Guest Author - Aaron Kilkenny-Fletcher

The second series of the comedy teen show The Inbetweeners began showing recently on Channel 4. Following the high jinks of four adolescent boys negotiating their way through a suburban state school in particular and life in general, it shares similarities with that other ‘growing up’ show, comedy soap opera Skins. There are, however, important differences.


Where Skins may have a drug-fuelled forest party, The Inbetweeners has a Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme in a nursing home. And while in Skins everyone is very sad in spite of all the fun, The Inbetweeners manage to remain amazingly upbeat in the wake of their unrelenting embarrassment and inadequate lives. The show is widely seen as a parody of Skins, in effect its more vulgar, less pretentious younger sibling.


Protagonist Will (Simon Bird) is the principle comedy device. He is a posh, geeky kid who has been transferred to state school because his father left and his mother can no longer afford his private school fees. However, he still wears a blazer and carries a briefcase. As he is walking down through the locker room, someone walks past, looks at him and simply says, ‘Briefcase wanker’.


This joke sets the scene for both series. The simplicity of the insult provides the humour but, as anyone who has been to a school not too dissimilar to Will’s will know, it’s just the sort of heckling you would get for bringing in a bloody briefcase. The show consciously ignores the motivations and feelings behind actions. That Will probably brings his briefcase in as a show of denial, or rejection is left completely unexplored and he walks on past the insults towards his next embarrassing, depressing but inexplicably light-hearted escapade.


Written by Damon Beesley and former stand-up comedian Iain Morris, the show quickly became known for its not-so-subtle jokes and crudities. The second series has remained true to its focus, despite getting more and more exaggerated. It must be said that The Inbetweeners appeals mainly to a young male audience. All its main characters are male and most of their jokes are juvenile.


Although the show is very crude, its crudeness is not an end in itself. It is this self-aware parody that lies at the centre of the programme. It distances itself from its own vulgarity by portraying it in such an outlandish way that it is impossible to take it seriously. The characters are so naïve and ignorant that their words lose all sinister connotations.


After its first successful, Bafta-nominated series, the show has not modified its formula too much, if at all. Its next test now will be whether it can reincarnate itself for a third series. It will have to do more in the way of innovation and variety if it is to pull off another series and it is hard to see where they will go with it, but the niche is still there and its audience is still laughing.