What Exactly Is "Campy"

[Nedersong]

I've never understood this, but I've heard certain shows from time to being described as good campy fun". For example, " Buffy The Vampire Slayer" TV show has been described this way.

So what exactly do they mean by "good campy fun"? What are some scenes that exemplify it?

I am being serious. I've never udnerstood what is meant by "campy".

 

[Starbreaker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)

It's something that really can't be defined very well. It's something that you know is bad or at best mediocre, but you still watch it anyway because it can be fun.

 

[Moocey]

I've never understood this, but I've heard certain shows from time to being described as good campy fun". For example, " Buffy The Vampire Slayer" TV show has been described this way.

So what exactly do they mean by "good campy fun"? What are some scenes that exemplify it?

I am being serious. I've never udnerstood what is meant by "campy".

If you're talking about Buffy, I'd say that campy would be more about the quality of production rather than the overall quality of the show.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

In my mind, the best example of "campy" is the Batman tv show from the '60s.

 

[Saturn0660]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)

It's something that really can't be defined very well. It's something that you know is bad or at best mediocre, but you still watch it anyway because it can be fun.

You link is all messed up.. Heres the good one

Campy

 

[Augustus]

This isn't a good example, but whenever I think of "camp" or "campy" I think of a show or movie that is only good because we say it is.... like Willow.. a movie when you look at it from all sides, truthfully is pretty horrible... but I love watching it

 

[TGTheodore]

Campy means deliberately over-played or exaggerated, usually for humorous effect.

--Ted

 

[firehawk12]

It is also tied closely to the carnivalesque and has been considered a queer aesthetic, although with much debate.

Drag queen and the complexities of identity formation that comes as a result of a gay man trying to perform hyperfeminity is a good example.

 

[Hermiod]

I can sometimes understand why TOS gets labelled "camp" but I've seen TNG be given the same label. TNG ? Really ?

 

[Bosch571]

I can sometimes understand why TOS gets labelled "camp" but I've seen TNG be given the same label. TNG ? Really ?

I can't see TNG falling in the camp category, no matter what definition you use.

 

[Hermiod]

I can't see TNG falling in the camp category, no matter what definition you use.

I've noticed a tendency to redefine "camp" as "old".

 

[Atavachron]

At Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego, Mike Ulsan announced that there would be a new Doc Savage movie made in the next year or two.

If you want an example of camp, watch Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze made by George Pal in 1975. That was the epitome of camp.

Sure hope they don't make the same mistake Pal made.

Atavachron

 

[RJDiogenes]

The current fashion is to appear "dark" and "edgy," and to strive for photorealistic (and preferably unimaginative) special effects. So "campy" is used to describe anything old, colorful, stylized or fun; basically, anything the current generation is afraid to watch because somebody might laugh at them for it.

 

[Cutter John]

The current fashion is to appear "dark" and "edgy," and to strive for photorealistic (and preferably unimaginative) special effects. So "campy" is used to describe anything old, colorful, stylized or fun; basically, anything the current generation is afraid to watch because somebody might laugh at them for it.

This. God I hate that pretentious crap.

The '80 Flash Gordon movie is a textbook example of camp btw. But in a good way.

 

[Smiley]

I think of science camp from elementary school. The nighttime activities could be pretty ridiculous when analyzed in the light of day, but they were great fun while they were happening. That's sort of what "campy" entertainment is like.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I can't see TNG falling in the camp category, no matter what definition you use.

I've noticed a tendency to redefine "camp" as "old".

I think the appropriate term is "dated."

 

[firehawk12]

http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/prose/Susan_Sontag_-_Notes_on_Camp.html

You guys should really start with Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp". It's the "seminal" paper on the subject and most scholars now either resist or support definitions of camp based on that work.

Hell, Sontag herself went against her work in a later paper when she declared that camp is a fetishization of a Nazi aesthetic.

 

[Moocey]

The current fashion is to appear "dark" and "edgy," and to strive for photorealistic (and preferably unimaginative) special effects. So "campy" is used to describe anything old, colorful, stylized or fun; basically, anything the current generation is afraid to watch because somebody might laugh at them for it.

Absolutely.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I can't see TNG falling in the camp category, no matter what definition you use.

I've noticed a tendency to redefine "camp" as "old".

This is people mistaking kitsch for camp.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah. Although, kitsch can be considered campy, depending on the context.