I meccanismi del comico in «The Big Bang theory». In margine a un libro recente

Abstract

The author reflects on the criteria that guided Iermano in the research and in the preparation of the volume, in which the main intent was to reconstruct the reasons for the success decreed for years now for the successful television series. The scholar observes that precisely the complex nature of the comic, a phenomenon that escapes by its very nature to univocal interpretations and theoretical approaches, and at the same time, its two-faced character, which winks to the imaginary while remaining firmly anchored to reality, makes reason for the choice made by the author in favor of an eclectic approach. A very opportune choice since the chosen field of investigation is precisely the comedian linked to the language of audiovisuals and to the expressive forms of multimedia communication. The scholar carefully analyzes the work method of the author who, quite rightly, ‘functionally’ recover some of the ideas of the great theoretical debate, starting from Aristotle, to explain the ‘comic reasons’ underlying the success of the sit-com object of his study. In this most appropriate relief it is reserved to the figure of the ‘nerd’, a character endowed with a very fine intellect, but essentially inept and insecure. And just around this figure, always marginalized and disheartened, excluded from American film and television productions, and now assumed to be the protagonist, the complex comic machine revolves.