A rather lengthy title, but I couldn't really think of a more succinct way to get the subject across.
I don't think the title needs much explanation. What pieces of entertainment or media did you find harrowing in a way that just felt unpleasant? Like the creators were being genuinely, purposely hateful, and removed any enjoyment you might have had. This can come across in tone, dialogue, content, cinematography, humor and pretty much anything. Sometimes it's easy to point out (racist jokes for example), other times it can be a bit more subtle (like excessive lingering on torture and suffering in films).
I started thinking about this when I started to think about my sense of humor. I recently found out that Mountain Dew had held an online poll to name their new soda brand a few years ago, and the #1 spot ended up being "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong", followed by "Gushing Granny" on #2. To me this was easily the funniest thing I've heard so far this year, and laughed about it for a whole day. But when I've shared this tidbit with other people, not that many of them have laughed or found it funny. I started to think if my sense of humor goes so far and is so dark that it ends up just sounding mean and nasty to others.
I laugh at it pretty much every time heartily. It's the fact that if you take out the title, the video just becomes a relentless stream of misery, tragedy and human suffering. But I know that a shitload of people couldn't find the video funny in the slightest. Not me. More examples like this include the Koroshiya 1 and Shigurui mangas. Both are absolutely brimming with borderline reprehensible content and horrifying acts, yet neither strayed too far for me.
Yet even I have my limits. I found Hobo with a Shotgun genuinely fucked up, mean-spirited and unpleasant to watch. It's one of the very few films I wish I'd never watched. Its seeming excitement to absolutely wallow in depicting as many and as graphic acts of violence on innocent bystanders and helpless people pushed it over the edge for me. I can appreciate a good bit of fnarr-fnarr splatter, but I didn't get that feeling from Hobo.
And this kind of thing isn't limited to just extreme humor or graphic content: I ended up hating the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series retroactively, save for the first book. By the end of the last book it felt like nothing of note had been accomplished, the characters hadn't grown or changed in any way, the relationships were pretty much hate-hate-hate, and nothing had any meaning. And none of those in a good way. Some might say "Oh, but the pointlessness is the point", to which I would reply "Well is it even meant to be enjoyed then?"
TL;DR: What pieces of media did you feel were genuinely hateful, cruel and/or mean-spirited to the point you couldn't enjoy them at all and why?
I don't think the title needs much explanation. What pieces of entertainment or media did you find harrowing in a way that just felt unpleasant? Like the creators were being genuinely, purposely hateful, and removed any enjoyment you might have had. This can come across in tone, dialogue, content, cinematography, humor and pretty much anything. Sometimes it's easy to point out (racist jokes for example), other times it can be a bit more subtle (like excessive lingering on torture and suffering in films).
I started thinking about this when I started to think about my sense of humor. I recently found out that Mountain Dew had held an online poll to name their new soda brand a few years ago, and the #1 spot ended up being "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong", followed by "Gushing Granny" on #2. To me this was easily the funniest thing I've heard so far this year, and laughed about it for a whole day. But when I've shared this tidbit with other people, not that many of them have laughed or found it funny. I started to think if my sense of humor goes so far and is so dark that it ends up just sounding mean and nasty to others.
Yet even I have my limits. I found Hobo with a Shotgun genuinely fucked up, mean-spirited and unpleasant to watch. It's one of the very few films I wish I'd never watched. Its seeming excitement to absolutely wallow in depicting as many and as graphic acts of violence on innocent bystanders and helpless people pushed it over the edge for me. I can appreciate a good bit of fnarr-fnarr splatter, but I didn't get that feeling from Hobo.
And this kind of thing isn't limited to just extreme humor or graphic content: I ended up hating the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series retroactively, save for the first book. By the end of the last book it felt like nothing of note had been accomplished, the characters hadn't grown or changed in any way, the relationships were pretty much hate-hate-hate, and nothing had any meaning. And none of those in a good way. Some might say "Oh, but the pointlessness is the point", to which I would reply "Well is it even meant to be enjoyed then?"
TL;DR: What pieces of media did you feel were genuinely hateful, cruel and/or mean-spirited to the point you couldn't enjoy them at all and why?