Cursed comments, as a genre, are the replies that internet users leave underneath social media posts and videos. They are, as a general rule, very unexpected or even upsetting.
At the same time, they’re often humorous in an “oh, God, why am I laughing at something so horrible and weird?” kind of way.
At the time of writing, r/cursedcomments boasts a whopping 3.3 million members from all over the globe. The subreddit is incredibly well known, not just on Reddit but on social media and elsewhere as well. Even legendary Swedish YouTube content creator PewDiePie joked about how the sub is “the worst.”
The subreddit, founded in April 2018, is already a part of internet culture. It’s also very likely that you’ve come across some content, as shared by the members of the online group, at some point in time.
According to the team running the group, the point of r/cursedcomments is to share comments that “strike the reader into oblivion.” The goal is to make the audience feel lost and confused, wondering what the heck they just read.
“Incomprehension of the comment just read, or the blatant gruesomeness of it should be enough to not only make you feel mystified but also to draw a smile on your face,” they explain.
During a previous interview with the founder of r/cursedcomments, Bored Panda learned about the history behind the group.
“I founded the subreddit a while back. I actually was going through some memes posted on Reddit and saw a response to a somewhat... ‘fitting’ comment that would be right at home with CursedComments. In a response to the comment, someone jokingly posted r/cursedcomments. I was intrigued, and when I clicked on it, the subreddit didn’t exist, so I created it because I thought it was super good,” redditor u/winwinwe told us.
However, the founder of the sub admitted that, unfortunately, they weren’t the one to come up with the awesome name for the group. Their goal when creating r/cursedcomments was for internet users to have a great experience while also maximizing the growth of the community.
“I began posting posts and was loose with the rules to engage content creation and made sure to comment on every post to maximize community engagement,” the founder told Bored Panda.
The moderation was close to non-existent at the very start, which led to a lot of growth on Reddit in a short span of time. Eventually, the rules became more robust. “Posts became more strict, more clear guidelines were established, and branching ‘wings’ such as this Instagram account and discord were set up, both of which still operate,” u/winwinwe explained.
