Cursed Comment

About

Cursed Comments refer to any replies to tweets, memes and online posts that are perceived as unexpected or upsetting. While the images of cursed comments are posted elsewhere (often with the name format of "Cursed_[Title]) as a source of humor, they are also known to evoke a feeling of fear and concern. For a comment to be considered "cursed," it must originate from a relatively surprising source, making them especially prevalent finds on Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, rather than niche platforms like 4chan or communities devoted to shocking content.

Origin

Used as a slang term, "cursed" was defined on Urban Dictionary ^[1] on December 23rd, 2018, by user 11DefinitelyNOTContentX09. It received 108 likes in three years (definition below).

something you'd find very scary and possibly you'd become cursed just by seeing, saying, smelling, hearing, making, etc. you will regret lots of stuff about it.
dawg: hey look at this cursed image
Tracer: Shizz man that's creepy yet blessed

The oldest known cursed comment was posted as a screenshot to /r/cursedcomments in August 2020 by u/TracerJacer73, where it received approximately 16,300 upvotes in six months. The screenshot in question features a comment on a popular video called "The World’s Largest Gummy Worm," a video from 2010 that has nearly 89 million views as of July 2021.^[3] Due to the original comment being removed, there is no way to verify the exact date of this comment, but it is estimated to be from no later than the video’s second wave of popularity in 2014. This makes it the earliest known comment to be officially labeled as "cursed" and receive viral fame as such.

Spread

The subreddit /r/cursedcomments was created on April 10th, 2018. As of July 2021, it has approximately 2.8 million subscribers. The top post of all time is this comment (seen below) on an /r/AskReddit thread, uploaded by u/oblivionnnnnnnnnnn in March 2021. It gained over 124,000 upvotes and 2,400 comments in approximately 4 months.

Numerous platforms now reference unwanted comments as "cursed," especially on Twitter and Reddit. On Reddit, it is common for cursed comments to receive the designation as such by a link to /r/cursedcomments being posted beneath it. Afterward, it will almost always appear as a screenshot on the subreddit uploaded by another user. For example, this cursed comment (seen below) was uploaded to the subreddit^[4] after a user included the hyperlink on July 8th, 2021, where it received 218 upvotes and seven comments within four hours.

Related Memes

Cursed Images

Cursed images are photographs that depict an upsetting and indescribable situation. Due to their popularity taking off several years prior to that of cursed comments, they are often seen as precursors to the latter. The two trends are not dependent on one another, but cursed images helped to define the modern conception of "cursed" on the internet.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References