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From the replies to my post about BATMAN, the TV show, I gather that many here have a warm spot for a show which I'm horribly embarrassed to admit I actually watched regularly when it was brand-new. To all of you I address this riddle: what the bloody blazes is CAMP, and what's the reason for its appeal? For more than 40 years I have constantly witnessed the adjective CAMPY being used to describe garbage such as the 1976 KING KONG, but, as I'm sure you must have deduced, in all that time I have never had a clear solid idea of the meaning of the concept or the reasons for its popularity.

Dictionaries are famous for providing answers to questions like the one you’ve posed

camp2

camp2 [kamp] adjective (comparative camp·er, superlative campest)
1.affecting conventional femininity: exaggeratedly or affectedly feminine, especially in a man
2.amusingly brash: deliberately and exaggeratedly brash or vulgar in an amusing, often self-parodying way

noun
1. affecting conventional femininity: exaggeratedly or affectedly feminine behavior, especially in men
2. deliberate outrageousness: deliberate outrageousness for humorous effect • The performance is high camp.

Found this on thefreedictionary.com: "Camp is popularity plus vulgarity plus innocence" Indra Jahalani.

A lot of B-movies are campy.

Webster:

Main Entry: 3camp
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : exaggerated effeminate mannerisms exhibited especially by homosexuals
2 a : something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing b : a style or mode of personal or creative expression that is absurdly exaggerated and often fuses elements of high and popular culture <a movie that celebrates camp>

Those gossamer-thin dictionary definitions are totally unhelpful. Could any of you flesh out those bare-bones explanations? Certainly I'm flummoxed that so many find amusing the BATMAN TV show and the 1976 KING KONG, both of which I find not only painfully unfunny but also downright insulting to my intelligence and taste. And don't give me jive about those esperpentos being parodies! Parody is all too often the last refuge of the humorless, the witless and the dull.

dulcinea wrote: Those gossamer-thin dictionary definitions are totally unhelpful. Could any of you flesh out those bare-bones explanations? Certainly I'm flummoxed that so many find amusing the BATMAN TV show and the 1976 KING KONG, both of which I find not only painfully unfunny but also downright insulting to my intelligence and taste. And don't give me jive about those esperpentos being parodies! Parody is all too often the last refuge of the humorless, the witless and the dull.

But the Batman TV show is almost the definition of camp. Movie Batman: brooding, dark and serious; TV Batman, bright, colourful, flamboyant and tongue-in-cheek. If you can't get that obvious difference, more definitons won't help, IMHO. Movie Batman: violence and martial arts; TV Batman: Zap!! Bang!! Kapowieeee!! Movie Batman: appears with dark wings from behind bad guy; TV Batman: throws Bat-a-rang and says hello to Sammy Davis Junior whilst climbing the walls with a very bad special effect.

Priscilla: Queen of the Desert is another flick that might help.

Ted wrote:Webster:

Main Entry: 3camp
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : exaggerated effeminate mannerisms exhibited especially by homosexuals
2 a : something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing b : a style or mode of personal or creative expression that is absurdly exaggerated and often fuses elements of high and popular culture <a movie that celebrates camp>

It's my impression that the British usually use the word according to the first definition and Americans to the second.

I thought "camp" meant deliberately purposefully bad for humorous effect.

Hamlet by the Royal Shakespeare Company = tragedy
Hamlet by your high school Thespians = camp

Corlyss_D wrote:I thought "camp" meant deliberately purposefully bad for humorous effect.

Hamlet by the Royal Shakespeare Company = tragedy
Hamlet by your high school Thespians = camp

I'm afraid my tolerance for embarrassment is way too low to enjoy this very low-brow "humor".

I'm afraid my tolerance for embarrassment is way too low to enjoy this very low-brow "humor".
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Alleluya!

I think there are different degress of camp. And often the term 'camp' is used to simply justify a really bad movie or TV show. Can a book or a piece of music be camp? PDQ Bach? I don't know.

I don't think that good camp really transcends it's original language. For instance genuinely good camp - DR. NO the first James Bond film. If you don't laugh (out loud) when watching this, then you just don't get it. But a lot of this silly humor (or is that humour) has to do with having fun with The Queen's english, so to speak.

Much of my reaction to every form of dramatic entertainment I watch depends on this: are the creators of that entertainment RESPECTFUL of their audience? The makers of the 1976 KK obviously were not--their attitude was clearly: we are so bright and witty, and you are too dumb to notice that we are having a scornful laugh at your expense--, and I recognized and resented that from the very first time I saw that fiasco. The 1976 ROCKY--a low-budget movie with an unknown star--, on the other hand, clearly respected its audience and wanted to give it something worth watching. I was very grateful for that.