“Pen15” Enters The Chat With Cringey Nostalgia

We’re entering a new age of comedy. We’ve been in the awkward comedy era of the Judd Apatow’s and Wes Anderson’s since the 2000s. But now is a time when the never-ending obsession of nostalgia morphs with modern awkward comedy, becoming something mesmerizingly cringeworthy. So nostalgic, it’s uncomfortable. So accurate, it must be based on true events. It’s like when Black folks reminisce about ass whoopins. You say, “Oh this one time I hurt for weeks!”. You laugh a bit, which turns to a giggle, then a long stare into the void…These are the formative experiences of your life. Writers like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michaela Cole have found a way to rehash this feeling and bring them to television, spawning a new dawn and we are hooked.  This is a look at this weird world we have entered where we torture ourselves with nostalgia and can’t look away.  “Steal My Sunshine”    The only way to explain this new genre is through the evolution of the ‘situational comedy’ itself. Since we are talking nostalgia we can begin with the Living Singles, The Family Matters, The Seinfeld’s of our history. These comedies took us on a trip through the exaggerated shenanigans of real life. A golden age of relatable humor – even if Friends was an alternate Earth where Black people didn’t really exist and a struggling actor could afford an apartment in downtown Manhattan. This age left us happier about our lives and hopeful for the world of possibility. Image Courtesy of Mic …