Abby Stewart COM 304 Mass Media and Society “When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?” – A Femnist Analysis of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 11/21/17
II. Introduction In this paper, I will be discussing episode 2.02 of the CW musical comedy Crazy ExGirlfriend, “When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?”. In this episode, Rebecca wants to spend more time with Josh by any means necessary, even if it’s lying about being a master at ping pong. Greg tells his friends about his alcoholism, and Paula asks Rebecca to write a letter of recommendation for her for law school. There are four original songs featured in this episode, which are: an Irish drinking song about Greg’s alcoholism (Greg’s Drinking Song), a pop-punk anthem about what Rebecca thinks guys like Josh want in a girl (Ping Pong Girl), a Disney princess-esque song about Paula’s dreams of going to law school (Maybe This Dream), and a 90s alternative rock song about Greg hiding his feelings about Rebecca and Josh dating (I Could If I Wanted To (Reprise). I will be analyzing it through the sex, age, and handicap categories in the SEARCH acronym. The SEARCH acronym, created by Michael O’Shaghnessy and Jane Stadler, is very helpful for analyzing media in how certain groups are portrayed in forms of media. According to O’Shaughnessy, the SEARCH acronym “forgrounds social issues and social differences” (38) through six different categories people can be sorted into. The six categories are sex/gender, environment, age, race and religion, class, and handicap. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend explores many of these aspects, and it is especially noticeable in this episode. Sex (or gender) is explored in this episode through Rebecca’s thoughts of what men actually look for in women, as shown in the song Ping Pong Girl. Age is discussed with Paula’s subplot in this episode, especially with her singing the very Disney Princess-like song “Maybe This Dream”, as Paula is a middle aged woman and not a teenager like most Disney Princesses.
Handicap is explored in this episode through the treatment of Greg’s alcoholism, especially with the song “Greg’s Drinking Song”. I will be using a feminist analysis to write this paper. A feminist analysis shows how women and womanhood are portrayed in forms of media. Despite what one may assume from the title, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a feminist show on it’s own, and it is especially apparent in this episode.
III. Description of Media Text A. Commercial History Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a musical dramedy that airs on the CW Network on Fridays at 8pm. The show debuted on October 12, 2015 (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015-), 2015) and is currently in its third season. The show was created by Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna, and has had multiple directors for the episodes. The show is one of the lowest rated in terms of viewership for the CW, but has achieved much critical acclaim. The intended audience is the 18-49 demographic (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend TV Show on the CW Ratings, 2017). B. Description of Text Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is about a woman named Rebecca Bunch who runs into her ex-boyfriend from summer camp, Josh Chan, and decides to uproot her life and move to his home town so they can be together. The first season focuses on Rebecca trying to win him over, and the many schemes she pulls off with her friend Paula to impress him. They finally end up getting together in the season finale. “Why Can’t Josh See How Cool I Am?” is the second episode in the
second season of the show. Each episode contains multiple original musical numbers, typically written by Bloom, that parody different musical genres such as musical theatre, rap, pop, and country. Rebecca wants to spend more time with Josh and wants him to move in to her apartment, since they are now dating. Josh doesn’t spend much time with Rebecca, because he always has other plans with his friends after work and is also afraid of the commitment. Josh mentions one day that he and his friends are going to a ping-pong bar the next weekend and Rebecca lies and says she is a ping pong champion and wants to go. This gives her a week to learn how to play ping pong, because she thinks it will impress Josh. She ends up embarrassing herself at the bar and reveals to Josh she only lied about it to spend more time with him, which he feels guilty about. The episode also focuses on Rebecca’s ex-boyfriend Greg, as he is still coming to terms with his alcoholism. He is attending Alcoholic’s Anonymous meetings and telling his friends about his alcoholism. After one meeting, he offers to bring doughnuts to the next meeting, which is a tradition for this group. Greg returns to his job as a bartender and is welcomed by his friends, Josh, Hector, White Josh, and Heather, and his boss, Kevin. Josh also reveals to him that he is now dating Rebecca and Greg has to figure out how to deal with this information. The final subplot in this episode is about Rebecca’s friend and coworker, Paula, applying to law school and asking Rebecca for a letter of recommendation. Their boss, Daryl, offers to write one, but Paula wants Rebecca to write it, as she is her best friend. Rebecca is so focused on her training for the ping pong bar that
she forgets to write it and Paula ends up submitting Daryl’s letter instead. Paula also worries that she may be too old to go to law school and that she missed her chance when she was younger. The musical numbers featured in this episode are a Disney princess-esque song about Paula finally having her dreams come true (Maybe This Dream), an Irish drinking song about Greg’s alcoholism (Greg’s Drinking Song), a alternative rock song about Greg hiding his feelings about Josh and Rebecca dating (I Could If I Wanted To (Reprise), and a pop-punk anthem about when Rebecca thinks that guys want in women (Ping Pong Girl).
C. Figure: Images (s) Representing Text Promotional Poster for season 2 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
(source: http://www.eonline.com/au/news/797574/crazy-ex-girlfriend-season-2-declares-i-canfix-this-broken-heart)
D. Rationale: Why This Text? Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is already a very feminist and trope-defying show, and episode 2.02 especially proves this. Since the episode hits multiple entries for the SEARCH acronym (sex, age, and handicap), I thought it would be a great episode to choose for this analysis. The episode explores living with a handicap (Greg’s alcoholism and the beginning of his recovery), sex (Rebecca’s ideas of what women are expected to be like to be seen as attractive to men), and age (Paula following her dreams and applying to law school, despite being an older woman). The show uses humor to cover some dark subjects, such as Greg revealing to his friends that he is an alcoholic through an Irish drinking song. The cast is also very diverse in age, gender, and race, so it allows for an interesting analysis on how whatever group they represent is portrayed.
IV. Analysis of Media Text The episode begins with Greg in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting telling his story to the other members of the group. After the meeting, one of the members, Guardrail, thanks Greg for sharing his story that day, and asks Greg how he’s doing in the early stages of recovery. Greg tells him he’s doing well, and Guardrail tells Greg about the concept of the “pink cloud”. This “cloud” refers to the good feelings that come immediately when you start recovery, but how it can be difficult to deal with your emotions once it wears off. Greg brushes him off and insists that his good feelings will last. He then offers to bring doughnuts to the next meeting, which is an important thing to the members of the group, especially Guardrail. We can see these doughnuts as a metaphor for Greg’s sobriety and recovery. A few days later, Greg meets with his friends, Josh, White Josh, and Hector, to tell them where he had been for the past month, as he had no contact with them. This leads to the following exchange:
Greg: Here’s the thing. I’m sorry that I’ve been MIA and that I lied to you…But the truth is, I’ve been dealing with some things White Josh: Like? Greg: Like, I got a DUI, spent a night in jail, turns out I’m an alcoholic. I’ve been going to meetings, and I’m trying to stay sober. That’s it. Bingo, bango, done. Beers? (slides beers over to Josh, White Josh, and Hector) Hector: Dude, this is heavy.
From this, we go into “Greg’s Drinking Song” where Greg sings about what happens to him when he drinks. He talks about how he’ll pee his pants, throw up on his cat, and steal his cousin’s landscaping truck when he gets drunk. Knowing this new information about Greg, his once funny antics now have a more concerning connotation. After the first verse, White Josh says, “Wow, I did not know it was that bad.” Alcohol is such a staple of society that we often fail to realize when someone has a legitimate addiction to it and the harm it causes. Given that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend markets itself as a comedy, it can be difficult to handle scenes that deal with heavy emotional material such as someone recovering from alcoholism. The show takes scenes that could be played very dramatically and emotionally, and puts a comedic spin on them. In a way, it creates a much more realistic depiction of how these conversations might occur in real life. The show offers a realistic and humorous look at living with alcoholism and the awkwardness of having to tell people about it to make up for your actions. Addiction is a handicap that is often given an unrealistic portrayal in media, so it’s refreshing to see something more grounded in reality. When Greg finds out that Rebecca and Josh are dating, he does not allow himself to feel his emotions at first, because he knows it will lead to him drinking. Later on, Greg meets up with Rebecca and she apologizes for not telling him sooner. Greg reveals that when he found out, he was planning on drinking and breaking his sobriety. He tells her, “I picked out a drink, and a glass, and ice, but instead I hit a wall…At least I didn’t use alcohol to block an emotion”. Oftentimes, a piece of media will portray sobriety as a one-time fix that is never mentioned again, when it’s a long and difficult process, and Greg shows a realistic recovery about a person struggling with sobriety.
Rebecca struggles connecting with her boyfriend, Josh, and is desperate to spend more time with him. When he mentions one day that he and his friends are going to a ping pong bar that weekend, Rebecca invites herself to go along, claiming that she was a ping pong pro when she was younger. This leads to her spending the week trying to learn how to play ping pong and how much she thinks she’ll impress Josh once he sees her. This leads to “Ping Pong Girl”, which is how Rebecca imagines most guys think and what they want in women. This plays into the “sex” aspect of the SEARCH acronym, both for how Rebecca is conditioned to think she needs to act and dress a certain way for Josh to like her better, and how the lyrics of the song show how the media has conditioned her to think like that. At one point, Josh sings, “Ping-pong shows that she has/ Control over her body!/ But it doesn't threaten/ My masculinity like/ Basketball or hockey!”, which plays into expectations that many women are expected to follow. For example, a woman is expected to be smart, but she can’t be too smart or else people will think that she’s intimidating. Of course, Rebecca ends up embarrassing herself at the ping pong bar and embarrasses herself in front of Josh and his friends. At the end of the episode she confesses to lying to him about that and other things, such as liking video games, because she wanted to spend more time with him. One day at work, Paula reveals to Rebecca that she is applying to law school and asks Rebecca to write her a letter of recommendation. Rebecca is excited for Paula and agrees to write the letter. Throughout the first season, Paula had the role of a typical overworked and underappreciated middle-aged wife and mother. After Rebecca agrees to write her letter, Paula tells her, “Things are finally starting to happen to me. You know? I can’t believe it. My dreams might actually come true.”, and then launches into a Disney princess-style song called “Maybe
This Dream”. The office set is transformed into a whimsical forest and Paula frolics around while singing operatically. The song begins with the lyrics “When I was a little girl I felt/ Like a princess/ So naive and full of hope/ I thought my dreams would come true/ But then as I grew/ The world was all like – nope”, showing how her dreams have been dashed before. Since most Disney princesses are young, tall, thin, and incredibly beautiful, having Paula sings this song defies these tropes. Paula would normally be either the evil witch or a guardian angel for the main character, but here she is given the leading role. Her age especially is playing a role here, because she is singing a typical Disney princess “I want” song, which usually focuses on what the princess wants as she gets older. Paula is already there, and at a point where most people are expected to have achieved their life goals, she wants to achieve something else. Since Rebecca has been focusing all her energy on becoming a ping pong pro, she forgets to write Paula’s letter of recommendation. Paula worries that she’s making a mistake by applying to law school. When talking to her husband about this, she tells him, “Maybe [Rebecca] thinks this whole law school thing is dumb. Maybe- maybe it’s too late. Maybe this whole thing is dumb.” Once again we are looking at how age is portrayed in this media. Paula is worried that she waited too long in life to achieve her dream of being a lawyer, and with the expectation that a person is supposed to be accomplished in their goals from a fairly early age, this isn’t surprising. In the end, Rebecca writes the letter for Paula, but it’s too late, as Paula had already submitted her application with a letter of recommendation from their boss, Daryl. Rebecca apologizes for making Paula feel like she didn’t have her support and tells her she’s incredibly brave for applying to law school, showing support for her friend and her dreams.
V. Conclusion
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a show that deals with many different topics and explores them in a feminist way. In the season two episode “When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?”, multiple entries for the SEARCH acronym showcased in O’Shaughnessy and Stadler’s book are discussed, which makes it a great episode to analyze. The aspects that are explored are sex, age, and handicap, and other episodes of the show explore the other aspects of the acronym. The way that the sex, age, and handicap aspects are explored are done very effectively and show shows a different side of them than are typically portrayed. This is a show that defies many tropes that are commonly known about groups of people, and can often show more realistic portrayals of them than other shows. With Greg’s struggle with newfound sobriety, Paula’s struggle with feeling that she’s missed out on following her dreams because of her age, and Rebecca feeling the need to act a certain way for her boyfriend, these are very realistic problems that are shown in an effective way.
Works Cited
Harnick, C. (2016, September 26). Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Declares I Can Fix This Broken Heart. Retrieved December 09, 2017, from http://www.eonline.com/au/news/797574/crazy-exgirlfriend-season-2-declares-i-can-fix-this-broken-heart Gube, R., & Patel, S. (Writers). (2016, October 28). When Will Josh See How Cool I Am? [Television series episode]. In Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Cambridge: CW. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV Series 2015– ). (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2017, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4094300/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt Crazy Ex-Girlfriend TV Show on The CW: Ratings (Cancel or Season 4?). (2017, December 09). Retrieved December 09, 2017, from https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/crazy-ex-girlfriendseason-three-ratings/ OShaughnessy, M., Stadler, J., & Casey, S. (2016). Media & society. Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press.