Abstract
For almost a century, several Egyptian comedies have set up cringe-worthy power-sensitive encounters between struggling low-paid teachers and spoiled rich and powerful students, often leading to negative portrayals of teachers and student-teacher relationship. One play, Madraset el-Moshaghbeen ‘School of the Rowdies’ (1971), has long been held accountable for student misconduct across the country. A 2008 film with a loosely similar theme, RamaDan Mabrouk Abul-Alamein Hamouda, has received a much warmer welcome as a harmless light comedy. This paper brings these two comedies into focus and probes into the management of cringe in filmic text based on the Benign-Violation Theory of humor as well as Baldry and Thibault’s (2006. Multimodal transcription and text analysis: A multimedia toolkit and coursebook with associated on-line course. Equinox) Multimodal Transcription Model. Optimizing for the four dimensions of psychological distance (temporal, social, spatial, and hypothetical) would help control the benignity of embarrassing violations and free the audience to enjoy the humor. Alternatively, minimizing psychological distance would evoke audience empathy with the violated teacher character and may block audience amusement. Audience reactions through the comment field on strategic clips from the film and play on YouTube would reveal whether a cringe-inducing scene has evoked amusement, vicarious embarrassment, or both. The paper proposes an inventory of the features that would contribute to adjusting psychological distance to achieve the desired effect. These features intersect with the four dimensions of psychological distance, narrative and stylistic choices, as well as the multimodal affordances of filmic and embodied expressions.
Appendix A: Summary of narrative structure (NS), macrophases and phases in Madraset el-Moshaghbeen ‘School of the Rowdies’
| C1 | Macrophases | Phases | Description of phases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orientation | 1 Chaos at the School |
a | At a public high school ironically called madraset al-akhlaq al-hamida ‘School of Good Manners,’ the principal complains about chaos and lack of achievement. |
| b | Five rowdies, including the principal’s mentally retarded son, Mansour, keep failing their final year. They are exclusively placed in one classroom. We know they have gone through too many teachers without any progress. | ||
| c | However, we also know that a new teacher, Ms. Effat Abdel-Kareem, is being sent by the Directorate of Education to straighten things out at the school. | ||
| d | Mr. Allam Al Mallawany, an old teacher, is introduced as a cringe-worthy disoriented character. He used to be a star teacher but after teaching the five rowdies he seems to have lost his mind. | ||
| e | Two rowdies, Bahgat and Morsy, are introduced as rich and spoilt teenagers. They threaten the principal with a stick to the point that he starts running from them. | ||
| Complicating action | 2 Savior arrives and faces challenges |
f | Ms. Effat, a bright teacher with an MA in Philosophy, arrives at the school and is determined to fix the rowdies by applying modern teaching methods. |
| g | The rowdies pretend to sing a song to welcome her but start plotting against her. | ||
| h | The rowdies set up a cringe scene targeting Mr. Mallawany by tricking him into taking off his outer garments and dressing up in American Indian feathered war bonnet and skirt. Mr. Mallawany joins in the humor. | ||
| i | Immediately after, they set up another cringe scene against the principal who miraculously survives being electrocuted by the bell and hit by an explosive bomb. His mentally retarded son, Mansour, cheers that his father got burnt out! | ||
| j | A third cringe scene is directed at Ms. Effat, where they stalk her, snatch her purse, threaten her with an imaginary wasp, and start touching her all over. Finally, Morsy rips her shirt open! | ||
| Resolution | 3 Power reversal & Student transformation |
k | In response, Ms. Effat surprisingly flips Morsy over and throws him to the ground. She breaks his arm. |
| l | The rowdies begin to realize and fear her physical coercive power. | ||
| m | As she gains control of the class, Ms. Effat announces that she can start teaching. Gradually, she gains the respect of all the rowdies who seem to change to the better. | ||
| Coda | 4 Happy end |
n | In appreciation, the students throw Ms. Effat a birthday party and shower her with gifts. |
| o | The principal thanks Ms. Effat for straightening out the rowdies. | ||
| p | Ms. Effat gives a farewell speech with a patriotic note that our dear Egypt needs all to open their minds up to face the challenges that lie ahead. |
Appendix B: Summary of narrative structure (NS), macrophases & phases in RamaDan Mabrouk Abulalamein Hamouda
| C1 | Macrophases | Phases | Description of phases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orientation | 1 School of the poor |
a | In rural Egypt, a public high school playground witnesses chaotic behavior and physical fights among students. Students throw stones at the helpless school Principal and his deputy laughs. |
| b | Mr. Ramadan, the stiff and intolerable Arabic teacher, rides his bicycle into the chaotic playground, dispersing the students and ending the fights. | ||
| c | Order is restored. Mr. Ramadan gives the welcome back to school speech where he threatens the students against any acts of misconduct. | ||
| 2 School of the rich |
d | In the city, the playground of an urban high school (Modern School of Egypt (MSE)) witnesses car and motorcycle races among rich students. | |
| e | Inside one classroom, students play soccer, turning the classroom into a soccer field. They refuse to take classes and throw Mr. Fareed, the science teacher, out of the classroom. He falls on the floor. | ||
| f | Ramzy, the spoilt son of the Minister of Education, breaks the neck and arm of school Principal. | ||
| Complicating action | 3 Rich student goes to poor school |
g | Hoping to straighten out his son, Ramzy’s father sends him to the poor school. |
| h | Not knowing the identity of Ramzy’s father, Mr. Ramadan humiliates Ramzy. | ||
| i | Surprisingly, Ramzy’s father approves of Mr. Ramadan’s ways and transfers him to the rich school to straighten out the spoilt students. | ||
| 4 Poor teacher goes to rich school |
j | Mr. Ramadan enforces his own stiff rules and conflicts with the students who grow to fear and dislike him. | |
| k | Parents resort to Mr. Ramadan to save their sons from being infatuated with a young Lebanese singer, Naglaa Wagdy, who sings at a nightclub. | ||
| 5 Mr. Ramadan falls in love |
l | Mr. Ramadan meets Naglaa to ask her to push the students away. | |
| m | Mr. Ramadan manages to keep the students away from the nightclub. | ||
| n | Ironically, however, he falls in love with and marries Naglaa who gives up singing. | ||
| 6 1st Cringe Scene | o | When news of the marriage is out, the students set up the first cringe scene at the school. | |
| p | Upon entering the classroom, Mr. Ramadan finds big posters of his wife put up on all walls and the students singing and dancing in a shameful manner. | ||
| 7 2nd Cringe Scene | q | Mr. Ramadan needs money to support his marriage, so he agrees to tutor Ramzy. | |
| r | Ramzy and his friends set up the second and more intense cringe scene at Ramzy’s place. | ||
| Resolution | 8 Student transformation |
s | The students have a car accident, which comes as a wake-up call. |
| t | They apologize to their teacher and express their love and respect to him. | ||
| u | Mr. Ramadan helps the students study. | ||
| Coda | 9 Happy end | v | The students mediate to resolve Mr. Ramadan’s differences with Naglaa and save their marriage. |
Appendix C: YouTube comments on clips
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