I’m sure there’s plenty of people who are unfamiliar with it. It’s a term I’ve heard in my group of friends often enough, and it’s weird to me that Gary Larson would have just happened upon an example of a single-camera sitcom and parodied that with single-cell organisms and the caption “single-cell sitcoms” without intending the reference.
Deconstructing the joke, how does the idea it is a single-camera show contribute to the humor? Single-camera as opposed to what? Three/four-camera shows? Is there some pop-cultural significance to those formats that would make a reference to it significant or even remarkable? I think there’s too much thought put in this for no purpose. What kind of shows would single-celled organisms watch? Bacteria situation comedies. What kind of bars would bacteria frequent? Single-cell bars.
Yes there is. I’m pretty sure something like TV Guide is where I first learned the term. Like soap operas are usually mutli-camera, for instance. It has a different feel than a single-camera set-up. Friends was multi-camera. Big Bang Theory was multi-camera. Though right now, I don’t think there are many, if any.
Anyway, I may just have a disproportionate amount of TV nerds in my circle, but they will use “single-camera” and “multi-camera” sitcom when describing something I haven’t watched to me at times.
If it’s not intentional, then I guess I found it funny because of some coincidence. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have found it humorous at all. So maybe I am overthinking it, but it’s what makes it funny to me, so I’ll prefer to believe it was intentional.
Since we know that explaining a joke always makes it funnier, here is a list of single-camera sitcoms. There are only about 300 in the list, so it is definitely obscure.
There. Already starting to get that chuckle bubbling up?
I Love Lucy was unusual in that it was filmed with 3 cameras instead of a single camera like sitcoms were done back then.
And then, instead of using it for a Scholarship or something, the fool drops it in the ocean.
For some reason, people think such a show is better. I dont get why.
I don’t think it’s a play on “single camera sitcoms”; apart from anything else, that phrase is too far removed from “single-cell bars” to be funny.
I think it’s a play on “singles bars”.
Yup, that’s it.
Yeah, but what’s particularly funny about it? Is one format innately funnier than the other? How would that feel contribute to the joke? Is there some irony involved? I think it is just coincidence. Larson’s comics are easy to find and he did a lot of bacteria/amoeba/single-celled jokes and in every single one of them the joke is on the single-celled aspect being ironically juxtaposed against our world. Perhaps in a multipanel strip and he was changing channels and chose that show over a multicamera show it might work. I just think it’s belaboring the joke. Larson is a better Jokesmith than that. The joke is fully realized and is consistent with his style just showing single-celled organisms would watch a sitcom about bacteria.
See below for an example.
Exactly. A simple punny reference. There’s no belabored meta reference in there, such as them serving single-malt whiskeys instead of blends. Just a quick, simple joke.
I just realized that the guy who turns into Werewolf by Night is named Jack Russell.
I once worked with a guy who was a dog breeder. He was planning a new breed that would be a cross between Jack Russell Terriers and Beagles. I suggested he call his new breed Jackles. It took him a couple of minutes to get it.
Because it’s a pun/wordplay and I like wordplay.
That’s kind of the issue. Is it, really? It’s just complicating a joke for no payoff. Would someone consciously chose one program over another because of the filming format? And would that experience be shared by enough people that we could see the bacterium’s behavior in ourselves and derive humor from it? Is, “Haha, he’s watching a specific format of programming that has a vague reference to his single-celledness where they use a single camera to film a show more cinematically instead of with multiple cameras in front of a live audience.” funnier than, “Haha, he’s watching the same trash we watch, but played out by his own type of organism.” Because I can post MANY examples of his other strips where that is exactly the gag. It’s kind of like the worst MST3K type of joke. Just a reference for reference’s sake. The “wordplay” is “Bacteria Bunch.” I might see it if the comic was in a TV trade publication where they might get some obscure inside meta reference. But, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
This might be generational. In the 80’s, laugh tracks, camera set-ups, and such were a constant topic of conversation. I don’t hear that much anymore. Nowadays it’s all about the CGI and locations.
I mean, for me, obviously yes.
There’s nothing wrong with a private joke and finding something funny on another level than might be intended.
If she sells it, it likely eventually becomes known she isn’t dead. Plus, some sort of ‘abandoning her old life’ motif.
What would you call a Bull Terrier / ShihTzu mix? Asking for a friend.
Bulltzu?
Tzurrier.