Everything Is Cake
July 14, 2020 10:37 AM Subscribe
Scientists explain why the viral trend tickles the brain [Inverse.com]
I used to live up the street from a shop that specialized in cakes that looked like purses, designer shoes, etc. It was ridiculous how realistic they looked. And they were priced to match - so expensive that I had to wonder who would buy something so beautiful just to eat it? Plus you know it was 95% fondant.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:53 AM on July 14, 2020
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:53 AM on July 14, 2020
The king of cake fakery (previously).
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:26 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:26 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
If by “tickles” scientists mean “engenders feeling of revulsion in”
posted by rodlymight at 11:29 AM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 11:29 AM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
Looks like we found the guy who isn't secretly cake!
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:38 AM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 11:38 AM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
Looks like we found the guy who isn't secretly cake!
He's just covering to throw us off
posted by NoMich at 11:53 AM on July 14, 2020
He's just covering to throw us off
posted by NoMich at 11:53 AM on July 14, 2020
As someone with a now ex-wife that has kept me up to date with cake trends for 15-odd years (she's kept me up to date about cakes for longer post-divorce, than pre, mostly of the Cake Wrecks variety), it's weird this is viral all of sudden. I remember hearing (too much) about baby shower cakes that look like a literally baby during the GWB administration. Pretty sure "Everything is a cake!!!!!" videos have also been a thing a time or two since then as well.
But, guess you never know that the masses are going to go for.
posted by sideshow at 12:07 PM on July 14, 2020
But, guess you never know that the masses are going to go for.
posted by sideshow at 12:07 PM on July 14, 2020
@lillie_arghn: TL CLEANSE. IT IS NOT CAKE.
posted by Lexica at 12:15 PM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Lexica at 12:15 PM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
well now I know that my delight with this is A Thing
posted by iamkimiam at 12:23 PM on July 14, 2020
posted by iamkimiam at 12:23 PM on July 14, 2020
I really, really want to see one where they cut through something to reveal it's cake. But then they keep going and cut through the cutting board to reveal that it, too, is cake. Then, maybe also through the table. And finally -- and I'm not really sure how to do it-- somehow getting the knife to bend back and cut itself open to reveal the cake within. The master's cake tools will never dismantle the master's cake house.
posted by mhum at 12:50 PM on July 14, 2020 [22 favorites]
posted by mhum at 12:50 PM on July 14, 2020 [22 favorites]
Pretty sure "Everything is a cake!!!!!" videos have also been a thing a time or two since then as well.
Personally I've seen quite a few such videos over the years, so Twitter's sudden fixation on it left me a bit mystified. It's like if suddenly the entire internet got really into David Copperfield TV specials from the 90s.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:10 PM on July 14, 2020 [8 favorites]
Personally I've seen quite a few such videos over the years, so Twitter's sudden fixation on it left me a bit mystified. It's like if suddenly the entire internet got really into David Copperfield TV specials from the 90s.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:10 PM on July 14, 2020 [8 favorites]
MetaFilter: it was 95% fondant.
posted by Fizz at 1:17 PM on July 14, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 1:17 PM on July 14, 2020 [7 favorites]
I suspect this is more of a sudden fixation on the part of The Algorithm than of real human beings.
posted by Pyry at 1:30 PM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Pyry at 1:30 PM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
The Algorithm, that definitely exists, doesn't tweet about it endlessly, nor make thousands of terrible jokes about it, endlessly.
posted by sideshow at 1:41 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by sideshow at 1:41 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
Doesn’t it? Aren’t we all algorithm? Isn’t algorithm cake?
posted by amanda at 1:52 PM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by amanda at 1:52 PM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
Let them eat cake, if they can find it.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:04 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 2:04 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm sure I can't be the only one who believes that the better looking a cake is, the higher the chance it willl be unappetizing. As such, I just don't get the appeal of super-fancy cake decoration.
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:33 PM on July 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Nerd of the North at 2:33 PM on July 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
Personally I've seen quite a few such videos over the years, so Twitter's sudden fixation on it left me a bit mystified.
It's a meme that Twitter is just late 2010s Tumblr and it's scarily, scarily accurate. It's usually in reference to Twitter suddenly discovering some specific bit of discourse that LGBTQ+ Tumblr went through 5-10 years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the same thing happen with other viral topics. Like I'd place these videos at late 2010s Tumblr, definitely.
posted by brook horse at 2:35 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's a meme that Twitter is just late 2010s Tumblr and it's scarily, scarily accurate. It's usually in reference to Twitter suddenly discovering some specific bit of discourse that LGBTQ+ Tumblr went through 5-10 years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the same thing happen with other viral topics. Like I'd place these videos at late 2010s Tumblr, definitely.
posted by brook horse at 2:35 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
You've all forgotten the majesty of Chuck Testa.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:40 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:40 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
guess you never know that the masses are going to go for
I'm taking this as more evidence that Twitter is not the internet, and the internet is not humankind. Twitter is a tiny, tiny group of people, even more so if you consider that the top 10% most prolific posters post 80% of the tweets.
posted by echo target at 2:42 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm taking this as more evidence that Twitter is not the internet, and the internet is not humankind. Twitter is a tiny, tiny group of people, even more so if you consider that the top 10% most prolific posters post 80% of the tweets.
posted by echo target at 2:42 PM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
The lie is a cake.
posted by Night_owl at 2:43 PM on July 14, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by Night_owl at 2:43 PM on July 14, 2020 [10 favorites]
I'm taking this as more evidence that Twitter is not the internet, and the internet is not humankind. Twitter is a tiny, tiny group of people, even more so if you consider that the top 10% most prolific posters post 80% of the tweets.
From the linked article: "the most prolific 10% of Twitter users in terms of tweet volume produce a median of 138 tweets monthly"
I scrolled back through my own Twitter account and I have 158 tweets in the past two weeks, since July 1. Apparently this puts me firmly in the "most prolific 10% of Twitter users."
The idea that being in the "most prolific 10% of Twitter users" signifies anything is nonsense. 138 tweets monthly is about 4 per day. That's one tweet about my lunch, one about my cat, and two responding to other tweets. (Note: that's a joke, but it's meant to be illustrative that an average of 4 tweets a day, especially now when "1/?" is a common tweet-thread convention, is low.)
My TL was flooded with tweets about cake, and tweets about tweets about cake, and tweets about tweets about tweets about... (omigod kill me now). On the other hand, yesterday I made a passing reference about "the cake thing" to my spouse, who is also active on Twitter, and learned that... his TL was apparently entirely cake-free? I had to pull up the Know Your Meme page to show him.
posted by Lexica at 4:13 PM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
From the linked article: "the most prolific 10% of Twitter users in terms of tweet volume produce a median of 138 tweets monthly"
I scrolled back through my own Twitter account and I have 158 tweets in the past two weeks, since July 1. Apparently this puts me firmly in the "most prolific 10% of Twitter users."
The idea that being in the "most prolific 10% of Twitter users" signifies anything is nonsense. 138 tweets monthly is about 4 per day. That's one tweet about my lunch, one about my cat, and two responding to other tweets. (Note: that's a joke, but it's meant to be illustrative that an average of 4 tweets a day, especially now when "1/?" is a common tweet-thread convention, is low.)
My TL was flooded with tweets about cake, and tweets about tweets about cake, and tweets about tweets about tweets about... (omigod kill me now). On the other hand, yesterday I made a passing reference about "the cake thing" to my spouse, who is also active on Twitter, and learned that... his TL was apparently entirely cake-free? I had to pull up the Know Your Meme page to show him.
posted by Lexica at 4:13 PM on July 14, 2020 [3 favorites]
Fondant is cheating. Make it with buttercream, you cowards.
posted by ananci at 4:23 PM on July 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by ananci at 4:23 PM on July 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
At first I thought it was interesting, now all I can think of is that the cake is a lie and I don't know what that means and I get so frustrated that I no longer like this 🎂
posted by VyanSelei at 4:54 AM on July 15, 2020
posted by VyanSelei at 4:54 AM on July 15, 2020
The thing is, I used to like cake. But now if you put a piece of cake in front of me, I’m going to imagine a sweaty croc with a severed human foot in it.
(That said, the confluence of the astronaut meme with with the cake meme has produced some good riffs)
posted by rodlymight at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
(That said, the confluence of the astronaut meme with with the cake meme has produced some good riffs)
posted by rodlymight at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by aws17576 at 10:46 AM on July 14, 2020