Meta Monday: Comedic/Dramatic Socipathy

[author_by_night]

What is something you've seen or read that worked for the plot, but would be perceived as dangerous, obnoxious or even evil in the real world? Did it work for you because it was fiction, or did it still bother you?

(Let's assume the characters doing said thing were supposed to be at least marginally likable.)

Example: Joey causes a two hour traffic delay while proposing to his girlfriend in the middle of an intersection. (Actually, this happened IRL.) We see two ambulances being among the stuck vehicles.

Comments

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Leslie's abuse of librarians in Parks and Rec! LOL. Just kidding, we are a bunch of bookcart jockeys who are all sex crazed, it just hit too close to home.

One of the things that made me NOT enjoy The Office (American version) was how incompetent Michael became as the years went on. In the beginning, he was a dufus, but you felt he could do his job, but as the years went on, I became concerned about the quality of his work. It didn't work for me because eventually he hit a line where he should have been fired and I couldn't suspend my disbelief anymore.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

It's weird, because Michael was becoming more likable and reasonable for a while; then they made him OTT even compared to season one Michael. Also, in general everyone in the office got really nasty to each other; I know sometimes people change, I had a coworker who went from being a Leslie to being an April because she wasn't happy anymore (and that became everyone else's problem), but in The Office everyone suddenly hated Jim for no clear reason, Andy started developing as a character and then backslid into a hot mess, Oscar dated Angela's husband behind her back... I'm glad that didn't happen with P&R.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

The PR writers learned from their Season 1 mistakes (which I felt was far too close to The Office in style and characterization) and did a wonderful job of avoiding the problems that The Office had.

[thalialunacy.livejournal.com]

Most of Sherlock's behavior (esp towards John) in the Cumberbatch Sherlock series makes me positively seethe. Whereas, like, I love the infamous hallway scene in the first Matrix movie even though guns IRL make me literally sick to my stomach and people blamed that scene for Columbine. (hahah I just aged myself. uh. well.) I suppose those aren't really parallels, though, are they? Hmm. Something about the more heightened it is, the less it bothers me. Which is logical., empathy and whatnot But then again I've seen scenes like the one you mentioned in movies and haven't thought twice about it....but I'm kind of a dumbass sucker for a rom-com? IRL I would not be amused, but in movies... oh man I could ramble about this all day lol. I'll stop now tho. XB

[thegirlonfire.livejournal.com]

While I loved Parks and Rec, I could never condone how the characters treated Jerry. It always took me out of my enjoyment of that show, which is a shame. It was otherwise pretty flawless to me. I feel like a lot of comedies in general do this; how certain characters treat others just is a hot mess.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Oops, late response is late!

Yeah, I think you're right - there's often a "designated punching bag" even likable characters abuse, and it's meant to be funny. It's one thing if it's one of those shows where everyone is supposed to be some measure of horrible - like 30 Rock; Liz Lemon is probably one of the more well-meaning characters on the show, and yet she has crowning moments of terrible. And there were characters like that on Parks and Rec, but characters like Andy (who was a jerk in the beginning, but a pretty nice guy after a character makeover) and Leslie are awful to Jerry, and I found that harder to believe.