More than anything else, the worst thing you can be on the internet in 2024 is cringe. In fact, if a 20-year-old calls you cringe, that’s it, you’re over, your life as you know it has come to an end and you will need to move away and assume an entirely new identity. Unless you have a modicum of self-esteem and can withstand the judgement, I guess.


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One man recently learned all about the dangers of seeming cringe after going viral for a video in which he opens with the line, “I think it’s really funny that I dress like this and give off like a tough sort of thing going on, and then I cry to Phoebe Bridgers in the shower,” as if his appearance and the fact he cries listening to Punisher are incongruous. The internet was quick to assure him that he doesn’t look remotely tough; rather, he looks exactly like the kind of guy who could be found at a Phoebe Bridgers concert, or on the streets of Brooklyn, or in a dive bar trying to appear mysterious by reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas at the bar.



As one person on Twitter pointed out, guys literally dress like this in order to let people know they listen to Phoebe Bridgers. Over on TikTok, the comments weren’t any better, with multiple people letting him know that he doesn’t give off tough vibes at all, and assuring him that it’s “ok to be a baby girl ”. In response to one person calling the video the most “pick me thing I have ever seen,” the OP commented, “I think you’re a meanie,” confirming that he is, indeed, anything but tough.


Look, it’s not his fault. He lives in Albuquerque — guys who dress like he does and listen to Phoebe Bridgers (while crying in the shower, no less) probably aren’t as common as they are in L.A. or NYC. To the people he sees every day, he very well may look tough and intimidating, dressed in all black with a whole heap of tattoos.


Unfortunately, this is the internet, where everyone is cynical as hell, and from which people sporting this brand of extreme earnestness rarely emerge unscathed.