Using ethnicity as a comedy component in television series: The example of Romani people

After the 2000s, fictional television series have increased rapidly on Turkish television. These series, are usually broadcasted weekly on prime time, which is the most watched time period on television. In the first half of the 2000s, two television series have been shown one after the other on prime time, which was divided into two parts as 20:00 and 22:00. However, as of 2024, due to the high rates and the effect of the commercials on prime time, which constitute a large part of the channels' income, the duration of Turkish television series has gradually extended. The entire broadcast period between 20:00 and 24:00 has been allocated to a single television series. In this context, especially considering high rating television series, it has been revealed in many studies that the representations in these series have a strong effect on the audience. In this study, comedy narratives based on ethnicity are studied by considering these effects of representations on television. There are many people of different ethnic origins living in Türkiye. There are also many characters from different ethnic backgrounds in television series. This research was conducted on the basis of Romani ethnicity. The question that was asked was whether the use of Romani ethnicity as a comedic element in mainstream television series causes marginalization towards them and to what extent does it reinforce the prejudices and stereotypes that exist in society. Romani people have an important place in the Turkish population. There have been five mainstream television series since the 2000s that are about stories of Romani characters. The series "Cennet Mahallesi", "Görgüsüzler", "Gönülçelen", "Roman Havası" and "Üç Kuruş" also constitute the sample of this study. In the series examined with the qualitative content analysis method, the categories were created after watching all of the episodes. Representations made within the framework of ethnicity can cause discrimination. In particular, comedy scenes can contain more discriminatory elements and dialogues than expected. Considering that the comedy genre itself can also carry humiliation and aggression towards the funny, findings that may carry ethnic discrimination against Romani people were detected in all the series in the sample of this research. It has also been revealed in the field researches conducted on the subject that there are stereotypes and prejudices against Romani people in Türkiye. Narratives that may cause ethnic discrimination, especially when the impact of the series on the audience is taken into account, may reproduce and reinforce these prejudices and stereotypes. As a iii result, it may cause individuals to discriminate in their thoughts, attitudes and behaviors towards Romani people.