Citation

Potter WJ, Warren R. J. Commun. 1998; 48(2): 40-57.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, International Communication Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1460-2466.1998.tb02747.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

What is it about the portrayal of violence in comedy programs that provides cues to viewers that television violence is trivial or even nonexistent in that type of show? In this study we develop and test four content-based explanations for this phenomenon. The findings suggest that the rate of violence (especially verbal forms) is very high on comedy programs, but that the rate is largely due to high numbers of acts among the relatively minor forms of violence. Also, the context of the portrayals trivializes the violence.