Is Bigger Always Better? Musicals and Sitcoms and Big Characters

So, I've been listening to a great podcast, Sitcom Geeks, which is all about sitcoms (obvs) and is presented by a couple of, er...highly successful comedy writers, James Cary and Dave Cohen.

One thing that struck me (way back in Episode 2, if I remember) was the way in which they described leading sitcom characters. Sitcom characters, they theorised, should be Big in the sense of larger-than-life. They also need Big Flaws. And not just to stand on. That's because the Big Flaws are the root of the comedy so, the bigger the flaws, then the bigger the comedy. 

This is often true of musical theatre characters too. Although, in musicals, the Bigness is more to do with the fact that the characters sing and that, perhaps, is easier to believe in a larger-than-life character than it would be in a quieter, more inhibited type. (That's probably not really true but we'll park that thought for the moment.)

Now, I suspect that this Bigness can be off-putting for some people. Sometimes it can make characters feel cartoonish. But I'm not sure the reason for this is the Bigness. It's more to do with the other essential aspect of a sitcom character, as pointed out by the Geeks, and that is a lack of self-awareness. It's this lack of self-awareness that can make characters feel less like a real person.

There's an extraordinary example of this in Fleabag (the TV version, at least). There's a character with the improbable name of Bus Rodent, who has very Big Flaws and is, apparently, completely unaware of the fact. He's awkward and clumsy and says inappropriate things and, on top of that, he has these two enormous front teeth. Basically, he's someone to laugh at. 

At one point, however, his character turns on a dime, as our American friends say. Fleabag has just had very ungratifying sex with him and she fakes a climax. Bus picks her up on it: "You don't go through life with teeth like these and not know when somebody's pretending". With that single line and, for the briefest of moments, this ridiculous figure of fun turns into an ever-so-slightly more real and sympathetic character. All because he has shown a smidgen of self-awareness.

Now, the temptation is to conclude that the self-aware characters are the real ones and the big, cartoonish ones are the fakes. But here's the thing. If that's the case, then why do love the cartoon characters so much? And I don't mean, why do they make us laugh? I mean, why do we really, really love them?

In sitcoms, the likes of Captain Mainwaring from Dad's Army, Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers and The Office's David Brent are some of the most beloved characters in British popular culture. Yet, a defining feature of all of these characters, is their 'cartoonish' lack of self-awareness. If we met them in real life, they'd be nightmares at best; at worst, monsters (although, worryingly, I always felt that I'd get along with David Brent).

The same is true of musicals. Ado Annie from Oklahoma springs to mind, so completely and innocently unaware of the appropriate way to behave with men ("I'm just a girl who cain't say no"). And Adelaide from Guys and Dolls who wants to be a proper, upright lady but lacks the required sophistication ("Take back your mink/ To from whence it came"). And, perhaps, the ultimate example is Professor Higgins from My Fair Lady, a character so lacking in awareness of his own self-absorption ("Why can't a woman be like me?"), you could easily imagine him in his own sitcom spin-off.

And yet, and yet, despite being over-the-top and unrealistic, as with their sitcom counterparts, they are beloved characters. So what on earth is going on?

I think the reason is this: these characters are not fakes. In some ways, they are more real because they are us without the filters. Of course, they are not like 'real' people, the kind that we meet and know in our everyday lives. That's because in our everyday lives we all have filters. We don't express every thought, we don't act on every impulse. We're constrained by norms, morals, other people's perceptions. In fact, probably the main reason for our filters is the fear of being revealed to be just as moronic, embarrassing and petty as these cartoonish characters that we find in musicals and sitcoms. 

And that's why we love them; they allow us to acknowledge the parts of ourselves that are usually kept hidden. For all their contrived artificiality, these Big Characters can get to a truth that the more 'realistic' ones fail to reach.

It's another one of those Big, beautiful puzzlements.