Lincoln has brought all of his sisters, which, as usual, means they're reading a fanfiction with a significant number of requests. This time they're reading Cringeworthy and it's by Bobbybooboobear. Yup, the same writer who made Luna act crazy at night.
It begins with Luna posting a new song she wrote that isn't rock like her usual songs. It's apparently her first non-rock song, though the real Luna has dabbled in other genres before. She explains to Chunk that it's a pop song and has him listen to it. He hates the song and is blunt to Luna about it. The real Louds point out that not only is the story's version of Chunk being mean, but seeing as we didn't hear/read the song, we don't know what's so bad about it.
Chunk continues to claim Luna's song to be a bad idea, comparing it to a rapper who switched to nursery rhymes— even though, as the real Luna points out, nursery rhymes are not a genre (no matter how indignant this fact makes Lily). Chunk even refuses to talk to Luna until she deletes the song.
The next day at school, fanfic Lincoln and his friends are looking at slapsticky videos. Liam suggests watching a video about an old woman, which the other boys enthusiastically agree to watch, which makes the real Lincoln curious as to what this old woman did that was so funny. The boys at the lunch table then overhear two girls being negative about Luna's song, which is apparently causing her to rapidly lose subscribers. Lincoln somehow guesses they're talking about his sister despite them not mentioning her name.
They finish watching the video, which turned out to be about an old woman fighting off a team of muggers, and the only thing funny about it was that one of them fell down. On the way home from school, Lincoln is pondering what the two heckling girls were saying.
At home, fanfic Luna makes him listen to the song (the other sisters having already heard it), but he too hates it. He reluctantly lies that he likes it to protect his sister's feelings. Then, it's revealed that all her sisters hated it too, in fact Luan even wrote a note bashing it and calling her a Luna-tic. Meanwhile, the real siblings are wondering what the big deal is— after all, other people have dabbled in other genres. Fanfic Lincoln wonders why Luna wrote a song in a different genre, and wonders what would happen if he admitted he hated it, but then decides to just go read comics in his underwear.
At breakfast the next morning, fanfic Lincoln asks Luna if she's checked her channel. Then, Leni grabs him and takes him upstairs, where the other sisters are, hiding from Luna and nicknaming her "Cringeworthy". Not only that, but Lynn is calling Lincoln a mouse again.
At the cafeteria later that day, fanfic Lincoln's friends are hating on Luna's song (and her raspy voice for some reason). Clyde says that Lori would be better at singing it, prompting the real Lana to tease Lori for being a bad singer. Lori claims that she's no worse of a singer than her siblings, but then Lola starts singing perfectly. Back at the table, when Lincoln admits to his lie, his friends tell him to tell Luna the truth or else she might write more bad songs.
When fanfic Lincoln arrives home, he finds Luna covered in mean writing. After she washes it off (which takes six hours!), her sisters make her sleep outside, even though it's raining. This makes her cry, and the siblings on the couch start crying too.
At breakfast, the sisters explain to fanfic Lincoln what they did. He points out that it's mean, but they believe that they had to or else she'd play it all day and night. The real Luna goes on a rant about how rock and pop are not rivals— in fact they overlap a lot.
Fanfic Lincoln reveals that he lied about liking the video, so Lori thinks of a plan. She tells her sisters (minus Luna) her plan, while making Lincoln watch TV. Specifically a show about a... dancing meerkat? That night, his sisters (again, without Luna) wake him up at one AM and drive him to a closed karate centre. Which apparently is to teach him how to tell Luna the truth.
They bring out a dummy dressed up as Luna and Lori calls Luan a horse. The real siblings wonder why these obscure animal names are being used as insults, and they decide to give themselves animal nicknames. Luna chooses a hawk, Lola a cat, Lana a pig, Lynn a rhino, Lucy a bat, Lily a bear, Lisa a pygmy marmosetnote , Lori a squirrel, and Leni a hobo (because technically humans are animals).
Fanfic Lynn tries to get Lincoln to tell the truth to the dummy but he can't bring himself to. Lori tries mimicking Luna, but it makes her cough and she does a bad job. Lola (the real one) then perfectly imitates Lana, then Lily, Aunt Ruth, and Scoots. Back in the story, Lori tries using her own voice, but it doesn't work. Lola tries bribing Lincoln with pizza. None of the attempts work, but then Lily has a plan: have Lincoln think of mice!. And it works.
They go home (while the real Louds are understandably baffled) and the next morning, Lincoln shows Luna that her amount of subscribers has dropped from a million to a hundred. They begin arguing and she deletes his song and has to bunk with Lincoln because her bedding is dirty. So they go to bed. The epilogue has Chunk being "proud" of Luna for deleting her song.
Now that the story is over, the Loud siblings hug Luna, reassure her that they love her, and goof around by acting like the animals they nicknamed themselves with.
This episode provides examples of
- Actor Allusion: Lola can do pitch-perfect impressions of Lana, Lily, Aunt Ruth, and Scoots — all of whom share her voice actor.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Fanfic Chunk is very rude about Luna's song, refusing to talk to her until she deletes it.
- Fanfic Luna's sisters shun her for writing a song they hate, make her sleep outside in the rain, and nickname her "Cringeworthy".
- Mostly averted for fanfic Lincoln, who's pretty much in-character besides the "thinking of mice" thing, though he does go a bit meaner than he likely would in canon when he tells Luna the truth. He thinks that rockers can't experiment with pop and yells at her when she tries to tell him otherwise.
- Amusing Injuries: The guy on YouTube in the fanfiction hits his head on the wall, making Lincoln and his friends, who are watching the video, laugh.
- Big "NO!":
- Fanfic Lynn shouts, "NO!" when Lincoln calls the song awesome to the Luna dummy.
- Lincoln shouts, "NOOOOOO!" at the idea of Bobbybooboobear's version of Luna bunking with him.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Fanfic Luna shouts, "BE QUIET!" to Mr. Grouse for commenting on her sleeping in the rain.
- Big "WHAT?!": Lincoln says, "WHAT?!" when fanfic Lily's nonsensical mouse-related plan works.
- Big "YES!": The fanfic versions of Rusty and Zach say, "YES!" in unison when Liam suggests watching "the video about the old woman".
- Blowing a Raspberry: Lily blows a raspberry at Luna for claiming nursery rhymes are not a genre.
- Butt-Monkey: Fanfic Luna really has it bad: first Chunk hates on her song and gives her the silent treatment, then everyone else hates on her song, then bullies write on her, then she's made to sleep outside in the rain.
- Continuity Nod:
- Luna is not happy to be reading a story by Bobbybooboobear, and Lincoln is not keen on the idea of fanfic Luna bunking with him, because of her fic self's behaviour in his other story Substitute Roommate.
- Lincoln points out that Liam dated one of Luna's best friends, which happened in "Dance, Dance Resolution".
- Lincoln remembers times he was insulted but took it in stride in "Picture Perfect" (about the anniversary gifts), "Sleuth or Consequences" (about the Ace Savvy suit) and "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru" (about his being a girl guru). He also remembers getting locked out in "No Such Luck".
- Copycat Mockery:
- When fanfic Chunk says, "Have fun getting feedback from your cringeworthy song!", Luna teasingly mimics the line behind his back.
- Luan mockingly copies fanfic Luna's sisters for wanting to "destroy [Lincoln's] empathy".
- Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: When Luna cusses, Lincoln blocks Lily's ears.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Fanfic Luna's sisters make her sleep outside in the rain just for writing a bad song.
- Everybody Cries: The siblings all cry a bit when fanfic Luna is made to sleep outside.
- Everyone Has Standards: Leni uses the word "like" a lot, but the girls in the fanfic say it so much that it's too distracting even for her.
- False Dichotomy:
- Many of the fanfiction characters think Luna must've stopped liking rock now that she's written a pop song.
- The fanfiction makes out like "awful" and "awesome" are the only two ways to describe Luna's song. Not "personally I don't like this but you do you" or "I don't like X, how about you do Y with it to improve it?" or anything like that.
- Flashback: The fanfic has a flashback to the sisters listening to the song.
- Food as Bribe: Fanfic Lola tries to bribe Lincoln into telling the truth by giving him pizza.
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: Not counting the epilogue, the fanfic ends with Lincoln and Luna going to bed.
- Hidden Depths: Lola can sing and do impressions perfectly.
- Imagine Spot: After fanfic Lincoln and his friends laugh at a video about an old woman beating up a "team" of criminals with her purse, the real Lincoln wonders what such a criminal team would look like, and imagines a quintet of blatant burglars doing a "Super Sentai" Stance, concluding that, yeah, that would be pretty funny.
- Jaw Drop:
- Everyone's jaw drops after fanfic Luna loses nine million subscribers.
- Lana's jaw drops when Lola perfectly imitates her.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Fanfic Lincoln nearly calls Luna's song "awful", but changes it to "awesome".
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Fanfic Leni slaps Lincoln on the butt (she meant to slap him in the face).
- Lost Aesop: Pointed out when Lori wonders what the moral of the fanfiction is.
- Never Mess with Granny: In the video in the fanfic, an old woman beats up a team of criminals for taking her purse.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Lucy got buried alive once.
- Nursery Rhyme: Apparently, in the fanfic, there was once a rapper who got negative feedback because she switched from rap to nursery rhymes.
- Only Sane Man: Fanfic Lincoln is the only Loud sibling to understand that it's cruel to lock Luna outside.
- Pun:
- Fanfic Luan calls Luna a Luna-tic, then later makes "dummy" jokes when bringing out the dummy of Luna.
- The real Luan says "neigh" to the idea of acting like animals, before acting like a horse.
- When Fanfic Lincoln asks "What's the rush?" the real Loud kids provide their own answers regarding things with that name.Luna: The best prog-rock band ever?
Lincoln: Megaman's robot dog?
Luan: That fat, right-wing jerk on talk radio?
- Rock is Authentic, Pop is Shallow: While the fanfic proper more has the vibe of "rock is authentic and this particular pop song is shallow; rockers can't be pop stars but both genres are fine on their own", Luna does critique both the idea that rockers can't also play pop and the idea that pop is shallow compared to rock.
- Shout-Out:
- Luna asks what's wrong with silly love songs, which is a lyric for the song that was the Trope Namer for Silly Love Songs.
- Lisa has apparently been trolled with messages about Shrek.
- During her rant, Luna references The Beatles, Michael Jackson, and The Ramones.
- Silent Treatment: Fanfic Chunk refuses to speak to Luna until she deletes the "bad" song.
- Sincerity Mode: Most of Lisa's "I'm glad the author clarified" lines are just snarking at the narrator for pointing out the obvious, but when she's glad the author clarified that Vanzilla started with the gas pedal, she actually means it, because after the scene of thinking of mice being the answer, she wouldn't be surprised if magic giraffes made Vanzilla go.
- Slapstick:
- Fanfic Lincoln and his friends watch a video of a guy falling off a motorbike and laugh at it.
- Lincoln wonders if the old woman in the video fell over when thinking of possible ways it could be funny. In the actual video, the only humour was one criminal falling over.
- Speak in Unison: The fanfic counterparts of Rusty and Zach say, "YES!" in unison when Liam suggests watching "the video about the old woman".
- Spoof Aesop: The Louds jokingly state that the fanfic's moral is never to try anything different.
- Take Our Word for It: We're told fanfic Luna's song is horrible, but we don't know the lyrics and the music is never described beyond it being pop. The Loud siblings critique this.Lori: And we don't even know what was bad about it. Was it the lyrics? The production? If we can't hear the song for ourselves, it's hard to pick a side.
- Take That!: Luan delivers a potshot at Rush Limbaugh.
- Tempting Fate: Fanfic Luna thinks her pop song will get lots of positive feedback, but instead it gets lots of negative feedback and the only positive feedback it got was a lie.
- Title Drop: The fanfic's title is said many times in the story, but the first, and showiest, instance was Chunk saying, "Have fun getting feedback from your CRINGEWORTHY song!".
- Toilet Humour:
- When fanfic Lincoln and his guy friends are watching funny internet videos, one is of a dog sniffing a cat's butt.
- When Lincoln is wondering what's so funny about the videos with the old woman, he wonders if she farted.
- Voice Changeling: Lola does a perfect impression of Lana, Lily, Aunt Ruth, and Scoots.
