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What makes you cringe, pandas? Is it the screeching sound of nails on a chalkboard? Looking back through your middle school yearbook to remind yourself what was considered “fashionable”? Perhaps nothing causes your body to recoil more than ignorant people on the internet having way more confidence than they should? If the last one hit the bullseye for you, strap in, it’s going to be an uncomfortable ride.

Below, we’ve gathered some of the worst posts from CringetopiaRM and Cringetopia_Two on Reddit, and I’ll warn you right now, the second-hand embarrassment is strong. Keep reading to find interviews with Reddit user Dragonier_, one of the moderators of Cringetopia_Two, and Timo, one of the moderators of CringetopiaRM, who were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda, and don’t forget to upvote all of the pics that cause a visceral reaction of cringe for you!

#1 Huh What Did U Hear?

Image credits: Terrible_Okra5382

#2 Having Æøå Or Åäö In Your Name Is Nordic Supremacy Racism!

Image credits: WhoAmIEven2

#3 Paris Hilton Promoting Her Products And Spraying Her Perfume On Victims Of An Earthquake In 2018

Image credits: buntywabbitt

Cringe content is popular all over the internet, as it seems to be a genre that has unlimited sources to pull from, but today we’ll be diving deeper into the subreddits CringetopiaRM (or Cringetopia Remastered) and Cringetopia_Two. The two groups are partnered with one another and have amassed an impressive 116k followers combined, over the course of only 2 and a half years. To learn more about how these two realms of Cringetopia came about, we reached out to Reddit user Dragonier_, one of the moderators of Cringetopia_Two, and Timo, one of the moderators of CringetopiaRM.

“Both this and our partner sub, CringetopiaRM, were created as a continuation of the former Cringetopia subreddit,” Dragonier_ told Bored Panda. “As for the inspiration, I’ll attempt to give you a (not so) brief rundown of our recent history, as it is only really explainable in this context. About a year or so ago, the original Cringetopia ran into issues where the owner decided that it would be a good idea to create a Reddit-like website dedicated to hosting the community, and attempted to migrate their user base to it,” the moderator explained.

“The reason for this has been, so far, speculation amongst the community, but is a mix of increasingly strict site-wide rules on Reddit making the sub’s operations restrictive, and the possibility that the owner wanted to generate their own revenue through a proxy site.”

#4 Edp445 Watched Into The Spider-Verse

Image credits: reddit.com

#5 Cringe

Image credits: -Rhyco-

#6 The Media Is Blowing Stuff Up As Per Usual

Image credits: Qu_ge

“To motivate their users to make the move, they formulated a story where a rogue moderator (who I shall not name) posed as a furry and started trolling the subreddit by only allowing furry-related posts and posts that praised the furry community – one of the primary communities that we would consider cringe,” Dragonier_ continued. “So it was against the nature of the subreddit.”

“This ended up backfiring on them, as it subsequently caused the deterioration of the former subreddit, and influenced the creation of a number of ‘splinter’ subreddits to form by their own members in protest of this,” he told Bored Panda. “CringetopiaRM and Cringetopia_Two are simply the two subs that gained the most traction in this time as the original community split and flocked to these.”

#7 I Don’t Even Know What To Write Here

Image credits: yourlocalpzxcv

#8 They Can’t Handle The Truth

Image credits: scaptastic

#9 Getting Mad Because A Child’s Art Got Recognized

Image credits: SoarinFree

Timo, moderator of CringetopiaRM, added that he was confident that this new subreddit would gain a large following, because the original Cringetopia had 2 million members. “That’s why I wanted to invest a lot of time in it,” he told Bored Panda. “Seeing it grow made me happy to see that we did a good job and that our work paid off.”

“For me, it has been quite rewarding to see both communities grow to the size that they are, and you can’t help but smugly grin in light of what has happened,” Dragonier_ shared. “Whilst Cringetopia_Two may not be as large as our partner sub, we still host a faithful community, and the emphasis is not on the size of the sub but the quality of our posts. I fear we may eventually face the same problems as the original Cringetopia subreddit as we grow in size, but such is the ‘lifecycle’ of any community on this website. So we will enjoy this freedom whilst we still have it…”

The moderators explained that both subs can be seen as the successors of the former Cringetopia subreddit. “However I can not take credit for that, as that was down to u/Reddit-User-3000. We are just part of the teams that carefully moderate these subreddits,” Dragonier_ added.

#10 My Mother In Laws Lawn Guy Thinks This Is Flirting. He’s 41 Btw

Image credits: LucidMethodArt

#11 Wtf Did He Do At 12? His First Prosthetic Leg?

Image credits: FortEdit

#12 I’m Tired Boss

Image credits: Zek0ri

We were also curious what the moderators’ thoughts were on why people enjoy this type of cringey content so much, considering that it seems to bring people physical pain. “I think it all boils down to our mutual need for drama,” Dragonier_ told Bored Panda. “People want to watch other people acting strange and abnormally, because it is entertaining to us. We all ironically enjoy feeling second-hand embarrassment for others and reading the opinions and reactions from other people in the community. I think it is a positive thing.”

He also noted with a laugh that he doesn’t think his community’s posts go so far as causing viewers pain very often. “But our members tend to frequently use this analogy in a metaphorical sense,” he added.

#13 “Why Haven’t You Responded Kitten?”

Image credits: toasted314

“I liked watching cringey posts to see that not everybody is perfect,” Timo told Bored Panda. “I could also have a laugh at how stupid some people are, but I took high precautions to make sure nobody would get bullied on the subreddit by validating if a person has been posted on the subreddit before,” he added. “Cringe just gives a strange feeling that you don’t get a lot in public, if I am being honest.”

#14 Girls Who Are Like This, Are The Definition Of Toxic

Image credits: Mr_Jackcity

#15 You Heard Guys Boys Are Immune To Mental Trauma

Image credits: Usagi_x_x

And while the page is intended to be a fun space, Dragonier_ also noted that the moderators work hard to ensure that these posts and comments do not turn into harassment. “Or inspire what we call ‘witch hunts’, where members from our community seek the accounts of the individuals in our posts en masse with the intention of harassing them,” he noted. “It’s a responsibility we have to take very seriously, because we know it can have massive negative impacts on the individuals involved.”

#16 Omg You Aren’t Gonna Listen To Bts Music I’m So Offended

Image credits: OpposedScroll75

#17 Miss No

Image credits: reddit.com

#18 Mcdonald’s Final Boss

Image credits: Lokki78

“We don’t want to make people feel distressed,” the moderator of Cringetopia_Two told Bored Panda. “So it’s imperative to ensure that the opinions expressed within our community are contained. However, understandably we cannot accept responsibility for what our members do outside of the subreddit. All we can do is promote this ethical behavior within the bounds of our community.”

#19 I… I Just Wanted To See Actual Pictures Of The Chair…?

Image credits: GretSeat

#20 “I Love Erasing Women!!” She Was A Real Person Ffs And Crossdressed To Join The Military

Image credits: Gmaxincineroar

#21 “This Of Course Isn’t The Main Purpose Of My Trip”

Image credits: HotGeorgeForeman

We were also curious if Dragonier_ could share any personal favorite posts that he’s ever seen shared in Cringetopia. “I generally like all posts that come through the door from our members,” he told Bored Panda. “However, there is one post that has stood out to me the most, and it’s a screenshot of someone unironically saying something utterly disgusting along the lines of ‘none of the kids in the Uvalde shooting went to heaven’. I just thought it was a comment that was extremely disrespectful to the families involved and deserves a spot on our subreddit as one of the best worst posts of all time.”

“It was one of those posts that you feel your face physically screw up at, it’s that cringe,” he added. “These kinds of posts are the ones that I am particularly fond of, because they are the posts that deserve to be called out the most, and are the peak of cringe content on here. And I’m very proud of our community that we generally hold a mutual agreement on this, that there is a line which we do not cross.”

#22 I Know She Wasn’t A Great Person At All But At Least Show Some Respect

Image credits: autisticattack

#23 Skinny Shaming!? Not On My Watch

Image credits: BussyChungus

#24 This Kid Is Going To Get Bullied So Bad

Image credits: TrainerKujo

Finally, we asked the moderators if they believes certain people are more prone to being cringey or if we’re all capable of falling victim to the cringe. “You could argue that there are certain communities like ‘TikTok’ or ‘furries’ which are cringe as a whole. However, I think that’s a very narrow-minded view, and being cringe is on a personal basis, rather than a collective one,” Dragonier_ told Bored Panda. “There are people who act cringe from all communities, but there are also those who are not and don’t fit the idea of our sub. Our subreddit provides both a platform for us to share this content, but also one to judge whether it deserves to be here. And in some cases, we do vote in favor of the accused, rather than the accuser. Not everyone from a certain community is ‘cringe’, per-se.”

“Some stereotypes of people are indeed more vulnerable to being posted on the sub than others, but everybody can be cringe,” Timo added.

#25 Bro Went Out

Image credits: Dull-Constant-3097

#26 No Addiction Is Good You Idiot

Image credits: Emperor_PoopyHead

#27 What Did His Mom Do To Her

Image credits: FickleThanks6901

How are you feeling, pandas? You’ve made it pretty far into the list. Has your body become incredibly tense? Remember to relax your jaw, and rest your muscles. There are many pics left to “enjoy”… Keep upvoting the photos that you find particularly cringey, and feel free to share about any of the most embarrassing behavior you’ve ever witnessed online in the comments below. Then, if you can handle an even deeper dive into the world of Cringetopia, be sure to check out one of Bored Panda’s previous articles featuring a similar Twitter account right here!