Savannah Knightly

I love romance novels. I read them more than any other genre. You would think that I’d like romcoms, but I can’t even sit through most of them because of the awkward. It drives me crazy! Who decided to make romantic comedies so awkward?

You know what I mean. Those painful scenes where everything that could go wrong does. Or where the characters say and do things that they would never do. That most people would never do. And they keep doing it. Until the awkward overflows the screen and fills your house.

Ugh. It makes me jittery. I don’t know why it’s there.

Most romance novels don’t do that. If someone does something painfully awkward, the story doesn’t linger on it. The character might cringe about it from time to time, but they don’t keep doing it (or not the same way – the characters actively try to avoid it). And the actions are generally more believable. Yes, someone who was nervous might conceivably do that.

So why do so many romantic comedies play up the awkward? Is it the comedy part? Are those scenes supposed to be funny?

It’s hard for me to picture that because they drive me up the wall.

That’s why I like the ones that are more like romance novels – the ones with fewer painful or cringe-worthy moments. Like Sleepless in Seattle or Ever After (although that one has a few scenes I tend to skip). As far as most other romcoms go, I can watch a few scenes (usually at the beginning and end), and the rest is too painful to sit through.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or is it just me?