In both episodes the way the different genders act are very different. In Fresh Prince of Bel-Air we laugh at the males because they are portrayed as being very immature and act in ways in which we do not expect a stereotypical male to act. In the episode we have been studying Vivien is all maternal and wanting to spend time with her baby and at one point when Hilary brings him back in Vivien shouts out to her “baby” and Carlton goes running to her with his arms open shouting “mummy”. You would only expect this from a young child not someone who is 18. We also laugh at the fact that Phil is feeling jealous because Nicky is getting all the attention from Vivien and he feels that the only way he will get any attention is by acting like a baby himself and he makes jokes to Carlton about this, you would not expect a grown man to be jealous of his baby son because he is getting the attention. In Royal Family on the other hand we laugh at the males for different reasons. We laugh at Jim and Twiggy because they like to contradict themselves without realising what they are doing. In the episode of Royal Family that we are studying we hear Jim and Twiggy calling Cheryl because of her weight and comparing her to them, but when you look at those two they are both over weight and have many other things, which they could change to make them ‘perfect’.
With the character of Dave he is yet again different and we laugh at him because of the way he is, his character is played as doing everything what people want him to do and just agrees with what anyone else says. When Jim and Twiggy are sat ‘gossiping’ about people he just sits agreeing with them even if he doesn’t think what they are saying is right. When he is around the women though he is really polite and kind and seems to have a feminine side in the way of which he goes about things. He is very different to the other male characters in the episode, he seems a lot more bothered by the way he looks and how he comes across to people. The other two main male roles are Anthony and Darren, these two seem a lot more like your stereotypical teenagers. They are bothered by the way they look and are well dressed in a sense of the latest fashions, also they have the immature element to them, we see this element in Will and Carlton in the Fresh Prince but their characters exaggerate this characteristic slightly. With Anthony and Darren you could relate them to some of your own friends because they are acting like any teenage male would, but with Carlton and Will they have some elements that you could relate a friend to but most of the time they seem to be over exaggerating and acting too immature for the age they are supposed to be playing.
Although there are all the differences in the male characters of both sitcoms the main things which almost all of them have in common is the way that they use sexist jokes and comments to their advantage as a humour point. In Fresh Prince Will and Geoffrey are making the majority of the jokes with Carlton and Phil making them slightly and then in Royal Family there are Jim and Twiggy with their snide comments and Dave who is sat laughing with them and then once Anthony and Darren are with them they are also making comments, and even though they are sexist and in real life we wouldn’t laugh at as many as you do when they are in the show we still think that they are funny.
With the women from the two episodes we have studied we could see them as having some characteristics that are similar and others, which aren’t. For example in Fresh Prince all the female roles apart from that of Jackie seem really maternal and become all ‘soppy’ when they see a man looking after a child. This is the same with some of the characters in Royal Family because as soon as Dave turns up with Baby David Barbara is all over him and ‘playing’ with him, then when Denise and Cheryl turn up Cheryl is giving him all the attention and Denise gives him some but considering he is her son she doesn’t seem that bothered by him because when she wants to have a cigarette she asks Cheryl to take him upstairs. After Cheryl comes back down she talks about Baby David and Denise has to ask who she is talking about, from this you can see how Denise doesn’t seem that bothered by the maternal side and how he is her son, you can see this as well because it is Dave who is the one who has been looking after him. Most females would spend all their time with the baby but Denise isn’t the same as the other female characters.
