Humble Beginnings

I discovered a new subreddit the other day called r/cringe. For those of you unfamiliar with Reddit (hard to imagine anyone on the Internet being unfamiliar with Reddit...but let's pretend), it is an Internet link aggregate site—with different “subreddits” dedicated to different topics of interest.  The subreddits run the gambit from the very broad (politics, funny, wtf) to the very specific (dragons fucking cars). r/cringe is a subreddit dedicated to videos, pics and internet links that, as the name would suggest, make you cringe. 

It makes sense that a site like this exists, since so much of the Internet is stuff that makes people cringe. From “fail” videos to inflammatory political rants and TMZ-style gossip. r/cringe is like a very concentrated version of the Internet—the pure Columbian cocaine of Internet shame. 

I don’t think I need to go into why I, and many others, like watching people crash and burn or try to explain it away as some post-post-modern phenomenon whereby an entire generation of hipsters feels more content to sit in front of their computers and judge people who are actually going out and making mistakes—with the misfortune of being cell-phone photographed or taped--more often than not, unwittingly. Because, at this point, I think everyone’s sick of hearing about it. 

Instead, I will provide you with a few links to some cringe-gems I found on r/cringe.

The first series of videos were taken from a public access channel in Hudsonville, Michigan. The show is called “Hot Tracks”—a weekly (I think—little to no information exists on this show—besides the webpage which, like the show, looks like something a middle-schooler made in some abstract time between 1991 and 1998) show featuring two dudes talking about music. 

One of the guys might be autistic. He looks and acts like a socially-unaware math geek. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of the titular subject of the documentary Billy the Kid. Like the kid in that movie, this guy also has a rat-tail (in some episodes at least) and seems unaware of himself or…anything besides Pirates of the Caribbean and the Foo Fighters. 

His co-host is a pudgy little guy with slicked-back hair and a tendency to make about as much sense as Steve Brule when talking about his ostensible area of expertise: music. 

Speaking of Steve Brule, it does seem odd to me that shows like this can still exist. The show is current, despite appearances. But it exists in its own world—a world where Tim and Eric and the Pitchfork Era of Irony haven’t happened yet. 

The hosts take themselves and their very myopic perspective on music very seriously. From the few clips on Youtube, they seem to like only a few things: the Foo Fighters, Pirates of the Caribbean--the soundtrack and the movie (though only one of the hosts has actually seen the movie) and Steve Perry (who is a “legend” because of his “hip problems). Strange for a show about music that they don’t cover more music. But—in all fairness—some of the clips on Youtube may be from the same show. 

It’s refreshing to see someone using the public access aesthetic without—well...being aware that it’s become an aesthetic. There’s no irony to what these guys do. They say things that Tim and Eric would say and dress like characters from Tim and Eric, but they’re being 100% genuine. And for some reason, seeing something shitty that isn’t trying to be shitty is really satisfying. Don’t get me wrong: I love Tim and Eric. I love Check It Out with Dr. Steve Brule, but it’s nice to see or to be reminded that: Oh, yeah. That style of comedy or satire came from a real place. 

Anyway: here's a clip. 

I suggest going to the channel page and watching all the Hot Track videos, starting with the first one listed. Whoever runs the page has it set up so that they all play, one after the other. 

I’m kind of surprised they haven’t blown up yet—either by going viral (the views at the time of this writing are still in the triple digits) or by being discovered by someone at Adult Swim who wants to give them a show. I e-mailed the videos to a friend, who said, in so many words, that the videos could be an audition tape for a writing job on Tim and Eric. I think I might write them and tell them to release a DVD or ask about going to a live taping.

The second thing I found was this political ad from Tennessee. Again, running with the public access theme, this video looks like it was shot by a middle-schooler who stole the camera his school uses to shoot the morning announcements and who fancies himself a bumpkin James Cameron since he discovered the green screen.

I’m not sure what platform the guy in the ad is running on (“planting ethanol”?) but he was at least passionate enough to film this commercial and add in all those super-snazzy effects. 

Growing up and living in Indiana, I’ve met a lot of impassioned patriots like this fellow. While this guy’s politics are a little fuzzy and even fuzzier when he tries to explain them—he at least cares enough to shoot a political ad. Who knows if he’s even in the running. He strikes me as someone who might mistakenly believe that if you shoot a really “cool” political ad with a bunch of "awesome" effects and send it to the government (no address--the package is just marked “government), they’ll put you on the ballot.

This ad is funny, sure. But I hear people say things like this all the time—and they make about as much sense. Like I said…Indiana.

The last video I’m going to leave you with is one that struck a particular chord with me because it involves a failed stand-up comedy performance. I think a lot about doing stand-up but my biggest fear is exactly what happens in this video. Not only does this kid bomb (and bomb worse than I've ever seen any comedian bomb) he also gets heckled (and when I say heckled, I mean he could probably go to the cops because of some of the stuff the hecklers say). 

It probably doesn't help that, besides the hecklers (who seem to already know and hate him), there are, like, two people in the club and neither of them seem to want to be there. Granted, his routine is rough. But....wow, they could have at least given him some pity laughs. 

I wouldn't want to be in a stranded-in-the-desert situation with any of the people at this club. As I'm lying on the ground, sun-baked and begging for water, I can imagine them standing over me with vacant expressions, taking full swigs from their canteens. Rather than do the decent thing (fake-laugh and perpetuate this kid's delusions of becoming--not even a successful comedian--but someone who tells jokes that people laugh at), they just sit there in icy silence and stare at the spectacle of failure before them, like Michael Myers in the Halloween movies, cocking his head to the side with detached curiosity--"ahh, so this is what death looks like"--as his victims plead for their lives.

It's almost surreal--and a little creepy. Like something out of a David Lynch film. A comedy club where the comedians are desperate for laughs that the crowd never gives. 

If you liked these videos (or even if you didn't), I suggest checking out r/cringe. There are plenty more videos like these, plus other goodies: a video of Patrick Stewart trying and failing to publicly humiliate a fat comedian; a compilation of rap-covers by a very old and very white church choir; and plenty of failed stand-up and just about any other form of entertainment videos you can think of.