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female
age
36-40,
*Bubbles
writes:I would like to know is why do we like/love/ reward people who behave badly? Why is it so entertaining to see people behaving so poorly yet we seem to praise them ? Why do we ignore people who do good is it because they are boring? Reply to this Question
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male
reader, anonymous, writes (24 March 2011): Have you ever fallen for a "bad boy"?
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reader, anonymous, writes (23 March 2011): ...I also think trashy TV might be connected to the larger disparity between the middle class and rich people. This idea might be a stretch, but I think there might be something to it.
A decade ago, a show like 90210 was interesting because it gave people a window into the lives of wealthy people. We were supposed to watch and sympathize with their problems and perhaps even aspire to their life style.
Now, given the financial trouble all over the world and the wealth disparity in the last decade, I don't think people want to take the drama and lives of wealthy people so seriously. They enjoy the tacky personal lives of people like Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and the Desperate HouseWives, because their behavior reassures their normalcy. It's not that bad behavior is being rewarded, I think these shows are popular because they demonstrate to everyday people that they are normal and level headed in comparison to these celebrities.
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reader, anonymous, writes (23 March 2011): I think cringe comedy and humiliation humor became very popular in the last decade. I also think it started being over used or at least used very poorly. It's funny to see people in embarassing or uncomfortable situations and it's easy to laugh at. At it's best, it's a great genre, because it's very easy to relate to, it can be very down to earth and provide meaninful commentary about society.
Cringe humor can be done well:
The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Welcome to the Dollhouse and even Borat.
It can also be done really poorly and dumbed down. I think humiliation humor has become the backbone for a lot of trashy TV and reality TV.
...I'm still waiting for reality TV to go extinct, but they always find someway to rehash it.
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reader, anonymous, writes (23 March 2011): It depends what you define good and bad. Because there are different interpretations for what is and is not behaving badly. "I would like to know is why do we like/love/ reward people who behave badly?" Because they make life interesting, if everyone was good all the time, there'd be no conflict, there'd be nothing happening, everything would be mundane, boring and life would have no challenges. Plus we need people doing bad stuff so we can compare our own morals against what they do and feel a sense of pride that we're good people, as related to our own moral stand points."Why is it so entertaining to see people behaving so poorly yet we seem to praise them?" See above. Can you imagine what it would be like if everyone was always good?, If everyone was always polite, generous, nobody ever cheated, nobody argued or anything like that? It would be awful, we'd actually go crazy. Plus we reward that behaviour because a lot of the time it's something we too would like to experience just once but can't due to our conscience and moral beliefs."Why do we ignore people who do good is it because they are boring?" Yeah pretty much. Who wants to see a TV show about someone who went and bought the groceries, who gave their seat to a pregnant woman on the bus, worked 8 hours well, then went home and said hello to his/her family or helped an old lady with her shopping? How interesting would a book about about a society with all the aforementioned attributes walking around doing nothing all day, no conflict, no excitement, nothing?Most of all though people should be good for good's sake, because it's normal and the right thing to do, not so they can be recognized for it. In fact most people hate when others go around boasting about all the good they've done, it's just as annoying as those who boast about the bad stuff, but at least the bad stuff is exciting.We humans are built for conflict, it's our nature. Turn on the news, what's the most exciting thing on it? Crazy footage of fighter jets bombing Libya, footage of a huge tsunami crushing an entire city in Japan or a report on the new children's hospital being opened in your area?
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reader, dirtball +, writes (23 March 2011):
 I wonder this all the time. All you have to do is watch an episode of "Jersey Shore" to see exactly what you're talking about here.I think it's the train wreak phenomina, you don't want to look, but you can't look away.Still, we definitely need to get better at rewarding good behavior as a society, but sadly that is a low priority.
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