Commentary: ‘The Studio’ Excels At Cringe Comedy
by Frank Martin
Comedy can take many different forms. Slapstick embodies the physical nature of silliness while character comedy focuses on developing meaningful stories with laughs along the way. Cringe comedy is a bit different. This involves creating situations and scenarios that are so extremely uncomfortable that it’s hard not to laugh at them. It is quite effective because cringe moments are difficult to experience in real life. Awkward situations make people feel anxious and on edge. But when it’s portrayed on a screen, uncomfortable situations can be laughed at because they are happening to fictional characters. But sometimes, the scenes are just so frustrating that humor can become lost. The Studio straddles this line well.
One episode saw studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) visit a set to watch the crew shoot a “oner” — which is a scene that takes place in a single long take. As a bumbling fool, everyone is terrified that he is going to ruin the filming, but as a studio head, everyone wants to keep him happy since they also want something from him. Over the course of the episode, he constantly ruins various takes by accident. The filming is delayed as he continues to get in the way. At every turn, it becomes an extremely frustrating experience for all involved that results in them not being able to film the scene at all before the sun goes down.
From a creative standpoint, the episode was masterfully done. The writing, acting, and directing were all top notch. In fact, the episode itself was a “oner” as it appeared to be filmed in entirely one shot. It was hilarious to see Matt ruin the day at every turn. However, it was also incredibly uncomfortable to see a full episode of someone doing nothing but screw up. He should have been walked off set the moment he got there, but everyone was catering to him simply because he was the boss. It was a commentary on the current status of Hollywood’s studio system, where producers and executives are catered-to unnecessarily. But the uncomfortableness of the moment was so cringey it became difficult to watch at times, which may distract from the comedy.
The Studio is now streaming on AppleTV+.
