Citizen Smith more than Citizen Kane? Genres-in-progress and the cultural politics of difference

Abstract

As the first British situation comedy about a Muslim family, Citizen Khan received mostly negative reviews from the press. Reviews could be split into two tropes: Citizen Khan was offensive to Muslims, or just offensively bad. It was the comedy's use of crude caricatures, compounded by its foundation in a rather archaic form of humour that seemingly rubbed up both white and Asian critics alike. However, this paper argues that much of this criticism failed to adequately contextualise Citizen Khan within the form of comedy that it is working within. Using Georgina Born's notion of ‘genre-in-progress’, the paper argues that it is only by situating Citizen Khan within its genre of British family sitcom that we can properly ascertain its cultural political value, where we find in fact something much more potentially subversive than the reviews give it credit for.

Notes

1. Citizen Khan attracts 200 complaints for ‘taking the mickey out of Islam’, The Metro, 29/8/12; ‘Citizen Khan provokes 200 complains’, The Telegraph, 29/8/12; ‘Heavily made-up girl in a hijab provokes storm of complaints as BBC is accused of insulting Muslims with new sitcom Citizen Khan’, Daily Mail, 28/8/12.