cringe memes

Greetings, internet friends. We thought we'd take you on a little journey through meme history via @OldMemeArchive, our favorite repository of blursed relics of the internet. If you're old enough to remember the time of Rage Comics, Bad Luck Brian, Scumbag Steve and SomethingAwful.com, then you might feel a little nostalgic scrolling through these ancient memes from a forgotten era. Either that, or you'll cringe in embarrassment for your entire generation. Whether you think these le epic old memes represent a golden age, or you believe society has progressed past the need for impact font, you've gotta admit that those sure were simpler times. Le sigh.

If you're bored of relatable memes and fluffy wholesomeness, this cringe-packed wince-inducing batch of memes will be seriously refreshing. Instead of thinking about how wonderfully alike we all are, why don't we focus on the people who are f*cked up and all the terrible things that exist on the internet and IRL. 

We've all been through those angsty teen phases where fluctuations in hormones bring out the cringe in us. When I was 14, my worst display of teen angst was probably hiding in the bathroom during class to write poetry about being misunderstood. These days, the internet makes it much easier to embarrass ourselves by instantly oversharing and posting deep memes about the ills of society. But honestly, we're pretty into the 'deep' pseudo-philosophical cringe. Give us all the profound joker image macros and 'we live in a society' platitudes, because we think they're freakin' hilarious. 

We've got some great examples of cringey deep posts that were shared in earnest and self-reflexive memes that satirize the angsty teen voice.

Step right up for an absolutely terrible collection of the worst memes your grumpy grandpa or sexist cousin has ever tagged you in. Stumbling across these painful memes in their natural habitat is always an irksome experience, but being able to point and laugh at them with a friend is much more fun. So take a peak and give these awful memes your best facepalm. 

Not all memes are fun and games. Some memes are meant to make you think. We found a goldmine of platitudes, carefully crafted by the internet's most profound pseudo-philosophers. Did you know the 'earth' without 'art' is just 'eh'? Pretty deep, right? A wise person once said, 'we live in a society.' Don't ask us what this means...you wouldn't get it. 

Do you ever come across a screenshot of a text or comment that makes you feel like you just stepped on a lego? We just winced our way through r/cringetopia and r/insanepeopleonfacebook to check out the latest masters of mortification. To be fair, not all of them are that bad. We can't be too hard on someone who never learned how to properly eat chicken wings. But damn, some of these people should really just log off. Be warned: these painful displays of cringe elevated us to new levels of facepalming.

We all have that one friend who won't stop posting extremely cringe memes about being in a loving, wholesome relationship. Who knows, maybe you are that friend. Whether these memes make you want to DM a loved one or throw your phone out the window and curse the internet gods for allowing such wince-worthy content, we've got you. Take a gander at this collection of corny ass memes if you're feeling a bit masochistic. 

If you love yourself a little Karen schadenfreude, then get ready cause we have a whole roundup of MLM (otherwise known as pyramid schemes) memes and cringe posts for you to facepalm over. And guess what, we've got even more here!

Since the dawn of marketing, businesses have bent over backwards to appeal to the hottest demographic cohorts of the decades. There's nothing they won't co-opt, no 'hip slang' they won't butcher just to sell you a bag of chips. It's fun to imagine a highly neurotic social media marketing 'expert' in 2020 studying Urban Dictionary, furiously scribbling 'thicc' and 'mad sus bro' into a giant ledger. Brands aren't the only ones attempting to communicate with Zoomers through memes. Parents and teachers are putting on their 'fellow kids' hats in a desperate move to appeal to distracted students—though we think these attempts can be somewhat wholesome.

We've put together some of our favorite examples of corporate marketing teams and distressed teachers taking a stab at memeing. Most of the time they totally fail, but a few of these made us chuckle.

We're gonna give these people the benefit of the doubt and just assume they were having off-days. Either way, it's still fun to cringe and laugh at other people's misfortune sometimes, so scroll down and then click here to see more of that!

Some of our favorite humor is the kind that makes fun of people who think they're real deep. As is such, these particular memes are the perfect intersection of dank and cringe - they make fun of people who claim to have complex, multifaceted personalities. 

Scroll down to see some prime examples!

These nice guys really need to get a grip!

If you forgot to drink your coffee or are dealing with depression-related fatigue, we have a remedy for you! These unbelievably cringey pics are sure to shock you awake. You might be scarred for life but at least you can be a more alert and productive member of this capitalist society.

We're all familiar with the aphorism "Nice guys finish last." It seems that many self-proclaimed "nice guys" have contributed to a self-fulfilling dating prophecy by acting, well, the opposite of nice. These memes and pics embody just that kind of behavior.

We're not ashamed to admit that we are absolutely fascinated by wine moms. The basicness of their memes, their bizarre love for minions, and the sheer idea of how many gallons of pinot grigio they must have consumed as a demographic. To celebrate this very specific breed of wine-loving human, we've put together some of the most cringey and basic #winemom content we could find. National Wine Day may have been this past weekend, but if these moms are concerned, every day is National Wine Day!

We all have those family members or older acquaintances on Facebook who discovered memes a little later in life and just don't quite...get them. You know, the ones who love minions and the second-amendment? We can't be too mad at them for it though because meme-ing really is an art form that took most of us a bit of time to master. Regardless, here are 15 memes hilarious for their gargantuan amounts of cringe!