Will and Grace and Satire

Will and Grace and Satire

By: Kaitlin Wren

            Will and Grace is a timeless show that has been analyzed and criticized for years especially in regards to its significance to the gay movement. Critiquing Will and Grace is still relevant today because of the eternal satire the television show possesses. The media garners a lot of attention and holds a lot of power of audiences’ view points and the producers of Will and Grace didn’t miss a beat to utilize their power. Though a number of run-ins with the FCC have occurred because of questionable indecency scenes, Will and Grace continued to push media limits to take a stand on what should be allowed on television. By intelligent use of narrative privileging, Will and Grace has used satire to become a symbol of political power.

            “While satire can be a successful way to offer social commentary in an entertaining format, it risks being misunderstood” (Mittell, 296). That is why Will and Grace presents these issues carefully and unobtrusively by using “escapist farce with indirect social messages” (Mittell, 291). To understand how Will and Grace has become a symbol of political power over the years, it is important to analyze one episode at a time to deeply measure the impact of satire in regards to social issues. One of the best examples of Will and Grace that illustrates how its political power is “Acting Out” season 2, episode 14. This episode is about Jack and Will’s feelings of outrage when their favorite TV show refuses to show two men kissing. Jack and Will take matters into their own hands and start a petition and attempt to talk to the president of NBC.

Will and Grace begins to offer indirect satirical commentary on FCC regulations very early in the television show’s history to signal its stance on social issues. It is also interesting that Will and Grace producers use their own network, NBC, as the subject of their critique on network regulations. In the interaction between Jack and Will and the PR person of NBC, the NBC employee states, “You will never see two gay men kissing on network television” to which Jack replies, “It’s a gay network for God’s sake, the symbol is a peacock!” It was a genius move to present the issue of two men kissing on TV as an issue with NBC because it opened the way for satirical commentary about how a network such as NBC that televises progressive shows like Will and Grace is still limited to what they can present to the public due to federal regulations.

            Jack was the most upset about the kiss on television and provided the most powerful line in the episode, “By doing this they are sending a clear message that the way I live my life if offensive” which provides a direct link to FCC indecency regulations. The scene at NBC satirizes the act of going to a network with a letter and petition about a powerful social issue with no avail. By use of satire and exaggerating the content of the interaction, Will and Grace shows how difficult it is to induce change when it comes to FCC regulations. In the scene at NBC the PR person said, “It was discussed at length and the final word is ‘No comment’… Thank you for visiting us at NBC”. Satire is an effective way for Will and Grace to reach their audience because humor is well received. This satire juxtaposed to Jack’s indirect comment about FCC indecency regulations provides a resonating tone with the viewers.

The characters of Will and Grace are loveable and easy to connect with which provides them with the opportunity to effectively use narrative privileging to connect with the audience about social issues on a personal level using satire. This achievement can be explained by the parasocial contact hypothesis. This hypothesis “suggests that exposure to positive portrayals of minority group members that produce parasocial interaction will be associated with a decrease in prejudicial attitudes” (Schiappa, 5). This means that their character portrayal is especially important to changing gay ideologies in the media, making the show a symbol of political power. Earlier in the episode Jack remarks, “It’s our constitutional right to see two hotties get it on” and Will replies, “Clearly no one wants to see two men kiss on TV”. These comments rally support from viewers on the social issue because the parasocial interactions affects the discourse on the topic of gay rights in the media.

Analyzing the behavioral effects theory “in which the actions and behaviors of viewers are directly affected by an outside stimulus such as television” is another way to measure the effects of satire of Will and Grace as a symbol of political power (Mittell, 359). By conducting an experimental research to measure attitudes and actions, Schiappa found positive evidence that viewers who watch Will and Grace have “lower levels of sexual prejudice toward gay men” (10). This shows that the subtle use of satire has drawn in a sympathetic audience toward gay social issues.

As one critic points out, Will and Grace is “a culturally aware satire, with a great ability to take topical current event hot buttons and turn them into a spry one-liner that smashes pulp in the faces of everyone who expects to hear it make a point” (IMDB). Like other shows that weren’t afraid to push limits to tackle social issues, such as All in the Family (Mittell, 293), Will and Grace also utilized its media power and pushed limits to confront social issues, mainly through satire. Will and Grace’s use of these tactics were largely successful because the producers were able to create characters that the audience liked and rooted for which ultimately turned the show into a symbol of political power for social change.