Watching TV to get a PhD

Someone came to my blog looking for something about "Mindy orange juice suit shrank," so I couldn't resist and back tracked--never finding the episode, but did discover an interesting PhD Thesis on TV comedy theme songs. I find that amazing. That someone spent all that time and our money watching TV and listening to the theme songs, and then gets to wear a cap and gown, and call herself Dr. Butcher.

"The purpose of this study is to examine the function of the bard in situation comedy theme songs. This study calls upon Fiske and Hartley's concept of television as a cultural bard, a singer and teller of stories that create and conserve community. The bard reaffirms the culture's
identity while delivering social and political messages relevant to the culture at specific times throughout history. . . The results of the analysis reveal that the themes address relevant cultural issues such as race relations, the role of the domestic woman, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, class conflict, and the construction of reality."

Didn't we already know that?

A lot of heavy, deep ideas in this thesis

• Many of us in the United States live and grow up in front of our television sets, and television theme songs become ingrained in our minds.
  
• While the 1960s was a decade of social upheaval and change, the 1970s appears to have been a decade of self-absorption.
  
• The primary function of the theme song, however, is to "hook" the audience into watching the show.
  
• Gomer joins a long-standing tradition of fools, clowns and other tricksters who, aware of their powerless position and out of fear or threat of punishment, do not voice their opposition in a forthright manner.
  
• and so on.

Still, it is fun to read. Maybe her committee liked it too.