การประกอบสร้างเชิงสังคมของอารมณ์ขันในรายการตลกสถานการณ์ทางโทรทัศน์ไทย / วิทยา พานิชล้อเจริญ = Social construction of humour in Thai sitcom / Vithaya Panichlocharoen
The objectives of this research “Social Construction of Humour in Thai Sitcom” are to study 1) the development of social construction process of humour in Thai situational comedy programmes; 2) the content shift in humour construction since 2002; and 3) the comedy presentation relating to social construction of humour in Thai situational comedy programmes since 2002. Results show that the significant turning point that affected such development was in 1996, when opportunities were opened to professional comedians or the so-called “lounge comedians” to take key roles in Thai situational comedy TV programmes. This has brought about changes in three dimensions. First, the programme content and format, which were once occupied by the middle class, have been opened to the lower class. Second, there has been a combination of humour styles of the lower and the middle classes. Third, the audience base has been expanded from the middle class to the lower one. These changes led to the fact that most of the situational comedies produced in such manner since 2002 have become successful and been aired continuously for quite a long time. In terms of content shift, since 2002, there have been more varieties of conflicts in the sitcoms’ content. Meanwhile, the plots of Thai sitcoms, either before or after 2002, showed no difference in their “kind”, but in the “degree” to which the plots were presented. Furthermore, since 2002, Thai sitcoms have featured more protagonist actors / actresses and more professional comedians. More public spaces or places have been used as a centre of narration. The situations have taken place more in the suburb and rural surroundings. The study further reveals that, in expressing humour through the show, Thai sitcoms produced after 2002 have been inclined towards being a “farce” rather than a “comedy”. Moreover, most social interaction pairs in the sitcoms have been dominantly presented through the plot device.
