Ricky Gervais and his co-creator Stephen Merchant are often credited with laying the groundwork for cringe comedy with their 2001-2003 sitcom, as the genre is now largely associated with the mockumentary style and serious settings (like a workplace) to lend the comedy a sense of reality.
Unlike sitcoms in the style of 'Friends,' cringe comedy introduced and celebrated characters who weren't young and attractive, which actually harkened back to an earlier comedy age before the huge emphasis on looks infiltrated TV.
The now world-famous show actually teetered on the brink of cancelation for their first two seasons because the ratings among older viewers were horrible. But, when the show became available on iTunes, younger viewers went wild for it. The show went on to air for 201 episodes over nine seasons.
For years, big networks required a likeable protagonist (think 'I Love Lucy'), as they believed that was the rule to good TV. To a degree it's true, audiences do want to feel connected to the protagonist, but cringe comedy made unlikeable leads, well, likeable!
Ricky Gervais's character, David Brent, transformed the traditional idea of the workplace sitcom (think 'Cheers') from one of a happy, surrogate family to one of an extremely dysfunctional family with no real resolution. Gervais' refusal to make a happy family out of the workplace became the biggest difference with the subsequent US adaptation.
Garry Shandling's HBO series is often considered the grandfather of cringe comedy in the US. It gave a backstage look at a late-night talk show with an insecure, narcissistic host and even more egotistical real-life celebrities parodying themselves. The style was a novelty at the time, including the single-camera filming and the absence of a laugh track.
The protagonist of 'I'm Alan Partridge' (which first aired in 1997), portrayed by Steve Coogan, was also born out of parody. It mocked British TV personalities of the time, with Partridge as an inept broadcaster whose inflated sense of celebrity drives him to treachery and shameless self-promotion. It was also shot with hand-held cameras to achieve a documentary feel.
'The Larry Sanders Show' also paved the way for writer/director Judd Apatow, who painfully mined the comedy of awkward teenage interaction on his cult-famous show 'Freaks and Geeks.' Fun fact: the casting director, Allison Jones, also later cast 'The Office' US, which is why both series used relatively unknown actors.
Ricky Gervais has cited Sanders as a touchstone for two shows he created with Stephen Merchant, 'The Office' and 'Extras,' the latter of which is a 2005 British sitcom about extras working in TV, film, and theater that featured guest celebrities as parodied versions of themselves.
Larry David plays a parodied, self-absorbed version of himself in this landmark series. Larry's character is the quintessential unlikeable protagonist, who is completely unaware of his offensive behavior in this documentary-style series aided by real celebrities guest-starring as themselves.
You can't talk about cringe comedy without mentioning Sacha Baron Cohen. His first major contribution was in character as the cringey, white hip-hopper Ali G, who would interview real-world guests, often powerful politicians, while offending them and getting them to reveal their own prejudices in the process. The series also introduced...
The show is considered a defining comedy of the 2000s because it mastered the cringe-y, single-camera storytelling of a formerly wealthy and completely dysfunctional family who balance delusion with humanity.
Another critically-acclaimed cringe comedy undermined by viewership, this series was repeatedly named one of the greatest TV shows of all time and even earned numerous Emmy nods and wins right from its first season, but it still struggled with getting renewed over the course of its five seasons.
This HBO series stars 'Friends' alum Lisa Kudrow as a washed-up '90s sitcom star in a mockumentary-type satire of the TV industry. The repeated humiliation of the delusional lead character was so cringe-y that the show was actually canceled after one season. But, when cringe comedy took to the mainstream, the show was revived in 2014 for another season.
Louis C.K. borrowed heavily from his cringe comedy predecessors in this painfully funny series in which he plays a fictionalized version of himself, divorced and raising his two daughters in New York City. It pushed the bounds of cringe to the point where you're laughing but genuinely uncomfortable.
This wildly successful series fused the single-camera mockumentary style of cringe comedy with a fresh take on the traditional American family sitcom, and produced incredible results. It's hard to believe the series still struggled to be picked up initially.
This British sitcom follows the lives of two polar opposite, dysfunctional friends who share a flat in London. It struggled with viewership, but gained critical acclaim and a cult following for its cringe comedy. The show also used point-of-view shots and voice-overs as a fresh take on the single-camera and confessional asides that became standard of the genre.
In this docu-reality comedy series, comedian Nathan Fielder plays a socially awkward version of himself as he, equipped with a dubious business degree, tries to help small businesses boost their sales with ludicrous marketing tips. The genius of it lies both in the way the real-life shop owners have no idea it's a comedy show, and in the way Fielder's character is unaware that people do not enjoy his company.
The series created by and starring Lena Dunham had a cringey helping hand from executive producer Judd Apatow. It focused on four young women in NYC who seriously lack self-awareness on their spoiled journeys to success.
Dysfunctional cringe meets optimistic romance on Mindy Kaling's sitcom about an OB/GYN in New York who tries to improve herself and her love life with the help of her oddball colleagues. As a former writer and actress on 'The Office,' Kaling expertly mined the humor that lies between the person her character wants to be versus the person she is.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's widely-acclaimed, Emmy-winning British series is a legendary addition to the cringe genre. While it perfected the traditional flawed protagonist, it also swapped out documentary-style confessionals with breaking the fourth wall, which proved to be hilariously effective.
This workplace sitcom was co-created by US 'Office' producers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur and used the same confessional asides and delusional boss trope, but Amy Poehler's role as Leslie Knope introduced a fresh take on cringe comedy's protagonist: instead of being offensive or egotistical, the same cringe could be achieved with over-enthusiasm, competency, and sweetness.
Issa Rae's award-winning HBO series is loosely based on her web series 'Awkward Black Girl,' and derives most of its humor from her protagonist's struggle with social codes. The confessional asides are also reimagined in this series using Issa's bathroom-mirror raps, as well as contrasting what she wants to do versus what she actually does.
Sources: (An Oral History of The Office) (Time) (New York Times)
Comedy generally turns upon someone who wants to do something, but isn’t capable of doing it. Cringe comedy falls under that umbrella, but the genre specifically bases its humor on the awkwardness of social interaction and people’s lack of self-awareness. It typically features an egotistical protagonist who breaks the codes of political correctness and social norms, and most of the painfully funny moments are derived from how the story keeps the protagonists oblivious to their own flaws.
The genre has been quite divisive, as an older generation of viewers can’t bear to watch the cringe situations unfold, but younger generations absolutely adore watching other people live out moments that make their skin itch.
And yet, despite its cringe quality, the genre has completely changed the course of comedy, producing some of the most renowned works of hilarity known to TV. Click through to learn more about how it changed the landscape of comedy, and check out the shows, old and new, that do it best.
On Brian Baumgartner's podcast 'An Oral History of The Office,' Gervais and Merchant revealed that they were both just attracted to cringe humor, and the idea for the British sitcom originated as a parody of the mundane documentary-style news reports popular in the UK at the time.
The rise and triumph of cringe comedy
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Comedy generally turns upon someone who wants to do something but isn’t capable of doing it. Cringe comedy falls under that umbrella, but the genre specifically bases its humor on the awkwardness of social interaction and people’s lack of self-awareness. It typically features an egotistical protagonist who breaks the codes of political correctness and social norms, and most of the painfully funny moments are derived from how the story keeps the protagonists oblivious to their own flaws.
The genre has been quite divisive, as an older generation of viewers can’t bear to watch the cringe situations unfold, but younger generations absolutely adore watching other people live out moments that make their skin itch.
And yet, despite its cringe quality, the genre has completely changed the course of comedy, producing some of the most renowned works of hilarity known to TV. Click through to learn more about how it changed the landscape of comedy, and check out the shows, old and new, that do it best.