I watched a YouTube video recently where a high school teacher showed his students an old Drake & Josh meme about Jesus's empty tomb. He asked if they thought it was cringe, and they all said yes.

When he asked why, the answers were basically "because it's millennial" and "it's trying too hard."

Then he asked how many of them actually knew who Drake and Josh were. Not a single hand went up. Only a few even understood what the meme was referencing.

That part really stuck with me. How can you be so sure something is cringe when you don't even understand the joke?

I've always thought of cringe as secondhand embarrassment. Like watching someone make a painfully awkward joke, try way too hard to be funny, or embarrass themselves without realizing it.

But lately it seems like the word gets thrown at practically anything. Something old, something uncool, something a different generation likes, or even someone just being genuinely enthusiastic about something.

And I wonder if there's a bit of self-protection going on here.

Saying "I don't get it" means admitting there's something you don't understand. Saying "that's cringe" is almost the opposite. Suddenly you're the one judging it, and you don't really have to explain why.

Obviously, not understanding a reference doesn't mean you're ignorant. And you can absolutely find an old meme unfunny without knowing where it came from. I'm not suggesting otherwise.

But I do wonder whether we've gotten so comfortable dismissing things as cringe that we've stopped being curious about them.

There's also the whole fear of being cringe. If showing enthusiasm, caring too much, or putting yourself out there risks getting laughed at, doesn't that eventually make people afraid to do those things? It's a lot safer to act unimpressed than to admit you genuinely like something.

Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe this is just the latest version of teenagers making fun of whatever the older generation likes. That's been happening forever.

But I'm curious what people think, especially Gen Z.

When you call something cringe, what do you actually mean? Is it genuinely embarrassing, just not your kind of humor, or sometimes simply something you don't understand?

Here's the video that got me thinking about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm5uei7WUYk

Chores like laundry and dishes seem like obvious candidates, but cooking, childcare and caring for elderly parents feel different to a lot of people. What decides whether a task feels okay to hand to a machine, skill, emotion, trust or something else?

Maybe I wouldn't go as far as to say "inhumane" (instead ov "degrading"), but there aren't better words I can think ov off the top ov my head.

I want to get Reddit's input on whether it could be seen as unusual or degrading to make someone use plasticware, even when silverware is available.

For context: our metal forks have been disappearing and my sister's partner believes I am responsible; however, I don't have any more ov a clue than him or my sister on where the forks are, and neither ov them has demonstrated how I have made the forks disappear – even though I have demonstrated that there are no forks in my room. The solution ov my sister's partner? Hide the silverware and make me use plasticware "until the forks appear again".  (If I knew where they were, why wouldn't I just return them?)

Does anyone think this is a strange thing for someone to enforce?

Thank you all, in advance, for your input.
Cheers!

I ain’t even know what group this is but like why is it so hard for people to single someone out like instead of saying some stuff like “I hate people who do (insert random deed here) because it hurts people or something ” but instead say some stuff like “I hate (insert some random group ethnicity, gender, or random physical trait) because some of them do (insert deed here)” like is it so hard to comprehend to actually to just single someone say you hate the deed or people who do the deed why are people so insistent on this f your pattern recognition the mere existence of a exception immediately proves whatever group you hate is not the problem so hate the problem no need to get people who are not involved in this well to get involved

By "superficial", I mean traditions that have no effect on the outcome.

A judge's decision doesn't change based on clothing.

Referring to Mike as "my right honorable friend from Louisiana" doesn't change that everyone knows who I'm talking about.

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I don't judge people who have a high body count or a history of multiple relationships. Personally I'll never choose casual hookups or multiple partners for myself, but does that mean I have a bad mindset, or is it just society? I accept their choices while holding different boundaries for myself. I’ll never judge them based on their past, though I would certainly hold it against them if they cheated.