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Transnational TV Comedy Audiences

I am an early career researcher and this journal article shares findings from my PhD thesis. Within the research centre, I belong to the Screen Cultures research group, where my focus on audiences is shared by colleagues such as Oliver Carter, Kerry Gough and Faye Davies. My PhD research used data from focus groups with British and Norwegian viewers to examine the significance of gender and nationality in audience engagement with TV comedy. In this piece I contribute to the ongoing academic debate around the possibilities and constraints involved in the international trade of TV comedy by examining audience talk about two key issues: interlinguistic subtitling and the combination of “nationally specific” and “universal” programme elements. The article sought to further our understanding of how TV audiences perceive “national comedy” and how they respond to comedic programming in other languages. It also aimed to broaden the debate around transnational comedy in TV studies, which has tended to focus on the reception of US programming. Instead, I here examine the responses of Norwegian viewers to a British sitcom, and the responses of British viewers to a Norwegian show. This approach enabled me to compare two very different viewing cultures: While Norwegian TV schedules include a great number of subtitled UK and US programmes, British broadcasters have traditionally scheduled only English language TV shows. The article demonstrated that research participants tended to underestimate the ability of transnational viewers to enjoy “their” comedy. It also showed that a lack of experience with subtitled comedy posed only a minor obstacle for the British viewers. These findings suggested the potential for new opportunities in the international trade of TV comedy, and we have since seen a number of foreign language TV dramas on terrestrial British TV. This includes the Norwegian sitcom Lilyhammer (BBC Four 2012).