Drake & Josh

One of my absolute favorite comedy shows is Drake & Josh. As silly as it is, it does live up to Aristotle's definition of comedy. It is a show I have grown up with that actually has taught me a lot, despite how many people view the show.

The show consists of two brothers, Drake and Josh. Drake, his mother and sister join Josh and his father to begin a new family, in a similar situation like The Brady Bunch. There's Drake, the cool brother who gets by on dating plenty of girls, never doing homework and playing in a band and then there's Josh, the very smart, loser-ish, awkward brother. Aligned with Aristotle's definition, the characters in this family aren't anything out of the ordinary. They come from a typical family of five, live in a regular house and go to high school. Simultaneously, the show explores the problems and situations that regular people commonly find themselves in. Dealing with high school drama, girlfriends, popularity, school and a pesky sibling.

Personally, this is one of the most realistic shows about teenagers that I watched as a child. Many shows such as Hannah Montana (the lead character is secretly a superstar!) and Gossip Girl (I will never understand how the characters never went to school, but all ended up at Ivies). Drake and Josh went through many situations similar to how my high school career went. Dealing with sports tryouts, your first babysitting job, dating in high school and also dealing with siblings.

The main reason I feel that it is a successful example of a comedy is because of the rise of both Drake and Josh. Each characters had their highs and lows, but the show stressed that you cannot be like just one of these boys to succeed in life. Although Drake was definitely the more popular and well liked boy, he went through many school problems. And Josh was definitely the not-so-cool guy, but he was doing very well in school. In different episodes Drake would be seen studying with Josh, or Josh would be learning tips on how to pick up girls. Each character appealed to the audience because everyone could see a little bit of Drake in them, but also a little bit of Josh. I cannot remember a time when I had a specific favorite character, because I felt that I related to both characters.

There was a lot of humor involved in this particular show, and that along with the many lessons I learned from it is the reason I value it so much. It was on air from 2004-2007, but there are still re-runs of it that I still watch today.