After watching the documentary entitled "The Mean World Syndrome" I learned what happy violence is according to George Gerbner. He describes it as violence being shown as cool, swift, humorous, and effective. My interpretation of happy violence is violence that is shown in either television shows, films or video games that is understood as being acceptable and/or lacking any repercussions from that violent act. These violent acts mostly involve some humor or wit to make people the viewers feel satisfied with whatever is being portrayed- usually when a bad guy is being killed and therefore good overcomes evil.
An example of happy violence that I have been exposed to recently is in the show "The Walking Dead." This t.v. series, shown on AMC, is in a zombie apocalypse and they must take down every single zombie they encounter in order to survive. I just started watching this series (a little late on the bandwagon) but every single episode is extremely gory. While this particular example lacks the humorous side of happy violence, it certainly makes it seem like it is OK to go around armed with a weapon while being looked at as heroic for every kill that you make. I understand that it seems necessary to survive but if a child were to tune in to this television series, I would be worried on how they could process these graphic scenes.
Hi Colleen,
ReplyDeleteI actually watch the walking dead and I just realized how desensitized I have become towards the show from watching seasons of continued killings. In the most recent seasons a few people were killed and it was easy to move on. I do like how they try to steer the child actors on the show away from the danger and rarely come on the show. However, It would be a very interesting study to see how it effects people of different ages, if it has any effect.
Hi Colleen, for some time I did enjoy watching the Walking Dead. Having a young child it was difficult to watch it, because I didn't want him to see all the violence. Also, I do believe it is rated TV mature. Going based off on your comment about children, it brings up a different topic about how the child actors are affected by participating in these type of movies/shows, but that's a whole other topics. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete