The teacher is hilarious
Teachers, teachers, school principals: they play leading roles in satirical TV series. Think of Rundfunk and the American Teachers. But what does that say about the profession? "The teacher is a rewarding subject for the humor."
Image: Stijn Hoekstra
Anton Zijderveld wrote the book in 2011 Why we laugh: about the joke, the ridicule and the origin of humor. He is one of the few - now emeritus - professors in the Netherlands who is concerned with the science behind the joke. According to Zijderveld, laughter is the language of humour. If one bursts out laughing at a skit about a teacher, then the joke is at least understood and probably appreciated. But does it also say something about the profession when comedies starring educators become more popular? The answer could go in two directions, says Zijderveld.
The loser position
Traditionally, the teacher is an authoritative person, which makes him suitable for parodies and parodies. Zijderveld cites O. den Beste as an example. A former German teacher who gave all kinds of tirades on the street and quoted Goethe, performed by Van Kooten and De Bie in the XNUMXs. But teaching staff in particular has lost a lot of authority and status in recent decades. And unfortunately, you end up at the other end of the spectrum: the loser position. It is equally attractive to humor, according to Zijderveld: “Authority or the lack thereof, both make the teacher a rewarding subject. In addition, everyone has had or had to deal with teachers in their life. ”
I'm glad you made my job hell
Zijderveld is not on top of recent satire, but his theory about why the teacher can be funny also applies to Rundfunk. Actor Tom van Kalmthout invented the TV series of the same name together with the other half of Rundfunk: Yannick van de Velde. The TV series grew in 2016 to a great and especially online success. Hundreds of thousands of people watched the videos of, for example, Mr. Heydrich, played by Pierre Bokma. His statement "You are all fail!" is legendary among fans. Van Kalmthout remembers a reaction from a real German teacher: “He said: Nice that you have made my job an enormous hell. His students no longer mattered whether they received a fail. In fact, they only liked it when their teacher had to say that. ”
Rundfunk was an absurd comedy series about two best friends, Tim and Erik, in a totally crazy high school. All episodes can be viewed on the youtube channel of broadcast. In the meantime, the eponymous duo has continued. Tom van Kalmthout and Yannick van de Velde are currently touring Dutch theaters with their first full-length performance growing pains. That's German for growing pains. The halls are often already fully booked and that is - say the theater makers themselves - entirely due to the TV series. Image: Stijn Hoekstra
Van Kalmthout and his companion saw comic potential in the compulsory nature of school time. “It is of course a completely absurd situation. A high school is full of teenagers who are very recalcitrant and don't want to care about anyone. In that same building, those old guys are talking about people who have been dead for hundreds of years, or about other subjects that don't interest you at all. And you have to accept things from them. ” It is the total opposites that stimulate the joker's mind, says Van Kalmthout. "Adolescents, for whom doing nothing is the highest goal, towards teachers, who have to get them active."
We have turned the crafts teacher into a kind of sexual predator
In addition, the duo missed good jokes about their experiences during their own high school period. Van Kalmthout: “Span gas for example is not really comical. ” When they got the chance to make a TV series, they started to come up with scenes that they would have liked to see on the TV at the time. With archetypal teachers, but really over the top. “The German teacher is an asshole, the vice principal such an old guy who still wants to be cool and want to be part of it. The gym teacher can exercise, but otherwise he is quite stupid. And we turned the crafts teacher into a kind of sexual predator. ”
Total exaggeration
As for the tight implementation of types, it seems broadcast some up Teachers, an American series that Comedy Central has been broadcasting in the Netherlands since this spring.
Teachers is an American comedy series about the daily troubles of a primary school team that consists only of teachers. Lots of physical jokes, typical female viciousness and totally inappropriate interactions between students and teachers. According to the makers, it was time for women to write the comedy scripts. In the Netherlands, Comedy Central has been broadcasting the series since April 2017.
Here the setting is a primary school and the teachers express the characteristics of teachers that everyone knows, but magnified. For example, the passionate teacher who wants to be friends with the children in her class. The bitchy teacher who doesn't care about that. The unpopular teacher tucked away in the emergency room and the shy, single teacher desperately trying to trap divorced fathers.
And also in Teachers the jokes are rude - especially by American standards - and the fun is in the total exaggeration. November 2017 will start the second part of season two, including one serial pooper. According to the makers, a phenomenon that occurs in every primary school. “Any teacher can tell you about one serial pooper at her school. That is a child who poops at random places and times, but of which no one knows who it is, ”said actress and screenwriter Caitlin Barlow on the website this spring. indiewire.com.
Court jester
Back to Emeritus Professor Zijderveld. Because where the teacher is now successful in comedy series, but is played by professional actors, he was once the one who climbed the stage himself. When the court jester disappeared in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, professors were asked to perform at the royal courts for a while, says Zijderveld. “For extra pocket money, they gave speeches with very expensive words and incomprehensible theories. And then to be laughed at exuberantly.” Fortunately, today the average teacher doesn't have to put on a comedy performance. And if all goes well, the student saves his burst of laughter for home for 'the tube'.
The successful series producer HBO started with Vice Principals in 2016. The second season can currently be seen, provided you have a subscription to the HBO TV channel, and the third has already been announced. This series is less parody and more dark comedy. Power relations are especially central.
