What Your Favorite Sitcom Says About You

 

(DISCLAIMER: These are all light-hearted jokes. Take them with a grain of salt.)

You know, you can usually tell what someone’s deal is by looking at what their favorite sitcom is.

Like if you watch the show about a public service bureaucrat and her ragtag group of misfits who strive to make their hometown a better place, you’re trying to cope with the fact that the real world government is an absolute hellhole and the main character would make a better president than anyone we’ve gotten in the last two decades because she loves her job, is willing to cooperate and listen to other people with different perspectives, and actually has everyone else’s interests at heart.

Five of the worst people on the planet own a bar in Philadelphia and get into crazy shenanigans that screw over themselves and everyone around them, and despite their awfulness, watching them gives you comfort, because they ironically act like a more tight-knit group of friends than your inner circle.

A boss at a paper company constantly tries to impress his colorful cast of employees, and the mundane, yet lively energy of the workplace reminds you of your first job and how it makes you sort of miss the structure your life used to have, and how boring stuff wasn’t so boring when you were going through it with others.

You watch a show about a sex columnist and her three best friends who live in New York City and navigate having sexual relationships with all different kinds of men, because it gives you an idealized version of what your sex life could’ve been, and reminds you of how sex used to be an exciting experience and not just something you do sometimes.

Watching a group of police officers solve crimes while also growing closer to each other gives you comfort because it’s the single best kind of good press the police will ever get since 2020 and almost restores your faith in them, because the cast is made up of people who care about the well-being of innocent civilians and doing their job right.

Four nerds and their hot neighbor go on wacky science adventures, and they make you feel like a smart person, because they say big scienc-y words, have important scienc-y jobs, and know the same pop culture facts that you do, and that makes you feel less alone in the world, because no one ever understood your interests.

Six thirty-somethings share the same apartment complex and spend pretty much every day of their lives together, and their bond makes you remember when you used to do everything with your friends, but now you’ve all got your own lives and rarely see each other anymore.

An ex-lawyer has to retake community college to earn his bachelor’s degree and develops a fake study group that actually becomes his only circle of friends, and the show’s creativity makes you remember when college used to sound cool and you didn’t have to pay crippling amounts of student-loan money.

A man has to keep his crazy family out of trouble after his dad gets arrested for a crime, and the sharp jokes and witty dialogue make you remember when family dysfunction used to be funny instead of disturbing.

Three different types of families are interconnected with each other and constantly have to deal with each other’s problems, and likely this show resonates with you because it’s the only one that showcased two different unconventional families within its main cast. Ones that most likely mirrored the one you have.

Four friends constantly get into situations that stem from little annoyances in their everyday lives, and you watch the show because it reminds you of how these occurrences used to make you laugh instead of cry yourself to sleep at night.

Your comfort show is about the staff of an elementary school in Philadelphia, because it features teachers who actually want what’s best for their students and actually do stuff to improve their school, and either you wish that your teachers would have done the same for you, or that your kids’ teachers would do the same for them.

And what if you're like, "Well, what if they're all my favorites? Is there something wrong with me?" No, of course not. The world is pretty crappy at the moment, and we humans tend to gravitate to television that makes us happy, shows us what could be, and reminds us that life is what we make it.

(Inspired by the work of the wonderful Tawny Platis, check out her work here: https://beacons.ai/tawnyplatis)