Episode 6 - Indianapolis
6 March 2012
Parks is a nice show. This was a proper episode of "light" comedy. By that I just mean there was no real story going on, there was nothing you had to take seriously. This was what old fashioned sit coms looked like, just characters making familiar jokes based off their established traits.
However I keep coming back to the exaggerations which make me not laugh at the jokes. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching the show. I think it's pleasant and I think the actors know their characters really well at this point. But I didn't like much of the comedy.
Every time a part of Ron's obsession with steak would start to amuse me they would take it too far. When he is trying to break down an obviously locked door or can't hold a normal conversation without mentioning steak in it he is no longer acting like a real person.
Then you have Leslie trying to comfort Ann with a list of bad break up stories. Why can't she tell one story that is funny and touching and makes the point that she is being a good friend? By listing the stories it makes it hard to ignore how exaggerated and fake they all sound. So often in modern sit coms I feel like the writers have too many ideas and won't focus on making one of them work.
Then there was Andy and April being cute on their first date. Again lovely "light" stuff until a Andy gets a tip in the bathroom for doing literally nothing. Why would a guy give him money for doing nothing? It's not hard to show Andy doing a half-assed job and getting a reluctant tip, why go that extra step?
We also get Tom's cologne being so disgusting to smell that it makes Ben want to vomit. Is that really necessary? Do people really find fake bad smells that funny? Again it just seems so obvious that Tom wouldn't have created a scent that was so clearly rank.
I really don't want to pick on Parks but it does sum up so much of what I don't like about the current state of TV comedy. People are so convinced that they hate being "told" to laugh by having a studio audience involved. Yet by making Parks look like real life (through the mockumentary format), I find its jokes feel much faker. If everyone talks in punclines its easier to buy into them being silly. When everyone talks like real people one minute and then acts like a cartoon the next, the humour suffers.
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