Cringe comedy is one of the most successful genres in film and TV, yet some people either don’t get it or actively dislike it. Some people relish in the secondhand embarrassment of watching Michael Scott or Nathan Fielder while others find it excruciating or boring. What’s so funny about socially awkward, publicly embarrassing situations?
The History of ****** Comedy
****** comedy dates back to the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that it really took off.
- The difference between slapstick and cringe comedy is that the former feels more detached, while the latter feels more personal and empathetic.
The contemptuous and the empathetic
Sometimes, when we enjoy cringe humor, we empathize with the events.
- Contemptuous: an emotional distancing from the person you are cringing at
- Empathetic: we perceive that the person is embarrassing themselves, but instead of feeling embarrassment on their behalf, you feel annoyance and disgust at them, and maybe even a little schadenfreude
- Affective response: we are invited to feel contempt
Where does cringe punch?
Sometimes, when a producer or comedian showcases a “cringe” moment, they are actually manufacturing or inventing contempt
- When we laugh at something, we ridicule it and diminish it – that’s why it’s a great defense mechanism, and the best way to defeat boggarts
The science of cringe comedy
Cringe comedy may help us strengthen a kind of defense mechanism
- We may enjoy it because it allows us to simulate unusual social situations and witness their consequences without actually having to experience them in the real world.
- If, as Gervais supposes, we all like [David Brent, the boss character in the British version of The Office] want to be loved, respected, and thought interesting, then watching The Office provides us with salient examples of how not to achieve this.
Venting social anxiety
One of the most likely reasons why people find cringe comedy funny is known as the “benign violation hypothesis”
- We laugh at moral or social violations which are also benign (no real person is hurt, for instance) and safe (they’re not happening to me!).
- When we laugh at cringe comedy, we are reestablishing ourselves on the right side of various social norms or taboos.
