Comedy verite or ''Comedy vérité'' is a television format that presents fictional Comedy series in the staged form of a

Docusoap Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

. This is a

technical term Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The conte ...

from the field of

television studies Television studies is an academic discipline that deals with critical approaches to television. Usually, it is distinguished from mass communication research, which tends to approach the topic from a social sciences perspective. Defining the field ...

, introduced in order to be able to make more precise distinctions and differentiations between evening-filling

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

-films and 'mockumentary series' with an average episode length of 30 minutes. While mockumentary films play with the idea that what is shown could be true, mockumentary-series or Comedy Verite leave no doubt about their own fictionality.

Stylistic features

Humorous situations and characters are presented as if they were spontaneous and real observations of everyday life at first sight. This means that there is usually a high use of emphasized

hand-held camera Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a Tripod (photography), tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used ...

, emphasized because the recordings are interspersed with Pannings,

Whip zoom A whip zoom (also referred to as a snap zoom or crash zoom) is a type of camera shot in which the camera zooms in or out quickly, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject. Another use of the whip zoom is to enable the shot to be edited as a c ...

s and 'tracked'

Autofocus An autofocus (AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system h ...

, as well as occasional covert filming. These alternate with interview-scenes in the style of Talking Heads, as we know them from Television's

pundits A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

. This way Comedy Verite refers to a

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

with episodes of up to half an hour in length that combines to the specifications of a classic

Sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

in terms of

narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

and character constellation, but on a formal level gives the impression that it is a

. In Comedy verite, the clichés and stereotypes of classic Sitcoms are parodied. The television scholar John T. Caldwell also judged this as follows: " hs 'sitcom' is shot like a 'documentary that critiques 'reality television'"Caldwell, John T.
„Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television"
Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2008, p. 203

Word origin (etymology)

The term ''Comedy Verite'' is a compound word of ''comedy'' and ''vérité'' (French for "truth") to emphasize the fusion of

Situation comedy A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

with

Cinema vérité Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

. Cinema vérité stands for a French documentary style of the 1950s and 60s in which the filmmaker constantly intervenes in the filming process and thus stands for stylized productions, interactions between filmmaker and subject, and even moments of deliberate provocation. Television scholar Brett Mills coined this term in 2004 based on an analysis of the series ''

The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...

''.

Examples

In addition to ''

'' other well-known examples of this include series such as ''

Arrested Development ''Arrested Development'' is an American satire, satirical television sitcom created by Mitchell Hurwitz. It follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family and is presented in a Serial (radio and television), serialized format, inco ...

'', ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

'', '' Parks and Recreation'', '' The Comeback'', ''

What We Do in the Shadows ''What We Do in the Shadows'' is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary comedy horror film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the ''What We Do in the Shadows'' franchise. The film also stars Cleme ...

'', ''

Abbott Elementary ''Abbott Elementary'' is an American mockumentary sitcom television series created by Quinta Brunson for ABC. It stars Brunson as Janine Teagues, a perpetually optimistic second-grade teacher at the underfunded Abbott Elementary, a fictional p ...

'' and '' St. Denis Medical''.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Dunleavy, Trisha
„Hybridity in TV Sitcom: The Case of Comedy Verité"
''Flow Journal'', December, 11 2008 * Madison, David
„Comedy Vérité: Arrested Development and the Docusoap Form"
''Forbes & Fifth'' 3, 2013: pp. 83–92. Television terminology

Stylistic features

Word origin (etymology)

Examples

Further reading

References

External links