Regrounding work in elite discourse

Abstract This paper considers the interplay of small-scale pragmatic actions and large-scale discursive formations; specifically, we examine frame-shifting and keying in the globally syndicated BBC television show Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby . Focusing on the fourth season of Amazing Hotels , which broadcast in 2021, we document how work and workers are staged for entertainment as quintessential examples of a non-serious frame that Goffman called regroundings . We argue that this particular keying of other people’s labour as play is further evidence for how mediatized representations of super-elite lifestyles normalize inequality by “democratizing” privilege and amplifying entitlement.