“You can’t go on “seeing through” things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. To “see through” all things is the same as not to see.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Interesting presentation of some fairly complex stuff. But doesn't this video kind of miss Wallace's point about the ineffectiveness of irony? His main problem is not with irony/irreverence/self-referentiality itself but with the fact that where these were effective literary techniques in the 60s and 70s, by the 80s they had been completely co-opted by television and marketing strategies (also on television). The critical force of irony is hollowed out because we've been trained in the arts of thinking ironically by television. By aiming to convey sincerity (the gooey and embarrassing and frankly unfortunate but honest aspects of living) he doesn't turn away from irony but rather passes through it, to the other side, where 'lived experience' shines through again. Maybe Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a good example: where he uses irony as a form of speaking to allow the shittiness of everyday decisions/actions gain relevance/relatability. The Office and Community may have similar objectives insofar as both are ironic and sincere. But isn't this just another example of exactly what he was originally arguing against: that television has the power to co-opt ways/modes of thinking/experiencing the world, where we always experience that world in absolute solitude, completely alone and by its mediation, always at a distance, never IN it. At least with shows like arrested development, it's always sunny and seinfeld, the void is recognizable as a form of experience. With the 'sincere' ones you mentioned, the soft irony and self-referentiality, are techniques used to draw the viewer towards a false sincerity which, in the end, just covers up the emptiness of our lives in world conditioned by total connectivity and total isolation. Pretty sure DFW just wants us all to make friends and be nice to them.

“Strict adherence to cynicism isn’t really all that smart or cool.” I LOVED that line.

This is actually why i try not to take memes too serious, its no longer a counter culture form of information that it once was, and due to the rise of memes its now even more difficult for people to actually address serious issues without hiding it in an empty form of content thats meant to be taken ironically.

Another early adoption of what you are talking about is King of the Hill. Tons of heart.

sincerity is very refreshing in media these days.

I think you were spot on with The Office. Jim personifies irony and is constantly remarking on his coworkers idiocies or poor performances (ironically). Only to later realize that his own ironic approach holds him back from ever leaving the job he hates, getting the girl he loves or having a meaningful, non-superficial relationship with anyone. This approach is one that many, myself included, have. Jim's story tells us that irony is the killer of hopes, dreams and everything else that make life meaningful. -That sincerity has the redeeming quality of making your being meaningful. It's truly magnificent writing and eye-opening once you think about it.

My Name is Earl. That was a gem of a show that had both cynicism and sentimentality with loads of redeemable characters. In fact the entire premise was redemption.

I'd also like to point out that "The Office" even has a character named "David Wallace" in the show. I read somewhere that this is no coincidence and that one writer of the show is actually a huge fan of David Foster Wallace's work.

Scrubs also fits this narrative right. The childishness of JD and Turk, the cynicism of Dr.Cox or just the general lightheartedness of the show gets tied up together with a sincere message.

Kierkegaard explored all of these ideas in his doctoral thesis in 1841, entitled Om Begrebet Ironi (On the Concept of Irony). On page 261 of the Howard and Edna Hong translation, Kierkegaard explains, “Here, then, we have irony as the infinite absolute negativity. It is negativity, because it only negates; it is infinite, because it does not negate this or that phenomenon; it is absolute, because that by virtue of which it negates is a higher something that still is not. The irony establishes nothing, because that which is to be established lies behind it. It is a divine madness that rages like a Tamerlane and does not leave one stone upon another. Here, then, we have irony.” It is not possible, therefore, to present the destructive nature of irony as something missed or misunderstood by the Post Modernists if the father of existentialism wrote his dissertation on the very topic 150 years ago. While the killing of the literary fathers must occur at every generation, at least do it for the right reasons!

I STILL cry when I watch this. "It's not impossible, it's just really fucking hard." breaks me every time and I have to go run and hug someone. I can't express how much I appreciate this little video for how well it articulates the problems with cynicism and serves as an affirmation of earnestness and life. Kicks the crap out of me emotionally, and I adore it.

These are the sort of videos that I believe have been sorely missing on UKposts. Fantastic content. I look forward to more.

David Foster Wallace looks like Axl Rose's accountant

Great video. I'm tired of enthusiastically (or habitually rather) investing in cynicism and irony. It has only left me thinking that others are NEVER being sincere, especially when they have something nice/good to say about me. And though it makes me feel like I'm right a lot of the time, I also feel in a constant state of (self) doubt, because right in the centre of cynism, even I myself am insincere. No more.

I think Ted Lasso is a first of its kind in this regard. The sincerity and heart far outweighs any shadow of irony, and this aspect is actually completely and consciously embraced (and also presented as the show’s edge). So in 2020, it’s edgy to be unabashedly sincere. It’s probably an inevitable result of irony oversaturation, which was bound to happen eventually. I like where we’re headed.

The way I see it, the purest essence of memes is to constantly be subverting expectations. Irony and metahumour was the primary way to do that, and now because we are so heavily saturated, sincerity is more subversive than the lack of sincerity. This resurgence in sincerity is simply an extension of the constant struggle to subvert.

I'm in two minds about this. On the surface, I agree with David Foster Wallace. Wall-to-wall, cooler-than-thou snark has a detrimental effect on culture. Frankly, I'd argue that this has gotten worse since DFW made his case, not better. We live in an age of 90s junk-culture nostalgia and semi-ironic music fads like vaporwave. The cycles of what's considered cool and uncool seem to move far quicker than ever before, with flash-in-the-pan hype bands, Netflix/podcast sensations, etc. all eliciting a kind of strangely emotionless interest from the media classes, and remaining largely unnoticed by the general population. TV shows like Seinfeld and Animaniacs were rebelling against the hollow, unearned emotional content of earlier generations of sitcom, wherein a character would make a facile emotion-based speech (something like "Who cares if I didn't get to go to the tournament? I got to be here with the people I love"). That kind of dialogue was just as cynical as the 90s slackers who reacted against it. It played on the audience's emotions in an exploitative, surface-level way. The Office scene depicted here made me feel kind queasy too; it seemed like a cute way of rounding off a half-hour episode rather than a properly-released character beat. It takes some incredibly skillful writing to avoid the arch cynicism of post-modernism, while also avoiding the puke-inducing cynicism of unearned emotional manipulation. There’s a happy medium that few manage. I'd say Wes Anderson does. Mad Men did. 90s Simpsons episodes did too. Also, Modern Family is such a banal, anodyne nightmare of beige nothingness, that it’s hard to see it as a positive example of anything.

For me, the new sincerity began when I got sick of using irony and dank memes in everything as a coping mechanism for my incompetence resulting from some depression.I really do or at least try to change myself for better everyday in a noble-sincere way. People need to understand this! This is a good video. Thanks!

Wow, I thought this was an experience of mine and my peers of an aging process, but it makes so much sense that this is really a long term social trend (to simplify egregiously).

This earned my sub. As someone internally conflict between cynicism and sincerity, this really spoke to me. I still believe irony has a place in our lives, and in our entertainment, but I think the ideas you presented are important, and you did an excellent job of presenting them. Great work.

I've exhausted all of Nerdwriter's videos and now this channel comes along. Thank you!

PSSSHHH...guy uses David Foster Wallace to defend his love for Community, The Office, Parks and Rec., upon further investigation turns out he works for NBC.

this is so well put together. thank you - i have been feeling like i am just getting old (35) and not understanding people's indifference and distraction. nothing important is ever talked about and the ones who care about what is slipping away right before our eyes - end up going crazy because nobody will share the load and find solutions. we've become to comfortable and one day we won't just be making fun of our issues, we'll be poking at a corpse. it's not going to sell so much at that point.

Doesn't Simpsons just fuck this up? It's always had a positive and sincere message, yet it uses a lot of irony, and it's been pretty much the most successful tv show of all time.

this was a really awesome video. Thank you for investigating and splaying out the forces at play in the world today

I come back to this video every year it feels, greatly construed man has always given me a lot to think about

I don't think the Simpsons is insincere, there are tons of sincere moments with lots of heart.

Great video, but I feel like it was more about ideological choices made in television than to do with David Foster Wallace. While I did enjoy the video, it was not what the title would make you believe it is about - at least not in full.

This video popped up on my feed at the exact right time. Thank you for the moment of clarity.

Some tv Show to watch: - Ted Lasso - Scrubs (same showrunner) - Man Seeking Woman - Fleabag - My Name is Earl - Gravity Falls - Over the Garden Wall (masterpiece)

I feel validated. I have been struggling to put these concepts into words -- why specific shows are worthwhile and others are not -- and it's comforting to see that someone has done just that.

I still cry when I watch this essay. I love this.

You just earned yourself a new subscriber (or maybe a patron if there are more of these types of videos to come)

Great video man, really appreciate all the topics you cover and how well you balance the entertainment side of your videos with the informative side of it. Subscribed!

This is a wonderful essay and has tied together some thoughts I've been having about my own perspective/approach to life recently. Thank you! I agree that a balance between cynicism and sincerity is the best ☺️

this was very uplifting, and while I expected this to be more focused on DFW and his work, I was happily surprised with this commentary on modern entertainment's approach to irony/sincerity (using DFW as a reference point)

I mean the latest season where Mac constructed an entire “coming out” ballet was entirely sincere and it made me cry so that means something no?

this was one of the most interesting and thought provoking things I've seen in a while

First video of yours I’ve seen and I was really impressed. Subscribing...👏

Man, I really love your videos. You have an impressive ability to articulate things I never could explain. The editing is amazing and you always leave me feeling really good about myself at the end of the video, no matter the topic. Thank you @Will Schoder!

Not sure about your description of modernism. It is more usually associated with uncertainty, fragmentation, disillusion, scepticism, self-awareness and auto-criticism (from which postmodernism extended). It does sometimes operate under a grand narrative but very rarely through the idea that there is one true God, and in fact in modernist art and literature the single stance or stable viewpoint is often split or distorted as can be seen in cubism and the literary cubism this inspires in Gertrude Stein for example. It sounds more as though you are referring to the set of ideals more commonly associated with the 19th Century and in particular the Victorian novel, which is to say it sounds more like you are referring to something like George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' rather than James Joyce's 'Ulysses'. Although I know this wasn't really about literature but thought I'd bring it up. Nice work though otherwise, keep it up!

Love, love, love. Putting a reminder here to rewatch later to fully digest

This articulated a problem I've always felt but couldn't understand or put into context. Thank you!

Awesome. There should be more DFW videos.

This was awesome. Keep these coming. I have never read David Foster Wallace but now well.

After watching this video i got this bittersweet feeling that i think I usually only have right after I’ve heard or read something that changed how I view the world for the better. Thanks for that!

Thanks Will, great video and loved the highlighted dysfunctional gaps in our building connections between us. Thanks 👍🏼🌞

This is such a phenomenal, well written video. Kudos to you, man.

I feel that's a very surface level analysis of the critiqued shows. sure, always sunny may seem hopelessly pessimistic and dark at first glance, and in a way it is, but it's much more than that. dark humor is about finding worth in every human effort, as ill-intended or as flawed as it might be. the beauty of gallows humor is that it deals with great problems by facing them head on, by accepting human flaws rather than redeeming them and, by joking about it, somehow making it more bearable. we all know that characters such as charlie and frank are terrible people, but we can't help but like them because they're our protagonist and that means we see every facet of their lives, making us realize even horrible people are people, who love and feel sadness and try to live life as best they can. in a way we all relate to them and at some point or another we all feel like them, and by watching them we feel it's okay to not be perfect.

I'm so happy I discovered your channel! better late than never.... this is a brilliant video, well done!

One of the most touching video I’ve seen on youtube in a while. Thank you

I resent the implication that Arrested Development doesn't have a heart! That show has tonnes of heart, and in fact I'd say that one of the biggest points of the show is that everyone puts up a front but deep down, they're all as broken as each other, looking for that connection. GOB's arc in season 4 being the best example. Other than that, great video.

Family Guy tried in the later seasons to get more sincere and include more serious dramatic elements between characters (such as Quagmire going on a long rant about why he hates Brian or Meg going on a long rant about why she shouldn't be put down so much) but the writers failed to do it in an interesting way and it just sounded sloppy and unnecessary. Now they're back to just doing nonsense for 22 minutes which is what I think works best for them and the FG formula.

While I understand the desire for a new sincerity I think that DFW made the assumption that his idea wouldn’t immediately be subsumed by capitalist realism. While these TV shows serve as a good educational tool I think what they demonstrate is how Capital took the desire for a new sincerity and morphed it into a new escapism or a new placation. Capitalist realism takes a yearning to be able to experience some kind of more honest “humanity” and gives us Netflix and chill.

Will, I really enjoyed this. It just popped up in the Up Next column, and since I'm on a bit of a DFW jag, I watched. thanks for helping me out of a funk!

This channel is going to blow up, you can just tell.

Sometimes youtube recommendations hits it out of the park. This is one of those times.

Unbelievably fascinating. Extremely well done video. Thank you!

If Wallace was so anti-TV, I really wonder how he would react to his name being attached to a video that mostly concentrates on how TV has apparently moved past the problems of irony. It's like, we got this now! Look at THESE shows.... see, ghost David? We learned from you and started making better TV again! I don't think the problems of irony have been solved, in fact, quite the contrary, the grey areas that irony produces are regluarly used to still exploit us.

Love the new format!

Wow man, I see all of the behaviour you describe in this video in myself, and although I'd recently started to become aware of my own delusions, this really feels like a slap in the face. Great job, and I have to say David Foster Wallace was really, really way ahead of the curve.

He was one of my favorite writers. Really miss his essays.

First of all, I can't believe this video is 5 years old!! In 2022, Im amazed at how the argument you made in this video has really been so accurate to our culture. Also I love that this video is encouraging people to respond thoughtfully! At least, it encouraged me. Really well done, I can tell that a lot of thought + research was put into it. This comment is a long one lol kudos to anyone who reads this. I have a slight background in philosophy and theology. But I'm just a senior in college so I don't know a ton. Anyways... The end of this video struck me. It seems that the newer tv shows, instead of really changing the ironic way of presenting "problems without solutions", that they are embracing the problems of the world in a more light-hearted way. I might be wrong. but I see you saying the moral of these shows is "celebrate the things YOU enjoy", and "embrace each other's differences". I think this is honestly a postmodern concept too: Embrace others differences, do what you want... because, well, nobody is right, and nobody is wrong. At its core, this sounds like disguised-as-positive wording for what would've been open nihilism/relativism in "ironic" shows. The main difference is: when shows were being ironic, they weren't attempting at hiding the evil of the world. (I think of that clip where Peter Griffin is sitting with orphans in a third world country(?)) Your assessment of ironic shows is right: They were not embracing messy reality. But they weren't giving a solution either. However... The solution that you present is: we should embrace the approach of shows like parks and Rec. We should simply focus on the good things about life, instead. Do not address the messy, evil stuff in your television show. Don't make light of it, actually, just don't show it. And if you do, balance it with something happy so it doesn't hurt. show a happy quirky family to make viewers feel better and ...escape messy reality. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the happy shows you listed, I've watched every episode of all of them :) buuuuttt if we're talking philosophy, i can't be unresponsive to an appeal to escapism. Especially not now, in 2022. I need to get back in touch with reality, or I'm going to die from depression.. as many recently have. David foster Wallace saw what we couldn't, but he didn't have the hope that some of us do. In the spirit of providing solutions, (I hope you'll hear me on this): I think your argument that "we need not appeal to something as abstract or dangerous as the grand narratives of modernism" is wrong. Firstly, I see an unexplained use of the word "dangerous". I'd love to see what your reasoning was for that word!! But also, I agree. Honestly, abstract thinking is dangerous. But how much more dangerous is escaping forever and dying unfulfilled? You might realize at the end of your life, that the answer could have been discovered if you were only to peer into the terrifying and beautiful unknowns of reality. Modernist ideas touch on concepts like the afterlife, morality, relative and objective truth, God, Hell, those things. But i want you and anyone reading to think on these things, because there is a solution, there are answers, and there is peace and truth to be grasped in this dark reality. If you're interested, I'll explain more and id love to hear any responses. I'll likely draw from classic literature and philosophy as some other commenters have!

Brilliant content, Will!

Thank you so much fro this video! I have been struggling to fully comprehend this issue in the last few weeks and you really helped!

what an awesome video essay. Truly the best i’ve seen lately

It's hard to have a solution for a problem you didn't even know was there until it was pointed out to you through irony. Irony isn't designed to be the solution. It's the first step.

"It started in 2006 with The Office (US)" I think you mean it started in 2001 with The Office.

I wholeheartedly agree that living your life with optimism, kindness and gentleness is a far better way to go than being cynical and unsentimental. And yet, I think there is still a good deal of room for TV shows that espouse a more cynical view. 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' is probably my favourite show of all time and you'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger misanthrope than Larry David, as he hilariously plays himself. Even hints of sentimentality are pretty, pretty, pretty much out the window! Funny is funny. You really can't argue with what makes you laugh (and laugh hard!). Fortunately, I don't take my cues from television. TV is not my god. Between 'Seinfeld' and 'Curb', Larry David has quite simply made my life happier. Fawlty Towers is another cynically wicked show that is hard to beat, and the list goes on. Let's not get carried away and throw the baby out with the bath water!

Will, I keep coming back to this video. I see what you describe everywhere around me but most importantly in me.

Thanks so much for this video! I’ve been thinking about “the fall of irony”, particularly on social media, for the last several months. I’ve saved your video for later viewings. It is a surprising glimmer of positive energy. Thanks again.

The loss of DFW increases exponentially every day, every week, every month, every year...

Great, thought-provoking video. I feel you short-changed Seinfeld, though. The thing with Seinfeld is that the irony IS the sincerity. In a time where sitcoms were mostly trying to manipulate your heart-strings in the hopes of passing a crap product off as watchable, Seinfeld dared to do away with the fluff, and show its naked self to the world, and stand on its own merits as a comedic commentary. Of course there were also exceptions to the "manipulate" sitcoms, as well. It's been said elsewhere in these comments, but 90s Simpsons is a great example full of irony AND heart.

very well done. thanks for putting this together!

Love this and keep coming back to it!

Very nice, would love to see more of this kind! Thanks

Me: *sees title* Time for some David Foster Wallace wisdom Me after 3 minutes: where did David go?

damn, i'm amazed david foster wallace saw this such a long time ago. bless his soul

I love how you present this. Love your work.

I wonder if this rejection of irony is one the reasons My Little Pony Friendship is Magic became popular. It's unabashedly about the importance of friendship and love and people connect to that, even if it's through pastel ponies.

I have to say I kind of agree with Aubrey Grant, is it really "sincere" when every character is redeemed by doing something objectively good? There are people, for better or worse, who do not have redeeming qualities in the eyes of an objective audience, and to make them do something uncharacteristically redeeming is not "sincere" as much as it is a ploy to keep the show going and the viewer interested. I would say that having kind of these gooey endings where everyone is in some way likable is actually MORE cynical than having unredeemed characters because it throws any chance of gradual development or real characteristics to the wind by way of keeping a certain demographic watching. One of the things I think shows like Arrested Development or Breaking Bad do very well is to set up a world where there are certain rules. In Arrested Development, dishonesty is the constant, in Breaking Bad, delving into the world of meth is, in its own way, a victory. Good writing convinces us to accept these alternate realities and challenges our concept of what is good. When we are coerced into accepting these realities, the sincerity takes on its own form within the world itself, and consequently, to us.

I read about this exact same trend, that irony was giving way to sincerity, in Spy magazine back in 1990. Both are always there, working off each other. That never changes. We just get more sophisticated in our portrayal of both. So it looks new.

This really shed light on things I've been seeing and feeling but didn't know how to articulate. The comments also shed light on some of the one dimensional conjectures of OP

The more I think about this the more flawed it seems. The idea proposes that art has a responsibility to be earnest when art has no responsibilities. It also misses out that irony is by definition self aware and assumes irony is simply self deprecation. Humour is an essential part of good mental health and irony is simply a form of humour.

Thank you so much for this. I've had trouble conceptualizing postmodernism in my Rhetoric & Narrative class.

So full of meaning it totally changed my life!

I'm not tearing up someone is cutting onions up in this piece.

“You know, the Philistines have long since discarded the rack and stake as a means of suppressing the opinions they feared: they've discovered a much more deadly weapon of destruction -- the wisecrack.” ― W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge

Hmm... I feel like it's an oversight not to have My Name is Earl in this list. The "sequel" series to it "Raising Hope" is even more blatant IMHO.

WOW! I stumbled upon this video. It addresses a an issue I have had with what has happened to society but have had a hard time verbalizing. Irony allows characters to come off as above things but actually it reveals they are cowardly and avoid taking on problems.

4:43 this shot with Mindy Kaling and Jim's reaction with this sentence is perfect irony

PLEASE do more! This video was fantastic

Amazing vid bro really gave me a lot to think about.

Nice Essay. Really resonates with current political issues worldwide. Division or Connection

Thanks for this. Really needed it today

The solution is not fixing television , its turning it off. Humans were not meant to consume entertainment every single day.

I've spent so much time diving down into the deep rabbit hole of post-modernism, maybe as a result of the bad place I am in life right now aswell as an unfulfilled need for intellectual stimuli, and while I certainly think it's a vast and interesting aspect of philosophy I believe it may have made me more cynical about life and humanity. Sort of in the spirit of narratives though, it feels like I've gathered a substantial amount of knowledge that has lead me to finally discovering this video and it's moved me. I love people, my family and those around me but I find my existance a very lonely one and I have a very hard time being sincere. I want to be sincere, I want to connect, I want to be a person among people and yet as you say that is so fucking hard, but maybe part of why it is hard is because of who I am and I feel like this video made a point that I desperately want to be true and atleast in this moment think is, which is as you say; it's okay to be sincere.

One of the best videos I've seen in a long time.