i'm sorry my face is melting

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OK in the last two hours on TV I have seen interviewed: a girl who discovered her husband who she loved was married to someone else already; a man who went to college in Cairo with one of the WTC suicide plane pilots.

Both, not unnaturally, were caught in waves of strong emotion (the man remembering how gentle and delicate Mohammed Atta had seemed a few years back: "He was always like a child, so virginal"), both began crying — and both apologised to the camera for being about to cry.

Why do we apologise to camera/interviewers/viewers when we are abt to cry?

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Because it's awkward and uncomfortable for anyone watching.

― electric sound of jim, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hmph: shortest thread evah? or is there more than this? i think there's more

― mark s, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Because, Mark, to be seen in public to be a vulnerable and emotional person is viewed as a sign of weakness. People feel uncomfortable because they don't want to see/hear it for real.

The "Fergawdsake, cry Ma'am" bullshit after the Diana crash being, of course, THE most faux outpouring of (yeah...shright) grief in human history. But when it's genuine, people are forced to empathise and generally, they'd rather not.

Or maybe I'm just a wee bit too pissed to construct a cohesive point here.

― Venga, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think what mark might be driving at is - after 50 odd years of television and television news-style programs and after 20 odd years of increasingly mawkish, manipulative, emotionally abusive news-style programs - why do people continue to apologize as if they knew it wasn't what everyone from joe producer on down wanted them to do? it's emoitional-porn, no? and we LURVE it, of course. even the immediate post-9/11 coverage wasn't immune. this is a combination of a "my god, how far into the dark side have we gone?" and "can't we just own up to the realities of this and that we get off on it?" questions. or isn't it?

― jess, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

maybe it's "people stay true to their instincts" one. the problem is, they should stay TRUER to their instincts - to not cry - because it is even more compelling to watch someone well up and fight through it.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 12 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'sorry, I'm overwhelmed by emotion' = 'I'm here to, uh, fix your plumbing' Perhaps...the question is, how long before the porn industry cashes in?

― turner, Thursday, 13 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Or, if you're a "celebrity," you're reluctant to do it as you might be perceived as faking it (cf. Vanessa Feltz, Christine Hamilton) due to previous image of you fixed in the public eye.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 13 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six years pass...

and to think I thought this was a thread where someone had looked at an atomic bomb blast or something....

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Friday, 18 January 2008 12:45 (eighteen years ago)

As everyone from Leon Jackson to Hilary Clinton has subsequently proved, the fast track to victory is doing the monkey faces.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 18 January 2008 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

The phrase "doing the monkey faces" is uncouth. You know.

― Aimless, Saturday, 19 January 2008 03:16 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/melt.gif

― electricsound, Saturday, 19 January 2008 03:19 (eighteen years ago)

I'm sorry.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2041/2170132902_16d22cb785_o.jpg

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 19 January 2008 03:20 (eighteen years ago)

I believe we can rule out "happy monkey face" for that one.

― Aimless, Saturday, 19 January 2008 03:28 (eighteen years ago)

You're not sorry.

― kingfish, Saturday, 19 January 2008 08:41 (eighteen years ago)

serious roffles @ ned

― The Reverend, Saturday, 19 January 2008 08:51 (eighteen years ago)

Fred Thompson has meltyfaceitis.

― Abbott, Saturday, 19 January 2008 20:11 (eighteen years ago)

he kind of looks like Bozo if he had melted and the color had faded away

― latebloomer, Saturday, 19 January 2008 20:13 (eighteen years ago)

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