How bathos is wrecking writing
I've been thinking about bathos lately. This is a rhetorical device I've seen grow to overuse in recent decades, largely in TV and movies but also as an approach to "humor" in general. Bathos is a cousin to pathos, which is the emotional presence of a speaker and the methods they use to draw sympathy from an audience. With bathos, though, you establish that connection then abruptly switch to a trivial remark, no warning or transition.
Let's say you're speaking at Generic Business Conference about weathering tough economic times (oh no!). A strong pathos would be to show up and say "Look, I know what it's like to struggle through hard times. In my first business a crash hit the day after we launched. We fought to keep the lights on, working long hours and cutting every expense. In the end, we just couldn't survive. The business was shut down three months later."
Bathos would be following that up with "But at least our business cards looked great."
That's not "just a joke" or a bit of levity to lighten the mood. That's the plummeting from the serious to the ridiculous, the sublime to the stupid. It's a destruction of the bond you created with your listener/reader/viewer. You went from getting people to identify with your struggles and looking at you as a source of experience and knowledge to chuckling and thinking "yeah that was an okay joke, I like this guy."
Which one is better? You know the answer.
Not to pick on anyone, but a YouTube creator who produces genuinely good essays recently fell into the bathos trap. He had a long video showing how certain companies are sidestepping regulations to get more people hooked on gambling--including children. He was serious and passionate the entire time, really hitting home that this is a deep problem that has already gotten out of control.
The video ended with a lament. Hands in his pockets, looking out over a green screened cityscape sunset, bartender friend at his side. He said there was a tremendous amount of money and power behind these gambling companies. So much so that he's not sure what can stop them. Lawmakers aren't doing anything, and neither are politicians. This leaves us barreling into a future where every kid gambles in video games and adults normalize losing thousands on bets each month.
He sighed, a moment of silence filling the rooftop, then said "I need a drink." The bartender waited a second and replied "Maybe this time you'll leave a tip."
Bathos shattered that moment for me. Imagine if the video ended with "I need a drink." A solemn declaration of the state of things, of the futility, the overwhelm. Viewers would walk away carrying those feelings with them. "Oh man, it really sounds bad. I wonder if there's a way to avoid it or put a stop to it. I don't like where it's all going."
Instead, viewers walk away thinking "Heh, he's a bad tipper. Funny."
I know this is a YouTube video I'm talking about where the goal is clicks and entertainment, but it's not restricted to small creators. Just look at the new Star Wars movies where we spent decades building up to the re-reveal of Luke Skywalker only for him to flippantly throw his lightsaber away. It wasn't a smart and emotional "I can't accept this" moment. No, the music cut, his expression softened, and he flicked it over his shoulder like a cigarette butt.
My question is why, why are these pithy twists thrown in there? I think one reason is writers are afraid to leave a genuine emotion sitting on the table. It exposes them as someone trying to make something real and meaningful. That opens their creation up to criticism and web trolling of every flavor. It also means the work could be judged as a failure. "Oh, you were trying to teach me about the dangers of gambling? You didn't talk about the numbers enough; I wasn't convinced." Nobody wants to fail, so instead of reaching for something genuine, they turn it into a joke.
Stark emotion like this also makes many modern readers uncomfortable. Now they have to think about serious things instead of scrolling through funny video shorts. What's this stodgy stuff? That's not content! That's not fun! That's not how you get dopamine hits rolling! Yeah, it's not. But it is how you connect with other people, share meaningful messages, and keep interest alive in someone else's mind.
Maybe it's fast-swipe internet culture that contributed to the constant use of bathos. Maybe it's the result of sitcom culture infecting us a few generations ago. We expect a moment of levity because in fast-paced media (which feels like all new media), there's no space to develop anything real. By the time a sitcom character says they're being bullied and it really makes them upset it's been 2 minutes without a joke, so someone has to say something funny. "I know it hurts being bullied. I was bullied, too. Maybe it was because I had a headgear retainer and farted every time I blinked."
None of this is to say that bathos should be eliminated entirely--every rhetorical method has its place. I just think it shouldn't be this common, and certainly not the default go-to for "jokes." I know I'm guilty of bathos myself, too. I try to avoid it, knowing as I'm as much of a product of the modern world as everyone else. It's a habit to actively train to catch and avoid. But bathos is too pervasive and too damaging not to call attention to. It's wrecking thoughtful writing, turning everything into quick bites of safe, impact-free content.
So, if you're giving a talk or writing something, keep this in mind. Connect with your audience through something genuine. Put in the work to actually forge that connection and nourish it as you communicate. If you lean on bathos you'll get the tiniest imitation of a connection, but nothing close to what you would get if you actually try.