Laughter on air. FGR-television and radio comedy in the transformation phase of the long 1960s

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Claudia Hillebrandt
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 569942503

The main aim of the project is to scientifically investigate the forms and functions of television and radio comedy in the old Federal Republic of Germany in the long 1960s for the first time, in particular to identify types of references of this comedy, which was widespread in the tertiary mass media, to the history and social structure of the old FRG, as well as to work out references to the social transformation process of the long 1960s. The project focuses on the question of how comic formats participated in the construction and reconstruction of the (self-)image of the old FRG, reflected social norms and values and thus potentially contributed to their consolidation or change. Thus, the function of comedy in television and radio in the transition to a post-materialist society in the context of the media differentiation of this period will be traced. The starting point is the observation that television, as a newly established leading medium in the long 1960s, produced comic formats with a broad impact that was unique in television history, while radio (as a competing mass medium) developed, at least in part, into a field of experimentation for alternative forms of comedy. In view of the limited research to date on the comic-media mass culture of this period, the project has an explorative character: in the first sub-project, a systematic review of television archive material will enable exemplary formats and programs to be identified and their comic strategies to be analyzed. The primary aim here is a typology of comic forms in the leading medium of television in the long 1960s with reference to the self-images and processes of change in West German society reflected therein. In the form of a case study on Heino Jaeger's radiophonic work, a second sub-project will also focus on comedy in the old leading medium of radio. It traces, by way of example, how radio produced innovative comic formats, some of which later migrated to television. Both sub-projects have in common that they focus on the particular relevance of comic broadcasting formats for the reflection of social transformation processes. The project can thus be seen as a model study on the function of comedy in socio-cultural transformation processes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants