alt title(s): Clappy Humour; Clappy Humor
clappy humor: A style of humor in which actual humor content is irrelevant. Instead, the comedian makes cutting, witty remarks about a person, idea or movement to which both he and his audience are largely opposed, and the audience does not actually laugh, but instead applauds his wit. Clappy humor is only there to make a political point and to be clapped at; it is not supposed to be "funny" or joke-based, as mere jokes and laughter would be considered frivolous by both comedian and audience.
—Urban Dictionary, "
clappy humor
"
If a book or any other media product follows a distinct philosophical, political or religious slant, then people who agree with that slant will often like it despite any flaws it has.
Conversely, people who
disagree with its message will often reject it out of hand, regardless of how well written it is.
Keep in mind, however, that many people neither agree or disagree with a message before presented with an argument that they find convincing. The purpose of many of the examples of this trope can legitimately be said in at least a small part to convince the undecided, rather than change someone's mind. Still, the "preaching to the choir" effect is noticeable.
See also
Your Mileage May Vary, which this is essentially a subtrope of. Contrast
Don't Shoot The Message, which is about disliking a work because of its style but
not its message.
Examples:
- Any book that attempts to prove or disprove a certain philosophical or political viewpoint. Reviews on amazon.com for these books tend to be either one star or five stars, due to the reviewers' opinion of the book being so heavily influenced by whether it clashes or not with their personal thoughts. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (whose thesis is exactly what it sounds like) is a notable recent example. Naturally, when Alister McGrath wrote The Dawkins Delusion (a book that argues against Dawkins's book), almost anyone who agreed with Dawkins's book automatically disliked McGrath's book, whereas those who disagreed with Dawkins's book were almost always immediate fans of McGrath's book.
- On that note, C.S. Lewis' Narnia series and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, which are Author Tracts for Christianity and atheism, respectively. Notable in that while Lewis didn't originally intend his work to turn into one, while Pullman very much intentionally wrote his series with promoting atheism in mind (as well as making an anti-religious rebuttal to Lewis). As a result, His Dark Materials is a lot more frank about its message. The athiests among Pullman's fans welcome his overt anti-religious themes. Everyone else, not so much.
- Left Behind.
- Pretty much any movie Michael Moore made. Fahrenheit 9/11 may be the best example.
- Apparently taking notes from Michael Moore, the conservative side brought out Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, an anti-evolution film that claims the theory of evolution influenced the Holocaust and the Cold War.
- Any pro-choice/pro-life commercial assumes the message it's giving. IE, an unborn baby is a person and thus abortion is murder = Pro-Life, or they're not a person, and part of the woman thus her decision = Pro-Choice. It's doubtful anyone is ever converted by these.
- The Passion of the Christ.
- Politically themed comic strips, from Doonesbury to Mallard Fillmore to The Boondocks, are this trope incarnate: if you agree with them, they're hilarious; if you don't, they're poison to the mind. If you have no bias one way or another, then you're probably just skipping over them to see what Ziggy's up to today.
- Same goes for Prickly City by Scott Stantis.
- Ditto for The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee. It's questionable if even the people it's allegedly preaching to find it funny. Comments on the comics Snark Bait blog The Comics Curmudgeon seem to indicate not...
- And I Drew This, by the Ozy And Millie lady.
- The word "clapter" was coined to describe the latter effect in TV - when an audience applauds a joke more than actually laughing at it. It's an accusation often levelled at the more recent years of The Daily Show. (Its synonym "clappy humor" has an entry in the Urban Dictionary.
- M*A*S*H started with a noticeable anti-war stance, but was still entertaining enough to be enjoyed by someone who disagreed with the show's views. As the series went on, it seemed to become increasingly required that viewers agree with every line of the Alan Alda Book Of Morality.
- This is undoubtedly one of two reasons that The O'Reilly Factor and Countdown With Keith Olbermann exist. Fox News preaches to the conservative choir. MSNBC preaches to the liberal choir. Your Mileage May Vary as to where CNN stands.
- The works of Jack Chick, although most of the choir think he's insane.
- Certain genres of music may fall into this trope, particularly those that began as underground movements and became mainstream later on; artists and songs would be judged primarily on their subject matter, perceived attitude or whether or not a message is present, rather than being enjoyed/loathed for the music itself. Hip hop music, due to its lyric-heavy, melody-sparse nature, might be the most prominent example. Particularly the artists of the Political Rap sub genre. The main polarizers being Public Enemy, The Coup, and the extremely controversial rappers Paris, and Immortal Technique. And to a lesser extent, Ice Cube, Ice T, and Tupac Shakur.
- Those Mac vs. PC ads that depend entirely on Ad Hominem and misconceptions to sell their points to the audience, which in most cases either already agrees, disagrees and is already aware of what is untrue about the ads, Took A Third Option, or is very easily Distracted By The Shiny, which admittedly usually tends to work in Apple's favor.
