Audience Pleasures- Bad Education

Narrative Pleasures- The narrative pleasure is that you know something is going to go wrong for Alfie, because of his own doing, and he is going to have to do something stupid to save the day. In the episode Parents Evening Alife keeps lying to Miss Gulliver and the lie spirals out of control (which is a snowballing storyline) leading him to have to stand on a chair, at the end, in front of everyone to try and stop her from finding out the lie but just ends up embarrassing himself. Throughout this storyline viewers will be laughing at Alfies consistently bad choices as the situation gets funnier and funnier as the problem get worse and worse. The audience knows that Alfie will still have his job at the end even if he himself ends up without Miss Gulliver and embarrassed. The storyline is always based in the same place of Abbey Grove High school so the viewers are comfortable and familiar with the setting. 

Character Identification- Alfie is a popular character as he is the most likeable in the show out of the teachers. He acts more like a teenager as shown by his language and actions throughout Parents Evening, like how he is very sarcastic and cringes at Mr Frasers attempts to be “cool”. The audience knows Alfie so well because he is relatable and they are able to identify with him easily. They can predict him lying and doing anything to go out with to go out with Miss Gulliver. Alfie appeals to the target audience as they are surrounded by teachers so can recognise some traits, however they like Alfie as he is different and more like them in his teenage ways. Alfies intentions always set out to be good and successful (even if they do veer off track sometimes) and the audience like to laugh at his chaotic and full of bad decisions life. The audience is always on Alfies side as they identify easily with him. Alfie plays the character of the loveable loser which is a character that audiences warms to very quickly due to his optimistic attitude and accidental ways that get him into a mess. Alfie is always the loveable loser: his roles never change. This is giving familiarity to audience making it easy for them to identify with Alife. Alfie uses verbal comedy to relate with the audience. The rest of the class are also easy to identify with as they all play stereotypical roles. Jing is the logical smart one, she always tries to help the situation and puts up with Alfies constant mistakes and mess ups. She uses verbal comedy often slating Alfie in her native tone while he is completely oblivious. Grayson is the bully and can even bully Alfie despite being the student. Grayson plays the stereotypical bully, he is lower class and not very clever, he uses verbal comedy to identify with audience. There is also Chantelle who is the manizer, and plays the stereotypical slutty girl. She flirts with everyone and often uses sexual humour and puns, this is verbal comedy. The target audience identifies with all these characters as although they are stereotypes there are clear links to the people they see and interact with everyday in school. They understand the characters and find the over-exaggeration of their stereotypical funny and entertaining.