Full Cringe, in Lieu of a Personality

There’s truly nothing like an absolutely nonsensical / explicit graphic tee worn with complete confidence by a random older man.

We’ve long worn graphic tees to express something about ourselves - our poliicial alignments, our music taste, even our sense of humour.

Think grandpa’s in tops that contain food puns, or bored husbands wearing tees that literally berate their wives. Ever been to Benidorm and seen the ‘I <3 Cock!’ tee’s make everyone scream with laughter? They are pretty wild statements to wear, but people love them.

One *could* argue that when it gets to tee’s like these that kind of fail to make any statement at all it’s a little bit cringe, and all it really translates is ‘I want this t-shirt to give me a personality’.

And that very base level embrace of full weird, full cringe is literally NEVER done anymore. So now, when Gen Z and Millennials see an awful graphic tee, we love it.

Why?

Is there a chance that in an era when our personalities are shaped by online culture, where we’re all desperately trying to fit in, and simultaneously be totally unique - a weird, cringey tee is a way to artfully craft a personality inspired by irony, whilst actually, maybe, admitting we might not have any individual personality either?

I have a t-shirt like this that reads ‘I’m already number 1, why try harder’ I’ve worn it to job interviews in the past as if it suddenly gives me a visible sense of humour and confidence. (the joke is - I’m not number 1, it’s sarcasm - genius) It makes me laugh and I actually don’t even know why because its hella ugly.

There have been articles and think pieces swirling the internet recently about embracing cringe, we’re a generation terrified of appearing uncool. I fully support it - in fact in my friends and dates if someone is unwilling to be a big cringe to have fun it’s a major red flag for me.

If someone rocked up to a coffee wearing an absolutely outrageous slogan tee I would probably want to be their friend.

Maybe they work in portraying whatever glimmer of personality a person might have. I mean, we don’t approach strangers in bars anymore, we don’t ever really meet new people, when we do too often it can be about clout and seeming cool - not actually getting to know eacother. Whislt totally cringe - at least these tees say from one glimpse - I kinda have a sense of humour, come chat to me.

Are they 2025’s version of winking at someone over a bar? maybe.