Television beyond the pleasure principle: The death drive in The Office (UK) and other cringe comedy

Abstract

This article argues that in order to adequately understand what motivates viewers’ desire to become viscerally uneasy when watching the subgenre of cringe comedy, one must enlist the help of the later Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, whose work underscores a drive toward self-sabotage that exists beyond the pleasure principle. It demonstrates the fruits of this interpretive approach with a close reading of various kinds of British and American cringe comedies.