There seems to be a general conscientious in favor of the idea that if someone is rude they deserve what is coming to them. On TV and in movies this includes everything from a grisly death to laughing at their misfortunes. In the most extreme circumstances characters who are incompetent, lazy, on their cellphone when they shouldn’t be, short tempered, hot headed, selfish, self absorbed, insensitive or impatient forfeit their lives. We accept the punishment dealt and walk away feeling both vindicated and entertained.
Because who hasn’t wished misfortune on the guy who cut you off on the freeway or the people who keep checking their cell phones during a movie?
I’ve been thinking about this idea of “punishing the rude” more and more. Mostly because it keeps popping up in pop culture, but also because the more I think about it the more I realize that I disagree with it. Because let’s be honest, who among us has never been rude?
Never changed lanes without checking your blind spot? Never been short with a waiter because they got your order wrong? Never lost your temper at a telemarketer for calling your home?
I think my mom has the best answer for when someone cuts her off on the road, “Well, maybe they have diarrhea.”
“Rude” as it turns out is subjective to our own perspective. A word used to label someone as bad without knowing them or their situation.
Having a character be rude on a TV show or in a movie has become a quick and easy way to justify death and to have us as viewers be okay with it--which just might be the most depressing sentence I’ve ever written.
