Colonial comedy: scale inversion and minority dislocation in the domesticated terrorism of Derry Girls

Abstract

ABSTRACTCan the sitcom allude to violence and ethnic hatred? Can it engage a global audience with localized history? If so, what does this reveal about the parameters of political comedy? Broadcast by UK’s Channel 4 and streamed internationally by Netflix, Derry Girls (2018–22) illustrates gains and losses in the comic treatment of political discord. My textual analysis assesses techniques that leaven potentially tragic material, focusing on psycho-political dislocation and its generation of a variety of Incongruity Comedy. In particular, I use the concept of scale inversion to identify a fundamental element of comedy which in this series is linked to internalized political conflicts in a settler colony. Scale inversion is the mechanism behind what might be termed aberrant normalization, extreme localism, and even to some extent stereotyping, all found in a series depicting the geopolitically displaced Catholic minority living through the Northern Ireland “Troubles.”KEYWORDS: Comedy theorypolitical fictionclassracecolonialismIrish stereotypes Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. My analysis draws in part from my experience growing up Catholic, near Derry, during the Troubles. For a more collective ethnographic assessment of the experience of living through this period, and since, see e.g., Waller (Citation2021).2. For well-regarded histories of Northern Ireland, see Bardon (Citation2005) and O’Leary (Citation2019).3. For a critical overview of academic research on Northern Irish history and politics, see Miller (Citation1998).4. Some scholars argue for less focus on negative/positive media stereotypes as the site for understanding and reshaping cultural politics, e.g., Herman Gray (Citation2005). However, I argue that distinctive Irish types, hardened over centuries, remain operational and highly significant in such projects.5. Analyses of Irish settings have focused more on film than television, more on British and American than Irish productions, and more on Irish than Northern Irish representations. Irish film studies with more than one chapter on Northern Ireland include: MacKillop (Citation1999), McLoone (Citation2008), and Monahan (Citation2015). Books dedicated to Northern Irish film and media include Hill (Citation2006), McIlroy (Citation2001), and McLaughlin and Baker (Citation2010). Analyses of Northern Irish entertainment television are rare (as opposed to news or documentary), but recently Derry Girls has generated some interest: e.g., Alvarez (Citation2022), Coulter (Citation2020), McIntyre (Citation2022), Schwetman (Citation2021).6. The zany sketch comedy Give My Head Peace (BBC NI, 1995–2005) bore some resemblance to McGee’s series, but its appeal was largely confined to Northern Irish audiences.7. For an account of the collective transgenerational trauma in Northern Ireland following the end of the Troubles, see Long (Citation2021).8. Some of this simian iconography persists in logos for Notre Dame’s “fighting Irish,” the Boston Celtics, and other thick-jawed “leprechauns” who appear each St. Patrick’s Day.9. Despite their long history, Irish stereotypes are still surprisingly under-studied. For the persistence of Irish stereotypes in modern film, see Hill (Citation1988). In addition, as Miller observed in1998, academics arrived late in viewing Northern Ireland in colonial/post-colonial terms.10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERrcjuY6Pag&t=4s.11. For excellent discussions of the modern status of Irish American whiteness, see Diane Negra’s collection (Negra, Citation2006).12. For more on male characters and masculinity in Derry Girls, see Alvarez (Citation2022).Additional informationNotes on contributorsJune DeeryJune Deery is Professor of Media Studies at Rensselaer. Her research interests include political fiction, comedy theory, contemporary representation of race/ethnicity, class and gender, and Reality TV.