Peter Kay's Carshare - Audience Pleasures Exam Question

4. (b) Discuss in detail how one programme offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. [15 marks]

Peter Kay's Carshare Series One

Peter Kay's Car share is a 2015 situation comedy where each episode is 30 minutes long that offers a range of techniques including: audience pleasures, Katz' uses and gratification theory and numerous types of comedy that are all designed to make a link between the characters and audience demographic while making them laugh.

The first series consists of six 30 minute episodes that focus mainly around the audience pleasures: identifying with characters and physical comedy which helps to give entertainment to the viewers. For example, in episode 3 the programme continues to use the radio station, Forever FM to create continuity for the conversations in the car and appeal to the audience demographic. The cultural references to 1980s/1990s (when a song by Carol Decker comes on the radio) appeals to a C1 30-45 year old target audience. The cultural references that the two characters often talk/sing about along with the many adverts (that are in the form of innuendoes to add to the humour of the programme) are written as comedy sketches. This is a convention of situation comedy which adds to the audience pleasure identifying with characters as the viewers can relate to the conversations in the car. This is effective because it links to Katz' uses and gratification theory of personal identification.

Furthermore, episode 3's narrative is structured around John and Kayleigh trying to avoid the supermarket fish monger, Ray. The format of this narrative creates a series of different audience pleasures that all link to the pleasure of character identification. For example, as John and Kayleigh are driving to work and are stuck in traffic they see Ray and try to hide in the car so that he doesn't see them and get a lift. This is effective because it forms a link between the audience and the characters as they can relate with the situation. This in turn introduces the audience pleasure of specific performers as the actor who plays Ray is a well-known comedian called Reece Shears. By having another well-known comedian on the programme it forms a wider audience demographic and foreshadows that the events leading on from this scene will be very humorous. In addition,  as the narrative of this episode continues suspense starts to build up. This is because of the repetition of Kayleigh and John trying to avoid Ray throughout the episode: hiding in the car, John hiding in the box while Kayleigh tries to convince him to leave and when Ray chasing after John and Kayleigh in the car. The tense atmosphere is finally resolved when they manage to drive away from Ray and John calls him a "Psycho". This pleasure of narrative resolution is a convention of situation comedy and effectively creates a humorous atmosphere for the audience demographic by using humour that is part of the uses and gratification theory of personal identification and diversion.

The programme also uses the audience pleasure of physical comedy to give a range of humorous situations throughout the series. For example, in episode three Kayleigh puts the air freshener around her neck when Ray gets in the car and stinks of fish. This is humorous for the audience as it shows satire comedy that is making fun of Ray. This type of comedy is a convention of many types of comedy including sitcom and stand-up. By using this it draws a wider audience demographic in as the humour will appeal to more people of a wider age range. Furthermore, the use of satire comedy is emphasised by the audience pleasure of repetition and difference, when the use of verbal comedy is repeated after Kayleigh swears at Ray in Japanese (which she had already done to John) thinking that he won't understand her, but he does. This leads to Ray and Kayleigh arguing and calling each other names, e.g. "Amy Winehouse", "Moby dickhead"... This falls under Katz' uses and gratification theory of personal relationship and diversion as the viewers get to build a close bond with Kayleigh as she offers a humour that is unique to her character and allows them to become immersed in the programme during her comebacks at Ray.

In addition, the programme uses physical comedy again in episode five when John falls over and injures himself when he is running to the post box so that his Nan can get her birthday card in time. This use of physical comedy is enjoyable for the viewers as they take pleasure in John's humiliation at falling over and his pain. This is emphasised by the mocking of John further through the narrative by Kayleigh's niece and nephew. This use of Transgressive pleasure of Voyeurism and Schadenfreude, a situation comedy convention, offers different types of humour which have become unique to each of the characters. For example, in episode one the physical and Transgressive pleasure of Kayleigh spilling her urine sample on John. This build of the pleasure of familiarity of the characters makes the scene in episode five more humorous for the audience when the Kayleigh's niece and nephew make fun of John being in pain after his injury from falling over. This angers John and makes him frustrated at the children, especially when the nephew starts to copy everything that John says. This in turn creates a pleasure of character identification as the audience can relate to young children annoying them. This appeals to the audience demographic as their age range suits the humour. By using the audience pleasure of physical comedy and linking it to others it successfully uses the uses and gratification theory of personal identification as the viewers can relate to John's humiliation and anger at the situation.