The contrast between modern and 70s comedy between MisFits and Are You Being Served (AYBS) show a distinctive change in the cultural humour between the generations. With AYBS, you notice that jokes are based much on the cultural unacceptances for homosexuality for instance which in AYBS is shown as a joke and a minority considered not high in society. The society itself usually is brought up on the traditions and the cultural norms of believing that what is shown is what the general consensus of the public believe. When a comedy is as revered as AYBS, it must have had a huge audience that enjoyed it. With welsh farmers being a joke which can be assumed to be have been funny at the time is usually now not very funny nor is considered much of a joke. Whilst in MisFits there is an interest into the art of discriminating so much that it's harsh but funny, an example of this being the irish character called Nathan.
There is a gentle sense to the presentation of AYBS as well. Showing off high class and posh voices with also in a way, very shallow acting which is very obvious to the audience then very casual, the concept seems very focused on making the audience laugh deliberately and focusing as that being the charm whilst in MisFits on the other hand gives the impression of a story with jokes that fill in to give the audience a casual sense as well so they don't feel too spaced out from them and make it feel more personal and realistic.
Most of all, you'll notice in AYBS the jokes are fairly obvious. There is a non-digetic sound of laughing in place to queue the audience that there was a joke. Reason for this perhaps was to announce that it was funny and was a joke rather then trying to be offensive to keep it's happy mood. Nowadays in the likes of MisFits, the audience have to be active to understand the humour and also allows preference to allow the viewer to see if it's for them or not rather then spoon feeding a reaction making therefore, MisFits more liberating for an audience in contrast to AYBS' way of giving expectations to society of what IS and what ISN'T funny.
Are there any similarities in the comedy?
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