It’s time to say goodbye to the lovely sitcom TV shows that bring smiles to so many faces. I know it’s sad to see them go, but I hope to keep you entertained with my next topic! I have decided to transition to a different passion to talk about. It’s a passion that I have been involved with since I was about five years old. I have grown up with it, and it has become a fun, enjoyable part of my life.

In my first semester, I joined Penn State’s Sher Bhangra team. I was very excited to be surrounded by people who enjoyed dancing this style of dance called Bhangra. As I mentioned before, I was always involved with it in some manner, but coming to a college environment and still being able to do it made it a little more special. Maybe it was because of the diversity I felt it exhibited, or maybe it was the fact that I could do it in my own way, without any parents watching. It just felt different and unique! Not only did I feel a different experience joining it, but I also started to have a greater appreciation for the dance. I started to understand the greater complexities and meanings held within the moves, the history, and the elements of bhangra.

This is what I want to share with you in my blogs coming up throughout the semester. I want to share with you what I have discovered and learned about the dance, beyond just the moves.

To start, let’s get into what the dance is. Bhangra is a traditional, folk dance based from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. The style originated from the 14th and 15th centuries and was becoming more known and popular in the early to mid 1800s based on historical records. It has continued to grow in popularity ever since. The traditional method consisted of live singers singing in Punjabi, the language of the region. Accompanied with the singers would be dancers that would “freestyle” to the beat of the drums. This beat is a unique one that isn’t heard in many other styles of music and it encourages energetic dancing in EVERYBODY. Whether at weddings or a local gathering, people will jump to their feet when they hear bhangra music. Of course, nowadays it has transitioned into a more modern style, but there is still an originality to the music and dance. Bhangra is not exclusive. In fact, it has developed as a result of multiple adaptations of moves and songs, and it is still growing today.

This is only a little on the amazing dance of bhangra that I have enjoyed so much in my life. I hope that you can learn the same as I share my knowledge and my story with you on this wonderful form of dance!

It has been a long time since I have been able to discuss the wonderful field of sitcoms. There have been many developments in the cinematic world, and I am back to bring you up to speed. Since my last blog, a new streaming service was released. On November 12th, Disney opened up the streaming service to the world, and it was a major attraction. It encountered such heavy traffic that the site crashed. It is now working properly, and many people are enjoying the variety of shows and movies on the platform. It has brought back many wonderful childhood memories for many people, particularly those of the millennial generation and early Gen Z folks.

I have fallen victim to this as well. While I was not one of the first to sign up and experience the crash, I still managed to get my account. Since then, I have continued my binging behavior with shows that I have not seen since I was 11 or 12. Just browsing through, I and many others had flashbacks to watching these shows. We would return from school, and turn on the TV. Our first instinct would always be to watch Disney, and we would enjoy all of the shows as they shuffled through. It truly was a simpler time then. A time where we were simply loving the shows because of all of the comedic elements. The sources of comedy were mostly from the pranks, challenges, and mischief of the kids on these teen sitcoms.

For those who have an account have, you have probably fell into the trap of binging through the early 2000s teen sitcoms, or you have begun some originals such as the proclaimed Mandalorian. For those who are still trying to find the money to get your account, sit back and relax as I explain to you the wonderful, teen sitcoms of Disney Plus.

Perhaps one of the most famous shows that we grew up with was The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. This show introduced two twins who were portrayed as opposites in almost every manner with the exception of their appearance. Each episode highlighted a different dilemma Zack and Cody would place themselves in. They would interact with many characters on a daily basis either trying to recruit their help in solving the problem and avoiding others to prevent getting caught. Zack and Cody were young children living in a luxurious hotel with their mom. There was also an infamous manager, Mr. Mosby, who despised the kids and was constantly annoyed by their actions. The relationship between the three can be seen as perhaps the best of the show and the most humorous too. I always loved each episode from start to end. In the beginning, many episodes would start with Zack, the more mischievous one, playing some form of a prank. Cody was considered the more disciplined one, but he was still a kid after all. Both of them would make the hotel their playground. This represented the true childhood everybody wished they could have, and this drew viewers to the show. Each episode showed a different prank that always kept me and several other kids engaged. In fact, it still keeps me engaged today as I begin watching the show again!

The show also had a spinoff that had the same characters with a few changes. The plot, however, focused on the same forms of pranks and mischief. The show, The Suite Life on Deck, was located on a cruise ship instead of a hotel, but it never failed to disappoint with all of its humorous and hilarious components.

The next teen sitcom that I enjoyed and continue to enjoy now is Wizards of Waverly Place. Featuring three kids learning the spells and tricks of magic from their dad, the show has a similar form of comedy as Suite Life. It shows a new, crazy development each episode, and it shows how the characters work to get the family’s life under control. Alex Russo is the main character, and she is generally the character that sets off the new situation the family must combat. As I have mentioned, the family has a strong relationship with one another, and this attracts many viewers. The humor from the crazy dilemmas and the workings of the characters makes one cohesive show that I have enjoyed watching for the past few days.

There are many others shows that are on my watchlist, and as soon as I have cleared through these two I will move onto the next few. I would recommend that you get started on the binging as well just as I am going to get back to my own binging after this post.

I guess I have to take another break from binge-watching Netflix to write this blog. Although, I think I’m having fun revisiting some nice memories of the shows I have already talked about or I will talk about in upcoming posts. Today, I won’t necessarily go down one specific memory lane to focus on one specific show. Instead, I am going to focus on a generalization of how sitcoms have revolved certain character dynamics.

Throughout the evolutionary themes of sitcoms, we can notice two simple styles of characters. They generally revolve around either a tight-knit group of friends or a family, generally, with the stereotypical number of members. In the early rise of sitcoms on television, there was greater focus on family dynamics. More conservative ideologies of what would be aired were incorporated into the writings of the show. This usually forced writers to focus on families in their show, so it would seem more family friendly. Furthermore, once a template of what a family sitcom is was established, other writers would “copy” similar elements. This was the first revolution of trends in the genre. Shows would include families that had parents that loved each other, but would have the general argument in a comedic manner. They would also showcase two or three kids who had their own, individual lives and personalities. Overall, it would all be incorporated into one show with dynamic flow across all relationships imaginable. Shows such as The Andy Griffith Show through Family Matters all showcased these familiar styles.

Not only were these shows revolutionary in that they carried similar trends; but also, they allowed for audiences to relate. We like to think of ourselves as having crazy, weird relationships with our family members. Now that we could actually see another (albeit fictional) family behaving in a similar manner, we feel connected. It makes us realize that we are not alone when we have tough times as a family or get into fights. Many families would often see themselves as the character they correspond too. This also led to an increase in stereotypes of what American families should look like. The working father that goes out to provide for the family, or the rebellious kid that always causes some sort of trouble for the whole family to deal with. Repetition of these template characters leads to enforcement that this is how real world relationships are like too. In modern times, we haven’t looked to fondly on this repeated enforcement. There have been some changes to increase the diversity of characters. A show that has been praised for increased diversity is Modern Family. They have included different character personalities and they have been successful in doing so. Here’s to hoping that more diversity of families is brought to the sitcom industry.

Last time we talked about the show Friends, and it is deemed as one of the most influential and revolutionary sitcoms. It has been inspirational for other writers to incorporate basic elements into their new attempts of making the next big show. The reason it is praised as such is because of the character dynamics it introduced. As seen from the title, the show established a new trend that shifted towards focusing on friendships. There were other shows prior to this that delved into friendships too, but Friends had been given the greatest credit to this shift. Shows such as New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, and Parks and Recreation have all employed friendship dynamics. Many argue that their source of inspiration has stemmed from the success of Friends. This can be seen by how they also incorporate stereotypical characters. Whether it be the friends that end up dating by the end of the show or the one friend that no one knows what they do for a living, there are trends across these friendship shows. Similar to the familial shows, these shows also provide for some connection to the audience to classify themselves as one of the friends in their friend groups. So go ahead and go on to Buzzfeed and find a quiz to see which character you relate to best.

(You and your friends after finding out who you really based on Buzzfeed quizzes)

Friendship shows are a recent occurrence in terms of the timeline of sitcoms as a whole. Nonetheless, there have been pushes for more diverse friend groups to be represented. Overall, there have been changes across sitcoms, but the basic elements are generally consistent across all shows. Without these trends in characters, would it really be a sitcom? I suggest you think about this by watching some Netflix or other streaming service you prefer, particularly one with good sitcoms, just like I will do.

I am going to try to take a break from binging all of these Friends episodes. It’ll be hard, but I think I can get through this blog post. Maybe I could watch more of the show. It might help me with my topic for this week. The topic of Ross and Rachel’s on again off again relationship spans the whole show, so maybe I should keep watching until I finish, right?

I’ll get right into it, so I can quickly return to the watching.

Across all 10 seasons of the show, Friends, we see one major plot development that always has brought viewers closer to the show. It is the complicated, baffling, and lovable relationship between Ross and Rachel. For those who don’t know, Friends is a sitcom that focuses on the lives of six close friends. The show focuses on all sorts of elements like their relationships, careers, and lifestyles. This main element of Ross and Rachel’s relationship is highlighted by the writers heavily, and the viewers are able to pick up on the recurrence of it too. It starts right from the first episode where Ross drools over Rachel, and it spans to the last episode where they end up together.

The first connection actually stretches to a backstory from the character’s high school days. However, at this time, the relationship only flowed in one direction. Ross had a big crush on Rachel, but Rachel didn’t know much about it. It wasn’t until a later time where they met as adults with independent lives, that the true love story began unfolding. Ross tried kindling the romance at first, but Rachel was taken. Then, when Rachel heard of Ross’ feelings, she tried to garner Ross’ attention, but he was in another relationship. Eventually, in the second season, they both have an understanding of the full situation. Sounds complicated, right? Well, it gets worse.

After dating for a while, the relationship began to pick up pace. Both of the characters began to get more and more involved in their respective lives. Work and other lifestyle elements made it difficult for the two to have the best relationship, especially with Ross becoming more jealous of someone at Rachel’s work. (I’m sure you can see where this is leading.) As a result, they spend a few nights apart. This leads to Ross cheating on Rachel while at a party; more-so, it leads to the most famous line of the whole show: “We were on a break!”

This style of relationship continues throughout the show, and it continues in its ups and downs. Some iconic moments include when Ross says Rachel’s name at the altar despite marrying someone else and when Rachel gets pregnant. All of this leads to the final stage of them ending up together in the season finale. This leaves the viewers with a happy ending and a happy answer on what would happen to them.

Now that you have heard the exhausting story of the two, you must be wondering, what made the writers include this for so long? Also, why did the viewers want to watch this with all of the twists and turns? Look no further.

In general, we love to hear love stories. It is what drives our society into the gossiping and dramatic world it is. We also get very attached to stories as a whole. Since the show did not include many other elements that transcended across all seasons, it was easy for the audience to become attached to this one plot development. Furthermore, sitcoms are not necessarily thought of as having plots, but with this unique element, the writers could make it seem as if one existed in this show. This was also strengthened with the employment of comedy to lighten the mood. Since comedy makes people feel better, the writers included it so the attachment to the characters was not very serious. The comedy allows for easier connections to be made to characters on the show. Most people will watch the show and relate themselves and their friends to the characters on the show. These connections people feel allow them to understand that they are not alone. It also highlights realistic life events like the awkwardness of having a crush or going on the first date with that crush. To relate it to the Roschel relationship, we like to see crazy and twisty events because it makes us feel more normal. It shows that no matter the extremes of the relationship on TV, we too can handle it and that it is not out of our scope. The writers were able to understand this psychological idea behind their audience, and as a result, they wrote one of the greatest sitcoms in the world. Their execution as a whole allowed people to get hooked to comedy, personal connections, and lifestyle connections.

Now that you see the real complexities of Roschel and the reasons we like it, you can start appreciating it more as you watch. Speaking of, what are you doing right now? The correct answer is watching Friends!

Things are going to take a “darker” turn in this blog, but don’t turn away just yet. There may not be as much comedy in this blog, but there is a funny reference coming up.

In this post, I am going to discuss The Office, and how it offers a subtle way of understanding the comedy in the show. This is a sitcom that revolves around the lives of office workers for a paper company called Dunder Mifflin. It is a “mockumentary” which means it is set-up to look like a camera crew is recording the lives of these people. However, this is not a real documentary that is being released to the real world. The show has many characters that vary with the kinds of characteristics they exhibit, and there are many other complexities involved in the show which I will address in this post.

People who have seen this show will talk about how great it is and how they love it, but they will also most likely point out the struggle it was to watch certain scenes across all season. Certain scenes have elicited a “cringy” feeling in the audience, yet there was still loyal viewership for the show. This was because the laughter that is elicited is not direct, but more subtle. When faced in difficult situation, that may be cringy, we tend face a moment of cognitive dissonance. This is the mental discomfort we feel as a result of inconsistent/contradictory thoughts. As a result of cognitive dissonance, our outcomes/feelings may not be in line with the situation. This can be seen through scenes of the office. We observe awkward moments in the show, and we don’t know how to react which results in us turning to laughter.

Michael Scott is the perfect example of how we divert our dissonance towards laughter. He is the boss of the regional office in Scranton, PA. He is a quirky person with, what many of us would say is, behavioral oddities. Many would agree that he is not competent to manage the office, and that he often gets the characters into deeper trouble than what they would be like without him. This is the kind of character he is. To put a general word to it, he is seen as a narcissist. He is very self-centered and wants all of the success in the world with little work to do. With this, why is it funny to watch the show? We attain our laughter because of the contradictions he has in his internal personality. Because of his incompetence, we view him as a child. As with children, we often view their slip-ups as humorous. This same ideology can be applied to Michael Scott. He has the external view of being a self-centered person, but we can observe through the show that he also plays it off as a child. He is not fully aware of how he acts and the kind of effects it has, which allows us to be forgiving to him. These two contradictory personality styles actually work in unison, and it leaves with a feeling of laughter.

We can observe this scenes throughout all seasons of the show, and I will pick a couple to demonstrate this:

• In the episode, Money, Michael is going through financial trouble. His girlfriend and himself have been spending lots of money on unnecessary items which leaves him in a state of confusion and worry. One coworker advises him to “declare bankruptcy” , and he takes it quite literally. He walks into the office and does just that. He literally says (declares) the words “I. Declare. Bankruptcy!” Afterwards, he walks in to his office and thinks everything has been resolved:

Hahahahaha. This scene makes me laugh so much. I had trouble writing this without laughing. On the surface, this would be seen as a very immature and unprofessional way to handle the situation. However, with the context of his character, we understand and can see the humor in everything.

• There are also many scenes in which he will use his iconic catchphrase “Thats what she said”. On its own, we can interpret it as an inappropriate, awkward phrase. It can be cringy as well. However, considering the repetition of the phrase throughout the seasons and the characteristics of Michael Scott, the writers implemented this as a source of comedy for the audience.

Everything I discussed is only a part of the show. I focused primarily on Michael Scott’s character and broke that down into what the true source of comedy is. There are many other components of the show that make it funny, so definitely check it out. Get on Netflix quick before they take it down!

“Hahahaha”, “Oh my god! Stop! I can’t stop laughing”, “LOL”, (chuckles), . What’s your style?

Whatever your style of laughing, people can understand universally the joy one experiences when they laugh. Some people are reserved with their sense of humor, while others scream it out for the whole world to hear. Regardless of the style, we can relate. Laughter is welcomed by everyone because it is a positive emotion, and people feel a rush of joy. If you want to continue that happiness in your life, then you’ll love what I got in this blog.

Television is a huge part of our culture, and we have multiple formats on which we can enjoy watching TV. Perhaps the biggest presence on TV is held by situational comedies, the kind that brings you laughter. (Did you know thats what it stood for?) Sitcoms are immensely populating our culture, and this great presence in the culture has hit me. I have an addiction to sitcoms, and I think I’ll channel my thoughts into this blog.

Featuring hilarious clips and relatable, awkward moments in our lives, I have the sitcoms that everybody loves. They bring happiness to people, and they can pull people out of dark times in life. The great thing about sitcoms is not only the laughter it brings, but it’s also the relatability factor they hold. We can place ourselves in the shoes of the characters. The writers of the show sometimes even base the show on personal experiences. As we watch them, we find ourselves trying to figure out which character we are, whether it be a Michael Scott (The Office):

 

 

or a Steven Hyde (That 70s Show):

 

 

We may even go so far out to take some BuzzFeed quizzes just to confirm that we are those characters. Believe me, I have done multiple. Though they may not be accurate, you still want to try it out. Things may seem exaggerated on TV, but when you look at the basis of what truly happened, you can see parallels between the universe of sitcoms and reality. This element of relatability to everybody in the world, is a great factor that I will try to touch upon as I analyze, but mostly watch a lot of sitcoms. (It will give you a nice excuse to indulge in some Netflix watching too)

The beauty of sitcoms also presents itself in the amount of attachment we feel to them. There are strong emotions besides laughter that writers also try to evoke. These emotions can be seen in times of heavy plots. Often a character undergoes a dilemma that does not have a clear solution, and it can lead to stressful and emotional periods of deliberation for the character. We as an audience get attached to this as well. We want to know what’s going to happen and what sort of decisions the character will make. This ties into the relatability and it becomes more enjoyable too.

I want to focus on all of these elements because they bring joy to me. Sitcoms have made me laugh randomly and I have been able to relate my life to characters in the shows as well. It’s sort of like a psychological analysis of what sitcoms are. Like mentioned above, I’ll try to find some situations that people often relate to, and I will also try to show how people have reacted to these scenes too. Not to worry, you will also get some great laughing time too, courtesy of clips from great shows.

The list of sitcoms is quite large, even those that are classics. You can start from the beginning with I Love Lucy and you can bring it all the way to the present with Parks and Recreation. There is a lot to choose from, so it will be difficult to choose. Let me know if you want to hear about anything in specific. I’m open to all suggestions, and I also want to watch more shows too. Plus, now I have a valid excuse to watch Netflix. (Just an FYI, I am currently binging Thats 70s Show)

Sitcoms (The best genre for TV)

Browsing through Netflix, I see that my recommended list of shows always tend to be sitcoms. Perhaps, I watch them a little too much for them to always show up on that list, but I still love them! They gauge my interest across all seasons of the show, and each new show seems better than the last. I have loved watching sitcoms as they have made me laugh incredibly hard, and they have made me invested in their story. Many may consider sitcoms to not have plots or major storylines, but there are elements that carry through many shows in a season. There is also an element of relatability as sitcoms try to mock the every day lifestyle of many people. The portrayal of working at a job or family dynamics in sitcoms allow us to feel connected to it because we feel the same way. These connections and more psychological relations are what I would research and observe to explore this passion.

 

US Educational System (and around the world)

I have only experienced the United States’ education system, and I can only describe my own experience. Yet, when I hear stories of others in the country and around the world, there are many differences I spot in the systems. I have experienced a strong emphasis on standardized testing, and others in the country have experienced the same but in a different and more difficult process. Likewise, some people around the world, such as Finland, may have no emphasis on standardized testing. I have always had a strong passion to study the differences in these systems. Most particularly, I have observed how the testing is different across the world. For this passion possibility, I would like to continue this into more formal research and expand my horizon to the overall style of education systems across the world.

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