Narm applies to individual moments and is not a case of "so bad it becomes good" but "so bad it's unintentionally hilarious". So Bad It's Good applies to entire works.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
So narm is a kind of moment, and So Bad, It's Good is when something is comprised primarily of that kind of moment? If so, what "unit" of a work would we be referring to "most" of? An episode of a TV show? An installment of a movie series? An issue of a comic book? (I recently used Marten Sspema's "eat the poo poo" rant as a real-life example of narm, but recently I've been wondering if it's more fitting to So Bad, It's Good.)
So Bad, It's Good is applied to an entire work. It can occur for any number of reasons, Narm being merely one.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"See Plan 9 From Outer Space for one of the best examples of So Bad, It's Good. There is plenty of Narm in the movie ("Your stupid minds! Stupid! STUPID!") but it's SBIG for many reasons, such as:
- Fake Shemp: The late Bela Lugosi "stars" in the movie, via stock footage, and is replaced by an obvious fake covering his face with a cape.
- Juggling Loaded Guns: The actor playing a cop waves his gun like a maniac and points it at everyone, intentionally to see if the director would stop him.
- Special Effect Failure: Cardboard headstones that wobble and fall over, UFOs on visible strings that cast shadows in space.
edited 9th Mar '11 10:42:18 AM by Rotpar
But don't give up hope. Everyone is cured sooner or later. In the end we shall shoot you.Narm is often present is something that is So Bad, It's Good.
edited 9th Mar '11 11:21:24 AM by nuclearneo
How is any trope different from any other? You're vastly overgeneralizing Narm, Neo.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Narm and So Bad, It's Good don't necessarily overlap. Some instances of Narm are indeed considered So Bad, It's Good, but it is far more common for it to be hated by the viewers.
Narm is where something intended to be dramatic is ridiculous instead. The ridiculousness may be funny enough to push it into So Bad, It's Good territory, or it may not. So Bad, It's Good is for those works that fail so spectacularly in whatever they try to achieve - be it action, drama, comedy, or whatever - that they become hugely enjoyable to watch. The two tropes are not synonymous, though frequent, particularly amusing Narm can do a lot to push a work into So Bad, It's Good territory.
edited 10th Mar '11 1:35:11 PM by Iaculus
What's precedent ever done for us?... well, that's a better distinction, then. So narm could be considered sometimes-but-not-always the cause, and So Bad, It's Good sometimes-but-not-always the effect?
Narm is about individual events in the work. So Bad It's Good is about the work as a whole. Narm may be a cause of SBIG, but so may several other tropes, and not everything that contains Narm is SBIG.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"... I see then.
In any case, that narm does not imply SBIG is more than enough of a distinction, so I guess this thread is done then. o.o
I'd say yes. That you felt that way is merely your reaction.
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?Narm = Certain moments/themes in the work.
So Bad, It's Good = The entire work.
edited 23rd Mar '11 7:26:06 PM by Judecca
Alpha Parum est esse aliquid.

Narm
So Bad, It's Good
These seem to be fundamentally similar concepts; each involves works that failed to be dramatic, but ended up having comedic value instead. What exactly is the distinction between the two?