Ask the Critic: Paul Brownfield

Question: Sid Caesar is quoted as saying, “Comedy has to be based on truth. You take the truth and you put a little curlicue at the end.” What’s missing more from TV comedy today -- the truth or the curlicue?

Brownfield: I would say what’s missing more is the truth. In fact, network sitcoms can seem like they’re all curlicues -- one big rush to the joke. There are exceptions, of course, but reality in all its ugly forms (what Caesar refers to as “truth”) is mostly purged from the TV comedies offered up these days. I think it has to do with the network metabolism for comedy, which dictates that shows rush through character development, lest viewers grow impatient.

Can you think of a network sitcom in which you’re actually made to care what happens to the characters before the laugh lines come?

“Everybody Loves Raymond” comes to mind.

But I can easily identify the curlicue shows, the shows with the most clever jokes -- “Will & Grace,” “Arrested Development,” to name two. I don’t care about anyone on those shows, even as I can identify the joke-writing as being very good.

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