2. Dyer’s Utopian Pleasures model
• Some critics have argued that ‘Inbetweeners’
is not an accurate presentation of what youth
culture is actually like; rather it is more of an
idealistic representation.
• “the image of ‘something better’ to escape
into, or something that we want deeply that
our day-to-day loves don’t provide”
3. • Because Inbetweeners seems to err between
the real and the ideal it is not necessarily the
exact representation of an utopia instead it is:
“what utopia would feel like rather than how it
would be organized.”
4. • Inbetweeners is interesting because much of what they get up to is
relatable. However, it is relatable in a way that is contradictory to how it is
ultimately enjoyed. Joe Thomas, who plays Simon, says: “I look up to Ian
(Morris) and Damon (Beesley, the show’s creators) because they have got
sufficiently outside of themselves to accept that life is essentially full of
things you did not succeed at ...and turn them into something people
celebrate”
• It is through this that awkward and embarrassing moments in our lives are
parodied. The hypodermic needle theory would suggest that this is done
purposefully, the fact that so many teenagers name the series as ‘relatable’
would support this. However, the exception to this can be shown in the
critical reception from some audiences; specifically older audiences. This
independent rejection of the director’s desired effect can most likely be
attributed to a difference in generational ideals of what is wrong and what is
right.
5. A member of the Inbetweeners cast
• “There’s a heightened lad culture which really
doesn’t represent the actual young men in
this country”,
