Corresponding author: Marc Hye-Knudsen (marchyeknudsen@gmail.com) Department of English, Aarhus University Article Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English No. 2, 13-31 © The Journal Editors 2018 Reprints and permissions: http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/lev DOI: 10.7146/lev.v0i2.104693 Recommendation: Mathias Clasen (mc@cc.au.dk) Human Nature and Pop Culture Marc Hye-Knudsen ABSTRACT Cringe comedies differ from traditional embarrassment humour by being explicitly aimed at evoking not just the positive emotion of amusement but also the decidedly negative emotion of vicarious embarrassment (i.e. ‘cringe’) in their audiences. Drawing on Warren and McGraw’s benign violation theory of humour and the concept of benign masochism, I offer a biocultural account of how they achieve this effect and why audiences counterintuitively seem to find it enjoyable. I argue that whereas a farce like Fawlty Towers (1975-1979) employs psychological distance in order to render its embarrassing violations thoroughly benign and thus singularly conducive to amusement, cringe comedies like The Office (2001-2003) and The Inbetweeners (2008-2010) comparatively decrease psychological distance in order also to evoke high levels of vicarious embarrassment. Finally, I argue that audiences find benignly masochistic pleasure in such cringe-inducing media because they offer vicarious experiences with social worst-case scenarios. Keywords: cringe comedy; benign violation; benign masochism; vicarious embarrassment; humour; evolutionary theory; Fawlty Towers; The Office; The Inbetweeners; Human Nature and Pop Culture Painfully Funny: Cringe Comedy, Benign Masochism, and Not -So-Benign Violations