Enjoyable Bad vs Unbearable Bad
Liking something and that thing being good are not mutually exclusive. Yes, there exist objectively bad things—works, novels, series, etc.—that break every proven norm for no good reason and end up in the dumpster of media as abject failures, unknown and unrecognized. But there are many degrees to this.
Hello Timmy, today we are delving into a finicky topic, something that many argue over with no real answer because, spoiler alert, there isn’t. Enjoyable Bad vs Unbearable Bad, there are many reviewers out there that will be quick to dismiss something as utterly, completely, devastatingly atrocious. Scores are attached to works as proof of their quality, and while useful, like lawyers, it is incomplete. Because people can recognize that a work is bad but have fun while watching it. My own father was kicked out of the movie theater during the screening of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” because he couldn’t stop laughing at how fake it looked for him—everything being shown. All the audience was scared shitless, and he was laughing his sides off.
A large chunk of media consumption is based on enjoyment, Timmy. Yes, there are other reasons, but at the end of the day, it is a form of escapism, and escapism depends on the person. People like my father who just laughed in the face of Freddy Kruger or, in the case of the anime “Chargeman Ken,” an obscure piece of media that was so bad that it wasn’t remembered until the internet in Japan discovered it a few years ago.
The premise is nonsensical, really. The story follows a “child-hero” who is a psychopath that goes around killing aliens that, from everything established, just want to destroy him in particular. He is also a preteen and has his own car and disintegrator gun. The production value was underground, the music score terrible and madness-inducing, and during one of the episodes, a human hand and a hair appear on the screen. As a matter of fact, the hair appears in every episode.
When it was first aired, it became nothing almost instantly, no sorrow, and no glory. It wasn’t until 2007 when it was edited on DVD and through streaming services that it experienced a resurgence a little over thirty years after it first aired. Through the internet, it became a booming series.
Now the question is why? Why, Timmy, did this series become so massive so long after it first aired? Because through the internet and the culture it generated, it became an endless well of meme material. People enjoyed it not because it was good, but because it was so bad it went right to the other end. Sure, probably the author didn’t intend for it to be taken like that, but you can’t control what the audience does. You can only ride the wave or endure the criticism.
Again, bad and enjoyable are not mutually exclusive. It also depends on the culture around a work. Like the Twilight saga, yes, a lot of people threw fire on it, but mostly because it became the thing to do. Yet, a lot of people enjoyed it; for many, it was good, or at least enjoyable. If you are going to embark on the path of the craft, this consideration you must make, for no other reason but for respect of what you are doing.
So we go back to you, the individual Timmy, the one actually sitting down doing the work. You are worried, scared sick of what the audience might do to your work. There are few things more terrifying than a faceless, identity-less giant that can strike with a hammer upon your works. In fear, we believe that we can control it when we cannot.
You can have all the good intentions that you want, you can have all the hopes and dreams and nightmares that you can endure. But at the end of the day, you can’t control the audience; they will treat your work in unexpected ways. As a creative, as an author, it should be your hope that people enjoy what you do in whatever manner they like. So what if someone laughed his face off during the “terrifying” apparitions of Freddy Kruger? What is there to feel bad about? In a way, that is your own ego and preconceived notions of what you wanted versus what you expected.
Blessed is the one whose works are enjoyed because that person has done something good. Because you may struggle, you may suffer, hoping that your work is enjoyed, but if you are paralyzed by fear, it never will.
Finally, is there any way you can prevent your work from being bad? Just simple bad? Yes, by applying proven patterns, but always remembering that you can write only what you have the skills to write at any given point in time. And you know about bad writing? At least someone dared to write and publish, trying their best to do the best, and it failed. So what? So long as those people learn from what they did, they will grow, they will be better, stronger, sharper, and they will reach further the next time.
Go and ponder these words, Timmy.
Until Next Time.
