30 Rock: Between Comedy and Social Criticism

Sunday, 14 December 2009
02.47PM
Haji Samali, Jakarta

For the past 3 seasons, I have been hooked, both as a viewer and as an observer, to the critically acclaimed 30 Rock. Aside from the fact that punchlines are smartly written and the unconventional shotlist and cut outs of frames, 30 Rock shares the social criticism that in American Pop Culture, I think, has only yet to be done by Saturday Night Live.

Favourite examples are The Rural Juror where Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), CEO of NBC, explains to show star Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) how to sell his celebrity endorsed defective 'Tracy Jordan Meat Machine' to an unknowing market with lack safety regulation. Another example is the ridiculous social experiment in Believe in the Stars between Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and Tracy Jordan about who has it worse in terms of social marginalisation, black men or white women (comparable to the race between Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton).

Difficult as it is, this show has successfully criticised social, economical, and political issues in the Unites States by means of comedy. What boggles me most is that by employing comedy (the assumption is that comedy is a significant tool since it requires a sound 'shared meaning' in order for something to be culturally acceptable as funny - in other words, funny = viewers), it ensures the engaging of viewers - and ensures the agenda setting of certain issues worth noticing about.

In Indonesia, political satires through comedy are on the works. Although still not up to par, Extravaganza shares some common qualities with Saturday Night Live in terms of formatting and, to some extent, content; by employing symbols of New Order national identity and re-introducing them into the pop cultural context. A more solid programme in political criticism is former showNewsdotcom: Republik Mimpi, where each actor plays a current political leader.

I must say, as a rationally loyal consumer to American comedy shows, Indonesian TV programmes are still behind in quality, both formatting and content. But in terms of the preservation of democracy through social criticism in comedy programmes; I am an optimist that we will see more of what's to come.