ZOOMS ARE A CLASSIC WAY OF BUILDING INTRIGUE...

By holding on the looks of our characters, we guide the audience to lean in. It's montage theory, Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin--
We indicate that, before we cut, whatever comes next is going to be part of a pattern the audience is ready to pay attention to.
Without something like a zoom technique that guides the audience's focus and our character’s emotional journey, we lose the power of the joke and the trigger concept as a whole.

To reemphasize, this is not a trance; it is not hypnosis.

The zoom is a part of that distinction— when the performances that we are seeing are so grounded in reality, we need a filmmaking device. Let our audience in; indicate to engage with the story we are telling. 

The zoom serves as our device. When we look at these examples, we are ready and prepared for the cut and shot that comes next. In our case, the triggers that make us have that undeniable KD craving.