#bathos

bathhouse study | 02.08.25

acrylic on paper, 36 x 28cm

© Andrew Seto, 2025

Actually, I'd like your opinion on why bathos has become so ubiquitous in children's productions? Why do so many animated series for children and older have this tendency to destroy and ridicule any serious or emotional moment? Why this tendency towards self-sabotage?

For example, I would say that 95% of SPOP's script problems stem from bathos writing that forbids itself from writing anything serious for more than a minute. Think, for example, of the following episode after the Horde takes Salineas, where Mermista reacts like a heartbroken teenager and Bow, Swift Wing, and Seahawk are stupidly kidnapped. In comparison, the original She-Ra series from 1985 was more serious in its storytelling despite its intentionally kitsch atmosphere.

And besides, I don't really see the use of bathos in children's series. Bathos works better in adult media because they know and understand the codes of fiction and can therefore make fun of them more easily. Whereas children are learning these same codes in their own dedicated fiction.

The only explanation I can think of is that it's due to the popularity of Marvel films, which themselves adopted Joss Whedon's writing style, which often make fun of themselves and their story, and that this is perceived by both audiences and producers as a sign of "maturity."

If you have another explanation…

oh, it's not just kids shows. i think marvel movies are what popularized bathos in movies and shows, it started off with one or two edgy characters which was fine, but then later started affecting the whole story.

my guess is that this is the response to “critiques” like cinemasins and similar variants who, instead of giving actual constructive criticism, just point out the “cringe” parts and act like they're smart for thinking that a sincere emotional moment was “too corny”.

i guess media execs saw this and assumed that the general public thinks that everything emotional is cringe. or that if your story falls into even one cliché, then it's automatically trash.

disney, which was known for its fairytales and cliché tropes, suddenly started making jokes about how people shouldn't suddenly start singing during a conversation, or how love at first sight is not realistic. some of these are fine, i do think that the trope of love at first sight can send some wrong messages, but they just kept hitting us over the head with it like “look, we're making fun of those boring old clichés! aren't we so cool and edgy?”

i also think that maybe the writers don't feel comfortable with presenting their emotional scenes as is. a lot of writers just use their own experiences and their own feelings to flesh out their characters and add to the story. most of the emotional bits you see in any media are drawn from the author's own experiences. so, for someone who is not used to being vulnerable, making fun of their own emotions can be a way to lessen the blow or feel less insecure about their story.

side note, i disagree with you that bathos works better in adult media than kids media. ultimately, i think both kids and adults are capable of understanding a joke. not all kids media are directed towards pre-schoolers. if the target audience is anywhere from 11-17, chances are, they already know the clichés these movies are making fun of.

my personal opinion is that bathos can be used, but minimally. it's fine to have one or two self-aware jokes but if your movie/show is full of them, that's when it becomes a problem. that's a one-way ticket to making your audience feel disconnected from the story.

Found near Chalco south east of Mexico City in 1990. The statue was in about 200 pieces and eventually measured almost 6 1/2 feet.

The statue is of the bat god known as Tlacatzinacantli or Camazotz to the Maya.

Specifically after I've been viewing a few video that were supercuts of various movie lines like "Standing Right Behind Me?" or even broader catagories like one liners before and after the kills.

I bring this up because a lot of these movies are the sort of cheesy, action movie shlock that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pigeon-holed into be it by Disney or former fans. Take your pick.

See... I could never get behind the criticism of what's been titles as "MCU humor" or "Whedonism" because of this idea that the prevalence of it is a recent phenomenon or even inherently a bad thing.

Like... you'd think that Joss Whedon invented snarky banter or even funny quips during action beats by the way people seem to talk about it. I remember when the 1990s and 2000s had stories often defined by semi-meta humor and "too cool for school" kind of dialogue in the kids shows I often watched.

Hell, Marvel having heroes joke and quip is... kind of comic books' bread and butter for decades now.

My problem isn't that we shouldn't be discussing this trend in writing and the likely executive decisions behind them. My problem is that a lot of movies we consider classics from the before times would kind of be throw under this bus. Like... the Sam Raimi Spider Man movies would be considered infected by Bathos. Not just "3," the whole trilogy.

Basically, if we're gonna talk about comedic writing that defuses tension and potentially emotional investment in too many stories today, maybe we should look back at where it had evolved from. If we want a better future, then we need to acknowledge out past.

Basically... watch more movies. Older movies of the genres you may gravitate to or newer ones to dip your toes into. Figure out what works and what doesn't if this trend grew into what we see now.