The "Crash and Bang" versus "Knock It Off"

Althouse points to some interesting observations by Jerry Seinfeld about comedy, screwing up and "the crawl-back." An excerpt:

We know the routine: the person does something wrong. The person’s humiliated. They’re exiled. They suffer, we want them to suffer. We love the tumble, we love the crash and bang of the fall. And then we love the crawl-back. The grovel. Are you going to grovel? How long are you going to grovel? Are you going to cry? Are you going to Jimmy Swaggart? And people, I think, figured they had that coming with Louie — he owes us that. We, the court of public opinion, decided if he’s going to come back, he’d better show a lot of pain.

Execupundit note: Our society would benefit if we returned to frequent use of the "Knock it off and don't ever do that again" approach instead of escalating every slip or ill-chosen remark into a career-ending event.

[Photo by Sharon Garcia at Unsplash]