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This article approaches cringe comedy through the lens of its affectivity, of the somatic experiences through which it puts its audiences’ bodies, and it uses this as a point of departure to think about the genre’s cultural work. Based on the observation that no cringe comedy makes its viewers cringe for the whole duration of its storytelling, the article suggests that cringe comedies thrive on destabilizing and ambiguating the affective valence of their performances of embarrassment, constantly recalibrating or muddying the distance between viewer and characters. They are marked by tipping points at which schadenfreude and other types of humor tip into cringe, and reversely, at which cringe tips into something else. The article focuses on one of these other affective responses, which it proposes to describe as the sneer. It uses the HBO-series Veep as a case study to explore how cringe and sneer aesthetics are interlaced in an exemplary comedy, and how they fuel this particular comedy’s satiric work.

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the prominence of audience ridicule in the French theatre from the medieval sottie to Ionescan Absurdism of the mid-twentieth century. Throughout the history of French drama, playwrights have exploited this tactic with either the purpose of invoking an emotional or intellectual response or inciting a social or political call to action. This exploration takes particular interest in shaming theatrical audiences during periods of political unrest, analyzing the ways in which playwrights employed language, studies of characters, and plot-related content to highlight the prevalent and pervasive ills of society and of humanity. The majority of the literature from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries criticizes the aristocracy, the clergy, and the crown. As we approach revolutionary France, the theatre all but abandons intrigue in favor of the tears that flowed that from the ocean of English Sentimentalism. Melodrama and the well-made play adorned the early-nineteenth century, while the later part of the century brought French theatre Jarry’s pataphysics and his affinity for audience shaming that set the stage for the impending onslaught of twentieth-century ridicule. The avant-garde movement flourished at the beginning of the century with the Dadas and the Surrealists responding to humanity’s response to the War to End All Wars. When Ionesco arrived at the forefront of the French theatre mid-century, he employed the most effective audience ridicule tactics invented by his predecessors and created his Absurdist theatre. Ionesco writes: “take a circle, caress it, and it will turn vicious” (38). From the fifteenth century to the twentieth century, the cycle of audience ridicule was indeed vicious in a theatre that sought to effect positive change in a rapidly changing society.

This thesis is the first 21 chapters (approximately 150 pages) of a novel, Good Patients, accompanied by a complete synopsis. Good Patients is a social satire which seeks to touch on the flaws of the American healthcare system and social media culture, and how these two intersect for many people. To prepare for writing, I spent my first semester completing a guided reading list and preparing the synopsis, both of which were approved by my thesis chair. While writing, I consulted several medical articles to make my work as accurate as possible. The novel explores the way social media demands constant performance, and the constant social and economic anxieties suffered by those who are already sick through satire and dark comedy.

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The increasing and irregular flow of migrants in Europe had lead to an unprecedented crisis which European and International stakeholders have been struggling to manage in a challenging context of financial insecurity, political instability, fragile foreign relations and controversial steps and policies. This current context questions Europe’s image as a powerful global key-player and a civilized privileged space/entity and also shutters migrants’ dreams and illusions of a promise-land. Inevitably, the migrant crisis has emerged as top news in most old and new media around Europe and extensive coverage of the topic has been informing the audience almost on a daily basis. Of course, cartoonists have been affected and inspired by the situation, as well. In a time period of twelve months, from April 2015 to March 2016, in Greek new media alone, three hundred and seven cartoons were published on the topic. This project set out to examine the cartoons published in new media over the allocated time period in order to find out what were the main foci of the artists’ attention in relation to the migration crisis and how they related to domestic and international political affairs and further international interests by major stakeholders. It also explored the way immigrants have been depicted, the way Europe is depicted as a promise-land, how all involved stakeholders have handled the crisis and the artists’ degree of active judgment or influence. A mixed research method, combining content analysis, which falls into the realm of quantitative research methods, with elements of psychoanalysis and social semiotics, which observe matters, analyse the visual and critically interpret it was employed. Results showed that the migrant crisis was a favorable topic for Greek cartoonists publishing in Greek new media. They explored the topic from various aspects, including politics, values, everyday life, religion, war and art, shifting from mockery and heavy criticism to sympathy, guilt and a sense of worry about the fellow human depending on their personal political orientation and the aspect of the topic they were commenting on. Evidently, the migrant crisis is a strong humanitarian crisis placing a bomb to fundamental and consolidated values, policies and relations among all stakeholders.