https://www.npr.org/2025/08/20/nx-s1-5507263/it-pays-to-be-cringe-lean-in
According to the internet, Brendan Abernathy was unequivocally cringe.
Abernathy is a singer-songwriter living in Texas who went viral earlier this year for an earnest performance of his song “married in a year.” He was relatively unknown before this moment, but the video garnered millions of views along with countless parody videos from comedians and social media users.
Ramtin Arablouei, co-host of NPR’s Throughline, spoke to Abernathy about how to cope with the criticism and shares his insights with It’s Been a Minute host, Brittany Luse. They also get into the rise of cringe culture: where it comes from, how it’s hurting us, and how leaning into cringe is good for art.
Episode Highlights
What happens when a “cringe” video goes viral?BRENDAN ABERNATHY: It was really hard. Also, some of it was really funny. And I can recognize both of those things at the same time.
ARABLOUEI: Well, what parts of it were hard?
ABERNATHY: People were treating me like I’m selling out stadiums … I’m struggling to sell a hundred tickets, and people are acting like I’m some massive industry plant who they can just tear down. It’s like, you can’t tear me down, guys. I’m poor. I lived out of my car for four years. You can’t really tear me down any more than I’m already down.
ABERNATHY: You hope for a long time that you’re going to get a breakthrough into – just more ears having an opportunity to hear your music. And then when it happens and you’re getting mocked, laughed at, told to take your own life, you know, whatever, it – it’s just really confusing because everything that I know about myself and my music, the internet is saying the polar opposite of that. If you searched my name on TikTok, the third result was, Brendan Abernathy fake. That’s what hurt the most, was that everything I’ve built my life on, which is being authentic and being vulnerable, I was being viewed [as] the complete opposite of that. That’s what hurt. And most people who reacted negatively – it created this, ew, cringe.