r/RoastMe?
Maybe you’re wondering: what is Roast Me on Reddit? “Roast me” is the same as saying “make fun of me” and r/RoastMe is a Reddit community where people post their picture to be made fun of.
Which all begs the question: why do people ask to be roasted on r/RoastMe? We dug into this topic, and here’s what we found.
Why Do People Post to Get Roasted on r/RoastMe?
There are different reasons people go on r/RoastMe, and these are 3 popular ones.
#1 Want the warmth and thrill of being seen (attention)
“He/she wants attention” is often used as an insult online, but the truth is that attention is a basic human need. Babies who lack that feeling of being seen develop life-long psychological problems.
Attention is so fundamental, in fact, that negative attention is preferable to no attention at all (anyone who works with kids can confirm).
Attention can grant the “seen” person with a variety of feelings:
- Warmth There’s a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing someone looked at you closely. In a positive interaction, you’d call it intimacy.
- Excitement People with exhibitionistic tendencies (think: flashers) get a thrill from being seen by another person, especially in a taboo or shocking context. And let’s face it, a lot of posts on r/RoastMe are sexual in nature, even if negatively so.
#2 Want people to tell them who they are (insecurity)
Some people would rather be told something bad about themselves than feel like they’re “flying blind.”
Who am I? Who are you? Who we are has to do with our genes, how we were raised, and what we decide to be. That last part is important, but it can be anxiety-provoking to people who hate uncertainty and lack confidence.
The reality is that insecure people love having a confident person tell them who they are, even if it’s negative. In fact, an insecure person is more likely to regard a negative assessment as “true” anyway.
#3 Curious how they’re perceived
Finally, some people ask to be roasted because they’re genuinely curious about what other people see.
There’s reasons that people look to getting roasted for this:
- Specifics If you read the jokes people write on r/RoastMe threads, you’ll notice the level of detail in them. No one would roast a glasses-wearer saying they look “nerdy,” instead they’ll look for a highly-specific burn like, “you look like someone who peed in bottles to hit an e-sports record.” That level of specificity is really interesting to read about yourself.
- Includes negatives If you just asked people what kind of person do I look like, they might be tempted to only say positive things. People like that the roast format ensures people can say bad things.
However, the truth is that roasts don’t accurately portray how you’re perceived. That’s because roasts force people to go the extra mile to notice and point out “bad features,” whether or not they’re really noticeable at all.
For example, a roaster would find a reason to mock a haircut even if it’s fine.
Likewise, roasters won’t point out good qualities, no matter how noticeable they are. This leaves out at least half of the picture.
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