: Re: Help! I have no 'cheese-meter'! Over the past few years, it has come to my attention that I lack the ability to identify cheese. And by cheese, I mean cheesy things in movies/books. I simply

@Jessie137

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One thing I feel has always contributed to aesthetic "cheese" is the un-self-aware over-reliance upon contemporary tropes and catchphrases, coupled with poor technique in the execution of those tropes. The lack of self awareness is really essential to this. Sometimes it can come across as innocent, sincere, or even sickly sweet, but usually it falls flat on its face.

Consider for instance including smartphones gags and reddit memes in a screenplay or novel not to critique contemporary culture or to observe nuanced aspects of it but merely to shamelessly lift the sort of humor seen in that social scene for free "brownie" points with the "hip, young audience." It reeks of the sort of thing an out-of-touch producer with no creative talent would do after searching on google trends for "what's hot" for about ten minutes.

"Oh, dank is a common buzzword on the internet. I better make these characters say it every five seconds!"

Michael Scott from the US version of the office is an expertly-written deliberately "cheesy" character. His ill-informed yet insanely sincere attempts at connecting with his workers make for awkward laughter. If you can properly write a character who's cheesy, you can avoid being that character.

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