, for example, Miranda will always fall over an object. She has a tendency of taking off her clothes in public and her friends will always make fun of her appearance.
Miranda always manages to lose her clothing, such as in the episode when she gets locked inside the park and cannot fit through the the gate due to her shape she takes off her clothes to see if she can get through.
Stevie and Miranda always compete for boyfriends, such as the episode when Robert the guy with a dog leaves his wallet inside their joke shop and they try their best efforts to see who Robert will choose based on who is more attractive.
Miranda always embarrasses her friends socially, such as when they are infront of import middle class people or at weddings, Miranda took off her bra revealing what bra she was wearing.

The sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes about relationships. Miranda always fails to explain her true feelings for Gary, such as when she wanted to convince Gary to stay in England she muddles up her words in real life and Gary never gets to hear how she feels. Miranda tells us: "I get nervous when I'm around you."
She competes with, quarrels and makes up with Stevie, for example, when they argue about allure and how allure is conveyed.
She gets scolded by her mother, such as in the episode when her mother says "...." 

In most sitcoms, the audience is passive consumer but this show is filmed before a live studio audience. In addition, Miranda establishes a relationship with her audience by looking at a camera in her moment of thought. She confides in us, the audience her feelings, saying:  "...."

For Blumler and Katz, audiences use media to gratify needs (the uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour). Miranda offers the pleasure of entertainment, escapism and diversion by making us laugh. In particular, both slapstick humour and verbal humour entertain us. Examples of these include (three examples minimum) - the first example of slapstick humour would be when Miranda is in the park with Stevie in hopes to find wallet guy. three boys between the ages of 16-18 come to greet Miranda's small dog and begin to walk off. The audience is then confronted with a disturbing image( the boys'  pants are sagging while they are walking) Miranda takes it upon herself to lift up the boys' to lift up), when her and Stevie argue about the word allure and when Gary makes fun of her dance skills the show then refers to Miranda dancing goofely  inside the club. an example of humour is when her and stevie get dogs to impress Wallet  guy but they end up getting to completely opposite sized dogs.


Audiences also like to relate to the characters in programmes;  I have shown that Miranda offers many points of recognition in its characters. It s also important that Miranda is a likeable character who does not hold grudges. For example, when her mother keeps on belittling her about her life
Audiences pick programmes with actors that they know and like. It is also significant that Miranda Hart is a well-known A Character in Call the Midwife.

Audiences tend to favour programmes that support their values and their sense of their own identity. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgements about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgements we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. The shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold. Therefore, equally important is the upbeat, comic atmosphere of the show. Despite  set-backs such as taking off her clothes in public areas whenever she is in an awkward/embarassing situitions. this shows how she just like the audience watching always tries to make the current problem funny to try to hide how she truly or when her shop manager Stevie comically makes fun of her for not being physically attractive Miranda bounces back, for example, when her and Stevie argue about what it means to have allure - in which Miranda replies in saying that she will excel in the opposite attraction.


Finally, audiences like to know what is going on in the world (surveillance). This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers. In a sitcom, the characters face all sorts of situations that we can experience vicariously, some of which are challenges , such as trying to tell the guy you like you have a crush on him, how behave around posh people and how to manage good friendships.

In conclusion, Miranda is an example of situation comedy which explores how to deal with life situations with humour and ease. She represents a minority of people who are not in control of their lives and not sure where to go in their lives