T is book explores the stupid as it manifests in media-the cinema, television and streamed content, and videogames. The stupid is theorized not as a pejorative term but to address media that 'fails' to conform to established narrative conventions, often surfacing at evolutionary moments. TheTransformers franchise is often dismissed as being stupid because its stylistic vernacular privileges kinetic qualities over conventional narration. Similarly, the stupid is often present in genre fails likemother!, or in instances of narrative dissonance-joyously inAdventure Time; more controversially inGone Home- where a story 'feels off' It also manifests in 'ludonarrative dissonance' when gameplay and narrative seemingly run counter to one another in videogames likeUndertale andBioshock. This book is addressed to those interested in media that is quirky, spectacle-driven, or generally hard to place-stupid!

Aaron Michael Kerner is a Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, USA. His previous publications include:Extreme Cinema(2016),Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 (2015), andFilm and the Holocaust(2011).

Ju ian Hoxter is an Associate Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, USA. His previous publications include:Off the Page: Screenwriting in the Era of Media Convergence (2017),< >Screenwriting (Behind the Silver Screen Series Book 8) (2014). He has published two screenwriting textbooks.

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