Research: How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005. The show was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays. As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor), in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting their mother, which explains the title and allows for a narration in the past tense. How I Met Your Mother's other main characters are Marshall Eriksen (played by Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (played by Cobie Smulders), Barney Stinson (played by Neil Patrick Harris), and Lily Aldrin (played by Alyson Hannigan). As of 2009, it is currently the only multi-camera sitcom on a major television network that features a laugh track of a live studio audience.
Media Representations
Who is being represented?
There are many different representations in the sitcom 'How I Met Your Mother'.
Some of these representations include the typical married couple stereotype, the pretty single female and the single male looking for love. These roles are played by the 5 main characters in the sitcom. These representations can be seen as exaggerated stereotypes of what is being represented as they are not trying to be based on true representations, but more as direct links so the audience can identify what the characters personality is like by knowing what the character is being stereotyped as. This also creates an inaccurate representation and can sometimes mislead the audience into thinking that all people that fit their characteristics are the same.
Media Languages and Forms
Due to the content of humor involved, there is a very high level of connotative levels of meaning involved in this sitcom. Many of the punch lines are either double meaning or are implied in more than one way, rather than just explicitly saying what is being put across. Also, because some of the connotations of the humour would involve some background knowledge of certain countries or political views, it suggests that the audience would need some significant background knowledge to understand the humor in the being put across.
The characters in the sitcom use allot of movement and facial gestures to emphasis on such techniques like sarcasm or punch lines. Another non verbal technique used to present the personalities of the characters is their dress sense. For example, the character Barney Stinson, wears a suit and tie showing he cares about his appearance and what people think about him, presenting him as a very shallow character.
The setting is located in New York, in an apartment building. The use of an apartment shows an almost trapped environment, where the characters cannot escape one another causing conflict and creating humor. This technique is good because it can be used in multiple scenarios throughout the sitcom, for example the bar located at the end of the street which can be seem as another small secure location where the characters are almost trapped in.
Narrative
The narrative for this sitcom is set in the past tense and the main character, Ted, is telling his children about how he met their mother. In the first 5 minutes of the opening sequence it normally begins with voice over narrative to summarise the plot that will take place in the episode. After that the rest of the episode is played out by the characters as if it were happening in present time, when really it is just a representation of Ted telling his past experiences. The audience are positioned in two different ways in this sitcom. One obvious way is the position of the kids. We as the audience watch the sitcom to not only be humoured but also to find out how Ted met his wife. This puts us in the position of Teds children as we are almost listening to Ted as he explains each story, as if we were there sitting with his children. We as an audience are also put in the position of Ted telling the narrative to his children as we see in the opening sequence that Ted is not shown we only hear his voice.
During the episodes, music is used to add emphasise on the atmosphere of some of the scenes. For example if a character is about to receive bad news then there will be no non diegetic sound, whereas after the news is received, then depending on if it is good or bad the non diegetic sound will adapt to be either slow (for bad) or upbeat (if good).
Genre
The genre of this sitcom is simply a comedy. The generic conventions included to suggest this is the use of humour, stereotypical characters and small locations (e.g. coffee house as seen in the sitcom ‘Friends’). We can also tell this is a sitcom because of the major generic themes involved. These include such themes of romance, humour and life lessons. Because there are so many sitcom titles in this particular genre, the audience’s expectations are only as high in comparison to the criteria of the last major sitcom. This would be the sitcom ‘Friends’ as it revolves around similar themes and aspects as ‘How I Met Your Mother’. It also has a similar number of characters and features settings and locations that are almost the same as the sitcom Friends. This means that the audience will have a very high expectation of How I Met Your Mother as Friends was a very successful sitcom.
Media Audiences
The sitcom is aimed at middle aged 20 - 40 year old working class people living in a city environment. The target audience this text is addressed for is both male and female and can be of any race as there are no real alienations of a particular race in the sitcom. This sitcom however is aimed at working class D,C1 and C2 working professionals as the audience may understand the characters work environment more if they themselves work in a similar environment (e.g. Lilly who is a school teacher).
Because this text is not trying to represent any particular race or belives, there are not many negative readings that can be drawn out from the text. However some negative readings can be drawn out from the characters themselves as some people may find some of the representations inaccurate and offensive. Also some people may find the humour offensive aswell especially the use of comical jokes directed towards Canada.
Exclusive: How I Met Your Mother Interview
The Bro Code was established by the all knowing and powerful Barney Stinston. Barney has two absolute rules in life; one is that you must suit up for everything and the second if that you live and die by his Bro Code. The Bro Code is a set of rules and guidelines to help guide bros through life. Not that breaking any of the rules is seen as an act of betrayal.
Bro Code
A Bro never divulges the existence of the Bro Code to a woman. It is a sacred document not to be shared with chicks for any reason...no, not even that reason.
A bro will, in a timely manner, alert his bro to the existence of a girl fight.
A bro is always entitled to do something stupid, as long as the rest of his bros are all doing it.
A bro shall never reveal the score of a sporting event to another bro until that bro has thrice confirmed it’s cool.
Should a bro pick up a guitar at a party and commence playing, another bro shall point out that he is a tool.
How I Met Your Mother is a fresh, upbeat and hysterical comedy about five adults living and working in Manhattan who frequent the same bar every night and tend to only fraternize only with each other. The fictional five-some are played by Jason Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan, and Bob Saget as future Ted. How I Met You Mother airs Monday nights on CBS and this is one comedy you don't want to miss!
Try to keep up: Ted is the narrator of the show and was roommates with Marshall in college. While in college Ted and Marshall met Lily and Marshal and Lily have been together ever since. After college, the three moved to Manhattan where they meet Barney and Robin. Robin was a pop superstar in Canada and moved to New York to pursue her career in journalism. There really are no words that can describe Barney; he is outrageous, conceited, and hands down the funniest character on television. PopStar spoke with executive producer, Carter Bays about his comedy, some upcoming guest stars and the future of How I Met Your Mother.
(Article was used from: http://news.popstar.com/Landing/729)
Official Website: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/
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