I know what you mean about modern comedy (I cringe at the sight of Alan Partridge...) but I'm willing to defend STEPTOE and TDUDP because they were really tragedies in the guise of comedy. It was clear in the pilot episode of STEPTOE that it was really HUIS CLOS (Sartre's play about 'Hell is other people') rewritten in a half-hour sit-com format. The last five minutes were unadorned tragedy as Harold desperately tries to pull the cart out of the yard, knowing that if he doesn't get out now he never will.
Similarly Alf is trapped by his own strengths and loyalties into a situation where he is both impotent and ridiculous.
The later iterations of this do it with less and less style and less and less seriousness, alas.
Michael Cule (Who really doesn't have the time to tend a LiveJournal account...)
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branchandroot
Tragedy and Comedy
Date: 2007-05-06 06:03 pm (UTC)Similarly Alf is trapped by his own strengths and loyalties into a situation where he is both impotent and ridiculous.
The later iterations of this do it with less and less style and less and less seriousness, alas.
Michael Cule
(Who really doesn't have the time to tend a LiveJournal account...)