Cringe is actually really old. I think some early Chaplin pioneered elements of cringe, though he still had a lot of inherited baggage from the pure simple-minded physical comedy he branched away from.
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But “shadow in charge” is a larger category than cringe comedy, and despite overlaps, is not to be confused with things like cluelessness or childish id-driven or antiheroics. I’m looking for other expressions of the idea.
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One near-candidate might be Dexter. The shadow isn’t in charge, but only because a “code” has been imposed through strong conditioning by his adopted father to allow it to safely run the show. It’s like the self is a consultant keeping the shadow in check.
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But I don’t want stylized Jekyll-and-Hyde examples like Dexter or Tyler Durden. More pure paradigm examples. I think it’s more commonly a comedy archetype because in drama, unless you create mannered justifications, the character will realistically crash and burn too easily.
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It’s more commonly a female character type, not sure why. Male shadow-driven types always end up too stylized to be interesting. Or in a safely socialized role like the town drunk. I’m racking my brain and failing to come up with good male shadow-driven characters.
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In real life the shadow-driven type seems equally common in teenaged boys and girls but in adulthood it is rarer in men. Possibly because it’s hard to survive in that mode too long outside of rare careers like music, and harder for men to go dependent.
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But women can more easily stay shadow-driven if financially dependent, which is more acceptable socially.
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I don’t quite get the logic of shadow-driven characters and how they behave. Like what would be a good hack for writing them?
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Realistic ones that is. Not serial killers or superheroes.
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Replying to
i'd say on Letterkenny, Stewart and to a lesser extent Squirrely Dan have it going on too
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I would say actually - take Jim, but modify him. He flirts with Pam but poorly, it doesn’t work. Take Jim but make him socially unsuccessful, and make him marginally more bitter and angry. I think you end up with a Dan Harmon character- Jeff from Community
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