On Cringe

I just found out this jam exists. It's four hours to the deadline as I type, but I'll be damned if I can't yap.

Obvious Foreword About AI

I was introduced to this jam mere hours to the deadline by Sawyer Friend, who wrote his own manifesto on making your favorite game. Sawyer is the reason I have been able to make anything of myself as a creative, whether it be turning my passion for writing video game music into a legitimate side hustle or discovering the raw unbridled joy of making games and telling stories. In nearly all of these manifestos, we preach the beauty of just making something. It doesn't have to be good or refined, but it should speak to our tastes. This is something I've always kept on the forefront of my mind as I create. I'm the only callmeDJ on the planet, so naturally everything I make should be through my own lens. It could be as grand as my hopes and dreams for the world at large forming the overarching narrative of a story or as tiny as personal anecdotes from my life sneaking into inconspicuous NPC dialogue. Or hell, it could even be my five thousandth suspended V chord in a feeble attempt to pretend I'm Motoi Sakuraba or Nobuo Uematsu.

After all, why shouldn't we put every ounce of our individuality into everything we make? We're living through a growing conspiracy where billionaires are training algorithms to practice the arts while preaching the inevitability of all of us working in factories putting tiny little screws into iPhones. Said iPhones will be plugged into massive servers in bulk and used by LLM models to spew venom on Twitter, driving "engagement" through the roof and making Elon Musk brag about how X Dot Com The Everything App's usage has never been higher. With the very loud "artists are cooked" narrative said billionaires are spewing, I'm pretty damn the end goal is to suppress our voices and prevent any kind of counterculture. Shut up, work job, breed and produce more fleshy little guys that put more screws in more iPhones. Invent the Torment Nexus. That way they can keep stripping us of basic human rights while making sure we can't do jack all about it.

I often think of my first memories of the internet in these times. Anyone remember personal websites? Back before Facebook and Twitter and all them, we just made websites for ourselves. Goofy little fun facts, invaluable information on our interests, shoddy CSS, those crusty ass little GIFs and banners. There was so much individuality back then, a far cry from the bland, homogenous social media profiles of today. I'd make some remark about how I'm rose tinting it and a queer like myself would be blasted with death rays for being gay on the internet, but at this point I wouldn't say things are too different right now. That's not the point though; we need to reclaim that Wild West spirit of the olden internet and really put everything out there. Visually, audibly, and metaphysically.

Nice manifesto, right? Make art be yourself who cares AI exists don't be AI. Buzz Lightyears on a shelf GIF. Here's the thing; there's one big word I've been forgetting this entire time. It's evolved from a fate worse than death to a rallying call of pure, unabashed joy and individuality.

Cringe

There's a mantra that resounds from the corners of the internet and beautifully sums up the above section; "to be cringe is to be free." It's the act of freeing yourself from pandering to any external tastes and instead making something you want to see, audience be damned. As powerful as generative AI is becoming, this is the one thing it will never be able to fully claim. If you build an audience that sees a bit of itself in your art, awesome. At its core, however, you are making art and having a blast and that is what counts. I love this mentality, but my past has made it very hard for me to equate this with "cringe."

I grew up in the mid-tens internet and cringe used to be a hell of an insult. I was no stranger to The Cringe Channel and the Cringeworthy gallery on KnowYourMeme. I would laugh at something as innocuous as an obnoxious cosplayer or as woefully misunderstood as what we then called Le Epic Triggered Feminazi (god I hate that I'm typing this phrase in 2026). I don't even think I fully understood why back then, especially as an extremely awkward and bitter teenager.

As I grew up, I realized what was the harm? What genuine harm was any of this doing? Was the cosplayer making a fool of themself, or were they just having a blast dressing up as and acting like their favorite character? Was Le Epic Triggered Feminazi an irrational man-hater or someone who had endured hardship and oppression for decades, spoke out, and got laughed back into the corner from whence she came? Ultimately, was the entire point of the cringe movement to dogpile random ass people into submission for a cheap power fantasy and maybe 15 minutes of fame? What with Chris Chan, JustinRPG, callmeDJ, Daniel Larson...

Wait, callmeDJ?!

If you know me from feats such as winning Best Music in the RPG Maker 2025 Game Jam or composing for Toontown Rewritten for two years, this next sentence may surprise you. I'm one of them. I'm a lolcow. I have played the role of a designated Chris Chan in more than enough communities for over two decades. Being played for a fool, exploited for laughs, and called Civil War-era slurs to my face and behind my back has been a core part of my identity as long as I've been on the internet. No matter where I went, I'd beef my first impression and nothing would be the same after that.

This lasted until I became more present in a niche little slice of the internet in 2021 after four-ish years of lurking. While I simply joined because I loved what I saw the community doing, the members I looked up to genuinely wanted to see me go far. No bad first impression, no immediate mocking, nothing. They just kinda liked me. This shattered my brain into a million pieces and I still have yet to find a good chunk of them. Being a laughingstock had been practically forced into my DNA to the point where I didn't even question it, but now I had to face the reality that what I went through wasn't normal at all. I genuinely had no idea what to do.

And look, I'm gonna be real. A lot of the lolcows I mentioned above brought it upon themselves, myself included. I had a tendency of making horrible first impressions and being too open about personal matters I should have resolved privately. I would make constant foot-in-mouth remarks with zero awareness of what I was doing. I would even go as far as to say much of the treatment I received was not only deserved but needed. Realizing that I was going down that path again made me put a decade's worth of work into myself. Even then, though, I don't think my natural Golden Retriever energy sits well with a good chunk of the people I know.

Building on this, I still wonder if I've made any progress at all. Am I stuck in a lolcow Samsara? Am I alienating a community, moving on to another, being treated the same exact way, and not realizing it? Does that community I joined in 2021 even like me, or is this community of 800 or so users all putting on the same collective pretend-to-like-me facade and joking about doing things to me that would require a content warning in their little private chats? Am I still dumb as ever? Will I be this dumb until the day I die? This stuff does not go away, man.

But like what am I talking about, right? Cringe is dead! It has to be! Everyone says so! You can make anything! You can put your soul into it! You can go far with it!  You can become a beacon of hope for indie animators with something deeply personal! You can go from a quirky pilot to a theatrical release! And look at the reception you can get off something so personal! You can have people uncovering dirt from a decade ago and acting like that's you right now! Wowie zowie! People will dehumanize you for your queer identity and pretend you're associated with the IDF and... pray for your inevitable suicide and... oh no.

The Cringe Movement Is Alive But Wokely

I do not think the cringe movement from 2015 is dead. I will even go as far as to say the people who tell you to be cringe are talking out their ass. The internet still has the same eternal raging boner for finding The Next Chris Chan. The irony and bitterness that has defined the modern internet has reached critical mass and formed a logic loop that has transcended time and sent us back to 2015.

My shining example of this is the recent controversy around The Amazing Digital Circus. I've only watched the first episode and I heard they kinda beefed the ending, but that first episode's release was something truly special. It was a beacon of hope for indie animators who felt crushed by the direction of the animation industry. Flash forward to The Last Act and pretty much everything I said at the end of the last section happened. I'll admit I'm not incredibly associated with the TADC fandom and I'm most likely missing some information here, but watching Gooseworx go from being excited to just talk about the show she worked on for so long to wanting to be done with it all was demoralizing to watch. But hey, it's okay to be transphobic toward her because she said something that sounded a little weird and racist a decade ago! I've always thought Gooseworx was just a tad bit annoying, but it's not making me want to tear her apart with my bare hands while calling her a man in a dress. Get real.

And on top of all this? The Amazing Digital Circus is very high quality! Yeah I know it's Glitch humor, but the animation and voice acting are high-caliber. If something as prestigious and well known as TADC can still become the target of worldwide ridicule, what about something with less budget or firepower behind it? I've seen plenty of indie games that look at least neat but get absolutely dogpiled by Twitter for seemingly no reason. Trees Hate You was making Twitter users beg for the mass genocide of every indie dev for what, being a little quirky? And that jump roping game? I know it's not wise of me to judge humanity by what Twitter thinks, but trust me when I say that this kind of sensationalist engagement-baiting hatred plus the inevitable AI epidemic is doing everything but making me want to express myself.

If you believe that to be cringe is to be free, then you have to stand behind it. You cannot say that to sound all cute and altruistic and then do any of what I described above. You have to accept the flaws in everything wholeheartedly without calling for its creator's death. If you're telling people to be cringe and then mocking them for being cringe, you are no better than the people who made cringe taboo to begin wtih. It's hard to 100% abide by this mindset, but make an effort!

I Am Not Immune

Here's one of my hotter takes which probably goes against everything I said before. I do think that the rise of generative AI has lowered the bar of human-made art. Lack of AI-generated assets is becoming a genuine selling point, but I also feel like people will be quick to sing the praises of very bad art just because it's not made by a soulless robot. I don't support personally attacking a creator, but we still need to realize when dogwater is dogwater. We also gotta realize when something is less dogwater and more not your thing and not make it a personal issue, but that's besides the point. I think there's always an opportunity to improve your craft, even if it takes years and years. If we really want to spit in the face of the AI menace, we need to make art that you can actually be invested in because like hell AI will ever do that.

Balancing Cringe And Cringe

So now we go back to my situation. I'm trying to get my footing as a video game composer again after no longer being part of the Toontown Rewritten team. On top of this, I'm also trying to make a game. Yes it's a fairly low maintenance Game Boy game with a narrative no different from a cheesy '80s movie, but I still hold myself to a fairly high standard with it. I'm a perfectionist who will never settle for less than what I'm capable of, and it's kind of a battle to just run with something that looks serviceable if it means I can finish it. I also still regularly battle with the idea of making a fool of myself once again, which I am beyond sick of at this point. My art is my greatest strength, and for once in my life I want to make a genuinely positive impact with it. Unfortunately, I am pursuing this in the most demoralizing time I know of to be an artist.

The biggest thing I want to achieve is a balance. On one hand, I want to be cringe. I really, really want to be cringe. I do not want a single decision behind anything I make to be someone else liking it, with the sole exception of music I am writing for someone else's game. Even in those instances, I want those songs to be approached in only a way I could approach them. Even when I directly mimic another composer, I still make choices that deviate from their style because it's what I think will work there. To be wildly and unabashedly myself in the face of everything that comes toward me is one of the most noble things I can do as an artist, especially today.

But my god, I am so so sick of being that other kind of cringe. I do not want to put my entire being into something that is miserable to play, has a godawful convoluted narrative with questionable morals, and is accidentally racist. That would just be an absolute waste of my time. It's especially scary considering how much of your presence is permanently tattooed to the internet and the lengths people will go to use every last bit of it against you. Hell, even if I stick the landing, there's no saying I won't have people up my ass for a dumb irrelevant mistake I made years ago. I have played my village idiot role for so long and I'm just tired of it. I've also played the role of a genuinely influential and benevolent figure on the Toontown Rewritten team and those were two of the most beautiful years of my entire life. Please don't let me go back. Please just let me mean something to anyone for once in my godforsaken chungus life.

Conclusion

I know this manifesto is incomprehensible and all over the place. Y'all said to make the manifesto "awkward, clunky, impractical, confronting, uncompromising, [and] defiant" so bite me. I guess if there's any moral or conclusion to be gleaned from this, it's to be cringe but be aware. Put every ounce of yourself into what you do and be passionate about it. Remember that the way you see life and approach your art is something that can never be taken from you. Put your own creative desires before any external audience or, god forbid, income. If you make something that makes you happy before it hits the public then you've already succeeded!

At the same time, just know when to open your mouth and when to hold your tongue, especially if you are actively trying to market something you are making. Your audience is probably going to see what you say before actually engaging with your art. Present yourself well and be at least half-professional about it. If you have a few friends, share your art with them before anyone else. Get any feedback you can and take it to mind but not to heart. If you are cringe (Good) enough to be wildly passionate about your art, then you shouldn't be cringe (Bad) enough to refuse to improve it. Just know when the feedback is relevant for making your art better; you don't want to lose the plot. Let that creative passion shine freely but temper it with respect and professionalism and you've got it made!