I recently had a discussion, though I don’t recall with whom, about the fact that I’ve never been able to enjoy ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ because of fictional Larry David’s utter awfulness as a person. Still, I’m also a massive fan of an obscure interview show called ‘Let’s Talk About Something More Interesting’, which embraces the awkwardness wholeheartedly, to the point where the guests actually seem unaware of what they’re in for and thus uncomfortable with the format, and I loved the terrible characters of ‘Reno 911’ with a passion. What these have in common is the trend of ‘cringe comedy’, where the humor is derived from how awkward and embarrassing the things happening SHOULD be, but just aren’t for these particular people. It’s why we have ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, it’s why we have ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and it’s why a friend of mine could never enjoy ‘Napoleon Dynamite’, leading to today’s schadenfreude query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) notes that it’s also the bedrock of Sascha Baron Cohen’s career, though in that case it feels more cruel, as real people are involved, asking: Are you able to enjoy the awkward humor of Cringe Comedy?
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It really depends, particularly on what framing they use to present the content. I wouldn’t say I’m crazy about it, but some movies and series are pretty funny.
It depends a little on the nature of it, but for the most part, no.
I’ve never been able to enjoy prank phone calls as a comedy premise, and I only lasted about 20 minutes into “Meet the Parents” before I had to stop watching; I couldn’t take another awkward thing happening to Ben Stiller. It seemed like a funny movie, but I could not take the cringy embarrassment I felt on behalf of his character.