Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

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Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Triert »

"so please try to tap into any nurturing powers you may have."

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I remember the old days when people would get shaped up by criticism and in turn be a better person.

Turns out that wasn't as right as I imagined it would be, while I myself have never had to have something embarrassing publicly shared to spite me at this point despite how much I've probably deserved it. I do feel like this is something we can all have a good discussion on.

I'm going to start this off by saying I outright disagree with a lot of aspects at cringe culture, I'm basing this off my own experiences, and observations of people I've seen as well.

Point one, autism.

My Little Pony, Minecraft, Undertale, Five Nights at Freddies, Sonic the Hedgehog, Furries, these fandoms have been notorious in how other people view them as being two things, cringy, and having a lot of people with autism. How wrong I've noticed these people are isn't too far off at all, art that I've commonly seen used as laughing material for people usually came from fanartists who, you guessed it, usually have some form of autism.

Even the image at the start of this post I feel can be utilized as an example, so on this point I want to pressurize it all down and say that at some point I began feeling guilty at seeing all these people making a laughing stock of themselves online and noticed there is a trend that you can see. The source of it all coming from people who have a lack of social understanding is an idea that I think shouldn't be hard to understand.

Point two, seekers.

I don't have the same kind of "a lack of social understanding caused this." But all I have to say on this is that I think it's wrong for someone to look for something that would otherwise be very hard to find just so other people can laugh at it. By hard to find, I mean something that is otherwise very hard to get a hold of, something you don't see shared on deviantart or fur affinity (and even then, have some respect man.) This is something you can expect an artist to have deleted only to find out people decided to share the art anyways, I get that the internet works the way it does, but I think it's really pathetic.

Point three, the anti-gay closet homosexual.

I'm sure we're all familiar with the idea of a closet gay campaigning against gay rights? I have one last point to make, I've seen people use the cringe of others not to laugh with people over. But to hide their own cognitive dissonance, they themselves fail to acknowledge the problems they have and choose to hide it by laughing at others.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Crazo3077 »

I think cringe culture is only bad if you're incapable of applying it to yourself.

Like I'm not a fan of cringe, because I used to get really uncomfortably when I'd see old stuff where I did really cringey things. I'd sympathize with that person and be like "They'll outgrow it or were just caught in an awkward moment." But now I can handle things that I used to do that are cringey and at least can value what is happening when people share cringe. Though I still think people like leafyishere take it too far when you're trying to showcase someone's cringe in full detail. Share the instance, but don't make it a profile.

An example I can offer is that there is, or at least used to be, a joke where a pretty lame picture of me is edited into pictures, like ones that feature Vile, and when I'd see them I'd be actively uncomfortable, but appreciate the inclusion. Now I'm okay with plenty of jokes about my past. I'd guess it is because I can see my own growth past it now, but that's just my own outlook.

There's a lot of self-growth that can be gained from cringe. It is just a matter of applying it in a healthy way.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by chaoadventures »

criticism of any kind only works if you tell someone how to fix their problem, present it in an understandable way, and also make them genuinely acknowledge the problem themselves in a nice way

So no. You're not supposed to laugh at someone.

BUT, no one's going to succeed in fulfilling all of that criteria so, they'll be tripping over themselves anyways, continuing what they're doing for one reason or another related to the requirements above.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Nano »

I don't like talking about the person, but I'll browse stuff like r/CringeAnarchy for a good laugh every now and then or other places more specified at stuff like neckbeards or other things.

I guess ultimately I think it's alright to laugh at these dudes, but it's another thing to type out "lol what a freaken loser, i bet that dude never got a gf before ever haha".
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Lamby »

i think cringe culture stops being funny once you develop adult social skills

but it's always good to laugh at neckbeards, altright iamverysmart types, incels, and guys crying about anime or video games or wearing an ugly outdated hat who read too much chivalry crap and fail at talking to us perfect stacys

do you think there's an incel named chad how does he feel
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Pumpkinium »

i agree cringe culture is something that needs to be toned down and not so public and more carefully surveyed with an open mind. i often find myself posting 'lol what the heck is this' kinds of images i find on the front page of furaffinity in my personal discord but it's usually something i'm certain was made by an adult and not a kid. when it comes to kids and cringe culture, that's just wrong. i still relish in my own personal cringe when i see or bring up my childish ambitions of a cool universe with all my favorite characters in it like loki and herobrine and whatnot.

childhood cringe and adult cringe are two different things and i think childhood cringe is just something that should never be brought up or made fun of. commonly when i think of cringey material produced by children, it's something innocent but shown in an excitable child manner. it's an idea that would kind of be outside the norm. some kid might find it really cool to imagine some alternate universe where shadow the hedgehog is the subject of the portal universe and has to personally traverse GLaDOS' schemes. 100% unlikely on a professional standpoint, but who cares? it's cool to think about.

when i think of adult cringe, i think of man-babies that should be grown up but aren't. i think of people like TERFS and 'alt-furs' that feel like they have some kind of voice or presence about their backwards morals. people that outwardly think they're cool and special when they come from a background of being a jerk. of course human interaction has many flaws and everyone has their moments, but i think cringe culture should be more personally shared and less public when it comes to innocent instances of someone looking like a fool.

don't make fun of someone's godmode sparkledog oc, make fun of george who has a samurai sword and thinks he can make the world a better place by making out other men to be fools to try and balance his blatant sexism when trying to attract a woman.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by EvilPinkamina »

Triert wrote: I remember the old days when people would get shaped up by criticism and in turn be a better person.
Triert wrote: I remember the old days when people would get shaped up by criticism and in turn be a better person.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Triert »

We're having a discussion here Pink.

"some kid might find it really cool to imagine some alternate universe where shadow the hedgehog is the subject of the portal universe and has to personally traverse GLaDOS' schemes. 100% unlikely on a professional standpoint, but who cares? it's cool to think about."

You know I really have to wonder what would happen for a kid if he rewrote a story like that as an adult, changed the names around, and released it. I've seen stories of people who do just that and one of those stories is 50 shades of grey.

On the subject of fedorabro's, I find them pretty painful myself and yet I've found them under the autism umbrella I've mentioned before.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Mephilesfan1 »

personally i don't believe in "cringe culture" just, certain people that i find that might be embarrassing or bad apples. like in a fandom, some fandoms are seen as "cringe", but there are only certain bad apples or people that do dumb things or bad things that get more attention /because/ they did those things. the people that are good and positive obviously aren't going to get recognized as much, and people start basing their opinions off the few bad people in the fandoms they've seen, and it's unfortunate. this is just how i see this whole cringe thing though. i've been told i have a positive outlook on it, which is what i try to do. i used to be one of those people that was bad about the whole cringe culture thing and refused to acknowledge or look at things or enjoy things from certain fandoms bc of cringe. like undertale.

as i've grown older though, i've gotten a more positive outlook on "cringe culture". which i'm glad, i hated having such a negative perspective on it when i was younger. this is all just how i view it though. i know other people have different opinions on it.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

This thread is the first time I've ever heard of cringe culture. I'm assuming it's another of those things one can avoid in its entirety by just steering clear of mainstream social media and it's tendency to bring out the worst in people.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by eblu »

i liked cringe videos at first since a lot of the content featured is so bad that it's good (tanic the hedgehog comes to mind) but now it's just people shamelessly lampooning people for no reason other than the fact that they disagree with them which is quite possibly one of the worst things you could ever do. i actually saw art of another CI user (which was honestly not bad at all in the first place) in one which just makes me sad
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Tsui »

I think things like cringe blogs etc. create an aura of paranoia for creators, and people with social media accounts in general, where you don't know if your content is being reposted elsewhere for a laugh. It really doesn't matter if it's made by a kid or not, bullying is still bullying and I don't have much of a tolerance for it nowadays.

Laughing at professionally published stuff, though, is pretty much fair game. I like to sit down and make fun of tween TV anime I used to enjoy.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by EvilPinkamina »

fr tho cringe blogs/vids/etc. aren't actually criticism, they're just being dicks. no one's gonna improve from having their stuff in a cringe comp. they're just gonna get discouraged and not do whatever it was again.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Triert »

Oh that reminds me of another point I wanted to make, the fact that a lot of cringe compilations or cringe seekers turn things that aren't really cringey into something that's really cringey just by saying it is.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Nano »

What I think is important for content creators to do early on in their career is get used to people bashing them. In no perfect world will you ever be able to have a piece of art posted without someone saying "Wow this is completely awful, stop drawing" or "This video isn't funny, kys" and stuff like that. It sucks, but it's currently what everyone is going to have to deal with regardless of what content you make.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Triert »

Criticism is important, but only when it's people telling you what you did wrong instead of that your work is bad.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Crazo3077 »

I think two entirely different concepts are being combined here when criticism is brought into this. I mentioned self-reflection because of the non-constructive commentary that comes with cringe content, requiring us to ask "What went wrong?" on our own, not by those calling out cringe. It is rarely actual critique and more often just a heckling. I don't see how to associate cringe with constructive criticism.

Criticism is important, but also needs to be capable of being received clearly. Like when you tell someone "This thing you do is awkward." all it says is not to do the thing, but if it is something they like to do, they won't see a reason to stop. They might even close themselves off from criticism, thinking that they're just being picked on for no good reason. This is where cringe can take someone, at least until they can introspect or find others who also get treated in a similar way.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by Nano »

What I said wasn't at all meant to be about criticism, apologies if that confused anyone. I meant entirely the idea that no matter what you upload you'll never get just happy replies or criticism. You'll likely always get at least one person saying something bad about your media. They may say it's cringey, or just plain bad. It always varies, and media producers need to be ready for that regardless. Someone like Markiplier would never have made if they hadn't ignored awful comments saying they should die/get a new job/etc.

This is somewhat off topic, but I think it sorta belongs here if we're talking about cringe culture making media producers reluctant to post their work online.
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Re: Cringe Discussion/Is it right to laugh at embarrassing people?

Post by cloudchaoclan »

Lamby wrote:i think cringe culture stops being funny once you develop adult social skills
To go with that, once you develop the ability to think about what led them to acting cringey, you almost feel something like empathy among the embarassment.
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