Y: "I didn't see the first one. Like everyone, I enjoy the physical experience of laughter, but I expect that if I laugh at all during this particular movie, it will be 'uncomfortable situation' or 'shocking moment' tension-releasing laughter, or at best 'aren't we all having a nice time together in front of this huge image and amidst these loud noises.' I seriously doubt that I will experience the transportive joy of 'in spite of myself,' 'my stomach hurts,' 'I can't breathe,' 'this is better than an orgasm' laughter. In fact, the incidence of that kind of laughter post-adolescence is disappointingly low. Do you ever think about that? Do you worry that the best kind of laughter vanishes as our lives contain fewer and fewer novel experiences?"

X: "Uh... "

Y: "Exactly. So why would I want to pay $12 to hollowly go through the motions?"

Personally, I expect less than transportive joy from $12. "Aren't we all having a nice time together in front of this huge image and amidst these loud noises" strikes me as a fair return on $12, better than a good meal.

I'm fairly used to people providing explanations, albeit sometimes rough ones, of the stylistic elements that evoked particular emotional responses in them, but then, most of my acquaintances have an at least passing familiarity with tvtropes.