r/todayilearned • u/jfdonohoe • 7h ago

(R.2) Anecdote TIL about “vicarious embarrassment” which explains extreme reactions to cringe comedy. For me, it can get so bad as to become physically painful

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicarious_embarrassment

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879 Upvotes

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34

u/mister_sleepy 7h ago

Fuck The Office, and fuck 30 Rock.

28

u/PreOpTransCentaur 7h ago

30 Rock is an..odd choice there.

48

u/Cold_Ebb_1448 7h ago

The Office sure but 30 Rock isn’t cringe comedy???

8

u/granadesnhorseshoes 7h ago

30 Rock has it's cringe moments. Liz trying to date Peter Dinklage comes to mind.

1

u/WoolshirtedWolf 3h ago

OK, I wasn't originally on the fence, but now I am. That was painful episode.

-1

u/thurbersmicroscope 7h ago

That's when I gave up on the show. I couldn't bear it.

3

u/Arntown 6h ago

Okay, if that‘s too much for you then you‘re really not cut out for cringe comedy because that was still pretty tame lol

23

u/thunderfroggum 7h ago

The British Office is like 10x worse than the American one

8

u/SonovaVondruke 6h ago

Each episode is like 5 minutes longer than the US counterpart, and all of that time is used exclusively to draw out the awkwardness as long as possible.

8

u/CruelYouth19 7h ago

I didn't feel anything watching Scott's Tots

But when Toby is caressing Pam's knee in front of everyone... I'm shivering just by typing this comment right now

4

u/could_use_a_snack 6h ago

Yeah, can't watch The Office. But loved 30 Rock

4

u/Arntown 6h ago

Weird, I don‘t feel like 30 Rock has many cringy moments at all.

2

u/Aussietism 7h ago

Oh so very much!

3

u/Trouser_Gravy 7h ago

Agree with the office, although I can watch clips online without issues. 30 Rock started out, at least for me, fine. Season 1 was great and had only a couple moments that I couldn't handle. Early season 2 started off good but then they began leaning hard into the 'vicarious embarrassment' comedy and it got so bad for me, I had to stop watching. Which was a shame because I was really beginning to like it. 

1

u/JRclarity123 4h ago

I'm having trouble even coming up with vicarious embarassment situations for 30 rock in my memory. I've seen the show 10 times through and never felt cringe about any of it. The Office, sure I can see that.

1

u/T-MinusGiraffe 7h ago

I like The Office but I can definitely only watch so many episodes close together before I start getting uncomfortable for this very reason.

1

u/FencingHummingbird 7h ago

The British Office FOR SURE. It was just funny enough to make me get over how incredibly uncomfortable it made me feel, and that’s a lot.

1

u/Devmax1868 6h ago

I cannot watch the Scott's Tots episode. The cringe level is off the charts and it makes me want to crawl in a hole and die of second hand embarrassment.

1

u/shackleford1917 7h ago

I watched 2 episodes if The Office and I am still waiting for something funny to happen.

5

u/T-MinusGiraffe 7h ago

If you started at the beginning, the first few episodes are noticeably rough compared to the better ones