I think we’ll learn a lot about the country’s view of technology from Channel 4’s forthcoming sitcom, ‘The IT Crowd’. It’s written by Graham Linehan (from Father Ted), and produced by Ash Atalla (from The Office). It features ‘special appearances’ by comedy legend Chris Morris. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Should there?
I still have a b-a-d feeling about it. There’s one promotional page on the C4 website, featuring this side-splitter: ‘Have you tried switching it off and on again?’ – hardly the pinnacle of observational comedy. C4 are being s-o-o forward-thinking by showing each episode online before it appears on TV… but they haven’t thought to register the obvious URLs for the company in which the show is set. (If anyone registers renhamindustries.com as a result of this posting – you are now morally obliged to split the proceeds with me.)
Don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of comedy to be found in the IT world. But please, please – can we rise above the (long outdated) stereotype? 62% of UK households have a ‘home computer’ – near enough double the number who have a dishwasher, for goodness sake. Undergraduates these days probably don’t remember life before the internet. IT is simply not a geek-driven subculture any more.