Cringe comedy is a specific genre of comedy that derives humor from social awkwardness. Often a cringe comedy will have an air of a mockumentary and revolve around a serious setting, such as a workplace, to lend the comedy a sense of reality.[1]
The protagonists are typically egotists who overstep the boundaries of political correctness and break social norms. Then the comedy will attack the protagonist by not letting them become aware of their self-centered view, or by making them oblivious to the ego-deflation that the comedy deals them. Sometimes, however, an unlikable protagonist may not suffer any consequences, which violates people's moral expectations, and also makes the audience cringe.[2]
Theory
Humor theorist Noël Carroll explains humor in relation to incongruity theory and annoyance:
"Imagine the cutlery laid out for a formal dinner. Suppose that the salad fork is in the wrong place. If you are the sort of person who is disturbed by such deviations from the norm, you will not be capable of finding this amusing. On the other hand, if you are more easy-going about such matters and also aware of the incongruity, it may elicit a chuckle. That is, you may find the error amusing or not. But if you find it genuinely amusing, you cannot find it annoying."[3]
Examples
Popular examples of television programs that employ this genre of comedy include:
- Borat
- I'm Alan Partridge
- Seinfeld
- The Office
- Parks and Recreation
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Mr. D
- The Larry Sanders Show
- Curb Your Enthusiasm[4]
- Friday Night Dinner
- Love
- Arrested Development
- Da Ali G Show
- Extras[4]
- Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
- The Comeback
- Miranda
- People Just Do Nothing[5]
- Mr. Bean
- Louie[4]
- Girls[4]
- The Mindy Project[1]
- The Inbetweeners[6]
- Peep Show[7]
- The IT Crowd[8]
- Nathan for You[9][4]
- The Last Man on Earth[10][4]
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend[11][4]
- Fleabag[4]
- The Eric Andre Show
- I Think You Should Leave
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt[12]
- Impractical Jokers[13]
- Who Is America?
- Chewing Gum
- Veep[14]
- PEN15
- Pure
- Jackass
- Review
- Plebs
References
- ^ a b Press, Joy (21 January 2003). "The Comedy of Cringe". Village Voice.
- ^ McFarlane, Brian (2009). "A curmudgeon's canon: random thoughts on 'Summer Heights High', 'The Office' and other nasty pleasures". Metro Magazine (160): 134–138.
- ^ Carroll, Noël (2014). Humour: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-19-955222-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Cringe TV Comedy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
- ^ Aroesti, Rachel (2016-09-22). "Bare jokes: how People Just Do Nothing made sitcoms funny again". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ "'The Inbetweeners': Like 'Freaks and Geeks,' But 'Less Attractive and Less Friendly'". Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Wade, Chris (24 September 2013). "This Is the Episode of Peep Show That Will Get You Hooked". Retrieved 19 November 2017 – via Slate.
- ^ Framke, Caroline. "The IT Crowd: "Tramps Like Us"/"The Speech"". Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Anielski, Ryan. "'Nathan for You:' How Cringe Comedy Doesn't Have to Offend to Make Us Laugh - IndieWire". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ david.wilcox@lee.net, David Wilcox. "Will Forte's Fox show 'The Last Man on Earth' could use a little less cringe in its comedy". Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ "A Girl-Group Themed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Proves Even a Fragmented Episode is Better Than Most TV". Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Fallon, Claire (29 April 2016). "The Native Plot On 'Kimmy Schmidt' Makes Us Cringe, But Is It All Bad?". HuffPost. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ "'Stick your finger in their ear': a crash course in pranking from Impractical Jokers". theguardian.com. 21 March 2016.
- ^ "Emmys: 5 Cringeworthy 'Veep' Moments". 10 November 2018.