Focus Group Guy: We want you to tell us what you think. And, be honest, because no one from the show is here spying on you. [chuckles]
[a sneeze comes from behind the wall mirror]
Lisa: Why is that mirror sneezing?
Focus Group Guy: Ah, look, it's just an old, creaky mirror, y'know, sometimes it sound a little like it's sneezing, or coughing, or talking softly.
[a sneeze comes from behind the wall mirror]
Lisa: Why is that mirror sneezing?
Focus Group Guy: Ah, look, it's just an old, creaky mirror, y'know, sometimes it sound a little like it's sneezing, or coughing, or talking softly.
Focus groups are typically used to see how a product, certain foods, movies, TV shows, etc. would be received by the general public. This includes Focus Group Ending, where a movie or a Pilot Episode’s ending is changed if said group doesn’t react well to the original ending.
Comedies show some of the more ridiculous aspects, like if someone gets more excited, or upset by the product, even if the product itself is mundane.
The Focus Group might give ridiculous suggestions for improvements, and the executives might ignore them, as they (the executives) think they know better than their target audience.
Other ways include:
- The Focus Group being far more enthusiastic about a mundane product for baffling reasons. The other side being ''less'' interested in a product that one would expect.
- Members of the Focus Group offering suggestions that are vague or unhelpful at best or are straight-up ridiculous at worst. If any of these suggestions are implemented, the product makers will often regret it almost immediately.
- The Focus Group offering actual helpful advice (which might include pointing out some rather obvious flaws with the product), only to be ignored by the higher-ups who believe they know better than their customers (and thus missing the entire point of having a Focus Group).
- The product makers trying to be subtle about getting feedback on their product, possibly to stop any leaks about their business from getting out, only to fail utterly in their subterfuge (the two-way mirror is incredibly obvious, the observers aren't as quiet as they think they are, etc.).
Examples:
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Advertising
- A commercial
for the Dodge Caliber had it presented to a focus group of cute creatures. Most of them complain that it looks more intimidating than cute ("it's not cuddly or wuddly"). It turns out this is what the Dodge executives were going for.
- A Jack in the Box commercial has a focus group consisting of meat and cheese lovers react to the restaurant's Ultimate Cheeseburger. They love the burger, but complain about it having buns, which causes Jack to do a Spit Take and enter the focus room.
Group: Yeah, duh.Jack: Alright. We'll look into that.
Comic Strips
- Dykes to Watch Out For: Used several times in a Metafictional way, with either the Animated Actors or other outside characters forming a focus group (or, this being a heavily Granola Girl-oriented cast, a non-hierarchical consensus-based affinity group) to discuss what should happen next in the storyline — and maybe even go on strike if they don't like it.
"I personally would like to see more femme insurance adjusters of Scandinavian descent included in this so-called 'comic' strip, which I feel compelled to add, is not particularly funny!"—"The Factory Tour", The Indelible Alison Bechdel
Live-Action TV
- In the 30 Rock episode “The Aftermath”, Jack changes the title of Liz's show, claiming that the new title tested well with focus groups. Flashback Cut to Jack bribing a focus group with pizza.
- The 84th The Academy Awards ceremony included a sketch parodying focus groups with Christopher Guest and his comedy team portraying a test audience of The Wizard of Oz and offering some very unhelpful notes.
- Community: In "Conventions of Space and Time", Shirley and Pierce take part in a focus group for an American version of Inspector Spacetime. Pierce is critical of the show because he can't wrap his head around the Inspector being able to travel through space and time, and makes suggestions that cater to his specific tastes. the producers take Pierce's questionable suggestions to heart, and the resulting show is embarrassingly bad.
Abed: (to Pierce after watching the first few minutes) I hate you.
- Frasier: The episode "The Focus Group” involves various focus groups being held for the shows at KACL. While looking in on the focus group for his show, Frasier comes across a man named Manu, who is the only person in the group who doesn't like his show, and by extension, doesn't like him. Because Manu doesn't give a specific reason for hating Frasier, Frasier gradually becomes more and more obsessed with finding out the reason. He eventually visits Manu at his newsstand and (after trying to get Martin to ask him in his place and failing) asks him directly, only to start a chain of Disaster Dominoes where he spills a drink on Manu, closes the shutter on Manu's hand, takes over Manu's newsstand, and burns down the entire newsstand on accident. It's only afterwards that Manu admits he hates Frasier because he's a know-it-all, to which Frasier calmly asks him "Was that so hard?" and walks away.
- I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson: Focus group in dealing with what should go into a car’s design goes off the rails when the older man keeps bringing up how the car might be too small and other issues. It quickly escalates to when he starts arguing with Paul, which leads everyone to agree that he (Paul) has to marry his mother-in-law.
- John Mulaney Presents Everybodys In LA: Fred Armisen a focus group of old punk rockers (Lee Ving, Mike Watt, Linda Ramona, etc.) as he asks them what is the most punk thing.
- Everybodys Live With John Mulaney:
- John Mulaney gathers actors who played Willy Loman (Anthony LaPaglia, Christopher Lloyd, Rob Morrow, etc.) as he asks them questions in character, ending with them giving the promises made speech, all of them at the same time.
- He does another one with the stuntpeople for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where they discuss different types of stuntwork, and it ends with all of them going out a window, with the ending shot of Mulaney with a part of his face torn, revealing terminator skin.
- John Mulaney gathers actors
- Everybodys Live With John Mulaney:
- Greg the Bunny: In one episode, Jimmy attempts to update Sweetknuckle Junction to please modern kids, using CGI backgrounds and more (although laughably) "ex-treeeeemmmeee!" looks. The cast and the executives do think that Jimmy's updates look cool and the project makes it all the way to a focus group test… where it is discovered the hard way that all of the special effects on screen create flashing lights that affect kids with epilepsy. The update project ends up being shelved with Sweetknuckle Junction going back to the (legally and medically safe) status quo.
- Monty Python's Flying Circus:
- In one of the show's first skits, the comedy troupe makes fun of focus group commercials by pretending to be a group of upper-middle-class housewives who can't tell the difference between a new brand of butter and a dead lobster.
- The 30th anniversary special Python Night introduces a focus group who were asked whether they felt the BBC was dumbing down its programming. The group — all Gumbies — answer no, and they want to see more programs about bricks. Then the "out-of-focus group" appears (shot with a blurry lens) to say that they'd like to see more mindless violence. Finally, a Tibetan monk shows up to add that he'd like to see more mindful violence.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: In the episode "The Incredible Melting Man", Crow's screenplay, "Earth vs. Soup" gets picked up by a studio and part of the hell he goes through trying to make it is the Mads running it past a focus group. None of them liked it and Dr. Forrester's questions trying to suss out why eventually become completely disconnected from the film (asking if anyone in the group is allergic to shellfish, or if they'd like to see Julia Ormond naked) and Pearl insists that they need to address the fact that 74% of the group doesn't like Cruella DeVil, while openly acknowledging she wasn't even in the movie.
- Nathan for You: Nathan hires a focus group to help him be more likeable to the audience. It leads to moments where they tell him to smile and waving to a camera when talking to a man.
- Saturday Night Live: In a 2011 episode hosted by Melissa McCarthy has a skit where three people are testing a new Hidden Valley Ranch, and Melissa's character gets excited to the point of pouring all the ranch all over her face.
Webcomics
- A comic by Dan Shive on the El Goonish Shive NP page shows a focus group during the development of an "iconic Italian plumber" as a video game mascot. All the men in the group say he should be a hot girl with large breasts, until the woman running the market research snaps at them "Gentlemen! We are discussing the mascot for a series of family-friendly games! Please turn off your penises!" And they do.
Western Animation
- Daria: In the episode “Malled” Daria and her schoolmates go on a field-trip to the new "Mall of the Millennium" as part of their economics class. They're taken to a conference room, where they're asked a series of questions about their preferences and interests, where Daria then pointedly asks if people aren't usually paid for market research. The mall executives deny this is what they're doing, and start a lecture on economics, when Jane suggests that the mirror in the room is of the two-way type, and proves her point, to the horror of the executives, by turning off the light, canceling the reflection and showing that there was a group of researchers behind the mirror studying the students. The mall executives then buy the class's silence on the matter by offering them all $20 gift certificates to various stores in the mall.
- Gravity Falls: Downplayed in the episode "Soos and the Real Girl". While hiding in a video game store, Soos finds a dating simulator game. On the back of the box, it reads that "nine out of ten basement dwellers recommend".
- Regular Show: The "Brilliant Century Duck Crisis Special" parodies focus groups by having one observe the Epic Mecha Fight happening as it goes. A girl asks how the robots are realistically able to merge together and why there isn't a girl, and the notes taker writes off her complaints as 'doesn't like boys, doesn't understand robots".
- Rugrats: An episode has Tommy wander into a focus group for a new robot-shaped posable toy. After an employee shows the toy includes a bouncy ball in its belly, all babies prove more interested in the ball than the toy, prompting the marketing guy to whine that they're not playing it right.
- The Simpsons: In “The Itchy And Scratchy And Poochie Show”, the creators of The Itchy & Scratchy Show realize that its rating are falling and assemble a focus group (consisting of Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Nelson, Ralph, and Janey) to see what changes they want made to it. The focus group is given two completely contradictory ideas and agrees to both, confusing the man in charge and causing studio head Roger Meyers Jr. to despair that kids don't know what they want.
Focus Group Guy: Now, how many of you want to see Itchy and Scratchy face real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?Kids: Me! Me! I would!Focus Group Guy: And how many of you would like to see just the opposite? Getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?Kids: Me! Me! I would!Focus Group Guy: [Beat] So... you want a realistic, down-to-earth show...that's completely off the wall...and swarming with magic robots?Kids: Yeah, that sounds good.Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching!
