Ridiculing the working-class body in post-socialist sitcom.

Television comedy has rarely been studied from the perspective of class in a post-socialist context. This paper analyses representations of class, body, gender and nationality in the three most popular sitcoms of the last two decades in Slovenia, focusing especially on their role in working-class discourse and its transformation. Ambivalent representations of working-class characters are highlighted and put in the context of the egalitarian ideology which prevails in Slovenian popular culture. Drawing on the difference between workplace and domestic sitcoms, the paper concludes that the appearance and performance of working-class characters may be interpreted as a reworking of class boundaries in the post-socialist context. Sitcoms are thus considered as contributing to a process of re-demarcating class boundaries, yet with a subtle mockery at the level of their bodies rather than by explicit vilification of the lower classes in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]