This was “The Hardest Thing” to watch.
Nick Lachey’s acoustic cover of Halsey’s hit song “Without Me” has TikTok users cringing.
The 98 Degrees member, 50, gave his all while singing the 2018 pop tune as a guitar player strummed along in his viral video, which has amassed 5 million views and counting.
“I used to do something called #MusicMonday where I’d drop weekly covers. Should I bring it back to TikTok? Let me know,” he captioned the post Monday.
While Lachey hit all the right notes and his talents were technically on point, several trolls felt “uncomfortable” over his exaggerated performance and mercilessly roasted the singer on the video-sharing app.
“When you’re on a 3rd date and he whips out a guitar and says he’s ‘never done this before,'” read the caption of a duet video posted by Betches.
“It’s giving 28 degrees,” one person wrote in the comments section, referring to Lachey’s boy band.
“It’s giving room temp 78°,” another joked.
“I’m 42 and didn’t know I could feel this dry,” one hater said.
“What did Halsey do to deserve this lol,” a netizen asked.
“The crazy part is he taped this, watched it, and said yep this is the one. Post it,” someone else added.
“His PR team must have been on a vacation,” another viewer chimed in.
“Do you think the guitar guy is also cringing?” one TikToker wondered.
Some users compared the “Love Is Blind” co-host’s acoustic number to the scene in Greta Gerwig’s 2023 “Barbie” movie in which Ken (Ryan Gosling) awkwardly serenades Barbie (Margot Robbie).
“It’s giving Ken..,” one person commented.
“That’s kenough,” a second person wrote.
“This was my favorite scene in Barbie,” a TikTok user sarcastically commented.
“you are kennough (pls don’t serenade me again),” the official Duolingo account jabbed.
Others, however, defended Lachey and called out the haters for being too critical of the “My Everything” singer.
“He is not bad at all. I don’t know why people are making fun of him. For real. He’s older and his tone has changed but so many people cannot do this!!” one defender wrote.
“I’m not even a fan of this guy but I think he sounds good. Y’all are too used to everybody using autotune,” a second person added.
“I don’t understand I think he’s singing OK. he’s on key he’s in tune what’s the problem?” a curious user asked.
“I thought he was being quite vulnerable…came off cute to me,” a fan noted.
Lachey has not publicly commented on the backlash to the video.
