RIP Vice, YouTuber crashes Bafta acceptance speech & Tom Sandoval compares cheating scandal backlash to O.J. Simpson and George Floyd

The cringiest headlines of the past week according to yours truly.

Hello friend,

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Now without further ado, let’s get into this week’s newsletter:

WYR have to apologise for something you said in a profile interview or accidentally book plane seats facing all other passengers?

Georjia: I like to think that you have to say something pretty bad to warrant a public apology but then again I did see a TikTok of a girl being accused of being ableist because she said she wouldn’t trust someone who has funko pops displayed at home as a person of authority so who knows?!? Accidentally booking the plane seats that face everyone is hilarious and I feel like it’s an easy mistake to make but having everyone stare at me for a few hours I think could send me into a socially anxious state where as soon as I land I’d feel the need to call a therapist. But at least it’s not as bad as an apology, because you must’ve said something controversial to have to issue one right? I’ll have the awkward seats on a plane because at least when you land you can be the first one off.

Annika: I feel like it’d be consistent with Cringe’s ethos to support any form of redemption arc or humility that comes with having to issue an apology for something you’ve said or done. That being said though, I hope to god this person doesn’t have to be me. Facing every passenger during a flight like they’re expecting me to perform for them or something would be horrendous, but ultimately a short-lived experience with a fun story to tell afterwards. Issuing an apology after an interview also implies that I’m famous enough to be profiled, so that’s definitely a no from me!

WATERCOOLER CHATS

Are the Sunday Scaries hitting you hard today? Already wasted enough time on TikTok to distract yourself? Want us to fill you in on what you might have missed elsewhere online this week? No worries friend, we got you.

Here are our favourite headlines you can bring up during conversations you’d rather not have:

• This week’s Would You Rather refers to:

  • Tom Sandoval from Vanderpump Rules, the best reality TV show ever made (source: ourselves) keeping Variety in business by providing them with headlines like ‘Tom Sandoval Clumsily Compares Scandoval to O.J. Simpson and George Floyd in Cringey New Interview’. He made the comparison in a New York Times interview (titled ‘How Tom Sandoval Became the Most Hated Man in America’) after the interviewer asked him why he thought his cheating scandal had got so big. He’s released a statement since then, saying:

    “My intentions behind the comments I made in New York Times Magazine were to explain the level of national media attention my affair received. The comparison was inappropriate and ignorant. I’m incredibly sorry and embarrassed.”

  • A rather more innocent social anxiety-inducing story about a Real Housewife of Dubai accidentally booking plane seats facing all other passengers, thinking they’d be the best seats on the plane.

• If something embarrassing happened to you this week that’s still haunting you, maybe you’ll find some catharsis by watching this cringey clip of an interviewer asking Andrew Scott “how well he really knows Berry Keoghan” and whether he thinks prosthetics were used in Keoghan’s full-frontal scene at the end of Saltburn.

• If that wasn’t enough, here’s another cringe celebrity moment: After playing him in Maestro, Bradley Cooper meets Leonard Bernstein’s kids and gets choked up talking about how much he misses him even though he’s never met him.

• Adele recently added some context to a popular reaction meme (see below), saying that the reason she was pouting was because a camera crew was filming her against her will, even after asking her for permission first (which she declined).

  

• Weekly palate cleanser: David Tennant introducing Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott as ‘as rugged and beautiful as the Irish landscape’ and joking that his initial reaction to All Of Us Strangers was that they’d yet again feed into “unrealistic beauty standards for men”.

• Someone on Twitter/X pointed out that Obama’s daughter Malia is probably trying to avoid nepo baby discourse by making her artist name ‘Malia Ann’ only.

• If 65-year old Madonna can fall on stage and get up again, so can you. <3

• A YouTuber pranked the Oppenheimer crew and awards audience, as he got on stage with them to accept their Bafta. The Independent reports:

  While Nolan, Murphy, Thomas and Rovan, as well as the audience, seemed unfazed by the intruder’s presence, it wasn’t until they all walked off stage that security reportedly detained the man.

• Fran Lebowitz, everyone’s favourite aunt-by-parasocial-relationship, called men dying their hair “greedy” because men, well, “they already own the joint!”

• Nothing more needed than this headline in the New York Post really: ‘El Chapo’s’ granddaughter, 18, joins hunt for Loch Ness Monster while romping through Scotland.

• Could never be the UK: Sydney is offering free public transport to go with Taylor Swift concert tickets.

• The original mob wife, Drea De Matteo who starred in The Sopranos, shares her tips on how to achieve the ‘mob wife aesthetic’.

• Ken Leung originally thought he was auditioning for James Cameron’s Avatar, instead of Avatar, The Last Airbender:

  “I thought I was gonna be blue.”

CRINGE MEME

In honour of Vice, a publication that truly took the personal essay to new heights:

That’s it for this week! Feel free to let us know what cringe content, memes, and headlines you’ve been enjoying lately. Until then, we’ll see you in your inbox next Sunday!

Your Cringe Team x