are sight gags a lost art?

i've been watching the british sitcom "the i.t. crowd" and i started realizing how many sight gags they use and then i was trying to think of u.s. shows that still regularly use sight gags and couldn't think of one. is it just me or have u.s. sitcoms and comedic movies pretty much only been based on verbal, not visual, jokes for, say, the past 10 years (arbitrary period)?

i know this thread is just going to be people listing individual sight gags from lame sitcoms to prove me wrong but i hope i dream that something beautiful will blossom

Are sight gags now disused because of "People/Pets do the funniest things" type programmes?

I don't watch enough tv to know but this sounds like a really interesting thing to investigate!

btw that is not a braggin' "oh sniff sniff I don't watch tv" it's just over the past 5 years the pacing of my days has been so weird that I end up never seeing anything unless it's boxing on ESPN classic (loads of sight gags) or SVU reruns (sight gags galore)

SVU reruns (sight gags galore)

― a full circle lol (J0hn D.), Monday, September 21, 2009 6:40 PM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're thinking of blindfolds

30 Rock and Arrested Development both include sight gags.

I will refrain from listing them so as to allow something beautiful to blossom.

it seemed like 30 rock should have some but i couldn't think of anything specific

Isn't Dr. Spaceman running down the corridor with a cape on a sight gag, for example?

Or Tracy's various posters, or some of Frank's hats (for example, when he dressed up)?

simpsons is the only stalwart i can think of. (just remember 'raccoon's choice' brand trashcans from last night - chuckleworthy. strongish episode overall actually)

I think there's probably a difference between a sight gag and a visually funny situation. This is a sight gag:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_blGfuJqvbMU/RYk-ymuk8MI/AAAAAAAAADc/kQnXsgDIOAg/s320/Arrested_Development_-_Good_Grief.jpg

The IT Crowd is a bit of an anomaly even in Britain though as it's consciously going for sort of an old-school feel.

right ... i tried looking for a good definition online to post but all i could find was something like "a visual joke" which doesn't really help

plus graham linehan (creator of the i.t. crowd and father ted) cops to being very influenced by the simpsons

Does the episode of How I Met Your Mother with Robin's tv show in the background count?

30 Rock does this pretty well with Jack magazine covers/photos with X or Y and writers room shizz and costumes and posters etc.

fucking molezilla is the funniest shit evah

nuff

i feel like office/us inserts a lot of these and then chickens out by doing a quick zoom (i think they would have to change the blocking altogether to make them sight gags but the seeds of sight gags are all over the place). closest thing you get is creed's actions/expressions in the background

One point of comparison might be that the UK Office used a lot of surprising visual jokes, whereas the US Office leans a lot more on the interview/"confessional" one-liner.

Three speculations on why this might be true: (a) US comedy is more beholden to the multi-camera, sound-stage, family-type sitcom, where visual jokes are hard to set-up, so it's all verbal, situational, or slapstick ... and (b) US television seems like it always has to try and satisfy much broader audiences -- brief niches seem a lot less feasible -- so every joke needs to be abundantly clear, and subtle visual/background put-it-together-in-your-head gags aren't seen as worth it.

Good evidence of both would be that single-camera niche shows like AD and 30 Rock get to do a lot more visual gags, or at least make background jokes in dressing their sets; that animated shows get to do this, since there are 8 verbal jokes per second anyway; and that actually I'm pretty sure it's cable-channel drama shows, the types where it's assumed that people are watching really closely, that do this most often -- e.g. like Mad Men or the Wire or the Sopranos will use visual jokes, and can be a lot more sure you're paying attention and not just half-listening while doing the dishes.

haha that was an xpost -- that's true, whenever the US Office does them there tends to be a major focus-in zoom, like the camera notices them so you don't have to

I mean I would hate to have an opinion here as banal as "US television is dumbed down and doesn't trust you to pick up a visual joke" -- I don't think that's quite it -- but I do think there is some kind of awkwardness about needing audiences to be as big as possible and getting nervous that any joke might be missed, by anyone

like at least if someone is speaking you know there was a joke there, even if you don't get it; the visual fear seems to be that nobody will even notice anything was intended

Which is weird because the Zucker bros films were ALL ABOUT the sight gags (Airplane, etc)

Though to me, sight gags seem quite a british thing - I always think of the Goodies.

US Office season premiere had a great one, though: When the guys are doing "parkour" at the beginning, one of them hits the women's room door, and it briefly swings open to reveal Meredith shaving her armpits.

the nice thing about lack of sight gags is being able to "watch" tv shows on hulu in the background while i'm working

Paul Blart Mall Cop had some surprisingly good visual jokes, but I'm not entirely sure they meet the statutory definition of pure sight gags.

colbert has good sight gags on occasion, like the world being turned upside down and him fixing it with a big crank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcUVF1JZy14

@ 2:22