I have to say that I'm a pretty melancholy guy. Never been officially diagnosed, but I've often wondered whether I have clinical depression or not. I hate comedy that centers around someone's embarrassment because I hate being embarrassed myself and can't help but empathize with the character, no matter how "good-natured" (or not) it may be.
Yeah, I feel the same way. I'm like an empath who tries to be nihilistic & distant because I don't want directors fucking with my emotions. The one "comedy of embarrassments I can think of that I love is Martin Scorsese's After Hours. Because it's such a black comedy that it almost feels like horror! Plus it's the closest a film has come to expressing my sentiments about New York City (well, that and CHUD).
Meet The Parents is a film I can think of that I responded more with pity/annoyance than laughter.
The Nutty Professor also comes to mind in this respect (the Eddie Murphy version). "We'll laugh at his fat-induced predicaments, but we'll also show him to be noble, sensitive & rootworthy."
These Hollywood comedies try to have it both ways. "The 40 Year Old Virgin Meets The Fockers"
Taking movies and showing just how absurd they are, usually because they take themselves too seriously, is a lot funnier to me than any goofy pratfall or fart joke could ever be.
Which is why I love when MKB tear apart a film that's shamelessly manipulative. Independence Day comes to mind, the scene when
Bill Pullman's wife dies and he has to explain to his daughter that "mommy's sleeping."
That sort of crap makes me feel the bile rising to the back of my throat.