Comments on: What Can’t You Handle On Screen?

By: Lynne

Lynne — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 04:01:20 +0000

In addition to children being kidnapped or worse, these also stand out as stomach churners for me:

- dumb, slow-moving zombies who barely have enough strength to walk and lift their own arms. The ones with razor sharp teeth, superhuman strength, any degree of intelligent or organized thought and purpose and move with the speed of lightning don’t scare me – who’s going to believe that?

- watching my husband and son eat dinner while they watch Bear Grylls as he eats some kind of raw animal or drinks his own urine on Man vs. Wild.

- any actual footage from WWII concentration camps depicting starved, dying prisoners – I was 23 years old when I first saw it and was traumatized for weeks knowing that people, at least in modern times, could treat others like that on purpose. Inconceivable (until then).

By: Stephanie D.

Stephanie D. — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:16:20 +0000

I just remembered another one. Head injuries. Remember the scene in “Back to the Future” when Marty gets hit by his one-day grandfather’s car? He falls back and hits his head on the ground and then dramatically lays it back on the pavement. Yuck!
Also, basically any scene in CSI where they explore the puncture of a knife or the trajectory of a bullet searing through a person’s organs. It’s too much! Why do we need to see that?

By: Ginger

Ginger — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:23:35 +0000

Totally agree with the humiliation-averse posters. I’ve been known to change the channel on an episode of “Seinfeld” because of one of the characters doing something embarrassing. I didn’t get to watch much of that show obviously.

BUT, the thing that really brings me down with the vapors is any scene dealing with teeth breaking or getting knocked out. Even in animated form like in “Kill Bill.” Remember that one? Oh my good gracious, I’m feeling faint just thinking about those cartoon teeth breaking apart and AAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! Somebody get the smelling salts.

By: Mark Blankenship

Mark Blankenship — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:41:37 +0000

Hi Michael: Indeed, we covered Hobbes in a comic theory class I took at YSD. Not to my taste. I’m more of a Bergson man, with a sprinkle of Freud.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:47:01 +0000

Mark: I’m sure you encountered somewhere along the way Hobbes’s idea that laughter is the sudden exhilaration of perceived superiority over another? That Tom Hobbes–what a guy. Life of the party. (And you know which party.) (This is the point I center my comedy course around–the opposed elements of communal sharing versus demeaning ridicule in laughter.)

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:43:09 +0000

Hear, hear, ferretrick, on the American Idol humiliation weeks; I have suspended friendships over this issue–too much of an empath to watch hearts break over and over again. (I guess I identify as a guy who loves vocal music and whose singing hurts the dogs.)

By: ferretrick

ferretrick — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:13:18 +0000

Aw, thanks Michael. (And Mark)

Michael’s post reminded me of another example-I won’t start watching American Idol until Hollywood Week because watching people humiliate themselves in the initial auditions is too painful for me (and also pretty damn boring after 8 seasons-Simon only has so many zingers).

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 06:29:52 +0000

Ferretrick has been a fave commenter here for me, but now he’s reaching hero status.
Two observations:
Completely different responses if it’s on a big movie screen or my TV; violence punishes me in theaters in ways it doesn’t at home.
For me, the flashpoint is humiliation; there’s a scene in Altman’s Nashville when a naive, none-too-bright woman with delusions of a singing career is hooted at as she sings in a club, and is then compelled to strip to please the audience. I’ve never been able to watch it.
My son, who is deeply connected to his autistic sister, can’t stand images of helplessness, especially helpless children. Even a momentary flash of it upsets him.

By: Bdanger

Bdanger — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:08:36 +0000

Oh! I have another one- people spitting in food. I was watching Casino tonight and almost barfed.

By: Mark Blankenship

Mark Blankenship — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:23:17 +0000

@ferretrick — Yes! I can’t watch cruel humor either. It’s why I only made it through the first five minutes of “Borat” and why I’ve never made it through an entire episode of “Crank Yankers.”

Inevitably, I think about the shame the unsuspecting victims might feel once they realize what has happened to them, or then I can’t laugh. I also have a problem with comedy that encourages me to laugh because I feel superior to someone else, and it seems to me that that kind of cruel humor is doing just that. It’s just so… smug to rob someone of their humanity by making them into an unsuspecting asshole. Even when I vehemently disagree with someone’s politics or stand or sexuality or whatever, I don’t want to see that person humiliated. What good does that do?