Saw a post that reminded me of Sonic.exe and the unexpected revival he had in the late 2010s; I remember when the original creepypasta was released and listening to one of those old creepypasta youtubers and I think it was one of the first times I was sort of embarrassed to be into creepypastas and sonic?
I was nine years old so it's not like I was super conscious of what constituted cringe, but I couldn't help but recoil at the tryhard-ness of it. It sort of felt like it fizzled out pretty quick, then a bunch of fan games came out in the early 2010s then a few parodies around the mid 2010s and the whole Sonic.exe brand was dead by the late 2010s.
Of course, cut forward to like the early 2020s and the character has made a resurgence and if the original was cringe inducing to my autistic sonic-obsessed 9-year-old self, then I of course would naturally think that he would die out all the same as he did in 2015, but no! People are being serious! There's actual Sonic.exe fans and I see it constantly in the videos I zoom past when picking something for my little sister to watch, so clearly there's an audience for it.
I don't know if I really have a point here, I suppose it's just an observation. The Sonic.exe creepypasta and the second wind in fandom it's earned is probably on the shoulders of autistic kids who bit their sped teachers and I can only figure that that's due to the isolation of COVID min/maxing just how much embarrassing shit young people could get into before lockdown ended.
