Annoy The Audience

If you're going to do that, you might as well have two giant middle fingers on the screen and the words "FUCK YOU" flashing too.

When the audience rolls its eyes at the story for doing something that displeases them. One of these things, for example, can be playing an overplayed UnTrash or introducing a terrible role to the story. Because annoyance is less severe than anger, this UnTrash is mildly more forgivable than Angering The Audience. Still, that doesn't make it any more right to do. Getting on the audience's nerves is a great way to make them lose all interest and drive them out. The difference between Annoying The Audience and Angering The Audience is the latter deals more with touching the viewers' emotions personally. Controversial topics and insulting messages are proficient in this area. Annoying The Audience, however, is more tightly connected to the story itself.

As stated earlier, Eye Roll UnTrashes and Roles are key mistakes in storywriting that get under the audience's skin like nothing else. Weak Writing is what they share in common and operates on all levels ranging from seconds-long scenes to the franchise as a whole. The more observant the audience members are, the more they'll be able to peck apart the story and list its flaws. Failing to abide by the World Rules rips gashes in the fabric of Suspension Of Disbelief. For example, a character's superpower may not be perfect, so it will be forced to deactivate under some conditions. If it fails in two different ways after facing the same one problem, the accident that shuts the superpower off will appear more as a blatant Plot Screw than a natural mishap that inconvenienced the character. The critical viewers are likely to pick up on this and may question the creators about the rules of the superpower.

Many roles can Annoy The Audience depending on how they're played and in which context they appear in. The most to do this simply by existing are the Idiot, Chosen One, Pest, and Vermin. They offer nothing new to the table of fiction, have often offensively subpar Entertainment Value, and have behaviors too fake to be convincing. Others such as the Millionaire, Nerd, Geek, Bully, Goodie, Saint, Selective Hater, One Note, Paper Cut-Out, and even the Hero and Villain have similar potential. This is truer if the roles strongly pertain to their Nutshell mirrors, which causes them to be more predictable and less interesting.