America's Funniest Home Videos show question

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Hi, I’m posting this for someone to keep the poster anonymous.

AFV America’s Funniest videos…

Is it uncharitable to laugh at the videos on America’s Funniest Videos? Is it fun and good humor, or does it encourage people to laugh at people who just hurt themselves? (Bullies do mean things and then laugh) What are your thoughts?
 
The people in the videos submitted them for the public to view, so you are (hopefully) laughing “with them.”
 
I don’t even crack a smile at a lot of the stuff on AFV, but the antics of little kids and animals do break me up. Also, AFV does have an educational value. I’ve never done a statistical analysis, but I would suspect that a large plurality (if not a majority) of the clips show people who for some reason are not able to foresee the obvious results of the actions that they are about to take. We can learn from their mistakes.
 
I used to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos back when Bob Saget was the host. It is amazing to me that the show is still on the air! Though I suppose they are the original “YouTube”.

I always imagined that people wouldn’t submit a video if someone was seriously injured in it. So I guess I assume that the people in those videos bounce back. I know that if someone followed me around with a camera, they could catch all sorts of clips of me hurting myself for the amusement of many. When I do something clutzy, it may hurt in the moment, but I can usually laugh about it soon after.

I suppose it depends on the video and also perhaps why you are laughing. Obviously, the videos of cats doing silly things wouldn’t fall into the schadenfreude category. If you are laughing at a video thinking, “Wow, that guy was a total idiot. He definitely deserved what he got!”, then I could see how that could be problematic. It could foster judgmentalism.

But it you are laughing thinking “Wow, I can’t believe that happened!” then it seems a bit different.

If the person was seriously injured, I’d think that would change things, too.
 
catholicmom2015 said:
Hi, I’m posting this for someone to keep the poster anonymous.

AFV America’s Funniest videos…

Is it uncharitable to laugh at the videos on America’s Funniest Videos? Is it fun and good humor, or does it encourage people to laugh at people who just hurt themselves? (Bullies do mean things and then laugh) What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
The people that submit those videos have given their permission as well as the permission for those they video tape. I think the folks behind the show protect themselves with way. I think the audience usually includes those that made the videos or were the subjects of them. I saw on where the wife was in the dishwasher and her hair got caught the the husband started tickling her. Both of them were in the audience laughing at it from what I remember so they both agreed to showing the video. This way I think it does keep the show from being accused of bullying.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I used to watch America’s Funniest Home Videos back when Bob Saget was the host. It is amazing to me that the show is still on the air! Though I suppose they are the original “YouTube”.

I always imagined that people wouldn’t submit a video if someone was seriously injured in it. So I guess I assume that the people in those videos bounce back. I know that if someone followed me around with a camera, they could catch all sorts of clips of me hurting myself for the amusement of many. When I do something clutzy, it may hurt in the moment, but I can usually laugh about it soon after.

I suppose it depends on the video and also perhaps why you are laughing. Obviously, the videos of cats doing silly things wouldn’t fall into the schadenfreude category. If you are laughing at a video thinking, “Wow, that guy was a total idiot. He definitely deserved what he got!”, then I could see how that could be problematic. It could foster judgmentalism.

But it you are laughing thinking “Wow, I can’t believe that happened!” then it seems a bit different.

If the person was seriously injured, I’d think that would change things, too.
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I believe the show had guidelines on what is submitted and shown. I also think the people in the video have to agree to it. (usually a family member being an idiot). I think the show demonstrates that sometimes we need to laugh at ourselves and the stupid things we do.
 
catholicmom2015 said:
Hi, I’m posting this for someone to keep the poster anonymous.

AFV America’s Funniest videos…

Is it uncharitable to laugh at the videos on America’s Funniest Videos? Is it fun and good humor, or does it encourage people to laugh at people who just hurt themselves? (Bullies do mean things and then laugh) What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
I laugh at the animals; they’re funny and adorable.

I don’t laugh at the stupid stuff or people hurting themselves. Not because I think it’s sinful on my part, but because I rarely find anything humourous in stupidity.
 
Yeah, anyone whose face is clearly shown on an AFV video has to give permission. You may notice that some videos show people whose faces are blurred our; these are always folks who are not germane to the video anyway.

Speaking for myself, it is part of my bucket list to never to anything that will get me on any television program hosted by Tom Bergeron 😛
 
DaveBj said:
Yeah, anyone whose face is clearly shown on an AFV video has to give permission. You may notice that some videos show people whose faces are blurred our; these are always folks who are not germane to the video anyway.

Speaking for myself, it is part of my bucket list to never to anything that will get me on any television program hosted by Tom Bergeron 😛
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😛 No dancing with the stars for you either, then? 😛
 
This thread made my day. Why?
For the use of this term:
schadenfreude

My hubs’ favorite word.

Bravo! 3 thumbs up! 👍👍👍
Great writing!
:clapping:

AVF is not nearly as funny as CAF sometimes.
Just sayin’
😃
 
pianistclare said:
This thread made my day. Why?
For the use of this term:
schadenfreude

My hubs’ favorite word.

Bravo! 3 thumbs up! 👍👍👍
Great writing!
:clapping:

AVF is not nearly as funny as CAF sometimes.
Just sayin’
😃
Click to expand...
Yes, there is plenty of schadenfreude on CAF, too. 😛
 
Also, a decent percentage of the “people unable to foresee the results of their actions” ones are staged in attempt to get on the show (or go viral online), so I’m pretty sure they are OK with you laughing.
 
pianistclare said:
This thread made my day. Why?
For the use of this term:
schadenfreude

My hubs’ favorite word.

Bravo! 3 thumbs up! 👍👍👍
Great writing!
:clapping:

AVF is not nearly as funny as CAF sometimes.
Just sayin’
😃
Click to expand...
lol, the comment made my day!:rotfl:
 
Wampa said:
Also, a decent percentage of the “people unable to foresee the results of their actions” ones are staged in attempt to get on the show (or go viral online), so I’m pretty sure they are OK with you laughing.
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Right. There’s definitely that at play, too.
 
I didn’t know that the people in the videos have to give their permission too. In a couple of cases, I find that hard to believe (I’m not calling anyone a liar though). These two come to mind (from several years ago):

There was one of an older woman in full-screen close up obviously becoming angry that she was being filmed. She kept threatening “You better turn that off” in an increasingly threatening tone. That was the whole video. I believe it won the prize for the week, though I never understood why. It wasn’t funny.

The other one (which also won for the week as I recall), was of a potential skydiver who changed his mind at the last minute. He was clearly scared out of his mind, yelling/screaming/grabbing onto anything so he wouldn’t have to jump. (I don’t recall if he actually did jump or not.) Again, I don’t see how watching someone in sheer terror is funny.

We used to watch AFV regularly and have a compilation of some of the shows. I agree – the ones with the little kids and the animals are the best. I didn’t like the groin hits nor the ones that are clearly meant to embarrass someone (like the two above). I like Tom Bergeron infinitely better than Bob Saget.

One thing I’ve always wondered – who picks the 3 finalists each week? They are almost never the ones I like best.
 
carmelitenovice said:
I didn’t know that the people in the videos have to give their permission too. In a couple of cases, I find that hard to believe (I’m not calling anyone a liar though). These two come to mind (from several years ago):

There was one of an older woman in full-screen close up obviously becoming angry that she was being filmed. She kept threatening “You better turn that off” in an increasingly threatening tone. That was the whole video. I believe it won the prize for the week, though I never understood why. It wasn’t funny.

The other one (which also won for the week as I recall), was of a potential skydiver who changed his mind at the last minute. He was clearly scared out of his mind, yelling/screaming/grabbing onto anything so he wouldn’t have to jump. (I don’t recall if he actually did jump or not.) Again, I don’t see how watching someone in sheer terror is funny.

We used to watch AFV regularly and have a compilation of some of the shows. I agree – the ones with the little kids and the animals are the best. I didn’t like the groin hits nor the ones that are clearly meant to embarrass someone (like the two above). I like Tom Bergeron infinitely better than Bob Saget.

One thing I’ve always wondered – who picks the 3 finalists each week? They are almost never the ones I like best.
Click to expand...
When my girls were little, my late hubs didn’t allow them to watch it. He felt like it encouraged people to do risky things and to view others pain as humorous.
Indeed, it may inspired those “Jack***” films that are so horrible. 🤷
 
Obviously people submit the videos of themselves when something embarrassing happens like they do something stupid or something they didn’t foresee happening happens. So they are sitting in the audience knowing they will be laughed at and hoping they might win some money. I don’t watch the show very often. Sometimes the videos are spontaneous and funny, but I have seen a few that appeared to be staged with the intent of sending the video to AFV.
 
carmelitenovice said:
I didn’t know that the people in the videos have to give their permission too. In a couple of cases, I find that hard to believe (I’m not calling anyone a liar though). These two come to mind (from several years ago):

There was one of an older woman in full-screen close up obviously becoming angry that she was being filmed. She kept threatening “You better turn that off” in an increasingly threatening tone. That was the whole video. I believe it won the prize for the week, though I never understood why. It wasn’t funny.

The other one (which also won for the week as I recall), was of a potential skydiver who changed his mind at the last minute. He was clearly scared out of his mind, yelling/screaming/grabbing onto anything so he wouldn’t have to jump. (I don’t recall if he actually did jump or not.) Again, I don’t see how watching someone in sheer terror is funny.

We used to watch AFV regularly and have a compilation of some of the shows. I agree – the ones with the little kids and the animals are the best. I didn’t like the groin hits nor the ones that are clearly meant to embarrass someone (like the two above). I like Tom Bergeron infinitely better than Bob Saget.

One thing I’ve always wondered – who picks the 3 finalists each week? They are almost never the ones I like best.
Click to expand...
Though I have not watched the show all the way through for many years, I do seem to frequently catch the last few minutes as I must watch something that comes on right after it. :o I recall some cases where a person in the video will have their face blurred. So there are apparently examples where people explicitly request not to be shown in the video. As to whether the person needs to give permission or whether silence implies consent, I have no idea.

And, yeah, it always seems that the top three videos are chosen from the least funniest videos. I was always under the impression that the producers picked them.
 
“I recall some cases where a person in the video will have their face blurred.”

My guess is the blurred person is a random stranger who was not available to give their consent or not. So, by that logic I suppose the participants do have to give their permission (including the elderly angry woman and the terrified sky diver I mentioned before). Don’t think I would if I were them, but that’s just me.
 
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