Sam Robson

I propose that the media phenomenon “Trailer Park Boys” exemplifies media “in

transition” across both time and space. It is also an example of a trans media

narrative, notably for all the same reasons it exemplifies media in transition.

Before reflecting on the concept of a contemporary cross-platform media

phenomenon or text that exemplifies media “in transition”, I sought to define what it

means and how that would affect my analysis. Looking to Henry Jenkins, he sees it

as a form of storytelling which “represents a process where integral elements of a

fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose

of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” (Jenkins 2007). I

therefore selected the Canadian TV and internet success, “Trailer Park Boys” as an

ideal example to demonstrate this phenomenon. The characters were first introduced

in a short film in 1999, “One Last Shot”, written and directed by Mike Clattenburg,

which then spawned a successful TV series, Trailer Park Boys (from now on referred

to in this essay as “TPB”). TPB is a transmedia narrative whose first official

embodiment under this name was launched on 22 April 2001 on the Canadian

network, Showcase. It would continue to host the show for seven more seasons until

it transferred to the Netflix subscription streaming service for the eighth season in

2008. Netflix has hosted TPB for a further ten seasons, with an 11 th waiting for

release, and there have been a further five TPB films between 2006 and 2015.

In addition to the official canon there are “half or 7.5, 8.5 series” featuring some or all

of the characters, launched on swearnet.com, a Web 2.0 concept with a substantial

amount of user-generated content, which is the official website for TPB. This

platform hosts twenty four different links for various activities, and positions TPB

firmly in a progressive, forward-thinking group of film-makers who are “current” in

terms of their position within the spectrum of media in transition, as it allows the

creators of the show to harness the power of the user as active not passive,

engaging the audience in a wider sense and allowing this audience, or ‘fandom’ the

opportunity for a greater participatory culture. From a TV series in 2001, TPB now

provides a unified and co-ordinated entertainment experience in the sense defined

by Jenkins.

Swearnet.com

Swearnet.com has 28 different links

Whilst there are a range of trans-media titles available, I chose TPB because of the

possibilities it affords on analysis and because of its personal appeal to me. It not

only subverts the typical view of the criminal classes as perceived in trailer-park

communities, it does so in a highly comedic way, “…it is anchored in an apparently

slight conceit -- its a pseudo documentary about a bunch of dope-smoking,

scamming, endlessly swearing lowlifes… [yet]… the Boys continue to be charming

and hilarious.” (Doyle 2006). The show has engendered “sizeable debate among

media scholars, critics and fans alike” (Diduck 2006) and provides for an interesting

analysis as to how this impacts on the manner of its distribution throughout different

media channels. The show is not widely known outside the US and Canada, yet has

an almost-cult status, which poses interesting questions as to the impact of the

shows’ trans-media presence. Is this cult following achieved because of its

formidable presence in different forms trans media, or because the nature of the

entertainment inclines to that type of presence? Arguably it has a strong and loyal

following amongst a narrow audience, thus encouraging an extension of

entertainment via other media channels, to maximise and extend the entertainment

of those who watch the TV show, but does this actually widen the audience? By way

of comparison, it was launched at the same time as “The Office” in the UK, which

was also viewed as innovative at the time, using the same mockumentary style.

Whilst “The Office” has gone on to wider success, launching a version in the US with

a similar format, and making its main character, Ricky Gervais, a well-known

international star, TPB has been more of a cult success, with deep and long-lasting

affection from its fan base. For example, even though “The Office” is more widely

known, a search on “You Tube” reveals that the most popular clip for the US version

of “The Office” has had just over £3 million views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Vmb1tqYqyII), whereas one from TPB had 4.5 million views

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfq3c4Cf1Fs). TPB has outlasted “The Office”, is

now in its 11th season, and has retained a loyal following which makes it profitable

for Netflix. I will investigate the reasons why this may be the case in this essay.

One of the factors which distinguish TPB is its content, which is gritty and shot with a

deliberately “poor production process to mimic the documentary style” (Clattenburg

(Diduck 2006). Clattenburg noted that initially this was a problem, “Most industry

people couldn't get past the anti production-value look and ribald humour” (Diduck

2006). This ribald humour is now a lynchpin of the show, as exhibited by the name

of its website, “swearnet.com”. Fans of the show have come to learn that each

season ends with some or all of the main characters going to prison and the

following season will premier with whichever characters are coming out of prison,

which creates a never-ending cycle that confines them but never daunts them, and

that insouciance is at the root of the comedy. The three main characters are Ricky,

Julian and their friend and Jiminy Cricket-type conscience, Bubbles.

From left to right: Julian, Bubbles and Ricky.

Broadly, the storylines are based upon get-rich-quick schemes hatched by Julian,

which are usually illegal, and Ricky’s tribulations in having to contend with a volatile

family life as a result of his attitude towards responsibility, nurtured always by their

life-long friend Bubbles, who is deeply and genuinely kind, symbolized by his being a

cat-lover! Their life is made more difficult by the alcoholic trailer-park supervisor Jim

Lahey who has a long-standing grudge against them stemming from the fact that

they were the cause of his dismissal from the police force years before. Whilst

essentially TPB has the same storyline in every season, “…they abound in pleasure,

not predictability, for the viewer” (Doyle 2005). This is due to the strong

characterization, wherein the viewer knows what to expect, and is key to the

enjoyment, because it is the manner of the exposition of the plot which provides the

comedy. TPB is therefore typical of episodic television conventions where the

characters traits are obvious and well-defined, which viewers grow to identify and

anticipate.

The show’s characters are delineated stereotypes. Julian is tall, bearded and never

seen without a glass of whisky in his hand. In one episode he climbs out a car which

has rolled over, still clutching his unbroken glass (Season 2 episode 7, "I Banged

Lucy and Knocked Her Up...No Big Deal"). He is perceived by the others as clever,

but the viewer enjoys the irony of knowing this to be untrue. For example one of his

get-rich schemes involved stealing a large amount of coins because they were

untraceable (The Big Dirty 2006). Of the main trio, he is the only character with a

‘proper’ home, which is his grandmother’s old trailer. He is close to her and their

relationship is one of the means by which family values underlie the community of

the trailer park. He wants to get rich quick and retire, which theme propels the plot in

each episode, bringing adventure and scrapes with the law, alongside Jim Lahey’s

drunken attempts to foil their plans. The conceit of the mockumentary occurs

because Julian, while operating as a ‘pet assassin’ with Ricky, is told by a fortune

teller that he is going to die soon. As a result, he hires a film crew to follow him

around and document everything he does to serve as a message to others not to

follow in his path. The irony is that the crew film him entirely on the same path year

after year. Bubbles is easily the most loveable character, with a back-story to match.

Abandoned at the age of 6 by his parents he was left with Julian’s Grandmother. He

is Ricky and Julian’s best friend and a constant reminder of the sense of family and

community within the park. Bubbles lives in a shed and scavenges shopping carts to

fix and re-sell as a source of modest income, spent

mostly on cat food for his numerous stray ‘kitties’ in

the trailer park. He often acts as the voice of logic and

reason when the others lose theirs, which is

frequently. Bubbles often finds himself “up shit creek”

as Jim Lahey would say, not due to his own selfish

actions but out of love for Ricky and Julian and the

fact he hates it when they go to jail, leaving him on his

own. Ricky is a simple minded small-time criminal

who likes to grow and smoke marijuana. He is

aggressive and foul-mouthed, but most doting over

his daughter Trinity and regularly does anything to

help his family and friends during hard times, albeit he is usually the cause of them.

Alongside these main characters the exposition is assisted by Jim Lahey, the

drunken park supervisor and his lover and sidekick, an ex-prostitute, the

appropriately named Randy, who charged his fees in cheeseburgers. His large gut

is ever present as he cannot wear shirts without breaking into a rash. These larger

than life stereotypical characters interact with each other in the confines of this semi-

rural trailer park, which makes for outrageous comedy. Johnson asserts a

wholesome assessment in that the show “the show’s presentation of violence, abject

bodies, and trash-strewn streets is always filtered through a dedication to nostalgic

ideas surrounding the family and community” (Thompson 2015). Lynn Coady argues

that TPB “provides an ironic take on the most extreme versions of the region’s

culture”. (Coady 2005).

The characters in TPB are given added depth by development off the show.

Because of its “innovative mockumentary style” (Thompson 2015) they are

presented on the shows’ website Swearnet and YouTube channels in a faux “behind

the scenes” format, where they actually remain in character for that purpose,

providing another layer of reality and more depth to the storylines, although not all

within official canon. In one video clip Julian interacts with the fan base, in character

by responding to a question on drinking, and invents a whole back story about

“growing up with Randy”, (http://blog.swearnet.com/category/swearclip-of- the-day/)

in which he teaches him how to drink. More depth is achieved through paratexts on

the web; for example some sites collate scenes with the defining characteristics of a

particular character. “Rickyisms” can be found on Tumblr, YouTube and on the

Fandom site Wikia (http://trailerpark.wikia.com/wiki/Rickyisms). This page collates all

the malapropisms and mispronunciations to which the hapless Ricky is prone, for

example, “Honesty is just a test policy” instead of “Honesty is the best policy”

(Season 8 Episode 5, Whore-A-Geddon). There is also a Wikia for Bubbles’ cats

(http://trailerpark.wikia.com/wiki/Bubbles'_Kitties) and “Shitisms” for Jim Lahey

(

https://www.reddit.com/r/trailerparkboys/comments/25w2mm/your_favorite_of_lahey

s_shitisms/) These websites allow users to interact and write the content, and Wikia

describes itself as a place where everyone can “find a place for their passion in the

Home of Fandom” (http://community.wikia.com/wiki/Community_Central). All the

TPB characters have a page on this site.

The gritty content is derived from the nature of characters, their criminal activities,

lack of moral fibre, and poverty all of which is presented in a comedic way. In terms

of entertainment, this “pushes the envelope” (Thompson 2015). It caused

controversy when first released in Canada because it touched upon sensitivities

relating to both ethnicity and culture, dividing its audience between those who

thought that the “…focus on substance abuse, poverty, and life in trailer parks leaves

it open to the charge that it capitalizes on “laughing at the poor” (Bart Beaty quoted

in McCoy, Heath. 2003) and those who thought it “…an anti-bourgeois soap opera, a

cheerful and loving celebration of foul-mouthed, lazy lowlifes” and “…also

barbarically funny” (Doyle 2005). I would suggest that it would be simplistic to

consider that the show depicts outlandishly stereotypical images of trailer park life as

a means of “laughing at the poor” and that writers such Patricia Hughes-Fuller are

more accurate in that “rather than laughing at the poor, humour functions in the show

as a means of speaking on behalf of a marginalized population” (Hughes-Fuller,

2009).

Setting

The region in which the show is set is the maritime east coast of Canada, in the

ironically-named “Sunnyville” trailer park, and the show is “…rooted in the very

specific geographical and cultural space of Halifax, Nova Scotia” (Thompson 2015).

The show sends up not only traditional stereotypes, but also Nova Scotia’s

supposedly quaint culture and landscape (McKay 1994; McKay and Bates 2010).The

trailer park is as much of a character as the individuals within the show, siting the

activity within the realms of an environment which conditions the attitude of its

occupants, who appear to have no desire to leave it. In an interview with Snoop

Dogg on a news series called GGN (available in either podcast or film via YouTube)

and whilst still in character (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRKrj3-kLU) they

think they are rich when he gives then $200 each, because their needs whilst living

in the park, are modest. On that sum they live, as Bubbles says, “like a king”. Being

“rich” is therefore a relative concept and they don’t seek to escape Sunnyville, just

live well within it. I would suggest that one of the reasons for the show’s success

and its defining characteristic is its placement firmly in the “white trash culture”

(Thompson 2015) of Nova Scotia.

Matt Wray argues that ‘white trash’ is a complicated identity marker such that linking

class and race with a paradoxical label of privilege ie “white” and the pejorative word

“trash”, creates a liminal space whereby “the sacred and the profane, purity and

impurity, morality and immorality, cleanliness and dirt" exist alongside one another in

a “dangerous threshold state of being neither one nor the other” (Wray 2006). I would

argue that this gives the show a universal appeal, regardless of race or class, such

that the defining issue is poverty. In this liminal space there is a peculiar world,

where characters “speak with malapropisms, inflected with outdated pop culture

references” (Thompson 2015). They are also separate and apart because they exist

in a barter economy and have no full time occupation which routinely engages them

outside the trailer park. In this fictional world it is normal to see “children throwing

garbage at one another and grown men shooting squirrels in a blind rage”

(Thompson 2015). In this world a white man, J-Roc believes himself to be a black

rapper.

What I would describe as an ‘alternative reality’ which surrounds TPB is thus

perfectly suited to the web-world which has been created by the TPB website,

swearnet.com, where the TPB characters, who regularly appear in pop videos and

on other celebrity shows, tend to stay in character. For example in the Snoop Dogg

interview, their genuine delight when Snoop Dogg hands each of them $200, all

remaining resolutely in character and maintaining the pretence of the show, so as to

not break the 4th wall, is remarkable. Unless the viewer knew the series on watching

this interview the characters would be perceived as genuine, and this conceit

underpins the success of TPB. These moments and the constant blurring of reality

serve to further unify and strengthen the entertainment experience. It is also assisted

by the fact that the show is filmed in a “hyperrealist mockumentary style” which

further blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction (Thompson 2015). Brett Mills

argues contemporary television comedies often collapse genres, such as combining

the sitcom and the documentary to produce “comedy verite”. TPB falls into this

category by adopting what Clattenburg described as anti production-values, using

handheld or portable cameras and filming fake interviews where members of the

cast speak directly to the camera (Mills 2004, 68) and the film crew appear as

characters.

Further depth is achieved when the characters appear as guests in other forms of

pop-culture platforms, such as The Tragically Hip’s video, “The Darkest One” and

conversely when well-known celebrities appear in the TPB series, such as when

Rush appeared as themselves in the episode “Closer to the Heart” (season 3, 2003).

Following that, a video was made of Bubbles playing “Closer To The Heart” with

Rush and released on YouTube, so, ostensibly, life imitates art, completely blurring

reality.

It is interesting that Ricky Gervais also adopted this trope in his series “Extras”,

where the format provided for a genuine celebrity to appear in each episode,

alongside Gervais as a film extra. The TPB format however is more extended and

innovative in that it works in reverse, such as when Bubbles appears in Rush’ video

as “himself”. Viewers can therefore extend their entertainment by participating in the

fictitious TPB ‘universe’ and tailor their viewing to favourite characters outside the

plotlines in the TV show. They have the opportunity not only to behave as typical

fans and extend their knowledge of the people behind the show, but also to extend

and supplement that enjoyment by interacting with them both in and occasionally,

out of, character.

These platforms provide a critical service in that swearnet.com and YouTube provide

access to the show on a regular basis to engage fans between the production of the

TV shows’ series and the occasional film. Fans can remain engaged and loyal. The

half series” such as the “7.5” and “8.5” is a clever way of maintaining a character and

plot development during these periods, so that sites do not become stale, in

particular because some of them are live shows, so inexpensive to provide on the

web. I would suggest that a web presence is also more likely to engage the younger

audience who engage more with internet platforms, rather than the fixed medium of

TV, so the trans media approach draws in a wider capacity for viewers

The show and its spin-offs therefore neatly conform to Jenkins’ notion that different

media permit a different facet of the story, and I would even suggest that it goes

further in that the blurring of reality which is a main theme of the TPB universe

permits and even greater range and depth of entertainment experience. The Netflix

platform is less restrictive than the Showcase public network and facilitates the

show’s ribald humour, allowing greater freedoms than that permitted on public

television. The Web 2.0 platforms take this even further and allow more adult

participation for adult themes. Through swearnet.com die-hard fans are able to

participate via other media sources and platforms that are aligned to their respective

interests within the show, so the experience can be focused. For example some

viewers particularly hate or love one or other of the characters and focus on

favourites, so cultivating an audience that would not necessarily watch the show on

TV. These are the active consumers of media, who are particularly selective about

their entertainment such as gamers. For example TPB has a presence on a gaming

site NeoGaf by virtue a board game spin-off. I would suggest that this TPB universe,

which is so deep and wide ranging, allows die-hard fans the maximum entertainment

value and that the nature of the characters and its situation means it is “rooted”

(Thompson 2015). The rootedness and the gritty themes of the programme attract a

more limited range of viewers than would something of a broader range, so TPB has

been successful in maintaining a fan base via a range of platforms and establishing

its “cult” status, especially amongst younger viewers who are more attracted to

internet platforms for entertainment. Thus TPB is a perfect example of cutting edge

and well positioned trans media.