The Clip Show as a Symptom of Surplus Value and More-Than-Enjoyment

The clip show is not particularly popular, neither with the public nor with critics, and scholars have also tended to avoid dealing with it. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that hardly any US series do without it or even can do without it—whether on television or in the stream.. In order to be able to approach this very special episode concept, the attempt is made to understand its characteristics by means of Marxian Surplus value as well as Lacanian plus-de-jouir. The Christmas show of the sitcom I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951–57), the first clip show episode on television, is accordingly worth watching.