Squid Game Season 3: Why the VIPs Felt So Cringy and Forced

If you’ve already binged Season 3 of Squid Game, you probably have a few takeaways. Without giving too much away, one thing most viewers seem to agree on is this: the actors who play the VIPs are really bad, like, cringy bad.

Their over dramatic performances during Hide and Seek, the game featured in Episode 2 where Front Man lets some of them to participate, was strike one. That moment essentially turns a few into murderers and the rest into bystanders to a crime.

Then came strike two during the Jump Rope game in Episode 3. Their portrayals of wealthy, arrogant Americans (well, most of them) felt exaggerated and unrealistic. Their tone, gestures, and overall demeanor also felt very forced, pulling focus from how good the rest of the show is.

Yes, the concept of the VIPs adds a shocking twist and helps drive the plot (and fund the games), but their delivery is enough to make you wonder if the cringe was intentional. Let’s dive into what fans are saying.

Whether it’s the over-enunciation or just the overall annoying demeanor of the Asian woman VIP, the acting in Season 3 of Squid Game was rough, almost too much for some to handle, especially compared to Season 1.

It bothered viewers so much that an entire Reddit thread tried to unpack why the VIPs were so bad this time around. One person replied to a comment that said the VIPs sounded like “they’re teaching you English,” by suggesting, “it’s probably so Korean people can understand them or something.”

Some fans even speculated the actors were doing what's known online as “Dhar Mann acting” — a style that’s super exaggerated and unrealistic, used intentionally to send a clear message. In this case, if the Squid Game team leaned into that style, maybe it was a way to make the VIPs seem even more out of touch with reality, or possibly to appeal to a broader audience.

Another Redditor, @WorthPrudent3028, made a solid point that it might not just be the acting as they claimed the lines themselves were “ridiculously bad,” making it tough for any actor to deliver them naturally.

But then someone else chimed in with another point of view: “Imagine Elon Musk as one of the VIPs and their acting is spot on.” That theory suggests the producers weren’t wrong with their portrayal of the VIPs, they may have been intentionally trying to show how they imagine ultra-rich, out-of-touch billionaires behave.

It’s worth remembering that Squid Game is a South Korean show, created, written, and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, so it’s fair to assume his portrayal of the rich and elite could be a mix of how Koreans view wealthy Americans (and non-Asians in general), while putting their own dramatic spin on the story.

Yes, the VIPs come off as cringy and forced, but Squid Game is dramatic by nature. Even some of the Korean actors deliver performances that could be seen as over-the-top. So maybe that was the effect they were going for all along, or maybe the acting is genuine.