Workplace Sitcoms

As I read the article by Butsch and watched the documentary in class, I couldn’t help but to think about sitcoms today and how class is portrayed in them. My two favorite shows are “workplace sitcoms”. They are The Office and Parks and Recreation. These shows are labeled as workplace sitcoms, but they do not relate to the working class that the documentary are article refer to. These shows try to reinforce the popular idea that we are all part of the middle class because all of the people in these shows are middle-class citizens. Some of them are even upper-middle class citizens.
In Parks and Recreation, the main character, Leslie Knope, wants to climb the ladder of political success. She is trying to succeed in a world that is full of upper-middle and upper class males. All of her bosses are males, which would probably ring true in real life. I was trying to see the different types of classes in this show, but it seems that there is only middle-class citizens portrayed on this show except for Andy. Andy is the only one who does “manual labor” by being a shoe-shine. He is a young guy trying to be in a band. He is not educated and got married really young, but he is seen as the lovable character who is always trying to do good. This is one of the characters that was discussed in the documentary and article.
In The Office, we see that all of the people are working in an office and are middle-class citizens. They do, however, offer some glimpses into the warehouse. These characters would be representative of the working class. Darrell, the main warehouse worker, usually seems to be smarter than many of the workers in the office, especially Michael who is the manager. This is counter-hegemonic because the working class is portrayed as more intelligent than the middle-class. In one episode, the Michael is trying to find drugs and he immediately goes to the warehouse crew which is a stereotype that some people may have about a lower-class society. The workers actually sell Michael some basil and make a profit from him. This can be taken in two ways. One: The workers are intelligent because they made a fool of the boss. Two: The workers are scammers and not deserving of a higher position.