self-serious

comparative more self-serious · superlative most self-serious

1. Taking oneself too seriously, pretentiously and humorlessly convinced of one's own seriousness.

   New Age is goofy, yet self-serious, with no sense of irony.

   2005, Paul Harvey, Philip Goff., The Columbia Documentary History of Religion in America

   3 more examples

   This is not to say that there is a self-serious bone in Bill's body. He's a kid on a trike with a slingshot and a peashooter -- always has been, always will be.

   1995, Bill Garner, Seriously Now, Pelican Publishing

   Elizabeth had never recorded any period of her existence, failing to grasp the point of an exercise so self-absorbed and self-serious.

   1998, Douglas Hobbie, This Time Last Year: A Novel

   Relatable in neither its bizarrely specific plotting nor its broadly generic emotions, Dear Evan Hansen is so self-serious that it almost plays like self-parody, only without any “so bad it’s good” fun. We may all be striving for human connection right now, but we’re unlikely to find any here.

   2021 September 22, Caroline Siede, “Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level”, in AV Club