YouTube Rewind: 2019 Edition Should Have Quit Trying and Embrace the Cringe
Will Smith kicked off 2018's YouTube Rewind. The cringe was never stronger. | Source: YouTube
- YouTube promised that Rewind will be different this year, which it was.
- Rewind 2019 turned out to be worse than cringe, it was boring and lazy.
- They should have just embraced the cringe and made the most of it.
YouTube Rewind is always terrible. Last year’s event may have been particularly hard to watch , but they’ve never been good. Each year they throw together the most annoying people on the planet, surround them with loud music and bright colors, then expect it to somehow resonate with people over the age of 3.
Except for this year. They already promised us ‘something different’ for this year’s rewind according to Gamebyte . It was certainly different, but it was also the dullest thing that has ever existed. They should have just embraced the cringe and really leaned into it.
YouTube Rewind Will Always be Cringe
Whenever a massive company like this tries to engage with people it comes out horribly wrong. Everything done by the big social media companies has this air of forced cheerfulness to it. Take a look at the world around you and you’ll see why that feels so wrong.
That’s the reason why those pre-made Facebook videos for your ‘friendaversary’ or whatever are cringy too. It’s basically a company that makes billions trying to show emotion with ukelele music and pastel colors. YouTube is just the same. Just swap out ukelele music for EDM and pastels for primary colors and you’ve got the same formula.
Really YouTube needs to just accept that no matter what they do Rewind will be awful. Better to just embrace that fact and go all out with it. Why not just have Marshemello (again), get him performing some EDM while people do Fortnite dances all over the place. While you’re at it why not add a joke midway through about copyright claims, that’ll actually resonate with your audience.
It’s a Wonder That They Still Even Bother
These social media companies are based upon their ability to connect with people, or rather their ability to make other people connect. That is part of the reason that we end up with these horribly cringy products. Worse than anything is the fact that the older generation seems to love them.
On the plus side at least we tend to get some semi-decent memes out of it each year . I think that YouTube really does need to just realize that everything they do is going to be subjected to ridicule. To keep up their ‘friendly’ image they can’t do anything too real, because the real world is a gritty and frequently awful place.
Regardless of what YouTube claimed about YouTube Rewind 2019, it turned out to be just as unpopular as the rest of them. If they really want to make something popular they should seriously consider just letting someone who isn’t a corporate robot create the blooming thing.
