I have chosen to analyse the beginning of the first episode in the first series of the 80's TV comedy 'The Young Ones'. This particular text appeals to me because it is important in how it introduces the characters,
Analysis of Transcript - Young Ones
Introduction:
I have chosen to analyse the beginning of the first episode in the first series of the 80's TV comedy 'The Young Ones'. This particular text appeals to me because it is important in how it introduces the characters, as this is the first time the audience ever meet them.
Relative Status:
Rick and Neil are both students living in the same house; therefore their status should be equal though both are striving for dominance. Rick is defiantly the more dominant of the two, due to his extrovert personality.
Both characters are self-centred, for instance, at the beginning of the scene; Neil delivers a monologue where he talks about himself a lot. However when Rick enters the scene, Neil's control is taken away from him, as Rick immediately becomes the more dominant speaker. Rick too has an air of self-importance as he is very selfish and always wants the attention on him. For instance, when Neil says goodbye to Rick because he is about to commit suicide, Rick shuns him and simply replies 'Yes, g'bye' as if dismissing his life.
Rick asks a lot of interrogatives such as "Why don't you listen to me?" and "d'you find me boring or something?" These questions are quite pressing in nature yet are often left unanswered because Neil is not listening. This may illustrate that Neil is in fact the dominant one because he isn't interested in Rick and isn't bothered by his presence whereas Rick is clearly bothered by Neil due to him constantly pestering him. However Rick doesn't listen to Neil either. This means there are two separate conversations going on, neither is being reciprocated.
Tone/Structure:
The Young Ones is a comedy TV show that is aimed at young people, because of this, the tone is typically informal. This is denoted by the way Neil talks to himself or arguably the audience, about what is going on. His frequent use of fillers such as 'right' and 'like' emphasize the chatty, personal speech and helps make a scripted conversation flow like a natural one. These fillers also make Neil more real and human; this helps the audience to relate to him. This is especially important as the character of Neil is arguably there ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Tone/Structure:
The Young Ones is a comedy TV show that is aimed at young people, because of this, the tone is typically informal. This is denoted by the way Neil talks to himself or arguably the audience, about what is going on. His frequent use of fillers such as 'right' and 'like' emphasize the chatty, personal speech and helps make a scripted conversation flow like a natural one. These fillers also make Neil more real and human; this helps the audience to relate to him. This is especially important as the character of Neil is arguably there to be sympathised with.
When Rick is discussing his poem about Cliff Richard, Neil is talking about how he is going to kill himself, this is an attempt to change the topic of conversation, however he fails as Rick is the dominant speaker. Thus, two separate conversations run parallel with each other.
Lexis:
The lexis within my transcript is informal, conversational and often colloquial. For example words such as 'eh', 'huh', 'yeah' and 'gonna' are examples of conversational lexis. There are also examples of clichéd 'hippy' lexis used by Neil, such as 'man', 'heavy', 'karma' and 'suss out', these form the semantic field of spiritualists, which reinforce stereotypical ideas about students and 'hippies'.
Rick's poem displays many typical features of a poem, with the use of rhyme and repetition. For example, the rhyming of 'as if' and 'a cliff' immediately allows the audience to recognise that it is a poem. The poem starts 'Oh Cliff', an opener that might usually be associated with a love poem; this may have been included to add humour. The repetition of 'Or are you Cliff?' at the end is a feature used to create a lasting meaning with the poems audience, however this poem is more of a parody and is not meant to be serious or profound to anybody but Rick. The repetition of 'I might...' when Rick talks about what may happen to him as a result of his poem being published, highlights how the poem clearly means a lot to Rick as he hopes and believes the poem may actually be influential to society.
Non-fluency can be found throughout the text such as 'Um, uh...' but are limited as this is a scripted TV comedy. When they are used, they are used for dramatic and comic effect because they are said by Neil who is put in a vulnerable position due to his being provoked, and also to add realism. The amount of non-fluency is also dependent on the topic, which, although written to represent an informal 'spontaneous' speech, lacks the unpredictability and randomness of a spontaneous conversation, and is generally far more structured than an informal conversation.
Rhetorical Features:
Neil often talks to himself, for example "Weird, eh?" and "No room at all eh?" Such examples of rhetorical questions are commonly found throughout the transcript. They help to highlight his lonely personality.
Rick demonstrates the use of rhetoric most often, usually when he is annoyed or frustrated. His examples of rhetorical questions tend to be fuelled by anger such as "look I don't want to discuss it ok?".
Rick conforms to the clichéd structure of a poem and includes several rhetorical questions in his poem for instance, "Are they the lemmings?". This could be to show Rick is slightly pretentious.
It may be unclear sometimes whether Rick's questions are meant to be genuine or not. It could be said that the questions only become rhetorical when left unanswered by Neil. In contrast, when Rick really is asking a rhetorical question, such as when he says he wouldn't even discuss the colour of orange juice with Neil, he replies "It's orange, Rick". This is because Neil doesn't quite understand how Rick is being ironic and sarcastic. This sarcasm is a frequent feature of spoken language, but is made more humorous by Neil's lack of sarcasm when he replies.
Grammar:
In this scene, the sentences are generally minor, however Neil sometimes has large amounts of speech but is broken down into simple constructs using filler verbs such as 'like' and 'right'.
The frequent use of the conjunctive 'and' in Neil's speech helps him to break up his speech and adds a sense of urgency to what he is saying, this make him seem more vulnerable, this also makes Neil seem insecure as he is unsure of his own language and conversation skills.
There are various examples of non-standard grammar (minimal utterances) such 'huh', 'Ah wh' and 'Um, uh...' which are spontaneous 'ad-libbing' features of spoken language. These may not actually be written in the script but may just be added by the actors to add authenticity to their performance.
Prosodic Features:
Intonation patterns vary throughout the scene, conveying many different emotions. For example the rising tone perceptible in line 38 creates an agitated tone, "pretty angry stuff, right let them try and ignore that right?" whereas a falling tone suggests completion of a topic or that the speaker is making a statement, seen in line 33, "I'm gonna kill myself now.". the rising tone is a typical feature of Rick's speech, especially when he is trying to make a point. This may be because he has a lot of character to his voice and believes what he says is highly important.
Neil's speech is usually a falling tone, even if he is annoyed, which is stereotypical of the 'hippy' he is supposed to be. As he doesn't seem fazed by all that happens. Even when Neil is angry, his tone remains quite placid. For instance, in lines 17 to 12 where Neil expresses his distaste that the other housemates didn't eat the meal he cooked, he is clearly angry but not in an irate, hysterical way, which Rick might portray if he was in the same situation as Neil.
The pitch often alters, usually to express meaning, such as in line 50, where the stress of the word 'Look' emphasises the perceived banality of saucers.
Words are often stressed in order to create importance, e.g. in line 36 where Rick says "Bad for society when the kids start getting into it".
From line 32 onwards, Rick's voice becomes naturally quieter. This may be to make the speech more poetic. When Rick is accusing Neil of ignoring him in line 49, his speech gets much quicker and becomes erratic.
Word count: 1,346
