Painfully Funny: Cringe Comedy, Benign Masochism, and Not-So-Benign Violations

TY - JOUR

T1 - Painfully Funny: Cringe Comedy, Benign Masochism, and Not-So-Benign Violations

AU - Hye-Knudsen, Marc

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Cringe comedies differ from traditional embarrassment humour by being explicitly aimed at evoking not just the positive emotion of amusement but also the decidedly negative emotion of vicarious embarrassment (i.e. 'cringe') in their audiences. Drawing on Warren and McGraw's benign violation theory of humour and the concept of benign masochism, I offer a biocultural account of how they achieve this effect and why audiences counterintuitively seem to find it enjoyable. I argue that whereas a farce like Fawlty Towers (1975-1979) employs psychological distance in order to render its embarrassing violations thoroughly benign and thus singularly conducive to amusement, cringe comedies like The Office (2001-2003) and The Inbetweeners (2008-2010) comparatively decrease psychological distance in order also to evoke high levels of vicarious embarrassment. Finally, I argue that audiences find benignly masochistic pleasure in such cringe-inducing media because they offer vicarious experiences with social worst-case scenarios.

AB - Cringe comedies differ from traditional embarrassment humour by being explicitly aimed at evoking not just the positive emotion of amusement but also the decidedly negative emotion of vicarious embarrassment (i.e. 'cringe') in their audiences. Drawing on Warren and McGraw's benign violation theory of humour and the concept of benign masochism, I offer a biocultural account of how they achieve this effect and why audiences counterintuitively seem to find it enjoyable. I argue that whereas a farce like Fawlty Towers (1975-1979) employs psychological distance in order to render its embarrassing violations thoroughly benign and thus singularly conducive to amusement, cringe comedies like The Office (2001-2003) and The Inbetweeners (2008-2010) comparatively decrease psychological distance in order also to evoke high levels of vicarious embarrassment. Finally, I argue that audiences find benignly masochistic pleasure in such cringe-inducing media because they offer vicarious experiences with social worst-case scenarios.

U2 - 10.7146/lev.v0i2.104693

DO - 10.7146/lev.v0i2.104693

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2446-3981

SP - 13

EP - 31

JO - Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English

JF - Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English

IS - 2

ER -