{"id":2196,"date":"2026-06-18T12:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/?p=2196"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:25:23","slug":"6-cringiest-internet-trends-that-give-normal-people-the-ick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/6-cringiest-internet-trends-that-give-normal-people-the-ick\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Cringiest Internet Trends That Give Normal People The Ick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The internet is a beautiful place. And then there’s this. Every few months, a new trend explodes across TikTok that makes you physically recoil, question humanity, and wonder who decided this was worth sharing. From grown men pretending to be alligators in bathtubs to AI-generated fruit having torrid affairs, here are six current trends that are so painfully cringe they’ll make you want to throw your phone into the ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Looksmaxxing \u2013 When Self-Improvement Gets Weird<\/span><\/h2>\n

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It started with “mewing” (pressing your tongue to reshape your jawline) and has now spiraled into dangerous territory. Young men are literally hitting their own faces with hammers in a practice called “bonesmashing” to alter their bone structure. The trend has attracted thousands of followers chasing the “ultimate glow-up,” but watching a guy smash his own cheekbones with a tool while staring intensely into his front-facing camera is the definition of an ick.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The “Lurking Alligator” Bathtub Trend \u2013 Just Why?<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Creators (almost exclusively men) fill up their bathtubs, float plates of food in the water, and “attack” them like a predatory alligator. Yes, you read that right. Grown adults pretending to be reptiles in their own bathrooms, complete with dramatic death rolls. The videos are somehow going viral, but all they really do is make you wonder if humanity has finally peaked in the wrong direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Disney Mimic \u2013 When Girls Try Too Hard<\/span><\/h2>\n

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You know the one. The exaggerated doe eyes, the pouty lips, the breathy voice that sounds like a princess who just swallowed a helium balloon. It’s the “I’m so quirky and cute” face that makes you physically cringe every time it appears on your For You Page. It’s giving “audition for a Disney Channel original movie in 2005” and not in a nostalgic way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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AI Fruit Slop \u2013 Cheating Produce Taking Over Your Feed<\/span><\/h2>\n

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If you haven’t seen the AI-generated telenovelas starring anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables having torrid affairs, breaking hearts, and giving birth to produce babies, consider yourself lucky. These raunchy, nonsensical videos are racking up millions of views. Watching a strawberry cheat on a banana with a pineapple while the AI narrator delivers dramatic pseudo-Italian commentary is pure brain rot \u2014 and not the fun kind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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“Pudding Mit Gabel” \u2013 Eating Pudding With A Fork<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Somehow, hundreds of German young people have decided that eating pudding with a fork in public spaces is the new cool thing to do. Viral clips show crowds gathering just to… eat pudding with a fork. It’s absurd, it’s pointless, and watching a group of adults struggle to eat a liquid dessert with a utensil designed for solid food is peak second-hand embarrassment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The “Flip The Camera” Challenge \u2013 Bullying Disguised As Fun<\/span><\/h2>\n

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A group of teens dances while handing their phone to an unsuspecting person to film them. They record the dance on the front-facing camera so they can see themselves, and at the end, they flip it to reveal the person recording them. The trend has been slammed as “degrading” and “mean-spirited,” with major influencers calling it out as casual cruelty. Watching someone’s face drop when they realize they’ve been turned into a punchline is the ultimate ick.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The internet is a beautiful place. And then there’s this. Every few months, a new trend explodes across TikTok that makes you physically recoil, question humanity, and wonder who decided…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusives","category-photo-vault","category-weird-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2204,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2196\/revisions\/2204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}