History of the Sitcom

Since America has long found it easier to laugh about sex than talk seriously about it, sitcom humor has had a critical role ushering in a new era of openness, not just towards sex, but toward women’s rights and gender identity.

Work families can be even funnier than our biological ones, since the endless array of wacky sitcom characters on the job offers hilarious insights into the state of the American workplace.

Upward mobility, the American Dream, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps – sitcom laughs have helped generations of Americans come to grips with their place in a supposed “classless” society.

Sitcoms have long been the ultimate comedy comfort food, but what sitcoms offer escape from – and what they offer escape to – reveal a lot about the state of the American mind, and the state of sitcom form itself.