Dr. Stange: stop.
The two moments we just watched are
almost exactly the same aren't they. They take place at roughly the same time in their respective movies and are about the same thing: the main character stops struggling with their dueling identities and embraces
their heroic side. So why did I love one and hate the other? Well because one is
honest and emotional, while the other undercuts its own dramatic purpose with
a joke. This is what's called bathos. First coined by Alexander Pope back in
1727, in an essay called Peri Bathous; Or The Art Of Sinking In Poetry,
it describes moments in poems where the tone suddenly switches between serious
to trivial for comedic effect. Rocket: Now I'm standing. Y'all happy? We're all standing up now. Bunch a jacka** The juxtaposition of the two moments creates a laugh, but it destroys whatever drama the piece was going for. If you take a
look at the most popular movies produced by Hollywood today, particularly with the
Marvel movies, I think you'll find that we have become a culture adrift in
bathos. Now like any literary device there are correct ways to use bathos,
and one of them is parody. It's used constantly in movies like Deadpool and
the Lego Batman to great effect, because there is an expectation in those films
that they are going to cut down the known tropes of superhero movies. [Uplifting Music] [Thump] [Comedic Whistle] But now we have allegedly serious
versions of the genre that are actually, secretly, parodies. That moment in Doctor
Strange is a parody of the moment in Spider-man whether it meant to be or not.
The same way this... ...is later parodied by this... Drax: look out!
What moments like these signal
to me is that the creators don't have confidence in their own stories. They're
using the joke to distract from the film's dramatic shortcomings.
[Curtains]
The dramatic question at the heart of most superhero stories is who is this
character? Are they selfish or altruistic? Will they accept the enormous
responsibilities that their enormous power has given them? This moment is the answer to that question. It's supposed to energize the audience, propelling them
into the final action of the climax. If you're telling an honest story, then at
no other point in the movie should a filmmaker feel more confident that the
audience is invested in the drama. Now you can argue that these jokes are funny,
but that's not really what I'm disputing. The point is that there is a dramatic
cost that has to be paid whenever bathos is used at the wrong time. And these
aren't just singular moments but a pervasive tonal choice. Dramatic
kneecapping happens constantly. Ant-man can't even say his own name without giggling. It sort of works better in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies because
those are, you know, actually comedies, but then there's the airport scene in Civil
War, which should be one of the most dramatic scenes in the film but instead
it's tone is haphazard. Tony starts the scene quipping constantly.
Tony: Wow it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird? Rhodes: definitely weird.
Then suddenly become super serious.
Captain America: you've been busy. Tony: And you've been a complete idiot. Dragging in Clint, rescuing
Wanda from a place she doesn't want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep...
I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart.
Then it's back to humor even while he's literally fighting his best friends to the maybe death
Tony: Wanda I think you hurt Vision's feelings Wanda: You locked me in my room.
Tony: Okay, first, that's an exaggeration. only for the scene to end on a suddenly dark note. The audience might laugh at every one of
the jokes along the way, but the scene is dramatically nonsensical. So why do
moments like this happen? Okay so this is Joss Whedon, the writer-director of the
two Avengers movies, and the script-doctor of many of the early Marvel films. He's probably one of the two men most responsible for the general tone of the Marvel franchise and one of his most famous quotes is: Make it dark, make a
grim, make it tough, but then for the love of God, tell a joke.
Tony: you ever try shwarma?
Whedon is advocating for a certain kind of bathos, but like all advice on writing,
the merit of this line is situational. When running away from an overly serious tone, you can definitely go too far and end up in self-parody. Because you
actually have to make things gritty or dark or at least tough for this quote to
help you. Otherwise you're just replacing the drama with jokes, and in the process,
you make the story toothless and meaningless. While Joss Whedon himself
doesn't mistake comedy for a character it's since his departure from the
franchise and in their attempts to mimic his brand of quippy dialogue, that Marvel's storytelling philosophy has become: "all jokes, all the time, no matter the cost."
It's a pretty cynical approach in my opinion. The idea is that you can string
together enough jokes to keep the audience vaguely entertained all the way
to the credits, but it's not a recipe for lasting storytelling. There are ways to
mix comedy and drama without sacrificing one for the other.
Jack: Equanimity. The quality
of being calm and even-tempered. He accepted her betrayal with equanimity.
Girlfriend: Jack, I'm ******* your dad.
But there is another element at play here. The fact that these jokes happen
during scenes that would otherwise be emotional, makes me feel like these
movies are actually afraid of emotions, because they're afraid that they will be
the butt of the joke, that they'll be seen as cheesy. And now is when I finally
get to talk about Wonder Woman, because Wonder Woman made me feel...like...actual...emotions? And that's no accident it's by design. In an interview with the New York
Times, Patty Jenkins, the director of the film,
said: "Cheesy is one of the words banned in my world. I'm tired of sincerity being
something we have to be afraid of doing. It's been 20 years that the
entertainment and art world has shied away from sincerity, real sincerity,
because they feel they have to wink at the audience, because that's what the
kids like." I think patty Jenkins is right. We're in an oversaturated media
environment, and yet we're starved for stories that really connect emotionally. Whatever flaws you want to ascribe to Wonder Woman, a lack of sincerity cannot
be one of them. Wonder Woman is a genuinely inspiring character who
actually stands for something. She stands for truth, honor, courage, and
self-sacrifice, and that is demonstrated dramatically throughout the movie. She
acts with total conviction and the film never pulls the rug out from under her.
The cinematography and music does everything it can to make sure you are
100% behind her. The point of all my videos is ultimately for me and you to
become better writers by studying the successes and missteps of other stories. To that end, the most important exercise a writer can do is to absorb a story
while being emotionally self-aware. By that I mean, don't just watch a movie or
pick apart the plot-holes of the story, but continually ask yourself in every
scene, "how is this making me feel?" and "why is it making me feel that way?"
When you can do this, your radar for insincerity becomes infallible, and
you're able to see through the kinds of manipulations many films attempt to pull.
I challenge you to do this while you're watching Wonder Woman, and I think you'll find that every scene builds up to a singular emotion that is real, not pantomimed. And that nothing in the scene invalidates
anything that comes before. There is real substance beneath the surface level
amusements, and that is what makes the movie more than the sum of its jokes, and
its evidence why movies shouldn't be embarrassed by their own heart. Using
bathos can get a laugh, but it doesn't just destroy the meaning in your
story. It destroys the idea that stories can even be meaningful. We need stories
to take risks in the emotions that they portray and not second-guess themselves
with winks to the audience. I mean do you know how many universally beloved movies there are that have some of the cheesiest scenes you can possibly
imagine? And succeed precisely because we enjoy the cheese. ET ends with a
spaceship cutting a rainbow across the sky, and my favorite movie in the world
ends with two people screaming "I love you" at each other for five minutes straight. Adrian: I love you.
Rocky: I love YOU. If your story is sincere enough, then nothing is cheesy [Rocky End Theme Song]
The Joke problem is explained beautifully in this video, seriously, it explains problems with the industry as a whole.