Editorial

9 pages, 927 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Introduction to Painful Laughter: Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe

by Wieland Schwanebeck

Humanities 2021, 10(4), 123; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10040123 - 30 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3419

This introduction to the Special Issue on cringe humour briefly traces the starting point of the contemporary cringe boom, and it looks into the roots of awkwardness as a cultural phenomenon in the 1960s. Moreover, the introduction argues for the cathartic potential of [...] Read more.

This introduction to the Special Issue on cringe humour briefly traces the starting point of the contemporary cringe boom, and it looks into the roots of awkwardness as a cultural phenomenon in the 1960s. Moreover, the introduction argues for the cathartic potential of cringe humour in the context of sociopolitical issues, and briefly presents the subsequent articles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

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Research

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10 pages, 235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cringe and Sympathy: The Comedy of Mental Illness in Flowers

by Linda M. Hess

Humanities 2021, 10(4), 121; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10040121 - 20 Nov 2021

Viewed by 3045

Abstract

This article on brings together findings from humor studies, especially work on cringe comedy, and disability studies. It analyzes how Flowers uses elements of cringe to question societal norms of the “proper person” in connection to mental illness, but also how Flowers broadens [...] Read more.

This article on brings together findings from humor studies, especially work on cringe comedy, and disability studies. It analyzes how Flowers uses elements of cringe to question societal norms of the “proper person” in connection to mental illness, but also how Flowers broadens the genre of cringe so that, at times, it becomes a cringe tragedy rather than a cringe comedy, thus taking seriously the pain of mental illness. As a third point, this analysis focuses on the way in which Flowers self-reflexively employs elements of narrativity to draw attention to the cultural constructedness and storyfication of mental illness throughout history. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

10 pages, 255 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Horsin’ Around”? #MeToo, the Sadcom, and BoJack Horseman

by Nele Sawallisch

Humanities 2021, 10(4), 115; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10040115 - 29 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5747

Abstract

The animated series BoJack Horseman has garnered much critical acclaim for its mix of tragic and comic portrayals of its eponymous protagonist, washed-up actor and cynic BoJack, and his friends in the anthropomorphic Hollywoo setting. The term “sadcom” has been applied to BoJack [...] Read more.

The animated series BoJack Horseman has garnered much critical acclaim for its mix of tragic and comic portrayals of its eponymous protagonist, washed-up actor and cynic BoJack, and his friends in the anthropomorphic Hollywoo setting. The term “sadcom” has been applied to BoJack and other series that operate on similar premises—an interesting response to larger critical investigations of the intersections of tragic and comic modes of humor that find expression, for example, in the awkward and in cringe. This article investigates how this mixture comes to bear in season 5 of the series from 2018, which deals with several topics related to the #MeToo movement. Through several formal elements as well as plotlines that lay bare superficial performances and complicitness in a sexist system, the season supports notions of authenticity and solidarity that lie the heart of sadcoms, which invites closer inspection not just of BoJack Horseman but the genre as a whole. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

8 pages, 219 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Cringe and the Sneer: Structures of Feeling in Veep

by Katja Kanzler

Humanities 2021, 10(4), 114; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10040114 - 26 Oct 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3143

Abstract

This article approaches cringe comedy through the lens of its affectivity, of the somatic experiences through which it puts its audiences’ bodies, and it uses this as a point of departure to think about the genre’s cultural work. Based on the observation that [...] Read more.

This article approaches cringe comedy through the lens of its affectivity, of the somatic experiences through which it puts its audiences’ bodies, and it uses this as a point of departure to think about the genre’s cultural work. Based on the observation that no cringe comedy makes its viewers cringe for the whole duration of its storytelling, the article suggests that cringe comedies thrive on destabilizing and ambiguating the affective valence of their performances of embarrassment, constantly recalibrating or muddying the distance between viewer and characters. They are marked by tipping points at which schadenfreude and other types of humor tip into cringe, and reversely, at which cringe tips into something else. The article focuses on one of these other affective responses, which it proposes to describe as the sneer. It uses the HBO-series Veep as a case study to explore how cringe and sneer aesthetics are interlaced in an exemplary comedy, and how they fuel this particular comedy’s satiric work. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

10 pages, 954 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Kill the Puppies!”: Cringe Comedy and Disability Humor in the Live Performances of Laurence Clark

by Gesine Wegner

Humanities 2021, 10(3), 105; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10030105 - 15 Sep 2021

Viewed by 3489

Abstract

Firmly rooted in disability activism, the emergence of disability studies in the 1980s took place at a time that also witnessed several disabled comedians and activists climb the stage both in the US and the UK. Considering these coinciding developments, it seems perhaps [...] Read more.

Firmly rooted in disability activism, the emergence of disability studies in the 1980s took place at a time that also witnessed several disabled comedians and activists climb the stage both in the US and the UK. Considering these coinciding developments, it seems perhaps little surprising that disability studies scholarship has been engaged in the complex relationship between disability and humor from its very beginnings. However, the interplay between cringe (as a cultural phenomenon closely related to comedy) and disability has not received much attention within the field. This paper takes a closer look at the functions that disability fulfils in cringe comedy. Reading Laurence Clark’s comedy live performances against a classic “disability scene” from The Office, I argue that while both shows humiliate the non-disabled for their reactions toward disabled people, the work they are doing differs on several accounts. While The Office does not give its disabled characters much of a voice and thus remains ambiguous in what it is doing, Clark’s performances use cringe humor as a tool to reclaim agency. It is through the act of talking back that Clark’s performances take on a didactic function, encouraging audiences to critically reflect their own reactions to disability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

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12 pages, 228 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Two Shades of Cringe: Problems in Attributing Painful Laughter

by Patrick Wöhrle

Humanities 2021, 10(3), 99; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10030099 - 28 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3534

Abstract

This article aims to approach the phenomenon of cringe in four steps: First, from a sociological perspective, the distinction between shame and embarrassment is discussed and a working definition is developed that conceives of this difference as situational rather than essential. In a [...] Read more.

This article aims to approach the phenomenon of cringe in four steps: First, from a sociological perspective, the distinction between shame and embarrassment is discussed and a working definition is developed that conceives of this difference as situational rather than essential. In a second step, this distinction will be used to examine more closely how the actors’ self-representation is decomposed in the reality format Wife Swap and what role cringe—understood as “Fremdscham” or “vicarious embarrassment”—plays in this. Third, an explanation for the attractiveness of these formats is offered that draws on the concept of “flexible normalism” and further specifies the latent functions of these formats sociologically. Finally, with a look at current cringe comedy, it is elaborated that the use of cringe as made in Wife Swap is a very restricted and truncated variety of this phenomenon. Cringe in a comprehensive sense, meanwhile, turns out to be a reflexive resource based on an unresolved ambiguity of multiple and often intersecting attributions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

14 pages, 6258 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Cringe Histories: Harold Pinter and the Steptoes

by Jonathan Bignell

Humanities 2021, 10(2), 83; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10020083 - 16 Jun 2021

Viewed by 2769

Abstract

This article argues that cringe humour in British television had begun at least by the early 1960s and derived from a theatre history in which conventions of Naturalism were modified by emergent British writers working with European avant-garde motifs. The article makes the [...] Read more.

This article argues that cringe humour in British television had begun at least by the early 1960s and derived from a theatre history in which conventions of Naturalism were modified by emergent British writers working with European avant-garde motifs. The article makes the case by analysing the importance of cringe to the BBC sitcom Steptoe and Son, tracing its form and themes back to the ‘comedy of menace’ and ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ emblematised by the early work of playwright Harold Pinter. The article links the play that made Pinter’s reputation, The Birthday Party, to dramatic tropes and social commentary identified in Steptoe and Son and in other British sitcoms with cringe elements. The analysis not only discusses relationships between the different dramatic works on stage and screen but also pursues some of the other connections between sitcom and Pinter’s drama via networks of actors and contemporaneous discourses of critical commentary. It assesses the political stakes of cringe as a comic form, particularly the failure of cringe to impel political activism, and places this in the context of the repeated broadcast of Pinter’s plays and episodes of Steptoe and Son over an extended period. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

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Review

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15 pages, 322 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Psychological Perspective on Vicarious Embarrassment and Shame in the Context of Cringe Humor

by Annalina Valpuri Mayer, Frieder Michel Paulus and Sören Krach

Humanities 2021, 10(4), 110; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/h10040110 - 08 Oct 2021

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 8912

Abstract

Cringe humor combines the seemingly opposite emotional experiences of amusement and embarrassment due to others’ transgressions of norms. Psychological theories and empirical studies on these emotional reactions in response to others’ transgressions of social norms have mostly focused on embarrassment and shame. Here, [...] Read more.

Cringe humor combines the seemingly opposite emotional experiences of amusement and embarrassment due to others’ transgressions of norms. Psychological theories and empirical studies on these emotional reactions in response to others’ transgressions of social norms have mostly focused on embarrassment and shame. Here, we build on this literature, aiming to present a novel perspective on cringe humor. To do so, we introduce the psychological literature on embarrassment and shame, as well as the processes involved that allow humans to also experience these emotions on behalf of others, and draw theoretical links to cringe comedy. We then systematically disentangle contexts in which audiences experience vicarious embarrassment, and structure our argument based on the ongoing processes and consequences of the observed transgressions of norms based on the constituting dimensions of awareness and intentionality of the normative transgression by the social target. We describe how the behavioral expressions of the target along with the social distance and the current motivations of the audience shape the emotional experience and negotiation of social norms, specifically in response to intentional normative transgressions. While this perspective makes it evident that cringe humor is closely linked to the debate around social normative standards between the actor/actress and the audience, we conclude that the different manifestations and specific situational characteristics have fundamentally different consequences for the affirmation or renegotiation of social normative standards. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Media and Politics in the Age of Cringe)

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