History Main / CringeComedy

* An iron stomach is required to get through an episode of TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob without looking away in embarassment.

* In the late 60's and the 70's, german comedian {{Loriot}} basically created his entire career completely on sketches about uptight middle class people who get into awkward situations and make everything worse by being completely oblivious about it. It becomes much more bearable by the fact, that usually nobody seems to be aware that the situations should be akward and everyone continues as if everything would be fine. As a parody of how people of those decades refused to allow any loss of face to the point where it got painful, his show got massively popular.

* ''FamilyGuy'', though whether or not it's funny or just plain offensive is based entirely around one's viewpoint. A Good example is the CutawayGag "Horton Hears Domestic Violence in the Apartment Next Door and Doesn't Call the Police."

* The "Hair Gel" scene from ''[=~There's Something About Mary~=]''.

* HaveYouBeenServed pretty much runs on this trope.

** Lampshaded in "Funnybot," where the title character even uses "Awkward!" as his catchphrase. The boys have to stop him from telling the Last Joke Ever, in which he destroys the entire human race becaues it's the most awkward thing possible.

German, the [[GermanLanguage language]] that brought you [[{{GratuitousGerman}} "Schadenfreude"]], has recently developed the term "Fremdschämen" ("vicarious shame/embarrassment") to cover this phenomenon.

* ''[[ImAlanPartridge I'm Alan Partridge]]''

* {{Frasier}} had this in nearly every episode.

* NewGirl uses this trope a few times in the pilot.

* THAT scene in ''AmericanPie''.

* To varying degrees with ''TheColbertReport'', especially the interviews.

* ''Da Ali G Show'' and ''{{Borat}}''.
** Taken to a new extreme in ''{{Bruno}}''.

* MartinScorsese's ''The King of Comedy'' has a fair amount of this.

** That one isn't so out there. The best example would be the Simpsons promo which morphs into Quagmire raping Marge Simpson and later kills the entire family. Though this troper has yet to meet anyone who found it anything but disturbing.

** That one isn't so out there. The best example would be the Simpsons promo which morphs into Quagmire raping Marge Simpson. Though this troper has yet to meet anyone who found it anything but disturbing.

-->And I don't want to fail. I mean, that's a really important point in this story, is that these are good people, and I want to succeed for them, but I just can't, you know. And so I think to myself, "Why don't I cater my material to this specific event."
-->And everyone has been talking about cancer.
--->''[audience groans]''
-->I know. I'm in the future also.
--->--Comedian Mike Birbiglia, ''My Secret Public Journal''.

Some shows specialize in this sort of humor. Others include a scene of it here or there, largely avoiding it. Still others make this sort of thing a sort of RunningGag, as with taking a character who can't act and requiring them to play a part for the good of the team - repeatedly.

* Many ChristopherGuest movies tend to fall into this at times.

* The Ted and Ralph sketches from TheFastShow: [[TheWoobie Ralph]] is the socially awkward upper-class proprietor of an English estate, and [[WorkingClassHero Ted]] is an elderly Irish man who tends to the estate's gardens. [[HoYay Ralph is in love with Ted]]. [[CringeComedy Hilarity ensues]].

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'' in it's later seasons.

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'', especially Costanza (even more for what he does than what happens to him)

* ''[[Mega64 Mega 64]]'' has this in most of the public video game imitations.