Blackadder and situational comedy: midpoint summary

Having discussed spatial awareness in a metaphorical sense, it is just as important to discuss it in a literal sense. The budget restrictions imposed for Blackadder II forced filming into a studio. In the extra material for the digitally remastered Blackadder DVD boxset (2009), Tony Robinson and Tim McInnerny visit the studio where Blackadder II to Goes Forth were filmed and they discuss this change:

McInnerny’s idea of a sense of control is important here because control of the physical space meant control of the comedy. The performance encouraged more comedy because the live audience triggered their own laughter through laughter and response to the humour.

We have so far explored several critical elements that form a situational comedy and how each of them play a role within Blackadder. First the “equilibrium-disequilibrium-new-equilibrium model of narrative”, with the idea of situations escalating unimaginably, but resolving to a new equilibrium (although very rarely to Blackadder’s gain) and how Blackadder ties into Mick Eaton’s definitions of workplace comedy, but perhaps most importantly, the use of location and spatial awareness which acted as a hidden saviour following the rocky production of The Blackadder. This spatial awareness meant that the power relations we explored in previous posts can better develop, which when combined are critical in analysis of Goes Forth – the focus of the last posts in this series.