In 'Faulty Towers' - a hugely successful sitcom of the 1970's - the Other (the object that is being stereotyped because of fear about its difference from established norms and its challenge to the dominany ideology) is the Germans, who are ridiculed by John Cleese in his role as Basil Fawlty in his memorable "funny walk" =. However, in 'The Beano' also very successful - one of the longest runnig comics in the uk - and sharing the same funamental purpose as 'Fawlty Towers' (to entertain the audience by making them laugh) it is a 'typical' girl being stereo-typed by 'The Bast Street Kids', derided for being narcissitic. In each case, the Other is determined by the producers' assumption about what will appeal to the target audience, tapping into their core beliefs and values, and these representations ultimately help to reinforce their conservative prejudices - their rascism ans sexism.

At the time of 'Text 1', Britain was still suffering from the painful memory of the Second World War (and perhaps still is today judginf by Richard Desmond's politically incorrect behaviour last week at a meeting between his 'Daily Express' newspaper group and 'The Daily Telegraph') and so it satisfied a generation of British people who were still unsure about our former enemies, even though the programme - makers' intention had been to satirise these attitudes as being outdated.

Similarly, 'Text 2' demonstrates how even in out post - feminist times, the pre-teen boys who make up the primary audience of 'The Beano' have little respect for the girls and will strongly identify with the views f the main characters who assert and 'prove' that traditional femininity is no match for masculine qualities. However, by placing a female 'tomboy' character as one of the cheif proponents of this patriarchal view, it could be argued that 'The Beano' is quite a progressive text because it nevertheless makes it clear that gender identity is not fixed or laid down according to biology. Whether boys will pick up on this message or - like the reactionary sitcom audience of the 1970's - instead take a more alternative reading from the prefferred one, is a matter for debate.

Although both these comics appear to be funny in their context and appeal to their target audience, they both difrentiate in terms of the way they are presented to the audience, how and why, and what values they are teaching their audience as both appeal to very disimilar audiences. Text 1, appears to be appealing to a middle class British audience as the character seems to have an unusual sence of humour as he is mocking the world war, and is seen to be derisive toward the Germans. Therefore, the character is representing the British.

On the other hand, 'The Beano' is innocently representing troublesome children, who do not shed value for anything but themselves. Therefore, portraying them to by jealous. This is shown by the fact that the little girl is constantly unhappy with her friend finding a girlfriend, who we see is taking advantage of him, as she asks him to take her out shopping. This again is representing a female to be selfish. Because, 'The Beano' primarily targets the male audience, and the ages of who they provide for is that of 11 - 14 year old. The new girl at school is also conforming to the 'Male Gaze' theory as she is seen to be beautiful, with long blonde hair, whereas the other female character does not appeal to the gaze. The illustrator of this comic, is representing girls to only find good looking boys attractive, therefore assuming they are shallow.

Finally, both these texts are very diverse, as they are targeting different audiences, they appear to be comedys in their own context and therefore, for different audiences they are interpreted differently. therefore i would find Text 1 more funny, than Text 2, as i am past that age and so i am more likely to respond positivley to one which fits my age range.