Back in 2013, I blogged about the word "cringe." People were admiring "cringe-inducing" comedy, notably "The Office," which I wouldn't watch, because it made me feel bad. I mean, I like to feel something, but not bad.
By the way, the word "cringe" literally means (according to the unlinkable OED): "To contract the muscles of the body, usually involuntarily; to shrink into a bent or crooked position; to cower." Basically, you curl up into the fetal position. Figuratively, it means: "To experience an involuntary inward shiver of embarrassment, awkwardness, disgust, etc.; to wince or shrink inwardly; (hence) to feel extremely embarrassed or uncomfortable." The first historical example of the figurative meaning is:
1868 Harper's Mag. May 793/1 ‘I should like a smoke,’ was her only comment. I may have cringed at the idea of putting my pipe between those broken teeth, but I of course made haste to do what was hospitable.
The most recent is:
1993 Time 25 Jan. 18 Privately, Clinton advisers cringed at the wreckage left behind by all the U-turns.
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12 comments:
You want to know what's cringe? The guy on the right not letting the guy on the left get a word in edgewise who has to keep checking himself. That's cringe.
The master of the quick cringe take or reaction: W.C. Fields.
The American Office (Steve Carrell) was more cringe-inducing than the British Office (Ricky Gervais). It may have had something to do with the accents, or maybe it was the distillation of the British series versus the years and years of the American one. All of the practical jokes on the Mackenzie Crook/Rainn Wilson character (and that character's own obliviousness) also became tiresome.
I couldn't take the cringe-y ness of Lisa Kudrow's The Comeback. It works better when the deluded character without self-knowledge or ability to learn from experience isn't the main character but a less important one.
…because of me y’all have two degrees of separation to one of the characters on the US The Office. I lived with him and his family a while because I was schtupping his nanny…
I cannot get thru a single episode of South park or the office.
Cringe doesn't begin.
Cringe is the autonomic response by a triggered snowflake.
[start virtual italics}…because of me y’all have two degrees of separation to one of the characters on the US The Office. I lived with him and his family a while because I was schtupping his nanny…[end virtual italics]
Ah, the Kevin Bacon game! A favorite.
We should play that game someday. Fun!
"Okay, Morales. What did you feel?"
[sings]
And I said..."Nothing,
I'm feeling nothing,"
And he says "Nothing
Could get a girl transferred."
They all felt something,
But I felt nothing
Except the feeling
That this bullshit was absurd!
- from the musical, A Chorus Line
Isn't cringe just empathetic embarrassment? I don't like it because when I see it I feel embarrassed along with the character and that does not feel good. I presume others are likely to laugh at the embarrassed character and experience humor. That is not my reaction and therefore tend to avoid such comedy. Ben Stiller is a heavy user of embarrassment comedy.
I don't mind the cringe in The Office or South Park. I recognize that all involved are actors playing their parts.
The show I couldn't take was Impractical Jokers, where the point was for the host to be put into cringe-inducing scenarios with the general public.
Jon Favreau in the movie "Swingers" meets a girl at a bar and then calls and repeatedly leaves voice messages on her phone, each one more desperately pathetic than the last. It was one of the funniest scenes that I can never, ever rewatch again because it makes my soul hurt.
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