Why are workplace comedies always white collar?
 

What about blue collar workplace comedy? Can you think of any? Is it a class thing?

Cause every scene would be no more than thirty seconds long and end with "GET BACK TO WORK!!!"

Yes because other shows suspend disbelief

Taxi

Alice

^ Those were the only blue-collar workplace comedy TV shows I could think of at the moment.

I mean I was making a joke but the basic point behind it is that in general the lower the class being represented the more unpleasant the work place being depicted and the harder it is to make it a likeable setting. I mean the workplace of The Office sucks but nobody in the office has to worry about deciding whether to pay rent or buy food and they're all sitting at desks rather than blowing out their knees and their backs doing hard labor.

They did it in Superstore

There is ample room sitcom material on a construction site.

What's the Venn Diagram overlap between "people who know what happens on a job site" and "people who work in LA writing sitcoms that are profitable."

I was thinking about Clerks too, I guess it's neither really white or blue collar though?

How is it a question if convenience store clerk is a blue collar job?

Seems like a pretty cushy job to me. I don't have any panic button under my desk.

Seriously people? Auf Wiedersehen, Pet?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auf_Wiedersehen,_Pet

Boys from the Blackstuff was amazing too. Not comedy per se, but a lot of black humour. What about Only Fools and Horses? Couldn't call that white collar...

What about The King of Queens, American sitcom focused on the life of a UPS driver? Might not count since that's not the constant setting though.

How are cops classified? I mean, there are a ton of cop comedy shows, not least among them Police Squad! (in color) and Brooklyn Nine-Nine...

**** off.

Blue Suits = blue collars

it's just that since I'm not a native speaker the finer shades of the terms white/blue collar are vague to me, I actually had to google it. My reasoning was it's not really white collar since it's not a comfortably paid office job but also not blue collar since it's not manual labour? But maybe with technological advances blue collar = manual labour is an outdated definition?

If you can be described as a "schlub" then you are blue collar.

Maybe "grey-collar" in between blue and white collar.

now that's a clear definition at last

Reported :pssst:
That's kind of what I would have thought too, though my understanding is that blue collar work is generally factory or some sort of assembly line related? Not sure to be honest.

Hmm. Here's what the Mighty W has to say...

A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involve manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and power plant operations, custodial work, farming, commercial fishing, logging, landscaping, pest control, food processing, oil field work, waste collection and disposal, recycling, construction, maintenance, shipping, driving, trucking and many other types of physical work. Blue-collar work often involves something being physically built or maintained.

In contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk. A third type of work is a service worker (pink collar) whose labor is related to customer interaction, entertainment, sales or other service-oriented work. Many occupations blend blue, white, or pink-collar work and are often paid hourly wage-labor, although some professionals may be paid by the project or salaried. There are a wide range of payscales for such work depending upon field of specialty and experience.

Not sure cops would like to be classed as pink collar, though surely shooting black suspects qualifies as "customer interaction"?

I was just a clerk assistant CA for short... when I left school at 15..worked in the famous Savile Row London and my Aunt a dressmaker made me a three piece suit out of a camel material Vogue Pattern so was latest style of the time....I did typing and accounts answered the phone and made the coffee....when the Forestry Commission had shows and exhibitions always partaked...free day out with pay.... When they moved away to Basingstoke I changed jobs...Got a Job in Croydon walking distance to and from my home...wore what ever I wanted to and the aboves wore suits cannot remember about ties though.....Husband has a few with cobwebs on...
no way was there fun in the workplace but outside of that was a real good time as a youngster....

Classic Batlord.

:beer:

I looked it up on Google and the definition specified manual labor. So working with tools, operating machines, etc.

Does that include workmates? ;)

What delightful equivocation.