Discussion History JustForFun / TropeTan

It is named for the famous scene in the last season of Six Feet Under, where the main character Nate suffers a brain embolism. He suddenly grabs his right arm and repeats \\\"Numb arm!\\\", but it quickly becomes \\\"N\\\'arm! N\\\'arm!\\\" Despite being the climax of one of the best shows HBO has ever created, the scene was overwhelmingly found by fans and reviewers to be funny rather than sad.

Were you to discuss this phenomenon in a scholarly work or literary circles, the word you would probably use is \\\"bathos.\\\" Though all the implications of the technical term do not match up exactly, it\\\'s a fairly good fit. If you\\\'re talking to non-tropers and don\\\'t want to have to make fun of the unintentional comedy of brain embolisms, that\\\'s probably the word you want to use.

Not to be confused with the Funny Aneurysm Moment, in which something wasn\\\'t meant to be upsetting but is, thanks to later events or unfortunate Reality Subtext.

Narm often stems from a failed attempt to pull off a Crowning Moment Of Awesome, a Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming or a Tear Jerker. Alternatively, a good performance in a bad movie will evoke Narm because the actor Took The Bad Film Seriously. Anything that falls under Wangst and Deus Angst Machina runs the risk of falling under Narm, as what is intended to be angsty and dramatic can instead come across as over-the-top ridiculous and absurd. In subtitled anime, Narms are often created through the use of badly used English, with Totally Radical dialog in general being another rich source of Narm. In dubbed anime, Narms are more likely to result from the combination of a budding William Shatner reading an overly-literal translation.

See also Nightmare Retardant and many cases of Snark Bait, as well as Fetish Retardant for erotica (of which the Swedish home furnishings variety is a particularly good source of Narm). Not to be confused with \\\'Nam (which is generally slightly less funny) or the Narn.

Keep in mind that Narm is subjective, as one person\\\'s cheese is another person\\\'s charm. However, Narm is not when something simply falls flat or \\\"doesn\\\'t work\\\"; this is not a page for simply complaining about scenes you didn\\\'t like.

A number of examples of Narm become memes.

Contrast with Narm Charm, where somehow, the drama still works. [[/quoteblock]]

Nothing there about it not ever being aware of itself, although I didn\\\'t check the history so maybe something was removed. This sentence --
[[quoteblock]] However, Narm is not when something simply falls flat or \\\"doesn\\\'t work\\\"; this is not a page for simply complaining about scenes you didn\\\'t like. [[/quoteblock]]

-- has made me think; what if \\\"Miracles\\\" was originally put on the list just to complain about it, rather than because the troper found the song {{Narm}}ful?