*Knock knock* Who's there?

It's me, the oral presentation self-evaluation!

Okay, let's hold on for a moment. Could we all pronounce that together? 

O-ral pre-sen-ta-tion self-e-va-lu-a-tion.

Achievement unlocked: Dumbest introduction for a blog post ever.

Leeeeeeet's get ready to ruuuuuumbleeeeee.

Wow, Youtube's a good bro for once. Look at that thumbnail. It's AWESOME!

Oh, since I didn't take note of the updated evaluation chart before handing the paper in, I'll be using the good ol' classic chart from the official 2batspace © website.

Body language & eye contact (10%):

Yeah. I used my body to sell this topic. Literally. I was doubting until the very last moment if the Knock-Knock-Knock Penny demonstration was a good idea... I'm not sure, but at least I made a huge sacrifice. Really. At the beginning my eyes seek the paper a bit too much for my taste, but I think that part's quite solid. 9 out of 10

Presentation & structure (10%):

Yeah, there was a little error (und~and) and two videos that didn't work :/ It's strange because I tried to open the videos from the offline-version prezi and it worked at home. I guess they were linked to some kind of intermediate shortcut within my laptop's memory. Next time I'll try to check the videos using an another PC before the presentation. Also, because of that my presentation was a little too long :( 4 out of 10

Content (40%):

Okay, by all modesty, the content was LEGEN- wait for it -DARY. Oh yeah, by the way, precisely, the "Legendary" gag. It didn't work as expected. I should have foreseen this. A part from that, it's interesting because I tend to decide spontanously during the presentation to skip some boring or unnecessary parts or dumb gags (they seem perfectly funny the night before, I swear!).

This makes me reflect about these stand-up comedians who sometimes act in programmes of more than 2 hours constantly telling their prepared stories and jokes. How do they memorize all these things? How don't they mix up or forget their script? The maximal amount of time I could imagine to be speaking in front of people about a prepared topic is 30 minutes. But I doubt I'd be able to fill that time with good gags. I remark: good ones. 37,5 out of 40

Vocabulary and grammar (20%):

I always do my best to include more than basic vocabulary but without making the comprehension harder than necessary. After all, an oral presentation should include, in my opinion, a dynamic and witty language. But, if it gets overly sophisticated, I would be bored by myself while exposing the topic. If there's no one listening, they can't appreciate the dynamics.  20 out of 20

Pronunciation & intonation (20%):

I checked all the words I could potentially pronounce wrong. I think I was talking a little too fast at some points though, it sounded like I was muttering a bit. 17,5 out of 20

Final mark (100%): 9+4+37,5+20+17,5 = 88 -> That's an 8,8 then

What to improve... What to improve you ask? Really? I mean, really? If you had actually read all the text above, you'd know by now that I already commented about the things I could improve. >:(

Ok, just for you, because you're really special: look less at my notes and more into the beautiful eyes of the wonderful people of my class, triple-check videos and possible misspellings in my presentation, analyse better the functionality of my gags and, finally, speak a little clearer.4

And eventually, here's my initial script including some errors and lots of stuff I didn't talk about in the final presentation. Either because it was getting too long or because I noticed that some things better remain unsaid. Especially if they're dull and don't contribute positively to the content. 

Modern American Sitcoms

Introduction

Good morning everybody! Today I’d like to begin my presentation with some questions. Don’t worry, they are easy ones.

Do you know these series? (pointing to prezi)

Ok, now one by one, how many of you watch Two and a Half Men, more or less regularly? Please raise your hand. Good and now EXTRA POINTS for everybody who watches Two And A Half Men. Ok, now let’s be serious, ok, this is a very serious topic.

And How I Met Your Mother? Yeees, Barney would give you all a high five and tell you you’re awesome.

And finally, The Big Bang Theory? Yeeah, I know it’s a lot of exercise to raise the hand all the time… Okay, so it seems we nerds are quite popular now.

Well, as you’ve just seen, most of you watch at least one of these series. They are all really successful and they have one thing in common: They are all modern American sitcoms. But what exactly is a sitcom? Or rather, which are the typical characteristics that a sitcom features? What makes a sitcom funny or entertaining?

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Traits and features

The word „sitcom“ is in fact an abbreviation for „situation comedy“ and that name speaks for itself. A sitcom is a genre („johnra“), a type of comedy where the characters share the same environment, such as their home or their workplace. The humorous part, the funny part usually derives from the dialogues between the characters which are a result of their current situation. In other words, there is one character and something good or something bad happens to them. While that character is experiencing that situation, they talk to other characters and the intention is to create funny dialogues between them.

That is like the definition of sitcom, but now let’s have a more detailed look at the specific features and traits of a sitcom.

Episode Structure

First of all, maybe some of how have already noticed that at some point after watching many episodes of different sitcoms: The episodes of sitcoms practically always have the same structure:

- Teaser: The teaser is usually a short scene which is finished by a gag. And most times, the teaser already introduces the main story of that episode.

- Opening/Intro: The intro often remains unchanged throughout the series so you can recognize it easier. It’s the part where the main theme, the main song of the series is played. In some special cases, for example when one of the actors is very young and they grow as the series goes on, the intro is modified to fit the new looks of the actor. A good example would the opening of Two And A Half Men:

I think Jake was so cute when he was a little boy, now he’s… uuurgh. Well anyway

- Plot (Story): This the main part of the episode where the problem is presented, the characters take some actions and at the end the problem is solved or not. The majority of episodes follow the pattern of a circular dramaturgy (DRA-maturgy). That means, the events in that take place in the episode normally have no major impact on the big storyline of the whole series. The episode starts, something happens, they solve it, the end. And the secondary characters or guest characters never appear again, they have no important influence on the big story.

Depending on the type of sitcom the plot is more or less important. So, for example, How I Met Your Mother focuses a lot more on the main story than Two And a Half Men. We all want to know who the **** mother is and the series explains the story of how he met her. But in Two And a Half Men, sometimes there are bigger events like when Charlie is in a serious relationship or when Jake’s mother marries the other man, the doctor, but you don’t watch the series because of the story, you simply watch it because it’s funny. But you watch How I Met your Mother because you also want to know who the mother is.

Also, many times the episode features a side plot, which is like a secondary plot that takes place parallel to the main plot. Here, the characteristic scene changes are used. Often the two plots, the main plot and the side plot end up converging into each other.

- Closing credits: You know this from the movies, this is where we see the names of the actors, of the producers and usually the opening theme is being played here once again. Depending on the programme on TV sometimes they cut this part off.

- Tag: Some series have a final scene after the credits which is even shorter than the teaser and it offers a final gag which is of no importance to the episode’s plot.

Key characters

If we have a close look at the characters themselves from the sitcoms, often there’s at least one key character in the series. With „key character“ I mean a character who has a very special attitude, often exaggerated  und strongly underlined and so that character is the subject of most gags, very recognizable and we could say that character is the showmaker. The series wouldn’t be the same without that specific person.

Examples: What would the Big Bang Theory be without Sheldon? His disdainful smartass or wise guy manner and his lack of social competence, social skills makes him unique and indispensable fort he show. But, the key character is not necessarily the protagonist of the sitcom. st heBarney in How I Met your Mother is a clear example. While the plot is about Ted and how he mets his future wife, how funny could HIMYM be without Barney’s „legendary“ lines or his ingenious flirt tactics?

Running gags

Another reason why sitcoms become so popular are running gags. I’m not sure but I think one day we talked about running gags in class, didn’t we? Anyway, running gags basically are gags which are repeated over and over in many different episodes. With the runnings gags, the writers of the series play with our expectations. Sometimes they are funny beacuse we already expected them to come, soemtimes it’s the opposite case and they’re funny because they surprised us. Sometimes they slightly change the running gag adapting it to different situations. Doing that, it seems like a fresh idea to us and then we laugh at it once again. One example of a running gag? toctoctoc Penny? toctoctoc Penny? toctoctoc Penny? You know that one? Now I have a another video for you showing how they change that running gag to make it funny over all that time:

By the way, have you noticed the laugh tracks? The laughter that are included in the scenes? Usually, these sitcoms are recorded in front of a real audience and their laughters are heard in the actual scenes. When the series gets dubbed and the original sound is lost, they use prerecorded laughters to complete these scenes. Personally I think it’s quite funny because sometimes I have the feeling we wouldn’t know what’s funny and what’s not if there weren’t these laugh tracks.

Influence in the popculture

Especially these two factors, the key characters and the running gags ensure that sitcoms become very popular. There are many Internet memes based on sitcom characters and gags and you can find tons of references on the web. For example, this one, the „True Story“ meme which is a typical line of Barney.

And something I found during my research, very interesting: In 2010 there was a raise of 17% of physics students in the UK and many people actually believe that this is thanks to The Big Bang Theory, becuase they made „nerds“ or „physics nerds“ more seem „cooler“. I also want to study physics but it’s definitely not because I want to become like Sheldon.

So, this is the end of my presentation, I hoped you liked it. Any questions?

 

PD: I wonder if I can actually apply the things I've learnt after all these English presentations on my TDR oral defense... Any hints? I'd appreciate your suggestions.