fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2325 ]

[ SECRET POST #2325 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2325 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 037 secrets from Secret Submission Post #332.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I was trying to think of a scene that I could compare my feelings about to the scene from Secret #15, and just realized that I really don't feel second-hand embarrassment for fictional stuff. I feel it for real people, but not for fictional characters.

Do you guys feel a lot of second-hand embarrassment for fictional characters? If you do, what kind of stuff sets it off? Are there any specific scenes or characters that invoke it for you?

All the time. I think it's just an embarrassment squick, frankly, because I can't stand to watch any character get embarrassed, at all, ever. *shudder*

I feel second-hand shame, not embarrassment. Like, if a character wears a ridiculous outfit or gets made fun of, whatever. If a character does something stupid, that can be a problem.

Yessssss. I feel so much second-hand embarrassment. So much so that I often have to pause a movie/show so I can giggle nervously and freaking out ("Oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe this is happening, hdushfdashhahahaha"). It's not that unpleasant though. Certainly nothing like a squick.

As for what invokes it...mostly k-drama? I watched Marry Me Mary and You're Beautiful and I was pausing so much during them both that it took me two hours to watch one episode, hahaha.

I do the same - pause or walk out of the room and freak out. But for me it is unpleasant. I have to pep talk myself into watching again. *shudder* I just hate that feeling.

Yep. If a character does something remotely embarrassing, I'll usually cover my eyes, and wait for it to pass, but if a lot of embarrassing things keep happening, I'll usually abandon the show/movie/book. Happened recently with Anansi Boys. I know the secondhand embarrassment is there as a plot point, but it's just so ... urgh. Can't stand it.

Sometimes I have to pause the video when someone is confessing their love or whatever when I know it will end badly.

I used to get it a lot worse, but I guess any time a character was embarrassed. There was an episode of the MIB cartoon where he swallowed an alien egg and basically ended up pregnant, and I couldn't finish watching. Ash wearing a dress in the Celadon gym episode of Pokemon had a similar but less severe reaction. (I'm totally okay with it now, it just seemed like he was uncomfortable in the episode).

Edited 2013-05-15 23:35 (UTC)

It takes quite a bit to trigger it, but yes. There's this one tv show in particular, with a main character whose entire personality is "screw up in painfully awkward ways and never learn from it". It just bothers me so much to watch it that I've ended up actively hating it and refusing to watch it even as background noise. I cannot stand to watch the idiocy because it makes me feel so horrible.

Feeling secondhand embarrassment for characters is actually a narrative kink of mine. The worse and more hilariously awful the clusterfuck the better.

A lot of sitcoms invoke this in me. Frasier's probably the worst for it. I literally have to turn off some episodes because I stand it. It seems worst for me in laugh track sitcoms because we're supposed to laugh at them being humiliated and just...eurgh.

yes

doing things in public with potential for embarrassment i guess

uh, like, trying to bluff your way into something

disguising yourself

being far above your neck

basically anything like that

I do but it's rare. What has to happen is that one character I care about has to embarrass themselves in front of a character that they care about and I care about. "Care" is kind of relative though. They don't have to like each other; they just have to be important to each other.

One scene for me that made me get second-hand embarrassment was when Scott, in season one of Teen Wolf, tried to howl into the school speaker system in front of Stiles and Derek.

My friend, who has it way worse than me, couldn't stand to watch when Steve, in the first Captain America movie, got booed offstage by the soldiers. She had to walk out of the room and when it was over we called her back.

I'm probably just blocking off my memory here, but not that often I'm guessing. Two specifics come to mind though:

1) The Office (UK). I forwarded through most of that show because Ricky Gervais' character awkwarding was too much for me. Too much. Pretty sure I was covering my face too.
This is what I imagine it's like for scaredy cats to watch spooky films.

2) I would watch Pokemon after school as a kid, and there's this scene from the first season where Pikachu was pika piiii'ng at Caterpie. They do this for about three minutes iirc.
"PIKA PI!" "PRIIII PURIIIII~" "CHU!"
fuuuuuuuuuck
It also didn't help that my dad was watching it with me, and he also thought it was the stupidest thing ever. I felt like I was personally disappointing him. I was the son i am disappoint meme years before it's time oh man.

Mr. Bean. Just... Mr. Bean. It made me laugh when I watched it as a kid, but underneath that was still always a certain discomfort. Now I can't stand it at all.

Yes. Just look at this clip if you don't understand my feelings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRxx0oElgpA

Brainy, why are you enacting your Superman Mary Sue fanfic in the holodeck? Why do your friends know about your Superman Mary Sue fanfic? How often do you do this?

So embarrassed.

Yes, certain types of scenes set it off for me.

Public humiliation is what really gets me, I think. I'm able to deal with it if it's a generally private thing - like, just a few people see Character A get torn down in some way - but the moment the audience expands, it goes from squick to trigger for me. Possibly because I have social anxiety issues to begin with. Funny thing is, I'm far more able to cope IRL, but public humiliation is one of my big fears, and watching it play out on TV to a character I like is just... nope. Can't do it.

I couldn't watch The Reichenbach Fall, from Sherlock for that reason. I watched the first ten minutes or so, saw the trainwreck coming, and decided around the point I began to hyperventilate that it wasn't worth it. Skipped to the end to see John's scene at the graveyard, because I'd heard good things about it, but I still haven't been able to bring myself to watch the bits in between.

If I see a character do something really dumb or something I know is going to have terrible results, I just instinctively cringe and groan quietly until the moment passes. I think it's probably a byproduct of my anxiety tbh.

Basically any character Will Ferrell has ever played and characters like those.

Oh god yes. :\

That one time Harry went on a date with Cho Chang. I just don't want to read that chapter ever ever ever again.

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[ SECRET POST #2325 ]

Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)

Re: Second-Hand Embarrassment and fiction? (related to secret #15)