bathetic
Excessively trite emotionally
Bathetic describes something that produces bathos—an unintended descent from the elevated to the ridiculous or trivial.
A speech that moves from soaring rhetoric to awkward sentimentality is bathetic.
The word often applies to art or writing that aims for profundity but lands in absurdity: The film's bathetic ending undermined everything that came before.
Not to be confused with pathetic, though the two sometimes overlap when failed attempts at emotional depth become laughable.
Excessively emotional or elaborate
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- hammyExcessively theatrical in style
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
- sappyExcessively sentimental
schmaltzy · tearjerker · soapy · operatic · lugubrious · lachrymose · weepy · mawkish
Failure to satisfy expectations
- anticlimaxDisappointing conclusion after buildup
- underwhelmingFailing to meet expectations
- fizzleFail after promising start
- deflationSustained decrease in prices
damp squib · comedown · descent · fall · disappointment · peter out · taper off · falling short
Commonplace, lacking excitement
- pettyOf little importance
- inconsequentialLacking significance or impact
- triflingOf no real importance
- insignificantLacking importance or consequence
prosaic · banal · pedestrian · commonplace
Inflated beyond reasonable proportion
- grandiosePretentiously impressive in scale
- bombasticExcessively inflated language
- pompousAffectedly grand in manner
- inflatedExpanded with gas
overelaborate · florid · ornate · overwrought · hyperbolic · ostentatious · purple prose · turgid
overwrought
Excessively emotional or elaborate
- theatricalExaggeratedly emotional for effect
- hammyExcessively theatrical in style
- maudlinExcessively tearful sentiment
sappy · schmaltzy · tearjerker · soapy · operatic · lugubrious · lachrymose · weepy · mawkish · cloying
letdown
Failure to satisfy expectations
- anticlimaxDisappointing conclusion after buildup
- underwhelmingFailing to meet expectations
- fizzleFail after promising start
deflation · damp squib · comedown · descent · fall · disappointment · peter out · taper off · falling short · tension release
mundane
Commonplace, lacking excitement
- pettyOf little importance
- inconsequentialLacking significance or impact
- triflingOf no real importance
insignificant · prosaic · banal · pedestrian · commonplace
overblown
Inflated beyond reasonable proportion
- grandiosePretentiously impressive in scale
- bombasticExcessively inflated language
- pompousAffectedly grand in manner
inflated · overelaborate · florid · ornate · overwrought · hyperbolic · ostentatious · purple prose · turgid · overreaching
- sentimentalitymawkish, schmaltzy, saccharine, treacly, cloying