"... played a TikTok video of a 27-year-old woman named Stanzi Potenza as evidence that true-crime fandom had gone too far. In the video, Ms. Potenza said she was so obsessed with Netflix’s 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story' that she stayed home from work in diapers to binge the series uninterrupted. As it turns out, Ms. Potenza had made a video satirizing true-crime obsessives and Dr. Phil mistook it as sincere...."
From "Welcome to CringeTok, Where Being Insufferable Can Be Lucrative/On TikTok, cringe comedy creators are gaining large followings and brand deals by impersonating terrible people" (NYT).
What's the news here? That comic actors are doing funny clips on TikTok or that Dr. Phil and his staff are incredibly dumb? Or is it the term "cringe"?! I'm glad to see Potenza and other comic actors like her getting promoted in places like the NYT. It's a little cheap to scoff at a Dr. Phil mistake. But the article mainly goes on to explain "cringe," which I find irksome (for some reason):
As a concept, cringe is deceptively hard to describe. As a content category, cringe is vast.... Cringe is not any one thing, but you know it when you see it....
Is this even a category?! If you can't describe it, consider the possibility that there is no "it." Don't coyly pose as the one who "knows" it on sight.
I've been hearing the term "cringe" for years, and I've watched a lot of these comic actors on TikTok. I know they are doing comic characters. I don't make Dr. Phil type mistakes. But I'm not cringing in any way — I don't wince or tremble. I don't feel obsequious, embarrassed, or awkward.We're told that the TikTokkers look for things people do "that make us recoil, like self-absorption and obliviousness." In other words, comic characters are based on the observation of human foibles. That's how it's always been. Maybe some TikTokker will do (or has done) a clip about a person who thinks she's discovered some trendy new way to be humorous that is obviously only the way comics have done characters since the days of Aristophanes. She massively overuses the word "cringe."
Posts
46 comments:
To me, a perfect example of "cringe" is when a girl calls her lover "daddy" during sex.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
(I prefer, "Oui, Chef, oh, oui, chef!")
Yes, Phil McGraw and his staff are dumb, but this isn't an edge case, yet- the parody was pretty over-the-top, so you really do have to be an idiot to not get it. The problem is that the line in what is an edge case, parody/not parody, is moving rapidly in one direction. The world is going nuts, and it is getting harder and harder to satirize that insanity.
"If you can't describe it, consider the possibility that there is no "it.""
Potter Stewart begs to differ.
you Know who are REALLY incredibly dumb
moronic senile old ladies, that think that all the cringe on tiktok is 'Just Actors'.
The world is full, and getting fuller of sick motherfuckers; and if YOU are too stupid to know that..
I'm sorry for you
The day I heard about the so-called Pee Tape, I knew instantly it was bullshit; that it was the kind of thing people who hate Trump would believe about Trump simply because they hate Trump so much that they imagine it's plausibly the kind of thing the hated Trump would do.
Hemingway said a writer needs a shockproof bullshit detector, but he meant that for a writer's own writing. These days, everyone needs one. And too few have one.
They're describing a typical Seinfeld episode.
If you can't describe it, consider the possibility that there is no "it."
Now do "woman". One of our SC justices can't.
The only evidence is millennials and zoomers are complete idiots, unemployable and due to the Covid hoax have too much time on their hands
here's a fun quote. from the internet..
even when you completely understand the format is satire, like The Onion, you believe that the satire relates to something real.
I can tell when a couple of my sister's laugh is less than sincere. That's how I define "cringe". How I identify it.
According to the urban dictionary, cringe is "The feeling of physical discomfort without something physical happening to your body, that is usually caused by: second-hand embarrassment, witnessing physical discomfort happening to someone or something else, opinions and acts that you disagree with on a fundamental level and so on."
I think it has more to do with being a kind of "uncanny valley" of ideas. Uncanny valley is something artificial trying to masquerade as something genuine, but failing. The observer sees this momentary failure and applies the singular falsehood to a plural sham. It usually comes off as awkwardly and comedically tragic, but can also give the impression of danger, very much like some people feel in the presence of autistic individuals (I work very closely with autism children and adults).
A good example of funny cringe would be this (https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/028/809/00.jpg)
I can't claim to know what cringe comedy means to others. but for years I have referred to Larry David's show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, as cringe comedy. It felt to me as though I invented the term. The predicaments of Larry's character make me literally cringe, by which I mean that it makes me feel extremely embarrassed to even vicariously share in the character's awkwardness.
Perception influences reality. In other news, ChatNYT publishes handmade tales to garner political consensus, to influence social taboos, to cancel individuals, to extort concessions from enterprises, to galvanize insurrections, to rationalize wicked solutions, etc.
To cringe -- to draw back from something -- appears to be the point of cringetok. People make a video based on the verb form.
Cringe, the noun, is different. Something is cringe when it's overly earnest, embarrassingly so. A company overselling its product is cringe. A super-excited person can be cringe. To be cringe is to be not cool.
This article at the NYT is the very definition of cringe.
I stopped using TikTok but still live on Twitter, which is a wild west of parody accounts right now. Even Weihan Zhang is back.
I can almost always tell but it's getting more difficult every day. People are so credulous! And they want to believe the worst so they can denounce it!! and feel good.
It's too funny and it can't last.
You can garner examples of cringe.
Cringe isn't that hard to describe/define. Something is cringe when you are embarrassed to watch it even when watching alone. When you feel bad for the actor, and you find watching it unpleasant. Not boring, not dumb, but emotionally unpleasant, usually in a way not intended by the creators of the scene.
I have my own category, “Dumbest smart person I know,” that’s applied to those who are denser than they should be on any particular day. Failure to detect obvious irony is one of the most common ways to win the title.
The back of my mind, one of my insufferable pronouns, says some of my comments here at Althouse are definitely cringe. That the cringe factor is unrecognisable to me. That that is precisely how cringe thrives.
Big, if true.
Is "cringe" a derivative term of woke? As in, you should be cringing in horror at this. Let's pretend all us woke people do so cringe, because we are so sensitive.
It must have been close to forty years ago that I first heard the theory that cringe was one of the distinguishing features of Anglo-American humor; one of the supposed proofs was that even the most intelligent Germans found the genre utterly incomprehensible (and now that I think about it, "Althouse" rings proudly Teutonic, but I digress). Cringe as a category has been much-remarked-upon in the past twenty years; as a start, here's a piece in the New York Times you might have missed.
But, what is cringe-worthy? I only learned yesterday that one of the most famous internet memes on this theme actually has its own name: Hide-the-Pain Harold
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_the_Pain_Harold
When I see "cringe" used that way, I react the same way as when I see someone use "based" in the modern social media context. I utter the imperative, "Grow up."
Scott adam's claim is that 25 percent of Americans have no sense of humor and just fake it when neccessary. The number who can NOT recognize satire must be much higher. Its not related to IQ, some people are just literal minded.
Of course, the USA has become such an insane asylum that what should be satire is often true.
One could have written a Satirical piece in 2009 about a US POTUS who falls down, can't take a hostile question, needs a script and telapromter for everything, sends billions to defend a foreign countries borders while leaving he USA border unguarded, and yet is hailed as a genius by all the media.
In 2023, that's just the truth. As is people demanding to be called "They" or "gays" suing bakers over their wedding cakes, and San Francisco considering giving Blacks a million dollars in reparations! Reality is now a 1992 SNL skit come to life.
It is because differentiating between parody and reality has become very difficult as our society has surrendered its cultural norms. Things that were obvious a decade ago are now unspeakable, science has been undermined for politics, our government and media lie to us on a regular basis, corporations overtly hate their own customers, and obvious insane people are propped up as stunning and brave. What would make this person any different than any of dozens, hundreds, thousands of others who do equally if not more crazy things and get major endorsements and television specials?
Great post.
Do people still watch that idiot, Dr. Phil? Why?
Sometimes people perform the cringe. Other times someone might draw your attention to a sincere form of cringe. I think a simple definition for cringe content is the kind of stuff that makes you feel embarrassed for the person you’re watching. And perhaps the situation is so embarrassing it transfers over to you and you experience the embarrassment yourself.
The first time I ever saw an internet "influencer" recording something for TikTok or whatever, was at the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Dressed in high heels, silver yoga pants, bare midriff, jogging bra, lotsa jewelry and a furry hat, one woman pranced about in front of the geyser while another recorded her on her phone. When the star of the show climbed up on a park sign to dance a bit more, the urge to give her a push was nearly impossible to resist. The fall would only have been a few feet, and only into a parking lot, rather than a geyser, so I resisted the urge.
She was cringe.
I wish someone would write a book on Cringe. I'd put it on my shelf, right next to Susan Sontag's "Notes on Camp" and Jacob Brackman's "The Put-On"
Blogger Earnest Prole said...
“I have my own category, “Dumbest smart person I know,” that’s applied to those who are denser than they should be on any particular day. Failure to detect obvious irony is one of the most common ways to win the title.”
Working w people who are neuro-diverse (vs neuro-typical) is rewarding, challenging, and discouraging. Some of them are very (book) smart people and some of them have below average intelligence.
But regardless, the world is so complex for many of them that they have difficulty grasping sarcasm, innuendo and the like, and they are often naive and gullible. It’s the way their brains work.
As things all around us get more bizarre and mixed-up, operating/living in everyday society for some neuro-diverse people grows ever more challenging.
The only positive of these sorts of situations is that it is easier to explain to neurotypical people (using examples like the Dr Phil one) how the world can seem to the neurodiverse. Imagine having to sort out what is true, what is satire, what is sarcasm, what is a compliment when your brain has a hard time doing that in simple, everyday situations.
A hard world to navigate grows harder by the day.
Blogger Earnest Prole said...
“I have my own category, “Dumbest smart person I know,” that’s applied to those who are denser than they should be on any particular day. Failure to detect obvious irony is one of the most common ways to win the title.”
Working w people who are neuro-diverse (vs neuro-typical) is rewarding, challenging, and discouraging. Some of them are very (book) smart people and some of them have below average intelligence.
But regardless, the world is so complex for many of them that they have difficulty grasping sarcasm, innuendo and the like, and they are often naive and gullible. It’s the way their brains work.
As things all around us get more bizarre and mixed-up, operating/living in everyday society for some neuro-diverse people grows ever more challenging.
The only positive of these sorts of situations is that it is easier to explain to neurotypical people (using examples like the Dr Phil one) how the world can seem to the neurodiverse. Imagine having to sort out what is true, what is satire, what is sarcasm, what is a compliment when your brain has a hard time doing that in simple, everyday situations.
A hard world to navigate grows harder by the day.
Cringe is a semantic and kinetic affirmative action of progress (e.g. withdrawal, recoil, introspection) that occurs in a frame of reference relative to principled and autonomic dissonance.
Reminiscent of the appearance of Spinal Tap (Christopher Guest, Michael McKeen, Harry Shearer, all in character) on the New York local-tv talk show, “The Joe Franklin Show,” when the host did not know they were a parody act.
There is video.
https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2000/09/28/this-is-still-spinal-tap/
What one time commenter said sounds close to a likelihood to me.
What Kay said sounds about right too.
Maybe I should get in the habit of reading the comments here more often.
What rcocean said I like.
This topic is terribly important.
"The world is going nuts, and it is getting harder and harder to satirize that insanity."
This is what finally did in The Beverly Hillbillies.
Most anything Michael Scott said or did during the first couple seasons of The Office was cringe inducing.
>>>>Most anything Michael Scott said or did during the first couple seasons of The Office was cringe inducing.>>>>
As was, perhaps even more so, everything David Brent said and did on the UK version, broadcast just a few years earlier.
I'm glad to see Potenza and other comic actors like her getting promoted in places like the NYT.
What is it you mean by "places like the NYT?" It comes off as incredibly pretentious.
Let us not forget our current White House press secretary, Cringe Jean-Pierre.
Stunned the professor didn't cite Jacobellis v. Ohio for the famous phrase. "know it when I see it."
During my first semester of my first year of law school, I joked about purchasing adult diapers so that I could study for finals without interruption.
If only there had been a way to monetize that joke (and help Dr. Phil look foolish) back then!
Calling him Jeff Dahmer would qualify as creepy.
Post a Comment