QI

For the episode you watched, state the series (this will be a letter), channel, day and time of broadcast:

The episode of QI that I have watched is the BBC Christmas Special episode nine series N, broadcasted on the 22^nd of December 2016 at 10:00pm.

State the genre of the programme:

The Genre is comedy.

State the names of the host and panellists:

The host of this QI is, Sandi Toksvig. The panellists include: Josh Widdicombe, Susan Calman, Matt Lucas and Alan Davies.

As the host, how does Sandi Toksvig relate to the other panellists?

Sandi Toksvig and the panellists are all on the show with the same intentions- to entertain the audience. They all want to succeed in being humorous resulting in making the audience laugh. Sandi Toksvig, Josh Widdicombe, Susan Calman, Matt Lucas and Alan Davies all have experience of being on a comedy chat show before so therefore know what type of jokes and phrases make an audience laugh, making Sandi Toksvig relate to them.

What is 'quite interesting' about the extract that you watched?

‘Quite interesting’ facts are very important and are used a lot throughout this chat show. They are facts you are told for entertainment reasons rather than knowing and getting the answer correct. BBC believe that the most “boring” facts can be made interesting if you go about it the right way.

An example of a ‘quite interesting’ fact is one about reindeer. Sandi Toksvig told us that reindeer have a layer of tissue behind their retina that reflects light so they therefore do not need a red nose to “guide father Christmas’s slay” in the night.

What makes you laugh in the episode?

Throughout this episode, the thing that amused me the most was the childish, English Christmas game called, “Are you there Moriaty”. I found it funny watching grown men and women hitting each other, blind folded with a rolled up newspaper. The most humorous part of this game was when Alan Davies and Josh Widdicombe are playing. Alan takes off his blindfold and Josh is completely oblivious to this. This results in Alan being able to hit Josh on the head every time and avoid getting hit by confused Josh.

How is Sandi Toksvig's erudition (the extent of her knowledge) shown?

The extent of her knowledge is shown by her ability to explain the answer to every question with no trouble and minimizing the amount of times she looks down at her cards. She also cleverly shows the extent of her knowledge by asking questions you would think you know the answer to. Instead, you are proved wrong by Sandi making her look very clever. An example of this is when the “mash up” of “All I want for Christmas” was played. Sandi asked the panellists and the audience if they could hear people singing. Some hands were raised in the audience but Josh, Alan and Matt all thought that was ridiculous as they couldn’t hear any voices. They were then explained the reasoning behind it by Sandi and were blown away but now understood.

Are the audience passive consumers or active participants?

Although there is one interactions between the panellists and the audience, for the rest of the show, they just sit and watch and the only clue that they are there is from the sound of their laughs. Therefore, I believe they are passive consumers.

What is the role of Alan Davies and how does he contribute to audience pleasures?

Alan Davies is very funny and clearly knows how to please the audience. He was given humorous attention and stood out from the start by making the sound of his buzzer funny and different to the others. He is also a middle-ages common-looking man- like a lot of the audience making him a panellist some may relate to. Alan makes a number of childish jokes for example, one about a bird farting as he is taking off. This type of humour appeals to children resulting him in giving all ranges of audience pleasures.

How far does the programme fulfil its Public Service Broadcasting remit to inform, to educate and to entertain?

In my opinion, this episode of QI successfully informs, educates and entertains. This is because the viewers are informed on a lot of facts continuously throughout the whole episode but there is never a dull, boring moment. We are always engaged and listening to the facts as we find it funny and all questions and answers usually end in a comedic discussion. Because I was never bored watching this episode, most of the facts have stayed in my head. All facts were made interesting and they were all informative.

How is the audience positioned: as omniscient or powerless?

Because of Sandi Toksvig being so knowledgeable, it makes both audiences, (the live audience and the audience watching at home) feel powerless because they feel they don’t have much knowledge compared to her. However, this is equalled out when the panellists almost always get the answers wrong making the audience feel equal or even omniscient compared to them.

I have chosen to analyse the audience pleasures of watching Miranda (BBC 1). I will give specific examples by close reference to episodes and by quotation. 
 
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 children could relate to the silly, childish behaviour that goes on between Miranda and Stevie throughout the episodes. Miranda experiences numerous embarrassing situations in her day-to-day life. Any ordinary individual could relate to this as everybody experiences an embarrassing moment that they wish has never happened. This could also make people feel better about themselves as they are reminded that everybody lives through an embarrassing situation in which they wish they could take back.
 
Audiences also relate to her relationship with her best friend Stevie because Stevie is the friend that she compares herself to and the one that she almost looks up to. Stevie seems to be her polar opposite: petite, blonde, more conventionally attractive. Stevie thinks of herself as more successful socially and romantically, as she boastfully puts it, she has 'allure' whereas she dismisses Miranda as merely having 'wiles' when it comes to attracting men, as in Series 1 Episode 6. Miranda has to compete with Stevie for men, in fact, this is a running gag in many shows, such as Dog in which a man leaves his wallet in the shop and the contents suggest that he could be a potentially exciting date. The comedy arises here when both Stevie and Miranda buy dogs as 'wallet man' has a photo of a dog in his lost wallet. Stevie, who is tiny, buys a Great Dane while Miranda, who is 6 foot 1, buys a chihuahua. This results in slapstick comedy, with Miranda and Stevie walking their dogs in the park each hoping to run into 'wallet guy' and strike up a conversation. When the gates are locked at the end of the day, the competitive girls are locked in by mistake and Miranda gets stuck trying to squeeze through the gap. More slapstick comedy arises when Gary discovers her and tries to hide Miranda's situation from her friends by striking a pose in front of the trapped Miranda.
 
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, Penny, for example, is very posh and acts as though she is very important. She is in many ways the opposite to Miranda- her own daughter, and much more similar to Stevie. She is shown to the audience as a middle-class, older lady through her style. She wears smart clothes such as blazers and always looks highly presentable. Miranda's mother makes us laugh because although she clearly loves Miranda very much, it is almost as though she is also a bit of a let down to her. This is because Miranda is a grown women who acts childish, works in a toy shop and still isn't married. Penny is constantly trying to get Miranda involved with more men and open her eyes to other job oportunites. This makes us laugh because as much as her mother might try, it is obvious the Miranda will always be this way but Penny still doesn't stop trying. 

We also find Penny amusing as she gets on Miranda's nerves easily and frequently throughout the series. She often uses phrases such as, "Such fun!" which annoys Miranda and brings lots of humour to the episodes.  
Miranda's group of girl friends are stereotypes. For example, they are the type of self-obsessed people who only eat healthy food and greatly care about the vision of their bodies. Her girl friends often make us laugh at Miranda, such as in the episode when her friend is talking on the phone and refers to Miranda as "King Kong". King Kong is a movie about a big gorilla so her friend is saying Miranda is like a Gorilla. This reminds me of "typical bullying" that you might witness from teenagers in college but in this case it was said in a jokey way. However, in many ways, Miranda is an anti-stereotype because she is very different to most women in real life and on TV, for example she is very different to the rest of the women on the show. Her characteristic both in the way she looks and the way she acts is not common, especially for people her age. 
 
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 puts Miranda through a boot camp to try and teach her how to act like a well behaved middle-class women. Anyone could relate to this in feeling like they won't be socially excepted for being themselves.  

Another narrative strand that makes audiences relate to her is her trouble love life. To explain: Miranda is a socially awkward person who struggles to act "normal" around any man she is trying to impress. As a result of this, her dates with men are never a hitting success. She always manages to say something wrong or act unusual which anyone trying to find a man can relate to. Miranda has a close relationship with Gary however she loves him but he only likes her as a friend. This can be quite hard and audiences could be going through the same situation.
 
Each episode also features predictable running gags, for example she often looks and speaks directly to the camera. Miranda always manages to lose her clothing, such as in the episode when she is trying to fit through a gate but can because she is to big. Miranda starts to strip off layers so that she can fit through the gate. Stevie and Miranda always compete for boyfriends, such as in the episode when a customer at their shop leaves behind his wallet which carries information about him. Stevie and Miranda battle to find the man and "accidently" bump into him at a class or in the park. To do this they both buy dogs as an excuse to walk in the park. Miranda always embarrasses her friends socially, for example in one particular episode, Miranda and her friends are at a wedding. Here, Miranda laughs at things she assumes are meant to be funny but doesn't understand it, she then laughs at something that isn't at all funny and everyone looks at her in an odd way.
 
The sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes about relationships. Miranda always fails to explain her true feelings for Gary, such as when Miranda is at a social gathering and is speaking to a man about her feelings for Gary. However, Gary has to leave so the man, the Clive, tells Miranda to tell Gary. When Gary is about to leave The Clive says to Gary, "Miranda has something to tell you." Miranda backs out at last minute and blurts out, "And the horse has galloped" ruining her perfect chance to tell Gary her true feelings. She competes with, quarrels and makes up with Stevie, for example, when they meet a girl called Tamara. At first they see her as a competition as to who will be her closest friend first. This then ends when Tamara makes a comment that offends them, they then team up against each other and apologize for they're childish behaviour. She gets scolded by her mother, such as in the episode when her mother says "act normal" when she is only standing not doing anything. 
 
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 directly at the camera. She confides in us, the audience her feelings, saying:  "well that was awkward."
 
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. An example of this is when Miranda and Stevie are at a social event. Here, Stevie says to Miranda that they are invited to another event. Miranda doesn't want to go so quickly comes up with the excuse, "I can't go because it's my one year old daughters birthday." This is funny to us because we all know she doesn't have a child and it's a silly excuse. 
Another example of this, which I find particularly funny is when Miranda and Stevie are sitting at a table. Here, Miranda gets frustrated with Stevie. We all know that Miranda has a much bigger build than Stevie and Miranda takes this to her advantage. She effortlessly pushes Stevie off her chair which results in Stevie flying off it. This was very humorous because it's a very childish thing for an adult to do and Stevie looked so helpless in the situation.

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, Miranda and Stevie always seem to forgive each other and make up over arguments or disagreements. Miranda is also very funny which also makes her very likeable to audiences. Audiences pick programmes with actors that they know and like. It is also significant that Miranda Hart is a well-known actress and comedian.
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 Miranda being spotted with her jeans down in the park, Miranda bounces back, by brushing it off her shoulders and making new friends.

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 challenging, such as excepting your own self and not caring if your friend is better than you.
 
In conclusion,Miranda is a one of a kind, comedic sitcom which attracts a wide range of audiences due to it's different levels and depths of humour. It offers audiences pleasures by incorporating numerous amounts of relatable content in every episode, making it extremely popular.