A Glance at Cringe Comedy
When I was in middle school, one of my friends and I would spend hours watching and hysterically laughing at discomforting videos on YouTube. I can specifically remember us watching a very odd collection of homemade soap operas acted out using The Sims games. It was such a strange concept and there was something so off-putting about it that we would just be amused by the dramatized voice overs of animated characters that show an idea of an emotion but displaying it with no actual human connection. As I got older and more aware of what I considered to be “funny”, I realized that the discomforting feeling that caused me to find those videos hilarious can be traced into an entire sub-genre that has been popularized within the last 15 years: cringe comedy.
Most of cringe comedy relies heavily on the idea of social outcasting and taking a concept as simple as human interaction, and making it wildly awkward. The Office was transformative in the way that we write and perform comedy for television. For decades, sitcoms have taken a formulated approach, and even with a slightly off-kilter form of a traditional sitcom, such as How I Met Your Mother by making much of the show quirky and at times mystical, it still followed the formula of a traditional staged sitcom. It had likeable characters, charismatic banter, and it presented life learning themes. But a show like The Office didn’t have traditional characters or the type of scripted charisma that most sitcoms rely on. It thrived on the lack of communication. Ricky Gervais’ The Office made a lasting impression on how we can perform comedy without sacrificing a positive outlook. It looked at the mundaneness of our everyday lives and how hilarious it can be in how we connect with people. The “cringe” aspect of the show was brilliantly written and perfectly executed to make it off putting and comical. However, “cringe humor” has also been seen as bad writing.
The Office was meticulous in its writing and directing, but production companies such as Adult Swim have mastered the art of deadpan and cringe comedy to the point where they are sometimes criticized for the production value of some of their shows. Much of what Adult Swim releases is extremely awkward and experimental, from Xavier: Renegade Angel to the popular Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! These shows are seemingly pointless but one of the appeals of Adult Swim is the originality and lack of formula. With so much comedy produced, it is nearly impossible to be unpredictable or funny in a way that the audience has yet to see. Adult Swim acts as a revolt against the formulated sitcom or the late night talk show, in which they’re funny, but in a way that is familiar to us. Cringe comedy acts as a way to create something that is not funny, or so absolutely terrible, and making it comical out of its lack of awareness. There is a certain appeal to a subgenre that doesn’t really need to exist. Saturday Night Live is a show that thrives on political and topical sketches and it has a massive effect on how we view current events and political leaders. As of the past couple years, the political climate in America has the eyes of everyone so the idea that Saturday Night Live would shift away from the silly sketches and rely more heavily on political and topical humor is not surprising and has paid off, making the past two seasons some of the most watched in two decades. However, I would argue that cringe comedy shows reflect not only a genre against the current, but the state of what makes us human.
One of my favorite shows on TV at the moment is Nathan for You. This show relies on cringe comedy and does a phenomenal job at showing what we’re supposed to act like, and looking at it from the perspective of someone who is so socially awkward that most concepts appear foreign to him. Nathan Fielder amplifies his social awkwardness on his reality show, displaying a very basic understanding of human wants and desires. A lot of what he does on the show, by putting people in awkward and uncomfortable situations, is what makes the show so appealing. There’s something fascinating about how we presents ourselves through an idea of what we want people to think of us, and Nathan puts people in situations where they don’t have to put on a facade, but have to react to how Nathan presents himself and what he does. In masking himself as more socially awkward than he is in real life, he’s forcing other people to unmask themselves and what entails is pure comedy gold. This seems like an idea that lies on the foundation of making fun of the people he interacts with, but it is completely fueled by self deprecation. It relies on Nathan’s inability to read people that makes the show what it is, not on the belittlement of others.
Cringe comedy is on the outskirts of most people’s idea of what makes something funny, but with anti-comedy being popularized through internet memes and apps like Vine, cringe has become the ultimate form of anti-comedy. It is fundamental in taking an idea of we know to be “funny” and making it almost uncomfortable to watch. Since the 2016 American presidential election, political comedy may well be the most watched form of comedy of 2017 in America and though political comedy has always been very relatable and cathartic, it has never been as necessary as it is now. A lot of what is found funny relies on a target, such as politics and the news, but alternative comedy like cringe makes people laugh at how ridiculous it is that we laugh at anything at all. Because we can really laugh at anything if we think about it hard enough and alternative comedy makes us realize how seriously we take comedy. Just ask my twelve-year-old self laughing at a Sims reenactment of Titanic.
Edited by Cheyenne Abrams.
