ABSTRACT
In the last chapter I argued that popular pleasure necessarily contained elements of resistance. The ideological pleasure of recognition, by which the viewer recognizes and confirms his or her ideologically constructed subjectivity, is essentially a low level of pleasure, if, indeed, it is pleasurable at all. Comfort and pleasure do not necessarily go together. In this chapter I wish to explore ways in which some of the popular pleasures offered by television can evade, resist, or scandalize ideology and social control. This tendency can often be seen most clearly in “extreme” forms of television, such as wrestling or rock video, but I wish to show that these “extremities” are not actually untypical, but that the same tendencies can be found in shows like Miami Vice or in commercials.
