4) They can be free from ironic detachment
Part of coolness is maintaining the perspective that one is above the fray. Nick Carraway ends up looking like the cool one in The Great Gatsby because he is amidst the scene he’s describing but also not really part of it. Sarcasm and irony have dominated cultural coolness since the 1990s, with sentimentality typically requiring a wink of self-awareness alongside it so that the audience is made mindful of the fact that the people behind what they’re watching know exactly how sappy they’re being.
There are also comedic characters that we laugh at precisely because they have no self-awareness, such as Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute in The Office. They’re clowns because they don’t realize they’re being funny, and Jim Halpert is the cool guy because he gets to look at the camera and share a smirk with us, establishing himself as separate from the others in the office.
Musicals, though, have a unique way of regularly depicting characters who are unabashedly ridiculous in a positive way. Part of this is done through the stagey style of the performances, with the actors going earnestly over the top and not caring about what an audience might think of them. They’re singing and dancing as if nobody’s watching, and while that may not attract the type of respect someone who distances themselves from the weirdness we’re observing, there’s a certain respect for guys like Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia! just belting out tunes without giving a single f**k.
