Annotated Bibliography
Allnatt, Libby. “New Girl Is a Feminist Win.” The Arizona State Press, 23 Oct. 2016, www.statepress.com/article/2016/10/new-girl-feminist-women-in-comedy-zooey-deschanel-gender-race-sexuality.
This website discusses the show New Girl and argues that it is not sexist, but instead it is “a feminist win”. It briefly describes the show and then discusses how Jess is a feminist who has a lot of important accomplishments. It also talks about how Jess and her other female friend, Cece, are both positive role models. This website allowed me to form a counter argument against the theory that almost all sitcoms are sexist. I drew some of my arguments from the ideas in this website.
Martin, Jake. “Why Sitcoms Matter: The Importance of Being Funny.” America Magazine, 8 Dec. 2012, www.americamagazine.org/issue/794/television/why-sitcoms-matter.
This website focuses on the importance of Sitcoms throughout America. It is used to show how the atmosphere around sitcoms has changed throughout the years. I used this mainly to get an understanding for how sitcoms now cater to their audience and to the affordances in which people watch them.
Peshin, Akash. “Why Is Dark Humor Funny?” Science ABC, Science ABC, 20 Aug. 2017, www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/laugh-dark-humor-funny.html.
While I use different wording and specifics than the author does, this article does help inform me on the basics of comedy. The main theory presented here is that humor is derived from relief. When something you think will be bad actually turns out okay, that causes humor. I took this idea and generalized it, because not every joke starts off as something that could turn out bad. I defined it as something unexpected but that does not end poorly. While this is technically different, I only reached this conclusion by expanding upon the one in the article.
Sanes, Ken. “Situation Comedies And the Liberating Power of Sadism.” The Psychology of Situation Comedies, Transparency, www.transparencynow.com/sitcom.htm.
This website compares and contrasts two popular genres, science fiction and sitcoms. It was used to explain how sitcoms are supposed to draw us into a more realistic world than science fiction. It talks about their purpose for drawing our attention to a “more modest world from comedy of manners.” Overall, I used this source to gain a better understanding for why sitcoms are so popular and why people relate so much with their characters.
Zwick, Dana. “Why Are Sitcoms Not as Popular?” Quora, 26 Apr. 2016, www.quora.com/Why-are-sitcoms-not-as-popular.
This website article also helped me develop a better understanding for how sitcoms have changed as society has changed. It talks about the traditional characteristics of sitcoms when they were first popular. It really drew my attention to the fact that increasing social media has played a very important role in changing sitcoms. Finally, it explains how we now have additional options for streaming, which has changed the atmosphere for watching sitcoms. Overall, I used this source to learn how our changing society has changed sitcoms to become more similar to our own lives.