When Is It No Longer Satire? 

the first dude is sorta funny but i feel like sometimes a “you litty fr” slips out when he isn’t recording 😭

i think people like the first guy are funnier, because the type of person they’re making fun are usually assholes, not just other people being cringey

it’s painfully obvious why people switched up so fast on eddie munson. everyone and their mother was obsessed with him when the season first came out but the moment actual outcasts and especially neurodivergent people started expressing their love.. cosplays, fansongs, etc. they straight up BULLIED them. they just love the outcast character on screen until actual outcasts start expressing their love and they can’t stand being associated with them now. ill forever be an eddie fan idc 😗

“This isn’t a digital footprint, this is a digital shitstain.” -Saji Sharma I just subscribed, that was such a golden statement istg 😭 Inspirational quote of the day.

this is so real. i think that a lot of satire is funny and silly, but most of the time i think it only works if it's "making fun of" a trend or a piece of media or something like that, rather than like a specific type of person who just posted something unironically or acts a certain way unironically

thank you for mentioning the potential that people are mocking disabled (& specifically autistic) people. i’m autistic and have been bullied my entire life in literally every school i’ve went to, so i was forced to learn how to act a certain way in order to avoid it. a shit ton of the “cringy” tiktoks i see are things that remind me of how i acted when i was younger (even 14) and was still stubbornly holding on to who i was instead of withdrawing to avoid harassment. back then, i was legitimately so much happier. i was more engaged in art, openly interested in the media i liked, etc. now i hide all of my interests in order to avoid people recognizing me as anything other than a somewhat odd and overly formal teenager. its terrible because i imagine plenty of the autistic people harassed online for being “cringy” will have to carry on to do what i (and many others) have done & throw away the parts of themselves that receive that treatment.

Autistic and ADHD here just to say I genuinely felt like I was being bullied watching some of these. The way they’re talking is the way people used to talk when making fun of me in elementary and middle school. The faces they’re making, the exaggerated posture and crossing of the eyes. It’s all things people did to specifically make fun of me as a kid.

The first guy is identifying gross behavior and clearly riffing on it to show how absurd the behavior is. Mitzy feels like she genuinely hates peoples who react to things in ways she doesn’t. Like she just genuinely hates people that are different to her.

I feel like that 2010-ish era where "cringe" was at its peak we all suffered. It made me personally so self conscious as not to become one of the weird ones that I couldn't actually enjoy anything.

I really appreciate you talking about how a lot of satire content tends to mock neirodivergent, especially autistic people, I don't see it get brought up a lot so I'm glad to see more people acknowledging how it's kinda scummy Edit: with alpha pookie, I just wanna know what he's satirising?? Like who is acting like this? If he's just putting on a character that's not really satire? Just uncomfortable comedy

I just wanted to say I love your stutter, Saji. I have a stutter and it makes me feel insecure but seeing you doing reaction commentary with one really inspires me to embrace myself as I am and not limit myself because of anxiety. Thank you for the representation, king 🖤

Holy shit dude. Thank you for being the only person pointing out that a lot of people have disabilities (ex. Autism) and get bullied/parodied for being “cringe” and thank you for pointing out that it really can affect them. Nobody else ever seems to address it.

i don't think this is satire, i think it's absurdism

imo satire requires a solid joke or it becomes just regular mocking. like, i think the first guy does satire pretty well, there's a clear joke every time while the second girl's content is just "lol isn't this kind of person weird"

it's absurdist humor i think, tiktok just took the word satire and ran with it straight into hell. also that first lactating video was so painful i had to just close my eyes and shudder for several moments, and when i opened my eyes Saji was huddled up away from the camera so i'm glad it wasn't just me lmao

i love itsjulyski because hes knowingly mocking guys that are way too full of themselves and make that content online. he has a satirical motive and theres a whole joke to what he’s doing. but… the other creators… i cannot sit through their videos. they are unwatchable. they simply are there to make you uncomfortable and everyone around them uncomfortable. satire is commentary on something with context and that is widely known, and they are just… in general… being annoying and weird/making fun of other people. i call it cringe content instead of satirical because that is simply what it is LMAO.

hoping you get better soon🙏being french is such a horrific disease💔

thank you saji for bringing up the way people (often unknowingly) mock autistic people by participating in "cringe culture"

becoming extremely even more cringy by mocking cringy people is a true talent

as an avid moustache goatee combo hater, this actually looks very good on you

Thinking you're awkward for not disturbing the public is not awkward, dude! It's you being a decent human being. It just feels awkward because a lot of people don't care about others now :'(

Ok but in isolation, a guy in public screaming "I became very NONchaLANT" is so funny to me

I’ve been called cringe all my life, I’m autistic and that’s why I’m called embarrassing and cringe. Tbh I see why I would be called cringe when seeing these videos, but it hurts a lot because I know the way I’m acting like that is because I’m autistic and I know they know it’s because I’m autistic because I’ve told them.

I just found out about your channel and love it so much already, as an autistic person im so used to seeing commentary creators mock and laugh at my traits, it felt so nice to see you mentioning that a lot of people who are bullied for being "cringe" are just disabled or neurodivergent, thanks :)

Within the furry community we say “if you make fun of vore enough you’ll end up being into it”. By joking about something you associate feelings of joy with that thought and end up enjoying the thing itself.

"It's a joke. When you make that face, that means it's a joke." 90% of internet "satirists" in a nutshell.

The entire point of this genre of content is to make their audience uncomfortable/cringe, and it works 😭

'digital shit stain" [12:04] is so fucking hilarious

mitzy gives me "lele pons" reincarnate vibes, history will always repeat itself

The lactating tiktoks made me physically wince. Even if they weren't supposed to be dehumanizing I felt like I was both sexualized and reduced to a slab of meat (or a glass of milk i guess)

Every time I see mitsy content it just feels like lele pons under the guise of satire. Lele pons tried to be comedic with vine era humor but it just became her persona and stayed that way as the humor grew to be outdated. I derive the same feeling from whatever that “weeb” face is that I get from the quirky vine potato face.

I don’t think it’s cringey because it feels “real”. It’s cringey because of how hard the are trying to make fun of certain people. It’s “pick me” and “not like others” all over again

That first alpha pookie video made my boobs recess into my chest with how badly I wanted to get away from that man. Even if it is supposed to be satire that is just plain creepy and uncomfortable. My fight or flight urge is peaked.

I really appreciate that a lot of this could be mocking disabled and autistic people. The internalized ableism that I experienced because I was a “weird dnd anime kid” and got bullied for it caused me to feel really uncomfortable with myself until I reached college where I found other people who are like me and living unapologetically that make me feel comfortable to be myself

It’s kinda funny about the alpha pookie thing because I had a class with him last year and he was so damn quiet and nothing like his online persona it’s just weird

Thank you so much for opening my eyes in a way to how these satirical videos can be very abelist/ mock neurodivergent people, because I'm gonna be honest I've seen and liked many of Misty's videos ever since she started making videos centered around like wolf girls and I found it funny because as a kid I used to be that kind of kid who pretended they were an animal or wtv, but recently as I saw her on my fyp it became less funny but I thought it was just because it was supposed to be cringe and make me not wanna watch. U have def opened my eyes to the type of content I was consuming. I also see a lot of people who mock other people's videos and I feel terrible that in a way I was supporting people who were literally just making fun of kids or people who just may not have been neurotypical.

I think itsjulyski is actually funny because he's making fun guys who are trying to be cool and masculine, basically f-boys. But the second tik toker you shower, amoing fun of furries and anime and stuff, it really did feel like she was just making fun of autistic people.

i also think there's a weird element of infantilization that happens, especially with the mitsy ones, that feels gross to me. another convo for another time, i think, but this kind of content is a big reason why i stopped going on tiktok lol. thanks for talking ab it saji!

Ive said for years that "doing something ironically" for long enough, just means you're doing the thing

the “you missed your chance sweetheart” sent me 😭

im so glad you brought up the mocking thing i feel like half the time i see content like this im like 'thats just making fun if autistic traits' also, a lot of "cringe" groups like furries/weebs/ "baby gays" are full of neurodivergent and/or really young people.

i’m living for saji’s mustache era tbh🥱🥱🥱

You mentioning how people are mocking potentially neurodivergent/disabled people (autistic people more that others) genuinely made me feel seen, because I felt like very few people did notice, and thought it was funny. Like when Stranger Things came out a lot of people were mocking "Eddie Stans", which were mostly people who had special interests (something that shows up a lot in the autistic community). Especially that one video where people at a convention were gathered around and in cosplay, and they were just having fun. So many people just made fun of them. It was kind of gross.

There’s a certain school of philosophy called meta modernism. In a nutshell it’s acknowledging the medium as a platform to perform but also acknowledging that you are a character in a way. It’s very popular in self referencing media like Deadpool, or TV reboots from the 90s. It’s kinda on a spectrum of sincerity to cringe based how well the viewer knows the “real world version” beyond the content of a certain creator/ character. I’m currently working on a paper/ podcast/ video on this idea and it’s new form: postmetamodernism. You’re really hitting the bullseye on how we express ourselves in the online space. If you’d ever like recommendations on the subject lmk

in the nicest, coolest way possible, the facial hair makes you look like a one hit wonder rap star from the 90s that 30 years later would have his song sped up and made into a tiktok sound. Also the video was very good 👍

I also feel the need to cry after watching these. As you said with needing a new word for this instead of satire, that’s how I feel about the word cringe in this. Like it makes my physically cringe, but not even like secondhand embarrassment. It’s like secondhand shame, mixed with fear and disgust and I cannot even explain what parts of it are evoking the reaction. Probably knowing much of it is mocking people with disabilities adds onto that :/

i really appreciate you mentioning the way cringe culture often mocks neurodivergent people, specifically autistic people. because of cringe culture and the way i was treated by my peers when i was younger, i spent a lot of adolescence trying to hide myself, my interests, and who i was for fear that i would be perceived as cringe or weird. it’s only recently that i’ve become comfortable being myself and doing “cringy” things and seeing content like this get so much attention really irks me. i hate the idea of young people feeling the need to hide themselves for fear that grown adults will make mockeries of them💀💀

this is the first time I heard someone with a stutter other than myself. its interesting to hear a stutter, now i know what I sound like to others as well. Keep going king.

Okay but the 10:30 one made me wheeze. The combination of mocking men who misuse kink/BDSM culture, a white surfer boy accent, girls dancing like spiders, & the fact that what kicked it off was a pun ("eat" not as in "eating food" but as in "they're going off") just pushed my funny buttons the right way. I think a lot of their videos would come off better if they 1) Laid off the gross-out humor 2) Had better comedic timing for when to end clips, and 3) Tell bits of truth in their vids about what exactly they're mocking. That's when satire works- you're telling truths while mocking the thing. Or else it's powerless, or goes full-circle.

The issue with satire is that it is meant to criticize or call attention to something. This can end up going both ways. Are they criticing societal reactions or are they criticizing the people? Even if they are criticizing society, satire has to be recognized to be effective. Satire of societal racism just looks like racism if it's not recognized. The best example I can think of is FilthyFrank. He created a caricature of a human being and there were a lot of people who genuinely liked and agreed with that persona. So in his fanbase, there were two groups, the people who got the joke and the people who related to the caricature. Honestly, I think as long as they have some other platform where they do something else then things are fine. Joji made music outside his FilthyFrank persona and people could see that he was completely different in reality.

In my personal opinion as a neurodivergent person I find a lot of these “cringe” viral videos to blatantly be a neurodivergent person just having fun, being themselves, and then an onslaught of hate and memes come their way and it’s just so cruel in my opinion. I appreciate you touched on this cause a lot of commentary creators cater to this idea rather than looking at the judgment objectively and questioning if it’s kind.

The thing that I think takes the satire a step or two too far is when they themselves go too far. For example, the one about the spicy pic I think is kinda funny. I go to school with guys unironically like that so it's kinda like haha relatable. But that senpai skit I think is just too much. Taking the joke to a point where instead of it being slightly uncomfortable in mocking, it becomes as uncomfortable as what they're mocking. I'm also glad that you mentioned people who (unknowingly or not) make fun of disabled/neurodivergent people. I myself am on the spectrum and it gets really sad and scary to talk about my hyperfixations sometimes. My interests are seen as cringy or obsessive without people really understanding why I devote so much time to these things. As well as being made fun of when I meltdown over a seemingly small thing. I have misophonia and I've had literal panic attacks over the sound of chewing. Or when certain textures/sounds are overwhelming I've had breakdowns over that, too. Not to mention overanalyzing social situations to the point I breakdown. I try to be as welcoming and listen best I can to my friends with autism. And I always feel so horrible when people make fun of them for being "cringy". (Which is part of the reason I do not and will never make fun of and hate on furries.)

saji!! i literally just graduated from university and now i get to enjoy this video as a gift :)

sajis hat is cooler than any piece of clothing I've ever owned.

the long pauses after each of these end is such a fucking refreshing gasp of fresh air

This is the first video of Saji I have seen and Im glad I watched it. I feel seen and almost weirdly represented by this creator. I have an articulation disorder and always been overwhelmed when I make mistakes when speaking. The fact you can edit and redo parts of video to make it “perfect” and chose not to meant a lot to me. I definitely have seen more mocking in my life instead of representation. So just thank you for not editing it out ❤

Let’s all give a moment of silence for Saji’s lost brain cells and his noble sacrifice to make us all laugh🙏🏻😭

When Big Red came out and people were making fun of and cringing at young teenage girl characters, I saw a post that said something like “don’t kill the part of you that’s cringy, kill the part of you that cringes.” I think in this modern “cringe culture,” if you will, we want to feel like we’re self aware and laughing at things that are self aware, and we go too far. We find something wrong with everything and that’s honestly something I struggle with a lot on the internet in terms of me having made fun of people like this too. Where I think it goes too far is when you cross into this mockery, especially not understanding what you’re making fun of sometimes.

I just found your channel from this video and I love it. I love your vocabulary and the way you speak, and I really appreciate how respectful you are no matter how much you dislike the content you are viewing. I found this video quite intriguing and I loved hearing your take on the subject of what satire is. You have just earned yourself one more subscriber.

these kind of tiktoks give me flashbacks to growing up undiagnosed autistic. having people take the piss because i’d never stop talking about whatever thing i was hyperfixating on. or mocking me because i wore the same item of clothing over and over.

Content especially like mitsy can 100% just be underlying ableism (not saying it is all the time BUT it is common) and a lot of content like that is basically just to make fun of the ""weird"" kids, who in most, if not all, cases are autistic or have ADHD much like myself. Her type of content is just essentially middle school bullying and that's why its so unfunny and just feels like she just wants to make fun of neurodivergent kids with special interests in something

i feel like the people that make fun of eddie munson fans are usually worse than the fans, it's just people who really like a character they might idolize or relate to, it's especially harmful when these people make fun of them due to the fact lots of neurodivergent people relate to eddie!

Reminds of that crunchy mom that everyone thought was satirical but then she started defending the crunchy lifestyle 💀 like it did genuinely seem she first tried to be satire but then became genuine?

tik tok “satire” has also become just making fun of peoples appearances or style. for instance i saw this girl making fun of another girl who had a lot of highlight in the corner of her eyes. it’s strange because it’s like some sort of inside joke with no context that turns out to just be straight up bullying.

as an autistic person with ocd that is very based on how other people and how they see me cringe culture has kinda like ruined my mental health

Reminder; a lot of cringe culture is inherently ableist. Are you cringing? Take a different standpoint. I used to 'cringe' a lot about my past self as an autistic being. I was traumatized by people like this, in those video's, that bullied me for my behaviour until the only thing i could do was copy them. Let's throw 'cringe' out of our vocabulary, and add in more words like 'ignorant'. ( note, I also have a speech impediment which also juggle my words whilst typing) edit: reminder that a multitude of people get hurt by this ableism, not just autistics! I see a lot of ocd 'cringe', schizophrenia, tics, adhd, and soo much more belongs to neurodivergency alone! Sometimes people also make cringe stuff about physically disabled people, so sadly, ableism is everywhere. ( which is then wrapped in racism)

thanks for sharing this video, it sucks mocking those who are wired differently, are different to mainstream societal standards or are simply hyper about what they like has become a sport that's celebrated. That's why I've always felt weird about "cringe culture" as I always thought it's lowkey bullying.

“Who are you when youre not performing for evryone else”

i know all the comments are already saying this but im glad that you mentioned how a lot of “cringe culture” is rooted in ableism a lot of the time. im neurodivergent and i used to be really hyperfixated on certain things that a lot of the internet hated, which was honestly really sad because i obviously cant control my hyperfixations and i cant stop them just because others dont like it. ive always hated the term cringe in general but im really glad you made this video saji!! :)

I think this kind of content falls more under like meta irony or post irony. It’s definitely not not satire or ironic but i get what you mean, like if no one understands it’s a joke than is it even a joke?

i'm so glad other people feel the same bc i never see criticism of this on tiktok. i've always found it a bit weird how we have repackaged just mocking people as some sort of quality content. especially when most of the time, its random people who just posted a video not expecting it to go viral, and be mocked and remade by others to be bullied.

ur so right about the stuff in this video. i feel like a lot of people push aside that the fact that most satire/cringe comedy is made (usually not intentionally) to poke fun at autistic/disabled people. i personally find certain satirical comedy funny. i hate things that make fun of others, but i feel like if something that doesn't poke fun at other people specifically and is instead random/satire humor is much funnier. (im autistic btw) cool vid

Babe wake up Saji uploaded

Half of this is making fun of autistic traits and the "collab" making fun of content that shows supportive partners of those with EDs seems equally heinous. Normalizing a partner "helping" with EDs and other mental illness is not cringe, it is helpful to show people they don't need to suffer in silence.

Just found your channel thanks to the algorithm, first video I’ve seen if yours so far and I love it! Keep up the wonderful work, and thank you for your message of support to anyone with any sort of disability 💚

it took me a long time to realize that the "weird kid pov"s were meant as bullying and not as nostalgia bait. they just made me fondly remember finding other autistic kids for the first time in middle school.

i feel really uncomfy with people makign fun of people for really liking specific characters. As an autistic person, I find that i tend to hyperfixazte on characters or games, and its really harmful to see people mocking it because its not like i want to hyperfixate on a character, I just dont really have a choice. Its reall y hurtful and has real world consequences such as increased bullying for autistic traits. I'm glad Saji pointed it out :3

As a teen my ex used my autism against me exactly like that “weeb couple” tiktok. That in a relationship you “owed your partner sex.” Really appreciate a grown ass bully using my trauma and that of many autistic people with similar experiences to show how cringy and annoying we are ✌🏻 (This isn’t a criticism against Saji for including it. Just wanted to comment in case autistic teens read this. You’re great as you are and it’s normal for other people to respect you and your boundaries. Less than that is abuse. You’ll make it through

So true omg, sometimes these creators do make a serious video and i never know what i should believe and what i shouldnt, always so confusing when they have a character

The anime couple one makes me kind of sad, because they hardly do anything wrong. The weird possessive stuff could be concerning, but the character immediately qualifies it with "with consent," so, y'know, less worrisome. They come across to me like a neurodivergent couple who found someone who understands all their habits and mannerisms seen as "weird" by neurotypicals. The part that rly makes me sad about it being a joke is the "sorry" "it's okay pookie!" "...thank you." Like that just 1000% sounds like how couples with anxiety or attachment issues talk to each other. Cringe? Maybe. It's in the eye of the becringer. However, regardless, it's wholesome. They're setting healthy boundaries and supporting each other's needs. And the actors even mimic the stiff stances, stiff expressions, rehearsed-looking movements, and fidgeting. Like, do they REALLY not realize that they're JUST acting like someone ND, probably on the spectrum, when they do that? (I hope that's okay for me to say, I have ADHD.) I guess some people are really unaware of that stuff, but ugh, it bothers me so so much :/

half of this seems like unfunny bullying and the other half is kink content disguised as """satire"""

thank you so much for talking about this, a voice like yours is so important to call attention to what these people are doing in mocking individuals with autism, like myself, and not many have or will call them out

IMO satire ends when it starts hurting others physically and mentally or starts influencing others to start inflicting hurt

i think people just assume that by doing satire you’re inherently being funny but they don’t realise that you still actually have to be funny

I feel like women get more followers this way because no one ever believes we are joking. You can tell people you're just joking and they still think you're a bimbo.

Congratulations on 100k!!!

im glad this was more of a critique rather than a "cRinGe" compilation where u just insult everyones appearance for no reason. cuz of the impact from these compilations. ppl cannot be themself harmlessly in peace anymore. it just makes me want to mask even more when i see the harassment ppl go thru thanks to those terrible compilations. its also made me extremely insecure and im now aware how i behave when i unmask (but not completely. there are times i cant tell when i irk other ppl unless they point it out but based on how i feel and how i see the way they treat me, it makes me aware, its hell) so it overwhelms me when i cannot be myself around others esp when i cannot tell if i make em weirded out or not. its torture when they wont even admit, not to mention they probably watch cringe compilations that display my behavior and im afraid to admit i unironically act like this but less exaggerated in fear of being bullied and isolated. being neurodivergent is an everyday struggle..

I think one interesting thing about this genre of content is that these creators kind of get to determine what is and isn't cringe. They don't say why it is, the way that long form content creators like Saji do, they just recreate it and in the process tell the viewer they are supposed to dislike the original content without explaining why.

“satire” is one of those words where the internet read the definition, removed all key pieces of that definition and placed them in a blender, turned on the blender, and dropkicked it into oblivion, and THEN started overusing the word like the world depends on it. other words that have fallen victim to The Internet Nonsense Blender™ (only 29.99 plus shipping!) include gaslighting, narcissist, and CRT

Just stumbled upon your Channel and thought your commentary was really interesting! You got yourself a new sub 👊🏻

I did a research on memes for my english course this semester about the restoration of the study of memetics. And this video really expressed why memetics should have actual academic credit behind it, at least in psychology. I have seen many of the kids in the younger generation (born after like 2009; maybe 2011) copy these videos unironically because they do not know the difference between satire and reality. And many of them might exhibit different mental illnesses without actually having them because they are simply copying their "role models" online. With an era so heck bent on mental health awareness, the next era is going to look bleak with way more people getting prescribed medicine they don't need. And that's just a con I could think of off the top of my head. My younger sister (2009) had a phase of making fun of people with disabilities because they were doing that on tiktok. My brother (2012) screams randomly at times for no reason, probably his way of checking his own existence or trying to get a little attention towards him as the youngest sibling idk bruh. I would see kids when I'm on my shift acting crazy. Kids have always been crazy of course. But they do things that they constantly copy off of tiktok. And it's annoying to say the least. Not to mention they are way more digitally native than my generation (being a 20 year old male); I saw a maybe 9 or 10 year old in a shopping cart just so he could still be on his tablet. Not all kids are loke that though of course, but sheesh is it a lot of them. Next generation twitter warriors, but I wouldn't want to condemn my worse enemy to such a fate.

2:49 i am losing it at the deeep laugh

10:44 🐑🐑 bae 🐑🐑boing boing boing 🐑🐑you are literally eating YOU ARE EATING🦍🦍

this is the first video ive seen of yours and im immediately in love

What’s weird to me is like… nobody is actually like this. Never seen anyone be this overblown. The only people that do are people who are trying to make fun of people that occasionally show a joy level above a 4/10 so I just can’t not be annoyed by it. This was done to me as a kid a LOT and I remember mostly just being confused and creeped out by others doing a purposely terrible impression of me. Nobody that does this isn’t the most annoying person to be around. I’d take any amount of excited happiness from someone on something I don’t care about over dealing with any individual that thinks this is genuinely funny 😬

This man is very fine that’s all

remember kids it's only satire if you're punching up (ie wealthy elites who's actions influence our lives), if you're punching down (neurodivergent people and literal children just having fun) it's just Bullying

Please put a flashing warning if you can at any point. The filter at 9:30 messes with my epilepsy. Thanks for another awesome video!

CONGRATS ON 100K!!!!

so random but as much as I wasn't on board with frosted tips coming back, the way Saji's blonde curls grew out & turned out to be the best frosted tips look I've ever seen still has me shocked