memes

I don't think that's true. Cringe comedy certainly punches down sometimes, as many types of comedy do, but to say it is "inherently down punching" seems pretty rediculous to me. There are plenty of examples of cringe comedy where the majority or all of the cringing is being done at bad people, or people who hold power over others. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a good example. That show definitely has problematic aspects, but pretty much 100% of the cringe moments in it are because of awful stuff the awful main cast are doing. Even going back to the Office, which I don't really like either, I'd argue the majority of cringing that happens is at the expense of Michael, the racist, sexist boss. Obviously both these shows have problematic aspects like most comedy does, and I'm not defending them, but I do think it's kind of rediculous to say that cringe comedy is inherently reactionary, or that it inherently punches down on marginalized people. I won't deny many examples of it do, but that's not because of some inherent flaw in the medium, it's because we live in a deeply racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic and transphobic society, and our popular media reflects that.