> ut I could never find actual live examples of "cheugy" being used this way, either online or IRL, outside of thinkpieces about gen Z slang. I'm pretty convinced that "cheugy" is a phenomenon similar to the hoax jargon

Au contraire, I have heard a lot of millenials-who-spend-too-much-time-on-instagram use cheugy to describe a tacky outfit choice. But like ironically.

Oh, so like "harsh realm" or "cob knobbler" from "grunge speak".

I don't spend much time on social media and cheugy is one of my favorite neologisms. I finally have a word to describe a particular kind of tacky.