Semiological Analysis of Its Always Sunny

Have you ever wondered why signs, advertisements and even videos have the certain objects and graphical images they do? Well I have, and I found that everything you see in a poster or advertisement is in that specific spot for a reason. Throughout watching Its Always sunny I have realized that aside from the hilarious writing and directing of this show there is actually some underlying meanings and themes portrayed thought out the show. When we look at or analyze these themes and implied meanings this is known as semiotics. This term deals with two things, a signifier (physical object) and a signified (meaning/idea). Above is the example I will be analyzing, or pointing out the signifiers and what they portray. 

In the above picture you obviously see the cast of Its Always Sunny, some caution tape, the TV network the show is aired on and a date and time for when the show will be played and that’s it right? Well this is almost correct, although most viewers of this advertisement can look at this and immediately find out what they want to know about the program they may not know why they inferred what they did or how they even found it out. This is because we as viewers tend to automatically look at these things and know what they imply. Although we do this, one may not know that all of the things listed in the picture are considered signifiers and what you just assumed they mean is your idea of their signified meaning.

These individual objects, people or graphic art are strategically placed throughout this picture. For example the caution tape over the cast’s mouths signifies that the people in the show most likely swear and probably say questionable things, their eyes in this photo look a bit crazy which can signify that below the caution tape their smiling and even laughing which means the shows funny, and also the fact that only their heads are showing could even signify that their a bit egotistical.

All of these signified meanings are used to give the viewer a taste of what there getting into before they actually watch the show.   

It is also important for one to do a syntagmatic analysis on this advertisement; this can help with making a connection between different signifiers in the advertisement. For example the caution tape by its self would just signify caution but once placed over the heads of the cast it signifies that the show may have some questionable content.

On the other hand if we do a paradigmatic analysis, then the meaning of the advertisement could change. For example if the photo did not have caution tape all over it the advertisement would then be the cast of Always Sunny smiling which could again misdirect what the shows about which is primarily a darker type of comedy.