Humor And Satire In The Roseanne Show

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Satire and sarcasm are used every day to get ones’ views across. The Roseanne show both, past and present, does just that. Roseanne is an expert at using not only sarcasm and satire, but also humor to express her point of view through the writing of her TV show. The Roseanne show debuted on October 18, 1988 and ran until May 20, 1997. In its early days the show was created to portray an average working-class family. It was one of the few on the air that mimicked the traditions of shows like The Honeymooners, and one of the last to succeed before TV comedy was taken over by upper-class white folks who never seemed to worry about money. (VanDerWerff) The show was tough and honest and often provoking. It could pivot from very funny to very heartbreaking …show more content…

Williams when asked where his ideas came from said “you write what you know.” (Bennett) Williams is the son of blue-collar parents who created the characters as a consolidation of his own family members. Goranson when interviewed by TODAY stated that she the biggest impact of the show was “this archetypal family that had story lines around money issues and personal issues and love and ... that was such a mirroring for families in the United States and around the world. I think it really helped people communicate better ... and also not feel isolated.” (Bennett) Williams said the intent of his writing was "to represent the people I grew up with — without condescending — and basically celebrate this working-class family with a husband and wife who loved each other." (Bennett) The writing of the original series did just that – it kept it real. Williams stated about his writing and ideas for the show “they were real people to me, and I wanted to write about their experiences. …show more content…

The primary writer is Roseanne Barr and the tone of the show hinges a lot on her political views and the issues that confront Americans today. The first episode aired on March 27, 2018 after a twenty-year hiatus and on it Roseanne and her sister have not spoken for two years because Jackie voted for Jill Stein and Roseanne is an ardent Trump supporter. Roseanne, still wanting to target working-class white people, is using her partisan politics to reach them. The new version of the show is tackling the issues of today by including the opioid crisis, cost of health insurance, high unemployment, and transgender/gay rights. Although Roseanne is an outspoken supporter of President Trump and conservative she has maintained the progressivism of the show in the way that her writing addresses common issues and problems that her fictional family are facing. Daughter Becky wants to become a surrogate mother and although Roseanne is initially against it she is reminded by her sister Jackie that “You always believed a woman had a right to decide what happens to her body,” and Roseanne relents. (Paskins) In the second episode of this new season Darlene, who is now a single mother with two children, son Mark wants to wear girls’ clothes to school. Darlene is okay with this, as she states that he is not gay or transgender, he just likes to dress