We’ve all been in a situation where we found ourselves awkwardly laughing at something. A part of ourselves knows we shouldn’t be amused, yet it tickled our funny bones nonetheless.
It’s like watching an older person use internet slang to connect with a younger individual, only to get a blank stare in return. Quite an embarrassing situation, but a rather comical one, nonetheless.
That’s what cringe humor is all about. It is growing in popularity, and there are even Instagram pages that make it their central theme. Here are some of the posts that stood out to us.
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Cringe humor can understandably come off as offensive since it is making fun of someone’s embarrassing moment. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the context of the joke, according to stand-up comedian Shaun Eli.
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“Please note that not every joke about something or someone is making fun of that person or thing,” Eli told Bored Panda. “To take an extreme example, you can have a joke about a heinous crime that’s horribly mean.
“But you can also have a joke about the subject of a heinous crime that isn’t advocating it or glorifying it. Perhaps the victim of the joke is the criminal, who in the joke gets electrocuted.”
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Comedy has evolved with the rise of the internet and digital media. According to Eli, anonymity has emboldened people to be nasty online, blurring the line between “cringe humor” and being obnoxious.
“We have gotten very used to being mean because it’s to strangers and we can be anonymous, or at least thousands of miles away and barely at risk for any negative repercussions. And that rather sucks for society,” he said.
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Intent also matters when it comes to cringe humor. As Eli points out, many people pick on someone under the guise of joking, to which he has a standard response:
“You have no right to be mean to me just to make yourself feel better. That’s called being a jerk.”
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At the end of the day, it’s all about finding a middle ground, which, according to Eli, is not difficult to do. He even offered one piece of advice on how to go about it.
“Every joke has a victim, because every joke is making fun of something. How can creators strike that balance? I say to put themselves in the position of the victim of the joke.”
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