‘‘charlotte makes me lafe [sic] sooo much’: affect, online laughter, and femininity in geordie...

105

JEPC 5 (2) pp 105ndash120 Intellect Limited 2014

Journal of European Popular Culture Volume 5 Number 2

copy 2014 Intellect Ltd Article English language doi 101386jepc52105_1

Keywords

reality televisionlaughteraffectfemininityfacebook

Anne GrAeferUniversity of Leicester

lsquoCharlotte makes me lafe [sic]

sooo muchrsquo online laughter

affect and femininity in

Geordie Shore

AbstrACt

Highly successful structured reality television shows such as Geordie Shore (UK) The Only Way is Essex (UK) Made in Chelsea (UK) or Jersey Shore (US) draw audiences wide beyond their regional and national appeal thereby exerting a considerable influence on contemporary popular culture Lying at the intersection of documentary soap opera and drama reality televisionrsquos specific form ndash its imme-diacy and its emotionality ndash invites viewers to judge and moralize the lives depicted on screen In this article I explore the affective ways in which lsquoGeordie Shorersquo produces ideas about femininity and how comic moments in the show influence this emotive process By analysing online comments on the showrsquos official Facebook page I argue that the humorous quality of the text does not merely reinforce the disci-plining white middle-class gaze through which lsquoGeordiersquo femininities are produced as hypersexual(ized) ladettes worthy of social derision Rather the online laughter that I found in some online comments highlights that these representations are also animated through feelings of joy affection and emotional attachment Attending to online laughter can help us to further understand the movement between connection and disassociation through which audiences make sense of reality television

JEPC_52_Graefer_105-120indd 105 12214 102125 AM

Anne Graefer

106

IntroduCtIon

Geordie Brit Colloq

Noun

A A native or inhabitant of Tyneside or a neighbouring region of north-east England

B The dialect or accent of people from Tyneside esp Newcastle-upon-Tyne or (more generally) neighbouring regions of north-east England

Adjective

[hellip] relating to or characteristic of the natives or inhabitants of Tyneside

(Oxford English Dictionary 2014)

After the huge success of Jersey Shore (2009) in the United States Viacomrsquos channel MTV commissioned a UK spin-off called Geordie Shore (2011) Similar to its forerunner Geordie Shore turned out to be a hit with ratings peaking in Series 6 at 1107 million viewers (Munn 2013) To date Geordie Shore is the highest-rated show in MTV UKrsquos history (Szalai 2013) I was teaching at Newcastle University before and after Series 1 was broadcast This enabled me to witness first-hand both the tension and the excitement that this real-ity show elicited amongst students in Newcastle In addition to the common middle-class perspective that reality television is lsquotrashrsquo students expressed a lot of concern about the misrepresentation of the lsquoGeordiersquo the regional nick-name and dialect for a person from Newcastle upon Tyne or its neighbouring areas This is also visible in online comments from the official Facebook page of Geordie Shore

I hope ppl dont judge us geordies who are real after watchin this bunch of idiots running round like absolute twats thinkin they are th best thimg since sliced bread

(JC 28 April 2011)

This is disgusting People should know that not all those from Newcastle are shallow conceited air-heads I hope someday these individuals look back realise that there is more to life than living a self centered exist-ence and exercise some self respect

(RM 27 April 2011)

The show is totally crap you are giving we Geordies a bad name and you should be thrown off the Tyne Bridge and there are NO GEORDIES ON THE SHOW THEY ALL COME FROM OUTSIDE OK

(LS 1 June 2011)

This strong reaction is not surprising Similar to its predecessor Jersey Shore Geordie Shore thrives on notions of excess and the out-of-control behaviour of its participants inciting moral outrage from different audiences Placed in a house in Jesmond a lively suburb with many bars and restaurants in Newcastle upon Tyne the eight housemates are mostly depicted in an endless

JEPC_52_Graefer_105-120indd 106 112614 11815 PM

lsquoCharlotte makes me lafe [sic] sooo muchrsquo

107

cycle of heavy drinking having sex fighting crying and partying lsquoJudgement shotsrsquo (Skeggs and Wood 2008 95) of messy bedrooms and vomiting house-mates are minutely documented in order to provoke adverse reactions from the audiences In many senses this show represents north-eastern working-class youth as beyond the limits of propriety out of control ungov-ernable abject revolting subjects who operate without shame the opposite of the self-regulating good neo-liberal citizen It can be argued that the repre-sentational patterns of the show draw on classist discourses about the poor and uneducated working-class northerner that already circulate within British culture These discourses stand in stark opposition to those animating pres-entations of the rich yet uneducatedignorant southerner that can be found in two other highly successful regional reality television programmes The Only Way Is Essex (uneducated lsquonew moneyrsquo southerners) and Made in Chelsea (rich and ignorant leisure-class Londoners) Even though The Only Way Is Essex (2010) and Made in Chelsea (2011) also invite Schadenfreude and derision through the castrsquos lack of intelligence and awkward performances they do not provoke contempt or disgust due to their wealthy socio-economic back-ground1 Geordie Shore however can provoke such lsquouglyrsquo feelings because it reinvokes historical discourses about the lsquodirty poorrsquo (Lawler 2005) Placed in Newcastle upon Tyne a city that is marked by the harsh realities of post-industrialisation and high unemployment since the decline in manual labour and the collapse of the shipping and mining industries Geordie Shore is then merely one example in which the lsquonorth-eastrsquos economic decline is matched by media contempt for its citizensrsquo (Niven 2011) Still amongst people from Newcastle the term lsquoGeordiersquo is also associated with working-class pride and thus a carefully protected label2 For them the idea that the show could turn the name Geordie into a derogatory term caused a lot of anxiety and anger As the comments above have shown these feelings can motivate some groups of viewers to probe the authenticity of participants or they find expression in a form of hatred and contempt towards its participants

Even though Geordie Shorersquos men are frequently discussed online I will focus on the affective production of femininity because as many feminists have argued (Bordo 1993 Bartky 1991 Skeggs 1997) women are dispropor-tionately subject to a judgemental gaze By attending to online comments about the first series of the show this article will illustrate that the humorous quality of Geordie Shore offers multiple access points for viewers beyond derog-atory mockery The signs of laughter that are visible in some online comments through acronyms such as lsquoLOLrsquo or emoticons demonstrate that viewers do not necessarily read these femininities as social abjects Rather they seem to experience Geordie Shore femininities also as loveable and pleasurable

The article begins with a short description of how other feminist media scholars have investigated the affective construction of femininity in reality television I will then explain my understanding of laughter and affect before demonstrating through examples from online comments how viewers read Geordie Shore femininities such as Charlottersquos in affectionate and pleasurable ways Overall I argue that although these representations of femininity are undoubtedly part of a media industry that mainly aims to make them sensate as lsquoimproperrsquo femininities their affective charge is much more complex Attending to laughter and the lsquopositiversquo feelings that it engenders might help us to understand the movement of connection and disassociation through which audiences make sense of reality television

1 For more information on TOWIE and Made in Chelsea and how these programmes contain divergent representations that illustrate the class and taste divisions of contemporary Britain see Faye Woods (2012)

2 It is uncertain where the term lsquoGeordiersquo has its etymological roots but most explanations argue that it resulted from the frequency of the forename George and highlight the close link to mining and working-class masculinity From lsquothe use with reference to men working in occupations connected with the mining industry the name was probably extended to all natives and inhabitants of Tyneside and neighbouring regions (in which mining was a mainstay of the economy until very recently)rsquo (Oxford English Dictionary 2014)


Anne Graefer

108

whAt does It meAn to produCe femInInIty lsquoAffeCtIveLyrsquo

Beverley Skeggs and Helen Wood argue that reality TV is an affect-producing technology that is deeply invested in shaping our ideas about what it means to be a lsquoproperrsquo social individual in current society (2012 68) Thus rather than merely representing forms of lsquoproperrsquo and lsquoimproperrsquo identity reality televi-sion is fundamentally constitutive of it (Tyler 2011) Its constitutive power lies in its affectivity that is its ability to communicate ideas by making them sensate rather than merely visible Similarly Mischa Kavka (2008) argues that reality television matters to us in terms of significance rather than significa-tion In regard to Geordie Shore this means that representations of lsquoimproperrsquo femininity work through feeling improper femininity rather than showing it

As many have shown seeing and feeling can be separated on a theoretical or analytical level but not in our embodied viewing experiences (Marks 2000 Sobchack 2004) Visuality is always already entangled with feeling yet some images seem to privilege feeling over seeing (one might want to think here of Laura Marksrsquo (2000) notion of haptic visuality)With its lack of storyline or action which would allow viewers to decode meaning from a distance reality television produces images that require much more of our personal experi-ences memories and feelings in order to make sense Reaction shots in which the participantsrsquo seemingly authentic emotions are captured invite viewers to come close and to lsquodraw on a repertoire of personal skills our ability to search face and discern reaction (facilitated by the close-up) from the smallest detailrsquo (Moseley 2000 314) Thus in order to make sense of what we see we have to remember which feelings are connected to particular facial expressions In addition to these lsquoemotional money shotsrsquo the visual semiotics of reality television also draw on so-called lsquojudgement shotsrsquo Here images of messy bedrooms and untidy kitchens aim to provoke a particular set of reactions responses feelings and emotions from audiences Consequently it can be argued that reality television draws on specific representational patterns and editing techniques in order to make meaning sensate rather than only visible

The affective quality of reality television has been the subject of consid-erable academic debate (Kavka 2008 Gorton 2009 Wood and Skeggs 2011 Skeggs and Wood 2012) By drawing for instance on psychosocial theo-ries of affect many have shown how reality television produces ideas about lsquoimproperrsquo femininities by drawing on gendered classed and raced discourses that are already lsquostickyrsquo (Ahmed 2004) with particular affects and feel-ings3 In their work on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (2010) Tracey Jensen and Jessica Ringrose illustrate how gendered classed and raced discourses about lsquoproperrsquo post-feminist femininity produce the figure of the lsquoGypsy Bridersquo as its abject opposite (2013) Imogen Tyler shows how Underaged and Pregnant (2009) draws on classed discourses about the lsquodirty poorrsquo that provoke reac-tions of disgust from middle-class audiences and demonstrates how partici-pants answer back online to wrestle over this form of affective representation (2011) I have shown elsewhere how discourses of race and class produce the fake tan-skinned housemates of Jersey Shore as objects of middle-class hatred because lsquoorangersquo skin has become over time a metonym for bad taste and an lsquoimproperrsquo form of whiteness (Graefer 2014) These works highlight that dominant discourses about gender sexuality class and race become repeated and reanimated through reality television thereby making audiences feel what lsquoproperrsquo and what lsquoimproperrsquo femininity is Reality television participates here in an lsquoaffective economyrsquo (Ahmed 2004) that makes ndash through constant repetition and circulation ndash feminine working-class bodies saturated with

3 For Ahmed (2004) feelings and emotions are socially and culturally constructed They travel accumulate or lsquostickrsquo to certain bodies while concealing their constructed nature and appear natural and authentic She argues that some figures have been associated with particular discourses and practices so often that certain meanings and affects have begun to lsquostickrsquo to them



109

feelings of contempt disgust and shame It thereby cements social inequalities and keeps so-called lsquoimproperrsquo femininities in their place

Geordie Shore also draws on dominant ideologies that make its visual semi-otics easy to decode for a British television audience we see young women in skimpy dresses with prominent cleavage and big mermaid hair Their spray-on tan tips into orange and their false eyelashes and fake nails complete the highly artificial look Following Beverley Skeggsrsquo (1997) argument that femininity is distinctly classed and that naturalness has a higher cultural value than artifice (as the latterrsquos display of labour is devalued for being made visible) we can argue that these codes signify a highly constructed and thus lsquovulgarrsquo femininity Their excessive bodies and speech produce Geordie Shore femininities as signs of danger rather than purity And their inability to hold down a job (yet still get along) seems to mock middle-class ethics of work and investment These transgressions of middle-class codes of taste and moral-ity not only represent Geordie Shore femininities as the binary opposition to the ideal of clean white middle-class feminine respectability but they also engender a complex affective fabric of delight on the one hand and unease and fear on the other This affective ambiguity is often resolved by a mocking audience position that laughs at these out-of-control participants

Even though these readings of Geordie Shore femininities as antithetical to respectability are valid it is important to highlight that the showrsquos producers also invite an affectionate relationship with these characters The showrsquos status as a serial wherein character engagement is necessary to keep viewers watch-ing and engaged with the same group of individuals week after week illustrates that Geordie Shore women are not only constructed to repulse but also to attract and attach audiences emotionally Moreover the fact that the showrsquos produc-tion team manages a Facebook fan page that seemingly encourages the forma-tion of such affectionate relationships demonstrates the affective ambiguity that is at work in and through these excessive working-class representations

In this article I focus on the humorous quality of Geordie Shore More precisely I argue that the laughter provoked by the comic presentation of female characters in the programme does not merely reinforce the disciplin-ing white middle-class gaze through which Geordie Shore femininities are produced as hypersexual(ized) lsquoladettesrsquo worthy of social derision Rather laughter highlights the affective ambiguity of these representations and how viewers are also pleasurably moved and touched by them In order to demonstrate this the article analyses user comments from the showrsquos official Facebook page where users expressed their amusement and laughter through texts emoticons and acronyms The use of online discussion forums as quali-tative research data is necessary because reality television moves increasingly beyond the text itself into online media Geordie Shore exemplifies nicely how media conglomerates make use of digital media in order to raise and maintain interest in new productions On the advice of digital marketing executives Viacom pre-launched the show online through a dedicated Facebook page

The [F]acebook page was opened a month before the show aired receiving 66000 lsquolikesrsquo from what MTV claims was an active user base of 114000 Facebook users who created more than 33 million post impres-sions Interestingly during the first one-hour show the Facebook lsquolikersquo count rose by 4000 At the end of its first series the page had risen to nearly a quarter of a million lsquolikesrsquo

(Hargrave 2011)


Anne Graefer

110

These numbers illustrate that Facebook is a key element in the marketization of the show and that ndash owing to its participatory nature ndash it can tell us a great deal about how Geordie Shore as a text has been taken up read and used in different ways by different groups of viewers Even though the data available cannot determine what social class the Facebook commentators fall into (profiles might be incomplete or fictional) it would be misleading to presume that only working-class subjects engage with reality television My analysis is open to the idea that the audiences for this show might indeed be more diverse than is usually accounted for (see Skeggs et al 2008) This is why I am also considering how middle-class audiences might be pleasurably affected by the show

During the broadcast time of Series 1 (May 2011ndashJuly 2011) hundreds of online comments were generated on Facebook I limited my data by select-ing threads that invited users to comment on the previous nightrsquos episode rather than on interview material or backstage reports These comments were often affectively charged and while many online responses included negative judgements about the cast and their behaviour some also illustrated signs of affection and joy I restricted my data pool further by selecting only those comments that contained traces of good-natured laughter and amusement rather than derision or scorn Since such comments represented the excep-tion rather than the rule my sample was manageable and allowed me to pick examples that demonstrated most clearly the arguments made Such a method is suitable since my research aim is not to find out which affective reactions are the most common but rather to draw attention to those responses that are often overlooked in critical studies about reality television

LAuGhter And AffeCt

lsquoLaughterrsquo proves to be a slippery concept when applied to a television show The physical moment of laughter is largely invisible to the researcher as it happens in private at home and spontaneously Online comments on the other hand can tell us what some members of the audience consider funny and worthy of sharing This is why I am lsquoreadingrsquo laughter from the emoticons and acronyms found in Facebook comments Clearly this data does not grasp immediate affec-tive reactions but rather delayed and rationalized responses to something that has been viewed before Yet I argue that it enables fruitful insights about how reality television audiences relate to Geordie Shore in affective ways

Geordie Shore is not a comedy series in the traditional sense with scripted jokes and puns yet some scenes and situations within the show are clearly staged and included lsquopurely for your entertainmentrsquo4 These scenes are intended to produce laughter thereby intensifying the gleeful attachment that viewers feel for a particular character or the show Furthermore the detailed depiction of the housematesrsquo excessive bodily appearance as well as their out-of-control behaviour might invite laughter5 Carefully edited reaction shots that highlight the charactersrsquo cluelessness or foolishness and funny remarks made by housemates in interview situations make this series a reality televi-sion programme full of comical moments Laughter is here often the result of situations where the housemates have overstepped the boundaries of common sense lsquogoodrsquo taste or appropriate behaviour Such a vulgar or taboo-breaking style of humour is very popular amongst younger people and there-fore ideally suited for Geordie Shorersquos demographic which consists of 16ndash34 year olds (Kuipers 2009) Thus it can be argued that laughter serves here in two ways ndash attachment and ridicule

4 The Only Way is Essex proclaims this openly at the beginning of each episode

5 The Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database categorizes the television show as lsquocomedy drama and reality-tvrsquo (IMDb 2014)



111

6 For more on the affective history of working-class women see Valerie Walkerdine (2011)

Many have shown how laughter despite its association with mirth sociability and light-heartedness can hurt offend and enrage Michael Billig (2005) and Deborah Finding (2010) argue that laughter especially when it comes in the form of ridicule can uphold social and cultural conventions and cement social relations In her analysis of the television programme Little Britain Finding (2010) argues that the performed humour rather than being self-deprecating or apolitical instead targets stereotyped others She main-tains that through this process of othering the programme returns to sexist homophobic classed and racist sentiments and argues that it is through irony that this return is made acceptable Many scholars are aware of this dangerous potential of irony and argue that the context for this kind of humour is one that is post-feminist post-racial and postmodern and that the subject both knows and intentionally plays with the boundaries of good taste (Gill 2007 Weaver 2011) From this perspective laughter seems to be a pleasure within onersquos body that can cause a lot of pain in others bodies fixing them in their place and degrading them Citing Winfried Menninghaus (2003) Tyler main-tains that laughter is ndash like disgust ndash an affective bodily reaction that aims to expel that which is seen as the abject the polluted or the improper

Laughter has an important function for the reality television audience it moves us both literally and figuratively we are averted moved away from the thing (the object or figure) we laugh at Laughter is boundary-forming creating a distance between lsquothemrsquo and lsquousrsquo asserting moral judgements and a superior class position

(2011 217)

From this perspective laughter is deeply invested in the processes of class-making by making the transgression of social boundaries sensate It is as such both a discursive and an affective tool that can function to keep unequal power structures in place Laughter is in this sense not an individual sponta-neous feeling or (gut) reaction but the materialization of bodily and cultural histories (Kyroumllauml 2010) More specifically in the case of Geordie Shore it can be argued that the discursive and affective history of working-class women as excessive hypersexual showy and dangerous becomes expressed and reani-mated in the laughter of the viewers6 The depicted excess (the violation of the borders of respectable femininity) and the viewerrsquos response to it in the form of laughter affectively produce the Geordie Shore woman as abject femininity that engenders pleasure and disgust at the same time

Such considerations about laughter are very useful but can be extended by exploring instances in which laughter can enable affectionate ways of relat-ing to what is shown on the screen Laughter is in my understanding affec-tive because it is a bodily reaction and has no predetermined meaning It can engender a number of different and sometimes contradictory feelings and emotions Hence laughter does not only involve aversion Schadenfreude and disgust but also feelings of closeness affection and joy This becomes appar-ent when we think about the sociable site of laughter

To laugh or to occasion laughter through humor and wit is to invite those present to come closer Laughter and humor are indeed like an invitation be it an invitation for dinner or an invitation to start a conversation it aims at decreasing social distance

(Coser 1959 cited in Kuipers 2009 222)


Anne Graefer

112

Laughter as this quotation shows can turn bodies towards each other and draw them in closer It can in this sense change the momentary orienta-tion of bodies if we were prior to laughter dispersed and distant we direct now our attention to each other and gather This power to grab and reorien-tate bodies is in my understanding the affective power of laughter Mikhail Bakhtin makes a similar point about laughter He argues that

[l]aughter has the remarkable power of making an object come up close of drawing it into a zone of crude contact where one can finger it famil-iarly on all sides turn it upside down inside out peer at it from above and below break it open its external shell look into its centre doubt it take it apart dismember it Lay it bare and expose it examine it freely and experiment with it

(1981 23)

Again laughter collapses distance and changes the relation between differ-ent bodies Bakhtin goes even further and maintains that laughter enables an lsquoobject [to] come up closersquo but also that we can then lsquofinger it [hellip] turn it upside down [hellip and] look into its centrersquo He illustrates with this the trans-formative power of laughter its power is to move us literally into new terri-tory where we come close to things that we beforehand always saw from a distance from what we might call lsquocommon sensersquo But through laughter we are moved close we come into contact with it and can therefore understand but especially re-feel it from a different point of view Many have argued that laughter can make us reconsider and re-evaluate naturalized norms and cate-gories (Gray 2006 Palmer 1994) Yet I suggest that Bakhtinrsquos account is espe-cially useful as it foregrounds the sensate and dynamic nature of laughter it hints towards the affective quality of laughter

The affective power of laughter lies also in its ability to capture us without warning (we sometimes do not know why we have to laugh about something) Laughter moves us both physically and emotionally which in turn can re-ori-entate us towards the object we laugh about Through affect laughter becomes a kind of embodied meaning-making that follows social and cultural patterns (sometimes we know why we have to laugh and we can even control it) while also lsquosignalling trouble and disturbance in existing patternsrsquo (Wetherell 2012 13) Thus it can be argued that we do not only reanimate social norms when we laugh Rather laughter makes sensate that we are affected by what we have encountered and sometimes such affective encounters can enable new ways of knowing and feeling In this article I attend to online comments in which laughter signals affectionate and gleeful readings of presented feminini-ties thereby troubling the ideologies represented on the screen

rehAbILItAtInG lsquoImproperrsquo femInInIty throuGh LAuGhter

A character on Geordie Shore that seems to elicit the most joy and laughter is Charlotte (Charlotte-Letitia Crosby aged 22) Charlotte presents herself as a bubbly woman who openly admits her lsquoflawedrsquo gender performance lsquoI am not a Florence Nightingale at all7 Irsquom like a big wild boarrsquo she explains in an interview situation after a night of heavy drinking This humorous comparison seemed to stick with many viewers of the show and when asked to complete the sentence lsquoI am not a Florence Nightingalehelliprsquo on Facebook users responded in large numbers while expressing their love for Charlotte

7 Florence Nightingale (12 May 1820ndash13 August 191) was a celebrated English writer social reformer and the founder of modern nursing She came to prominence while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War where she tended to wounded soldiers Colloquially she is now a synonym for an idealized nurturing white middle-class femininity that is shaped by the historical ideal of Victorian womanhood



113

Irsquom like a big wild boar Brilliant love Charlotte (SF 11 July 2011)

a big wild boar Love charlotte (AD 11 July 2011)

big wild boarlt3 gotta love charlottelt3 xxx (OW 11 July 2011)

Big wild boar lt3 charlotte n here sayings crack me upgotta love her lt3 (LCB 11 July 2011)8

These comments illustrate that the character of Charlotte is not only read as exhibiting an lsquounrulyrsquo femininity that makes other bodies feel shame and disgust but that she can also engender affection pleasure and mirth Many viewers write in their online comments how Charlottersquos statement made them laugh and through heart-shaped symbols and kisses users make the benign nature of their laughter visible This makes clear that Charlotte is not merely sticky with negative emotions but that she is saturated by a more complex affec-tive fabric Considering the representational patterns upon which Charlottersquos character is based how can these expressions of pleasure and affection be explained Tyler and Bennett argue that the representation of working-class femininity can engender affection in differently positioned viewers when the figure is read as a lsquorespectable working-class character marked by tenacity and lack of pretentionrsquo (2010 383) In this sense it can be argued that Charlotte signals here through her self-deprecating joke that she lsquoknows her placersquo in a strongly classed society Rather than trying to challenge social boundaries and to engage in acts of lsquoclass-dragrsquo she seemingly embraces her status through self-deprecating humour she is not a Florence Nightingale (an emblematic figure of acceptable middle-class femininity) rather she is a lsquowild boarrsquo This kind of self-deprecating humour (which signals that she lsquostays truersquo to herself and her classed position) makes her unthreatening and likable also for possi-ble middle-class audiences that can enjoy her performance while at the same time keeping its distance

I want to extend this analysis by drawing closer attention to the complex power dynamics of self-deprecating humour and the lsquoaffective turnrsquo that it can engender I suggest that this self-deprecating joke is here not an expres-sion of self-hatred and loathing but rather demonstrates Charlottersquos cultural knowledge and her ability to reflect upon herself Charlotte shows through her witty comment that she knows the social codes of respectable feminin-ity but she is also clever enough to use them in a humorous and highly self-ironic way From Pierre Bourdieu ([1979] 2010) we know that cultural capital is unevenly distributed in society and a marker of middle and upper classness Self-reflexivity is also a form of cultural capital as it allows subjects to present themselves as future-oriented productive and enterprising individuals who can succeed in a neo-liberal capitalist economy (Illouz 2007) Charlotte reveals through this self-deprecating comment that she has these middle-class resources too This might alter the ways in which viewers can relate to her rather than reading her as ignorant and foolish they might now see her as quick-thinking and witty

Danielle Russell (2002) argues that self-deprecating humour only seems to have as its target the teller of the joke (in this case Charlotte and her flawed gender performance) Yet the implicit targets of the joke are wider sociocul-tural norms and values that enable the joke in the first place Hence Charlotte is not degrading herself through this self-deprecating comment rather she grades herself up by presenting herself as self-reflexive and knowledgeable

8 All Facebook comments can be found on httpswwwfacebookcomgeordieshorefref=ts The names of the users have been shortened due to privacy reasons


Anne Graefer

114

about social codes while making obvious that the ideal of Florence Nightingale is an impossible standard for any woman Thus this self-deprecating comment provokes laughter and therefore can invite Geordie Shore viewers to rethink but especially re-feel Charlottersquos excessive behaviour rather than perceiving it as the result of her working-class femininity which provokes feelings such as shame and disgust viewers might read it now as less severe (in the end she did not behave like a lsquowild boarrsquo) and funny Charlotte is no longer a subject to be kept at a distance and laughed at but is rather complimented for being funny She is as such no longer the target of the joke but the subject that makes other people laugh and feel good The ability to affect audiences in a pleasurable way while staying in charge (she is not the butt of the joke but the active joker) adds value to her persona It not only secures Charlotte a place in every new season of the show (and is as such economically productive) but it enables her to display middle-class characteristics This might rehabilitate her from her lsquoimproperrsquo femininity

There are other instances in Series 1 in which Charlotte makes viewers laugh through her self-ironic performances In Episode 3 Charlotte sports a hairdo similar to that of the character Princess Leia in the well-known movie Star Wars (Lucas 1977) while reflecting on her previous night with Gaz the housemate she is unhappily in love with

Haha her hair is so funny I think my lungs exploded while I was laughing (JG 3 June 2011)

I think she is so cute Shersquod be such a laugh (SG 23 February 2012)

As the comments show the bizarre hairstyle provokes laughter because it seems out of context It is obviously fabricated (and not simply bed-hair) but remains unexplained This gap in meaning provokes laughter lsquoI laughed so

Figure 1 Series 1 Episode 3



115

9 It can be argued that Princess Leah is a sexy character who is fetishized in certain cultural domains (for instance by Star Wars fans) However Charlotte re-appropriates the hairstyle out of context and in an amateurish way which invites a comical reading rather than a sexually alluring one

much when I seen [sic] this And there was no explanation for this hair in the programme hahahaharsquo (DC 1 June 2011) It is also visible from the comments that viewers are not laughing maliciously at Charlotte but seem to experi-ence her as funny as having a lsquogoodrsquo sense of humour lsquoI actually love this and her so much she cracks me uprsquo (LL 21 June 2011) These reactions might seem surprising as it could also be argued that this is indeed a lsquobadrsquo joke the bizarre hairdo is too obviously framed as non-serious and this lack of ambi-guity makes it too simplistic and therefore not enjoyable (Kuipers 2009) So why do some viewers find this funny Some maintain that this kind of innoc-uous over-the-top humour is only enjoyed by people with lsquolowbrowrsquo taste (Claessens and Dhoest 2010 Kuipers 2006) Following this view we could read the above comments as examples of working-class appreciation I however do not presume that the audiences for Geordie Shore are homogenously work-ing class Thus I aim to complicate such a structural reading of humour and argue that laughter does not necessarily mirror social and cultural boundaries but can also lead to lsquounexpected alliancesrsquo (Kuipers 2009 236) In other words Charlottersquos comic performance might also open up alternative positions

As mentioned earlier the representation of working-class femininity can gain positive value when the figure is read as a lsquorespectable working-class character marked by tenacity and lack of pretentionrsquo (Tyler and Bennett 2010 383) Hence it could be argued that the silly hairstyle presents Charlotte as down to earth not vain or overtly concerned about a serious performance This lack of pretention makes her likable for very different groups of viewers However I want to draw attention to the second possibility that Tyler and Bennett consider namely the carnivalesque Mikhail Bakhtin ([1941] 1993) defines the carnivalesque as lsquoa ritualized interval in which class hierarchies are reversed temporarily and an anti-classical counter-aesthetic briefly emergesrsquo (Tyler and Bennett 2010 383) I suggest that Charlotte as an example of femi-ninity in Geordie Shore can be understood as such a carnivalesque moment because she offers a powerful site of spectacle upon which different (usually forbidden) desires and pleasures can be played out Through her Princess Leia-like hairstyle Charlotte makes a spectacle of herself but instead of provoking derision and scorn she is as the online comments show celebrated as lovable and funny Perhaps the positive appeal of Charlotte lies in the fact that she renounces here very visibly the post-feminist demand to always be sexually attractive and available while controlling feminine sexuality through respon-sibility and the lsquorightrsquo choice (Gill 2007 McRobbie 2009)9 These impossible demands put a lot of pressure and frustration on women of all social positions and Charlotte seems to provide an alternative space where these imperatives of contemporary femininity are rendered invalid Here Charlotte is not sexy nor does she show any trace of self-control or responsibility lsquoI sit here nowrsquo she says lsquosaying I wonrsquot sleep with him again Only to go and do it againrsquo (Geordie Shore Season 1 Episode 3 7 June 2011) She becomes an affective figure through which viewers can experience the pleasure of rebelling against the oppressive rules of lsquoproperrsquo middle-class femininity such as rational choice and protected sexuality

Episode 4 provides another instance in which viewers refuse to read Charlotte simply as an example of abject femininity and relate to her in affectionate ways After Gaz appears at a nightclub with another girl Charlotte drowns her sorrows in alcohol and falls asleep on a toilet with her underwear pulled down

This scene can easily be decoded as embarrassing the camera here invades a space that is commonly highly guarded and private Charlotte is


Anne Graefer

116

not in control (neither of her body nor of the situation) and is fast asleep with her underwear pulled down after apparently urinating This voyeuristic shot represents Charlotte as extremely dysfunctional thereby inviting view-ers to be ashamed for her and perhaps to cover their eyes andor laugh in disbelief Yet some Facebook comments speak another language Rather than expressing disgust and contempt some viewers use this scene as a point of sympathetic connection

omg i looooove herlt3 (RA 14 June 2011)

tbh everyonersquos had a pic like this at some point when being out poor charlottersquos passed out rsquo) lt3 (NM 14 June 2011)

hahahahahahahatooo funny and all u peeps disn her are forgeting it probs happened to you (DCM 14 June 2011)

no shame but so funny (EM 14 June 2011)

aww bless her cottons socks Therersquos something so lovable about Charlotte (LR 14 June 2011)

As these comments illustrate some audience members draw a compari-son between Charlottersquos behaviour and their own experiences This is what Skeggs and Wood call lsquolooking throughrsquo (2012 145) In these moments the excess represented on the screen creates emotional attachments that matter and in which the viewer is interpellated to emphasize lsquoActually love her Reminds me of me xrsquo (JW 14 June 2011) They argue that in these moments lsquo[r]eality televisionrsquos call to emotional investment may undermine traditional structures of representation and forms of subject positioning usually deter-mined by processes of significationrsquo (Skeggs and Wood 2012 144) This means that even though the television series is representing Charlotte here as dysfunctional and worthy of social derision some viewers look through




117

10 It can be argued that the intended meaning of this scene was to shock viewers This is because some representations have within a specific culture particular feelings and affective reactions already attached to them As many have argued fluids that disrupt the boundaries of the clean and proper body evoke feelings of disgust and nausea (see for instance Kristeva 1982 but also Luce Irigaray 1985) Thus the urinating body can be seen as an example of the violation of cultural boundaries therefore provoking disgust and contempt

the symbolic representation on the screen and find a different connection to and evaluation of Charlotte This alternative reading of a scene can be enabled through felt similarity when the readerrsquos own personal experiences or memo-ries become reinvoked in the moment of viewing By remembering particu-lar situations and the feelings that might have been associated with these viewers can connect with the representation in new ways different from the preferred reading encouraged by the programme makers10 These moments of lsquolooking throughrsquo are repeatedly expressed online lsquowe have all been there lol xxxrsquo (LM 14 June 2011) This might not be surprising because as Skeggs and Wood argue representations leave a gap between how something is meant to feel and how it feels to us the individual viewer in a particular moment (2012)Thus the online comments demonstrate that Charlotte is not fixed as an lsquoimproperrsquo form of femininity created to make other bodies feel contempt and disgust but rather that her lsquoflawsrsquo can make her lovable They can serve as affective entry points through which she becomes easy to relate to for some groups of viewers Furthermore abbreviations such as lsquololrsquo (laugh out loud) and smiley faces in the online comments show that her scene was consid-ered funny by some viewers It has often been argued that laughter (due to its affective resemblance to disgust) can be a reaction to something shocking or offensive (Tyler 2011) Undoubtedly this scene can be categorized as shock-ing Yet I suggest that viewers are laughing at themselves here too As one viewer writes lsquoeveryonersquos had a pic like this at some point when being out [hellip]rsquo (NM 14 June 2011) Thus it can be argued that a particular kind of over-familiarity or closeness can generate laughter and this affective connection might then enable alternative readings of Charlotte

ConCLusIon

It has often been convincingly argued that reality television programmes such as Geordie Shore participate in processes of class-making and symbolic violence by drawing on classist and sexist discourses that produce there presented femininities (at least through a middle-class gaze) as abject (for an overview see Wood and Skeggs 2011) This article aims to contribute to this body of scholarship by drawing attention to online comments that illustrate the alter-native readings that the show allows for The gleeful Facebook responses demonstrated that Geordie Shore femininities in this case Charlottersquos are not simply a target of social derision but also engender a laughter that is filled with pleasure and affection These online comments are not immediate affective reactions but delayed responses to something that has already been viewed And yet I argue that this online laughter which was signalled through smiley faces and abbreviations like lsquololrsquo can tell us a great deal about how feminin-ity is produced in Geordie Shore because it highlights the complexity of these productions

Attending to online laughter illustrated that the viewer has been affected by what was seen on the screen beforehand Furthermore online laughter allowed me to investigate not only about what viewers laugh but also how view-ers laugh As the examples above have shown especially in Charlottersquos case laughter did not take the form of derision and ridicule but rather it was cele-bratory and gleeful lsquoI actually love this and her so much she cracks me uprsquo (LL 21 June 2011) The laughing viewers have often recognized the taboo-break-ing unruly nature of the feminine representation but rather than following the cultural imperatives to shame such behaviour they celebrated it through their


Anne Graefer

118

online laughter lsquono shame but so funnyrsquo (EM 14 June 2011) At other times laughter made the contradictory nature of these affectively charged represen-tations sensate Geordie Shore women are figures of liminality and ambiguity as they are on the one hand marked as tasteless and hyper-sexual and yet on the other provide a space upon which powerful fantasies of femininity can be played out and experienced This ambiguity found expression in laughter that is not malicious but may be a sign of affective solidarity amongst women lsquoReminds me of me xrsquo (JW 14 June 2011) This demonstrates first that laughter carries the potential for unexpected connections solidarity and resistance a point made early by many feminists (Cixous 1976 Irigaray 1985 Kyroumllauml 2010 Rowe 1995) It shows second that Geordie Shore femininities are not only produced through lsquonegativersquo feelings such as contempt and disgust but are highly complex sites of struggle including many moments of laughter and mirth This play between distance and connection creates the affective quality of reality television which in turn shapes our ideas of femininity

RefeRences

Ahmed S (2004) The Cultural Politics of Emotion New York Routledge Bakhtin M (1981) lsquoEpic and Novelrsquo in M Holquist and C Emerson (eds)

Dialogic Imagination Austin University of Texas Press pp 3ndash41Bartky S (1991) Femininity and Domination Studies in the Phenomenology of

Oppression New York RoutledgeBillig M (2005) Laughter and Ridicule Towards a Social Critique of Humour

London SAGEBordo S (1993) Unbearable Weight Feminism Western Culture and the Body

Berkeley University of California PressBourdieu P ([1979] 2010) Distinction New York and London RoutledgeCixous H (1976) lsquoThe laugh of the Medusarsquo Signs 1 4 pp 875ndash93Claessens N and Dhoest A (2010) lsquoComedy taste Highbrowlowbrow

comedy and cultural capitalrsquo Participations Journal of Audience amp Reception Studies 7 1 pp 49ndash72

Finding D (2010) lsquordquoThe Only Feminist Critic in the Villagerdquo Figuring Gender and Sexuality in Little Britainrsquo in S Lockyer (ed) Reading Little Britain Comedy Matters on Contemporary Television London I B Tauris pp 127ndash147

Geordie Shore (2011 UK MTV)Gill R (2007) Gender and the Media Cambridge Polity Pressmdashmdash (2008) lsquoEmpowermentsexism Figuring female sexual agency in

contemporary advertisingrsquo Feminism amp Psychology 18 1 pp 35ndash60 Gorton K (2009) Media Audiences Television Meaning and Emotion

Edinburgh Edinburgh University PressGraefer A (2014) lsquoWhite stars and orange celebrities The affective produc-

tion of whiteness in humorous celebrity-gossip blogsrsquo Celebrity Studies 5 1ndash2 pp 107ndash122

Gray J (2006) Watching with the Simpsons Television Parody and Intertextuality New York Routledge

Hargrave S (2011) lsquoChannelling the energy onlinersquo nd July httpwwwmarketingweekcoukchannelling-the-energy-online3028589article Accessed 23 June 2014

Illouz E (2007) Cold Intimacies The Making of Emotional Capitalism Cambridge Polity Press



119

IMDb (2014) lsquoGeordie Shorersquo httpwwwimdbcomtitlett1960255ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Accessed 18 August 2014

Irigaray L (1985) Speculum of the Other Woman New York Cornell University Press

Jensen T and Ringrose J (2013) lsquoSluts that choose vs doormat gypsiesrsquo Feminist Media Studies 14 3 pp 369 ndash387

Jersey Shore (2009 USA MTV) Kavka M (2008) Reality Television Affect and Intimacy Reality Matters New

York Palgrave MacmillanKristeva J (1982) Powers of Horror An Essay on Abjection New York Columbia

University PressKuipers G (2006) Good Humor Bad Taste A Sociology of the Joke Berlin

Mouton de Gruytermdashmdash (2009) lsquoHumor styles and symbolic boundariesrsquo Journal of Literary

Theory 3 2 pp 219ndash41Kyroumllauml K (2010) lsquoExpanding laughter Affective viewing body image incon-

gruity and ldquoFat Actressrdquorsquo in M Liljestroumlm and S Paasonen (eds) Working with Affect in Feminist Readings Disturbing Differences London and New York Routledge pp 72ndash85

Lawler S (2005) lsquoDisgusted subjects The making of middle-class identitiesrsquo The Sociological Review 53 3 pp 429ndash46

Lucas G (1977) Star Wars Episode IV ndash A New Hope USA Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Made in Chelsea (2011 UK E4) Marks L U (2000) The Skin of the Film Intercultural Cinema Embodiment and

the Senses Durham and London Duke University PressMcRobbie A (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism Gender Culture and Social

Change London SageMoseley R (2000) lsquoMakeover takeover on British televisionrsquo Screen 41 3

pp 299ndash314Munn P (2013) lsquoldquoGeordie Shorerdquo season 6 premiere posts big ratings for

MTV UKrsquo 17 July httpwwwtvwisecouk201307geordie-shore-sea-son-6-premiere-posts-big-ratings-for-mtv-uk Accessed 24 February 2014

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding (2010 UK Channel 4) Niven A (2011) lsquoKicking the Geordies when theyrsquore downrsquo 3 June http

wwwtheguardiancomcommentisfree2011jun03geordies-cheryl-cole-geordie-shore Accessed 24 February 2014

Oxford English Dictionary (2014) lsquoGeordie n and adjrsquo Oxford Oxford University Press httpwwwoedcomezproxy3libleacukviewEntry77810redirectedFrom=Geordie Accessed 26 June 2014

Palmer J (1994) Taking Humour Seriously London and New York RoutledgeRowe K (1995) The Unruly Woman Gender and Genres of Laughter Austin

University of Texas PressRussell D (2002) lsquoSelf-deprecatory humour and the female comicrsquo Third

Space A Journal of Feminist Theory amp Culture 2 1 12 December httpjournalssfucathirdspaceindexphpjournalarticleviewd_russell68 Accessed 18 February 2014

Skeggs B (1997) Formations of Class and Gender Becoming Respectable London and New York Sage

Skeggs B and Wood H (2012) Reacting to Reality Television Performance Audience and Value London and New York Routledge


Anne Graefer

120

Skeggs B Thumim N and Wood H (2008) lsquoldquoOh goodness I am watching reality TVrdquo How methods make class in audience researchrsquo European Journal of Cultural Studies 11 1 pp 5ndash24

Sobchack V (2004) Carnal Thoughts Embodiment and Moving Image Culture Berkeley University of California Press

Szalai G (2013) lsquoMTV UKrsquos ldquoGeordie Shorerdquo ratings strong for season six debutrsquo 10 July httpwwwhollywoodreportercomnewsmtv-uks- geordie-shore-ratings-583088 Accessed 24 February 2014

Tyler I (2011) lsquoPramface girls The class politics of ldquoMaternal TVrdquorsquo in B Skeggs and H Wood (eds) Reality Television and Class London Palgrave Macmillan pp 210ndash24

Tyler I and Bennett B (2010) lsquoldquoCelebrity Chavrdquo Fame femininity and social classrsquo European Journal of Cultural Studies 13 3 pp 375ndash93

Underaged and Pregnant (2009 UK BBC 3) Walkerdine V (2011) lsquoShame on you Intergenerational trauma and working-

class femininity on reality televisionrsquo in H Wood and B Skeggs (eds) Reality Television and Class London Palgrave Macmillan pp 225ndash37

Weaver S (2011) The Rhetoric of Racist Humour London AshgateWetherell M (2012) Affect and Emotion A New Social Science Understanding

London SageWoods F (2014) lsquoClassed femininity performativity and camp in British struc-

tured reality programmingrsquo Television amp New Media 15 3 pp 197ndash214Wood H and Skeggs B (2011) Reality Television and Class London Palgrave

Macmillan

suggested citatioN

Graefer A (2014) lsquolsquolsquoCharlotte makes me lafe [sic] sooo muchrdquo Online laughter affect and femininity in Geordie Shorersquo Journal of European Popular Culture 5 2 pp 105ndash120 doi 101386jepc52105_1

coNtributor details

Anne Graefer is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Department of Media amp Communication at the University of Leicester Her research interests are located at the intersections of celebrity culture new media studies and affect theory Most of her work is concerned with the affective ways in which media representations mediate and generate ideas about gender race and sexuality Recently Anne has been focusing on the relationship between participatory online media and affective capitalism

Contact Department of Media and Communication University of Leicester Bankfield House 132 New Walk Leicester LE1 7JA UKE-mail ag391leacuk

Anne Graefer has asserted her right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd


Anne Graefer

106

IntroduCtIon

Geordie Brit Colloq

Noun

A A native or inhabitant of Tyneside or a neighbouring region of north-east England

B The dialect or accent of people from Tyneside esp Newcastle-upon-Tyne or (more generally) neighbouring regions of north-east England

Adjective

[hellip] relating to or characteristic of the natives or inhabitants of Tyneside

(Oxford English Dictionary 2014)

After the huge success of Jersey Shore (2009) in the United States Viacomrsquos channel MTV commissioned a UK spin-off called Geordie Shore (2011) Similar to its forerunner Geordie Shore turned out to be a hit with ratings peaking in Series 6 at 1107 million viewers (Munn 2013) To date Geordie Shore is the highest-rated show in MTV UKrsquos history (Szalai 2013) I was teaching at Newcastle University before and after Series 1 was broadcast This enabled me to witness first-hand both the tension and the excitement that this real-ity show elicited amongst students in Newcastle In addition to the common middle-class perspective that reality television is lsquotrashrsquo students expressed a lot of concern about the misrepresentation of the lsquoGeordiersquo the regional nick-name and dialect for a person from Newcastle upon Tyne or its neighbouring areas This is also visible in online comments from the official Facebook page of Geordie Shore

I hope ppl dont judge us geordies who are real after watchin this bunch of idiots running round like absolute twats thinkin they are th best thimg since sliced bread

(JC 28 April 2011)

This is disgusting People should know that not all those from Newcastle are shallow conceited air-heads I hope someday these individuals look back realise that there is more to life than living a self centered exist-ence and exercise some self respect

(RM 27 April 2011)

The show is totally crap you are giving we Geordies a bad name and you should be thrown off the Tyne Bridge and there are NO GEORDIES ON THE SHOW THEY ALL COME FROM OUTSIDE OK

(LS 1 June 2011)

This strong reaction is not surprising Similar to its predecessor Jersey Shore Geordie Shore thrives on notions of excess and the out-of-control behaviour of its participants inciting moral outrage from different audiences Placed in a house in Jesmond a lively suburb with many bars and restaurants in Newcastle upon Tyne the eight housemates are mostly depicted in an endless



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(Hargrave 2011)


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LAuGhter And AffeCt







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(2011 217)






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(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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suggested citatioN


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(Hargrave 2011)


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LAuGhter And AffeCt







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(2011 217)






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(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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(Hargrave 2011)


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LAuGhter And AffeCt







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(2011 217)






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(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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suggested citatioN


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(Hargrave 2011)


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LAuGhter And AffeCt







111




(2011 217)






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112



(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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Macmillan

suggested citatioN


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LAuGhter And AffeCt







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(2011 217)






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112



(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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(2011 217)






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(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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(1981 23)








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ConCLusIon




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RefeRences

















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ConCLusIon




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ConCLusIon




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suggested citatioN


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‘‘charlotte makes me lafe [sic] sooo much’: affect, online laughter, and femininity in geordie...

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