Sitcom episodes that relate to patterns of change and comedy in 20th Century America.

Average box office genre in 2008.
One segment in the comedy that has grown significantly in the past decades is situation comedy or sitcom. Concerning the issue, this paper will elaborate several points on American popular culture, humor, sitcom etc.

Aims and ObjectivesConcerning the analytical review over the development of American popular culture, this paper will discuss three aims and objectives as following. This paper intends to discuss about American popular culture History and Humor. Using the non-participant observation method, collecting data and analyzing qualitative information from journal, books, magazine and other online materials, this paper aims at elaborating the series of sitcom episodes that relate to patterns of change and comedy in 20th Century America. In addition, the paper aims at highlighting the history and development of American humor.

Research Questions

The development of comedy program especially situation comedy is increasing due to the acceptance of audiences and popularity of this type of comedy shows. Concerning the situation, the research question for this paper is. As situation comedy (sitcom) program in the televisionmovie continues in number and the program itself, what characterize the development of situation comedy (sitcom) program.
  
I choose this research statement or question since it may be different from others who only focus on discussing the historical issues of situation comedy (sitcom) programs. Instead of discussing the partial discussion on sitcom issues, I decide to discuss the characteristics of situation comedy (sitcom) or by any means the values that underlie the development of sitcom within the past several decades.

Literature Review

Basically, a sitcom refers to a genre in comedy showprogram, which historically originates from the radio program. However, nowadays, the sitcoms are exclusively available as television program as one form of dominant narrative appearance.
The key characteristics that differentiate sitcom from different type of humor or comedy program is that situation comedy usually consisting of recurring characters in a general places such as home or at a workplace and it may involve the laugh tracks or present several audiences in the studio.

History of American humor

Humor becomes a concern in the development of American culture as program that considered as humorous are varied from one country to another. Usually the humor depends on several absolute and relative. The various factors suggest that people in different placescountries ill find different things that make them laugh or something funny. This condition also suggests that cultural diversity may cause the humor in the American television to be not considered funny in other places. To be specific, the type of humor in the American program is something vulgar and strange.

Type of Humor
Moreover, the history notes that American humor can be further elaborated into some common type of humor, for example, more slapstick and physical comedy. By observation, it is found that American humor tends to be less emphasis on understatement that causes it to be more open. In addition, American humor also appears to be not satirizing the social system through exaggeration, as it appears to present more.

Program
In addition to type of humor, there are interested parts that some programs appear to originate from the same geographic locations that characterize the type of humor presented in the sitcom. Figure 2 shows the typical sitcom by geographic origins.

Sitcom by geographic origins
Creating a sitcom

In the creation of 22-minute situation comedy (sitcom) program in the 30-minuts slot, the sitcom is developed in the following structure.

Sitcom plot

Beginning stage it composes of 1-3 minutes in the program where it exhibits the setting that the characters in their normal state of existence. For example, in The Simpsons,the beginning usually start with the cast in the living room while watching television or having breakfast in the kitchen. This setting refers to incentive moment.

Mounting conflict. These shows usually take in the 4-18 minutes where the disruption or complication evolves into rising action. In addition, in this stage, the characters are fighting to solve the problems
The ending that usually appears in the 19-22 minutes exhibits the shows that quickly delivered to avoid the losing interest from audiences.

Limitation
The method does not involve direct interviews, which will slightly reduce objectivity and the accuracy of information. In order to alleviate this drawback, we are retrieving reliable data from experts analysis, journals and various publications from available media. Using the data resources above, we hope to present an independent and objective analysis toward the contemporary issue.