I honestly don’t mind it, as my kid and I also bond and joke over quoting homestarrunner & other online media.
I think it’s only an issue if the kids can’t “turn it off” or have no other interests or hobbies other than doing things online.
Plus, it’s middle school. These kids don’t really have themselves figured out yet, so constantly parroting popular memes can gain them some acceptance from their peers.
Back when I was young, I waited in a hot, minimally air-conditioned government building in Tennessee. For nearly 3 hours.
I finally went to the front desk and asked if I was even supposed to be there today, as my name had not been called.
The lady at the desk asked my name, and I gave her my last name, which sounds vaguely foreign. She looked surprised, leaned forward, and whispered “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t realize you were white!” And immediately ushered me through.
I moved out of that god-foesaken town / state months later.
As well-thought out as the answer before mine is, here’s the scoop:
The Oncler in the newest adaptation was once heavily meme’d as a “Tumblr sexy-man”– an internet bad-boy that folks would write edgy fanfiction about and make thirsty art depicting them, among other things. It was era that people who had that phase look back on and cringe. It is not something that people are proud to remember about themselves.
It was clearly unintentional by OP but once they saw the resemblance, they were filled with deep regret considering the history of the Tumblr-fied-era Onceler.
So comparing OP to the Onceler is bringing up feelings of adjacent cringe, as being compared to a Tumblr-phase-animated-fanfiction-sexyboi-twink really makes your brain scream “OH PLEASE NO” if you remember “those times”.