‘They know my face’: Surveillance Comedy in Scot Squad

Abstract

This article examines how surveillance is represented as a means of controlling and managing people in the BBC comedy programme Scot Squad (BBC One Scotland 2014–17; BBC Scotland 2019–). Scot Squad parodies the conventions and aesthetics of the docusoap, specifically the reality crime variety, aligning it with generic frameworks such as mockumentary and comedy vérité. Using Hutcheson's definition of parody, namely, a text that imitates an earlier original text with a crucial difference, I argue that Scot Squad questions the legitimacy and efficacy of a range of surveillance mechanisms, from CCTV to the confession to the observational documentary itself. It does so through its comic narratives but also its adoption of a mock docusoap aesthetic. However, despite its critiquing of surveillance culture, Scot Squad's deployment of these representational and aesthetic tropes in a comedic context arguably helps to normalise and domesticate surveillance behaviours.