Category: Awards

A few readers have e-mailed to ask what "hathos" is. Here’s my definition:

Hathos is the attraction to something you really can’t stand; it’s the compulsion of revulsion.

Alex Heard coined it:

Hathos (hay’thos) n., pl. double hathos A pleasurable sense of loathing, or a loathing sense of pleasure, aroused by certain schlocky, schmaltzy or just- plain-bad show-business personalities: "Hearing the audience applaud when Dr. Joyce Brothers told Merv Griffin that, aside from being a brilliant comedienne, Charo is a ‘genius on the classical guitar’ filled me with hathos." [American: hate/happy pathos lachrymose (?)] — ha-thot-ic adj.

— "Beyond Hate: The Giddy Thrill of Hathos," The Washington Post, May 17, 1987