An awkward silence rings out from the television, loud as any explosion or burst of laughter from a live audience.
On the screen, Steve Carrell pauses, looks directly at the camera and says nothing. The tension within the scene could be cut with the dullest of knives.
The scene is horribly uncomfortable, yet evokes the purest form of enjoyment and comedy.
“The Office,” one of America’s most cringe-worthy comedies, excels in every possible way in making the audience feel hilariously uncomfortable, and was one of the pillars of cringe comedy that eventually brought the distasteful medium into the mainstream in the mid-2000s.
Now, “The Office” and other comedies like it such as “Arrested Development” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” thrive in the spotlight, serving up dish after dish of horribly wonderful cringe.
Cringe humor isn’t blatant. It’s not “in-your-face” humor. It’s not really a laugh-out-loud humor. The chances of hearing canned studio audience reactions in the background are next to zero.
That’s what makes it so pure.
Actor Rainn Wilson, who played the character of Dwight Schrute on “The Office,” explained in an interview with Big Think why he believes cringe humor, and his show’s iteration of that practice, stands alone at the top of comedic methods.
“So much of the comedy is not in the set-up, set-up, punchline,” Wilson said. “There are very few jokes on our show. It really is behavior and the reactions to that behavior.”
According to Wilson, the best kinds of comedy reflect reality, and the reactions to that reality. That’s why so many stand-up comics do best when they simply tell a story. The humorous anecdote is not what makes the audience laugh. It’s the comic’s reaction to that story that draws the audience in and connects them with the performer.
Wilson said as world events turn darker and grimmer, so does the comedy. The audience who has the largest appetite for dark comedy that emulates real life? Young people.
Wilson referenced fellow actor John Krasinski’s long-running gag, where he would glance at the camera with an incredulous face after some ridiculous hijinks.
“What’s interesting to me, is how much young people like that kind of humor,” Wilson said. “That’s how young people feel today. They’re seeing all of this absurdity. If they could, young people would look at the camera.”
Now, with national politics in a tailspin and bleaker headlines every day, more people are “looking to the camera” than ever before. The crazy has become crazier, and young people are looking for an outlet, a form of art that speaks directly to them and assures them they’re not going insane.
That’s where cringe comes in. The construction of a scene revolves not around easy punchlines. They build off situational humor, and the punchline is delivered in an awkward silence, as characters slowly digest what exactly is happening.
This is why shows like “The Office” stand the test of time. The cringe was ahead of its time, a look into the future of comedy.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected]