should I eat this?
April 27, 2014 5:21 AM Subscribe
someone ate this is a food blog that celebrates the hilarity of cooking mishaps, bad food photography, and the grossest things people shove down their throats.
via r/shittyfoodporn. much more at imgur.com/r/shittyfoodporn
via r/shittyfoodporn. much more at imgur.com/r/shittyfoodporn
The tags really make this perfect.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:27 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 5:27 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
I mean, some of these do look genuinely cross, mostly by virtue of being hilariously inept or completely unidentifiable.
But there is a not-insignificant number of items that just hammer home the degree of special effects that go into food photography. I mean, geez, frozen pizza is frozen pizza. It's not awesome, and it certainly doesn't look awesome, but it's still frozen pizza.
posted by valkyryn at 5:33 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
But there is a not-insignificant number of items that just hammer home the degree of special effects that go into food photography. I mean, geez, frozen pizza is frozen pizza. It's not awesome, and it certainly doesn't look awesome, but it's still frozen pizza.
posted by valkyryn at 5:33 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
1. I just went and checked out my leftover white beans and rice in the fridge and feel 100% secure that they would be warmly and enthusiastically welcomed into the shittyfoodporn family.
2. I love this typo: "some of these do look genuinely cross" very, very much
posted by taz at 5:56 AM on April 27, 2014 [8 favorites]
2. I love this typo: "some of these do look genuinely cross" very, very much
posted by taz at 5:56 AM on April 27, 2014 [8 favorites]
They're like flip phone camera autopsy photos. In fact, I'd say pace Hannibal type high art food porn this is probably what the disordered hellscape of real serial killer's mind would think to serve for dinner. Too real, too real.
posted by Divine_Wino at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Divine_Wino at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
There are so many varied types of loaf.
posted by The Whelk at 6:16 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 6:16 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
The copy is lame. If you are going to make fun of bad phone photos, you need better game than this.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:31 AM on April 27, 2014 [19 favorites]
posted by clvrmnky at 6:31 AM on April 27, 2014 [19 favorites]
I can only imagine the writer of this sustains themselves entirely on space age meal pills, cigarettes and distain.
posted by Jilder at 6:32 AM on April 27, 2014 [9 favorites]
posted by Jilder at 6:32 AM on April 27, 2014 [9 favorites]
I liked all of the copy that didn't use the words poop or puke.
posted by oceanjesse at 6:33 AM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by oceanjesse at 6:33 AM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
I think we should be overthinking this.
posted by Segundus at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Segundus at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
That is one bitter and angry individual....
posted by HuronBob at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by HuronBob at 6:39 AM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Presentation was never great when I was growing up in the 70s, but this one is the one that curdled my stomach.
posted by arcticseal at 6:40 AM on April 27, 2014
posted by arcticseal at 6:40 AM on April 27, 2014
Let's face it, we've all eaten something that looks like these perhaps even willingly.
posted by tommasz at 7:44 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by tommasz at 7:44 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
I can only imagine the writer of this sustains themselves entirely on space age meal pills, cigarettes and distain.
"There’s even a certain tone in his work that’s almost kind of snarky, you know? And that kind of thing could become a real game-changer for voices on the internet.”
posted by brundlefly at 8:52 AM on April 27, 2014 [6 favorites]
"There’s even a certain tone in his work that’s almost kind of snarky, you know? And that kind of thing could become a real game-changer for voices on the internet.”
posted by brundlefly at 8:52 AM on April 27, 2014 [6 favorites]
See the reason why r/shittyfoodporn works and this doesn't, is that shittyfoodporn is about people laughing at themselves (you wouldn't believe the stuff I eat man) while this is pointing and laughing at something someone's made, and maybe made without wanting/being able to have it perfect.
We've all eaten filthy looking junk and that's kinda funny. This falls flat and mean; laughing with vs laughing at.
though yes, the tags are great
posted by litleozy at 9:19 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
We've all eaten filthy looking junk and that's kinda funny. This falls flat and mean; laughing with vs laughing at.
though yes, the tags are great
posted by litleozy at 9:19 AM on April 27, 2014 [5 favorites]
BLGLROORORRLRLFFLLRROFLFLGLLRLFRORORORORFOGLGLRF
Tags: BLGLROORORRLRLFFLLRROFLFLGLLRLFRORORORORFOGLGLRF
Yes. Yessssss.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:37 AM on April 27, 2014
Tags: BLGLROORORRLRLFFLLRROFLFLGLLRLFRORORORORFOGLGLRF
Yes. Yessssss.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:37 AM on April 27, 2014
Some of the best food I make is unapologetically beige and shapeless. I sometimes post photos of my creations on social media, but there are many times when I look at the result and decide not to, because people would just not understand.
posted by monospace at 9:59 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by monospace at 9:59 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
I feel like you have to be one of those people who appreciates good pictures of food, and/or takes pictures of food, to like this. To me this just looks like pictures of food.
posted by bongo_x at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, this is evil. Most of them taste just fine, some are probably delicious. Eating good doesn't come through in photographs, and optimizing your meals for the pictures you can take of it usually a waste.
There's some parallel (that I can't quite nail down) between this and posting pictures of regular people on a blog titled "somebody fucked this", with an implicit comparison to the Playboy centerfold. It just feels alienating.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:03 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
There's some parallel (that I can't quite nail down) between this and posting pictures of regular people on a blog titled "somebody fucked this", with an implicit comparison to the Playboy centerfold. It just feels alienating.
posted by benito.strauss at 11:03 AM on April 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
Well, that was deeply unfunny. I imagine the author must live on Froot Loops and Skittles since they find bangers and mash so unsettling.
posted by oneirodynia at 11:12 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by oneirodynia at 11:12 AM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
Yeah, this looks pretty pointless. I mean, some of them are gross, but most of it is just normal food taken by people with mediocre photography skills, sorta like me. The one at the top when I looked is clearly just sausage and mash with onion gravy, and as far as I know it's meant to look like that. It probably tasted great.
If this was bad food from professional settings, a la Cake Wrecks, *then* we'd have something worth reading.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 11:14 AM on April 27, 2014
If this was bad food from professional settings, a la Cake Wrecks, *then* we'd have something worth reading.
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 11:14 AM on April 27, 2014
That pumpkin cake was better looking than any one I could make.
posted by jessamyn at 11:25 AM on April 27, 2014
posted by jessamyn at 11:25 AM on April 27, 2014
This would be much more entertaining if it wasn't stuck making fun of how pictures of food automatically look gross when the white balance is set to incandescent and the actual light is fluorescent. Over and over and over again. A good half of them would look fine if it weren't for that one issue.
posted by wierdo at 12:13 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by wierdo at 12:13 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
Tags: witch's titty
Came here to say the same, the pictures are "interesting" - but the tags kill it. I am laughing so hard, thanks for that
posted by nostrada at 1:06 PM on April 27, 2014
Came here to say the same, the pictures are "interesting" - but the tags kill it. I am laughing so hard, thanks for that
posted by nostrada at 1:06 PM on April 27, 2014
Yeah, the commentary is kind of lame. I like the cake fail pics better.
I have a FB friend who posts all these gorgeous photos of food, while I post either a crappy camera phone pic or link to the site where I got the recipe, which often has a decent pic of what it's supposed to look like.
One day I saw this person posted a photo montage and there was a professional photographer standing on a chair with a foot-long lens aimed at her dining room table, and it was all food styled and stuff.
So now I don't feel so bad about my crappy pics and I try not to post things that look like a mix of gravy/burger/grey food. The only reason I post food pics in the first place is I have a bunch of friends who like recipe ideas and one of my cousins mentioned creating a family cookbook at some point, so it's creating a record for me to go back and reference.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 1:11 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
I have a FB friend who posts all these gorgeous photos of food, while I post either a crappy camera phone pic or link to the site where I got the recipe, which often has a decent pic of what it's supposed to look like.
One day I saw this person posted a photo montage and there was a professional photographer standing on a chair with a foot-long lens aimed at her dining room table, and it was all food styled and stuff.
So now I don't feel so bad about my crappy pics and I try not to post things that look like a mix of gravy/burger/grey food. The only reason I post food pics in the first place is I have a bunch of friends who like recipe ideas and one of my cousins mentioned creating a family cookbook at some point, so it's creating a record for me to go back and reference.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 1:11 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
If this isn't several cans of cat food in a pan, I don't know what is.
I LOLed, but have to admit we've served something similar to Fancy Feast or wet Kibbles and Bits many a time. Pretty tasty, too, if not exactly gor-met eatin'. Served over rice usually.
However, trying to do anything with a hot dog besides putting it in a bun with chili cheese or sauerkraut just looks pathetic and sad.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:24 PM on April 27, 2014
I LOLed, but have to admit we've served something similar to Fancy Feast or wet Kibbles and Bits many a time. Pretty tasty, too, if not exactly gor-met eatin'. Served over rice usually.
However, trying to do anything with a hot dog besides putting it in a bun with chili cheese or sauerkraut just looks pathetic and sad.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:24 PM on April 27, 2014
Is there a turducken in there?
A friend of mine once cooked a nutria blackbird gumbo that smelled so bad he refused to even taste it. He fed it to his dogs and within two hours they were puking and howling. His wife was not amused.
posted by bukvich at 1:31 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
A friend of mine once cooked a nutria blackbird gumbo that smelled so bad he refused to even taste it. He fed it to his dogs and within two hours they were puking and howling. His wife was not amused.
posted by bukvich at 1:31 PM on April 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
See also: Dimly lit meals for one.
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 1:43 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 1:43 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
I think probably the main difference between making fun of a person and making fun of some gross looking food (whether it's the food itself or the photography) that a person made, photographed, and then posted to the internet is that probably everyone has made and eaten gross looking and sometimes actually gross food. I have! Probably today! A lot of the stuff I make does sort of look like this might not be the first time it's been eaten.
And if I were to take pictures of it and put them on the internet, I would expect people to make fun of it. I might even post it FOR people to laugh at, which is exactly what a lot of those people did.
I just feel like there's probably some middle ground. Like, we can still respect and value people without pretending that everything is always just great. I'm really not seeing how it's evil to poke a little fun at bad fan fiction, crappy art, and bologna tacos (and bad photography). All these things take skill and practice, and if you skip the learning phase and jump right into a public forum with your early efforts, some of your results are going to be amusing.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:43 PM on April 27, 2014
And if I were to take pictures of it and put them on the internet, I would expect people to make fun of it. I might even post it FOR people to laugh at, which is exactly what a lot of those people did.
I just feel like there's probably some middle ground. Like, we can still respect and value people without pretending that everything is always just great. I'm really not seeing how it's evil to poke a little fun at bad fan fiction, crappy art, and bologna tacos (and bad photography). All these things take skill and practice, and if you skip the learning phase and jump right into a public forum with your early efforts, some of your results are going to be amusing.
posted by ernielundquist at 2:43 PM on April 27, 2014
You know ernie, 10-15 years ago I might have found your arguments convincing? But these days they just look really pathetic to me. First and foremost, the humor at work on this tumblr is fundamentally lazy. It's devoid of any sort of wit or cleverness or clarity of observation. For me, one of the best sources of humor is when someone looks at something in a new or unexpected light and by doing that illuminates some new niche or facet of it. That sudden revelation - and the startlement that accompanies it - is what makes me laugh.
This is just kind of... shitty and mean. And I agree that we don't have to pretend that "everything is always just great," which emphatically includes the tumblr here. Taking potshots at regular people making regular food is dull and humorless and petty and so on. This doesn't mean the person running the tumblr is a bad person, just that they came up with a bad concept for a tumblr and their thoroughly mediocre execution can't rescue that concept.
All my opinion, of course.
posted by kavasa at 3:53 PM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
This is just kind of... shitty and mean. And I agree that we don't have to pretend that "everything is always just great," which emphatically includes the tumblr here. Taking potshots at regular people making regular food is dull and humorless and petty and so on. This doesn't mean the person running the tumblr is a bad person, just that they came up with a bad concept for a tumblr and their thoroughly mediocre execution can't rescue that concept.
All my opinion, of course.
posted by kavasa at 3:53 PM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Like, we can still respect and value people without pretending that everything is always just great. I'm really not seeing how it's evil to poke a little fun at bad fan fiction, crappy art, and bologna tacos (and bad photography).
Surely it’s OK to criticize someone’s blog then.
posted by bongo_x at 4:20 PM on April 27, 2014
Surely it’s OK to criticize someone’s blog then.
posted by bongo_x at 4:20 PM on April 27, 2014
Sure, it's OK to criticize someone's blog, but characterizing it as 'evil' and comparing it to posting pictures of people to a blog titled 'somebody fucked this' is way over the top. It's just a blog making fun of amateurish (and some intentionally gross) food pictures.
Whether you think it's funny or not, it's nothing like evil.
posted by ernielundquist at 5:14 PM on April 27, 2014
Whether you think it's funny or not, it's nothing like evil.
posted by ernielundquist at 5:14 PM on April 27, 2014
Wow, Dimly Lit Meals For One blows this out of the hot ham water.
posted by maryr at 5:24 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by maryr at 5:24 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Counterpoint, kitchen lighting, camera phone, 30 min from start to finish
posted by The Whelk at 5:37 PM on April 27, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 5:37 PM on April 27, 2014
Counterpoint, kitchen lighting, camera phone, 30 min from start to finish
Lol, why did someone take a picture of their barf inside a cave?
tags: barf, puke, cave, bad lighting, i hope they enjoy being single, total failure of a human being, not hyperbole that food literally looks like vomit
posted by Pyry at 6:07 PM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Lol, why did someone take a picture of their barf inside a cave?
tags: barf, puke, cave, bad lighting, i hope they enjoy being single, total failure of a human being, not hyperbole that food literally looks like vomit
posted by Pyry at 6:07 PM on April 27, 2014 [3 favorites]
Please visit my tumblr, totally average food mocked in increasingly hyperbolic ways.
posted by Pyry at 6:16 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Pyry at 6:16 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Some of these photos look genuinely disgusting, but others just seem to demonstrate the blogger's ignorance of non-western cuisine. This is Karachi halva, for example. It's a delicious South Asian sweet. This is probably homemade baba ganoush, served with a beautifully arranged plate of vegetables. This looks likes a particularly good plate of palak paneer. Other meals look like honest attempts by people of limited means to cook something satisfying with whatever ingredients were at hand. I'm all for encouraging people to eat real, healthy food instead of nacho cheese and hot dogs, but I'm not sure that pointing at any food you don't recognise and saying, "Ew, that looks like poo!" is the best way to go about it.
posted by embrangled at 6:26 PM on April 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by embrangled at 6:26 PM on April 27, 2014 [7 favorites]
Wow, Dimly Lit Meals For One blows this out of the hot ham water.
Thank you! I was thinking "I've seen this, but better, but I can't remember where..."
posted by running order squabble fest at 6:59 PM on April 27, 2014
Thank you! I was thinking "I've seen this, but better, but I can't remember where..."
posted by running order squabble fest at 6:59 PM on April 27, 2014
Thanks Metafilter, I've never before contemplated what beige tastes like.
posted by cacofonie at 8:10 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by cacofonie at 8:10 PM on April 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Some food that is delicious is just not all that photogenic. Some food is...no. Just no.
And some food is terrifying. Exhibit A: In Soviet Russia pizza eats you.
posted by pianissimo at 12:32 AM on April 28, 2014
And some food is terrifying. Exhibit A: In Soviet Russia pizza eats you.
posted by pianissimo at 12:32 AM on April 28, 2014
I'm betting this person has never actually cooked what most people would recognize as a meal in their lives, for if you spend your time eating only what professionals have prepared in moderate to high-end restaurants, then it's pretty much guaranteed that at some point in its preparation, someone explicitly paid attention to what it looks like, and it will probably look pretty good.
If, on the other hand, you are not a desperately precious and cosseted young Foodie, you have almost certainly eaten and/or made something that looks much worse than any of these dishes on this tumblog which should really be named not so much should I eat this? as should I change the fucking white balance?
posted by kcds at 4:22 AM on April 28, 2014
If, on the other hand, you are not a desperately precious and cosseted young Foodie, you have almost certainly eaten and/or made something that looks much worse than any of these dishes on this tumblog which should really be named not so much should I eat this? as should I change the fucking white balance?
posted by kcds at 4:22 AM on April 28, 2014
a paean to shitty food blogs
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 1:23 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by and they trembled before her fury at 1:23 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm a bad person. I laughed my ass off at these pics. Hard. But I have cooked similar, so figure I'm allowed to..
posted by Vaike at 3:37 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Vaike at 3:37 PM on April 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
Carbonara isn't hard to present prettily. like at all.
posted by The Whelk at 3:46 PM on April 29, 2014
posted by The Whelk at 3:46 PM on April 29, 2014
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