Sneezing Hedgehog / I Saved You From Cringe

Submission 8,378

Part of a series on Animals. [View Related Entries]

About

Sneezing Hedgehog is a viral video of a hedgehog running back behind some furniture in a dark room before sneezing. The video became an exploitable edit in mid-2021 with both the footage of the hedgehog and its audio being used in various remixes, particularly a trend revolving around the phrase "I Saved You From Cringe."

Origin

The original upload of Sneezing Hedgehog no longer exists, but the oldest surviving copy of it via a repost dates back to 2011. On May 23rd, 2011, YouTuber^[1] Beth Chudley reposted the video, telling people that it wasn't their own original clip, receiving over 840,000 views in 11 years (shown below).

Spread

The video largely sat in obscurity until mid-2021 when edits began using the original clip for humorous remixes. On June 18th, 2021, YouTuber^[2] Forceplayzone uploaded an edit in which the hedgehog sneezed at x999 speed. The video received more than 47,000 views in one year while also inspiring other edits (shown below, left). On July 11th, 20221, YouTuber^[3] Chill Viewer uploaded an edit titled "the hedgehog sneezed and farted at the same time – 1 million times" in which they had the video of the hedgehog multiplied multiple times for a reverb fart effect, receiving over 84,000 views in one year (shown below, right).

On January 14th, 2021, YouTuber^[4] Purple Pattern uploaded the most viewed edit titled "sneezing hedgehog, but it's 60 Fps. 60fps vs original sneezing hedgehog comparison," which showed the original hedgehog video in a side-by-side with a version that had the FPS increased to 60, earning over 2.2 million views in one year (shown below).

I Saved You From Cringe

On August 15th, 2021, YouTuber^[5] AlecTogashi uploaded an edit by adding My Name Is Yoshikage Kira dialogue to the video while also editing it to make it look like the hedgehog was saying the dialogue instead of overlaying it on top. It received more than 138,000 views in one year (shown below).

On June 7th, 2022, TikToker^[6] @gyro_zeppe11 uploaded the first example of using it for a bait-and-switch media to avoid cringe videos by putting fake subtitles over the AlecTogashi video. The upload received 17,800 views in one month (shown below, left). The next day, the same TikToker^[7] uploaded similar edit that received more than 2.9 million views in one month (shown below, right).

In the following weeks, the trend continued to grow, with the most viewed one being uploaded on June 26th, 2022, by TikToker^[8] @cloudet.ayoo (originality from @trixllys). The TikTok received more than 7.2 million views in three weeks (shown below, left). On June 28th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @dogegamming uploaded an edit that received more than 14 million views in roughly two weeks (shown below, right).