Ab Fab

While watching "the Birthday" episode of AbFab, I thought it was funny because the characters were so outrageous. I thought there were a lot of stereotypical and funny characters like the other two sitcoms. It was very similar to Fawlty Towers and Are You Being Served?, because they all deal with the dysfunction of relationships and funny, outspoken characters. The characters all seem to have dry wit and insult their friends with their tongues. Like Are You Being Served?, it ended with the characters singing, which is sort of a happy ending.

The main character, Edina has turned forty and made jokes about dying and menopause, asking her daughter, "Do you think we ought to get some hormone replacement packs in for emergencies?" Her house is being paid for by her two ex-husbands and she only uses to the "cooker" to light her cigarettes.

Edina is very narcissistic, talking to her daughter about her birthday, "This is something that is happening to me. This is something that I've got to deal with, alright. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but it's me, me, me!" I think her dreading her age is very relatable, but she became slightly annoying by going over the top with her loony antics.

Her daughter, Saffron, seems like the maid, chef, and mother figure for her. I thought it was mean when Edina told her daughter that her son is her "pride and joy." When Edina's mother arrives, she tells Saffron she'd "rather kiss a baboon's bottom" than spend actual time with her daughter. Edina doesn't seem to get along with any of her friends but Patsy. This sitcom is poking fun at families, generational gaps, and friendship circles.

There are several references to the 1990's within the show. Patsy and Edina's fashion and big beehive hair and curls reminds me of Madonna and Cher. Edina is wearing a green earth sweatshirt with a question mark and she eats "vegetarian tarts." She has a gay white ex-husband with a black boyfriend and she says to the audience, "all my friends are gay." Edina makes fun of "The Waltons."

Edina and Patsy talk about how much they dislike Morgan Fairchild, Jane Fonda, Kathleen Turner, and Marisa Berenson. They also talk about how everyone their age are getting plastic surgery to enhance their faces and breasts. At the end of the episode, Edina and Patsy sing karaoke after smoking marijuana, which is very relevant for the time period. Communication, gender roles, sexual identity, feminism, humor, and class are contemporary themes and issues appearing in this sitcom.