bathos, pathos

Bathos or bathos means overdone sentimentality or insincere attempts to garner sympathy for something made ridiculous--
These old movies were popular once, but to a modern viewer they descend into bathos.
I don't know whether I should feel pity for this character, or scorn his bad judgment as bathos.

Pathos or pathos means the capacity to evoke pity for suffering, as in literature or art--
The story is written with genuine pathos; it's hard to forget.
The story of Job is a well-known example of pathos.

Now that you know that, you can say--
"We pity the victim of pathos, as a suffering human being, but scorn the fool of bathos, and his lack of understanding."