AIBU and weird? Secondary embarrassment.

[TheFastandCurious]

I get so embarrassed / uncomfortable at things that have nothing to do with me that I can’t deal with it.

Example; those practical joke shows where people are making fools of themselves for a laugh.

Most people cringe for others but also find it funny. I have to turn the tv off because I feel so embarrassed even though I’m not there and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with me!

My DH thinks I’m so weird. Am I alone or does the cringing for others get too much for anyone else?

Cringe comedy is also my favourite. I love The Office

I hate to see anyone embarrassed, humiliated or belittled in the name of a 'laugh' It's not funny for the victim in the slightest.
A joke is only funny if the victim genuinely finds it funny.
It's bullies bullying. nothing more, nothing less.
Horrible to witness.
What never fails to anger me is when someone is filming a child and you know that the child is going to be hurt, and instead of the idiot parent putting the camera down to help their child avoid being hurt, they actually carry on filming until the inevitable happens. Nasty pillocks.
Oh look, here's little Johnny on his new bike, look, he's about to hit that kerb and launch himself over the handlebars, landing face first onto the tarmac. Oh, haha, that's hilarious Johnny, one for you've been framed. haha.
No, it's not bloody funny in the slightest, and quite frankly, parents like you should be fed feet first into a woodchipper!

I don't mind cringe comedy as I know it's not real.

Oh I have found my people.

Genuinely laughed out loud at this @TheFastandCurious

"swaying and using tambourines is a good, practical way to stay in the right rhythm

In the nicest possible way, just reading the above sentence gives me secondary embarrassment."

Please cringe on my behalf: THIRTY YEARS AGO (back when I was young and wishy washy and hadn't learned to say no yet) I agreed to host a MLM party for a friend. Two people showed up - my friend and my mum.

I relive the horror regularly. I bought cake and arranged it on a plate in anticipation. Ugh. I like to pretend it didn't actually happen.

I now know MLM is crap and would never dream of agreeing to host anything, ever,

All the above, except singing in cars. I also can’t bear it when sales people go into their pitch. I can’t even get cross, I feel so embarrassed for them.

Oh youneedtocalmdowb I’m dying reading that. Poor you.

Thirty years wouldn’t be long enough for me to stop being embarrassed about that either

Yeah I cant watch things that make me embarrassed.
I can't listen to radio quizzes either.

I couldn't bear Fawlty Towers, Some Mothers do 'Ave 'Em or a lot of the Carry On films, for exactly this reason.

Yeah I don’t see The Office or cringe comedy as ‘real’ so I wouldn’t watch YouTube videos of actual real people humiliating each other, because to me that is not Cringe Comedy it is amateur and usually crap content of people being horrible idiots. It’s safe to watch created content as you know no one was hurt by it!

I like cringe comedy as I don’t see it just that someone is looking a twat, it’s because I like the way it shows the imperfect flaws of people, who are just humans after all. I do like Ricky Gervais’ writing because there are usually a lot of deeper characters underneath the laughs, take Michael Scott - he just wants everyone to love him and goes about it in all the wrong ways, there is often a raw sadness to his characters. I didn’t watch Fraiser to be honest but what I have seen is clever but also can be a bit hammy. US content can be much more slapstick than UK comedy

^although the older UK comedy used to be very cringy and hammy! I wouldn’t watch Benny Hill and find it funny

In Spain, this is called "vergüenza ajena", and it's extremely common - to such an extent that, apparently, in some 19th-century psychology books, it was called "Spanish shame".

It's sort of the national emotion here, and no wonder

Oh I thought of another one - when the waiter tells you the specials of the day and uses all these swizzy words and enthusiastic tone to try to sell it to you... oh no.

I cringe at the scene in La Bamba where he sings the song down the phone to Donna.

I know, I know he died tragically and I shouldn't say it... But if I was Donna and someone had written me a song, I would have hung up in mortification.

Also when people get pulled on stage to dance. No. Please don't.

And I can't even say the word 'magicians' without cringing.

Oh I thought of another one - when the waiter tells you the specials of the day and uses all these swizzy words and enthusiastic tone to try to sell it to you... oh no

Oh yes! And they try and sell you the special but you order something else after having had to pretend the special sounded nice. Cringe.

Same, I get really stressed by certain shows too

I end up ordering the special even if I don't want it because I feel bad for them

The plane thing wouldn't bother me though. I'm so scared of flying that when the plane lands safely I give serious consideration to building a shrine dedicated to the pilots and spending the rest of my life worshipping there.

A-men!

I end up ordering the special even if I don't want it because I feel bad for them

I love this post. That’s so funny

I totally get this!
Films such as ' meet the parents' when they made the new boyfriend wear tight speedos in front of his girlfriend's ex! I was cringing inside for him. They really made him look bad / silly at every opportunity.
I always feel for the fall guy or girl.

Completely normal.

The Germans even have a name for it!

fremdschämen
(You’re welcome )

This thread makes me so happy! In am exactly the same!! I even have to turn soaps off if someone is doing something embarrassing or if an afair is about to be exposed!! I'm well aware it's not real but can't help it! I HATE practical joke shows! Not funny and makes me cringe and feel so uncomfortable!!!

I still cringe at the time someone spiked my drinks and I got so drunk I had to be carried home.
I read a thread on here with people who had worse happen to them ( mostly alcohol related) which made me feel a bit better ( 30 years later) still feel bad about it though.
I would never do this to anyone.

I also feel acutely embarrassed by some adverts and wish I was elsewhere when they come on the telly. Such as:

M&Ms, woman in bed with an M&M and husband comes in, there's another M&M hiding in the wardrobe, who jumps out.

Something about equity release with people dancing in the street, singing 'Right Said Fred'.

A cartoon advert for a diet; large woman who sings, "My butt wouldn't fit in my little black dress".

I'm blushing just thinking about those.

I can’t watch tv shows where someone is embarrassing themselves. Peep Show or the Inbetweeners for example, I have had to turn off as I am cringing for them too much.

My DH has this massively. If something cringy comes on the TV, he just gets up and walks away!