In love with cities, chaos, serendipity, the creative process, cafes and people who don't look like me. And muffins.

Mar 2, 2016

Obsessive Compulsive Applause

There is a theory found in some smart-people publications I like to pretend to read called the Red Queen Effect – originally a fictional character in Through the Looking Glass – which in essence refers to having to run faster and faster just to stay in the same spot.

Borrowed like a hero from https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2012/10/the-red-queen-effect/

This phenomenon can be found in the drawn out applause that has spread throughout society like Jeff Goldblum’s virus in Independence Day. Audiences – led by the daytime TV crowd – have set the base level of cheering so high that they have to roar like lunatics just to have the same effect that an appreciative 4 second clap used to have.

my god the kids have been in the car for 5 hours

Think about when you’re highlighting books – you just keep highlighting and highlighting until the whole book’s highlighted. It’s the same with applause, it’s not just the duration of applause that’s increasing but also the number of times applause occurs in a sitting, and so the actual amount of content in the show is decreasing by the month. Not only that but in that most OCD of all clapping environments – the daytime talk show – the intensity of the r0aring is at NBA t-shirt canon levels. It’s pretty much a cheering arm’s race until there will be no content, just applause. The whole show is applause. Is that what you want? It is? Oh sorry, I misread the situation. Clapping was once a nice show of appreciation at these shows, then it became expected, then it became an insult just to clap, so now you have to roar like a hysterical Bieber fan.

“How about you let me finish my fucking opening fucking monologue you fucking sad fucking fuck fucks.” I thought she went overboard with that attack, but she has a point.

I don’t think it’s an issue of self-indulgence necessarily, I think it’s got more to do with audiences lacking empathy. They want to be sure the recipient of their applause knows just how much they appreciate that thing they said so they keep cheering way beyond what’s necessary until the recipient starts checking her watch in boredom. That’s usually a pretty compelling sign to stop cheering. They feel like Cosmo Kramer when he bursts through the door and the studio audience whoops and hollers and he’s just standing there, waiting for them to finish so he can say something.

Just like the ads swallowing cable TV, soon events and talk shows will just be one mildly humourous comment and the rest will be applause. The applause will oscillate between uproarious laughter and your stock-standard “woooooooo”s, so maybe that will make for interesting viewing in the future.

I’ve got a saying for these situations: “let the grandkids deal with it”