Food is something universal. We all have to eat to survive. But beyond that, cooking and baking can be tons of fun, eating is a way to connect with other people, and it’s delightful to try new and exciting flavors. However, innovation and originality are far from easy if you’re in the restaurant business.
Some chefs… well, they go overboard with their ideas. Like, epic fail levels of overboard. That’s where the popular Stupid Food online group comes in. It’s a community of people who gently poke fun at some of the most pretentious, bizarre, and confusing dishes people have stumbled across. We’ve collected some of the finest specimens to show you. Scroll down to go down the rabbit hole of weird gastronomic designs, and be sure to upvote the pics that made you do a double-take, Pandas.
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Mac And Cheese Battle
Y’all Eating Or Passing?
Look At This Nonsense Walmart Is Pushing
The Stupid Food group was created all the way back in April 2015. In the nearly decade since then, the community has grown to a jaw-dropping 2.4 million food critics from all around the globe. The subreddit presents itself as a “place to lambast idiotic methods of serving food, or any other epicurean inanity worthy of ridicule.”
The group continues to be extremely popular to this very day and ranks among the top 1% of all subreddits by size. After all, who doesn’t enjoy being an armchair critic?
Excuse Me? Cursed
What On Earth Is That?
Oh it's ham! In the shape of a fish....with an eye. My brain hurts.
Shiba-Inu Butt Bread In Japan
Food, aesthetics, and taste are all potentially very divisive topics. The moderators who are in charge of keeping the community running smoothly point out that Stupid Food is primarily meant for ridicule.
They do not care about how creative and artful the images are. “We're here to poke gentle fun at other people's creativity, and we do not care whether it is just or reasonable.”
A Facebook Creation...not Oc
I Just Don't Understand It Lol
For all that Americans love sweets, I don't think this combination would ever take off
The "Vegan Salad" At A Wedding I Went To That Is Literally Just Dry Romaine
When you’re not physically there at the table, eating the food, a huge part of the experience is missing. Namely, the taste, smell, texture, and mouthfeel.
You’re also missing out on the ambiance of the restaurant or fast-food place, which can affect your mood and expectations a lot. As can the staff and how they talk and serve you. When you post on Stupid Food, all you have to go by are the aesthetics, the plating, and the idea behind the dish.
Who Wants To Eat A Wrap With Their Hands Anyways?
My Friend’s 25 Dollar Gluten Free Vegan Pizza
Chips In A Tiny Jar…. For Sale In My Hotel Room For Just 6.99
A big reason why Stupid Food continues to be so active to this day is the level of quality everyone brings to the content. The moderators warn that you should stay on topic while posting photos.
For example, you shouldn’t be sharing images “featuring anything featuring idiotic, dangerous, and pointless eating ‘challenges’ such as the Tide Pod Challenge.” As a rule of thumb, photos related to these sorts of challenges are usually disliked, so they’re downvoted or ignored. Meanwhile, when it comes to recipes, you should only share them with the group if they’re actually stupid. In short, they need to stand out.
My Mom's Atrocious Dinner Every Night: Pumpkin Seeds, Barbecue Sauce, Cottage Cheese, And Spinach
Excessive Levels Of Stupidity
I've seen this on Pinterest. Much as I love anything garlic/herb butter related, particularly with fresh bread, this somehow puts me off.
I Used To Work At Dunkin. Don’t Miss It
Redditor u/Clackpot, the founder of Stupid Food, previously told Bored Panda all about the community and shared their thoughts on pretentiousness and cooking. According to them, pretentious cooking and fancy food are not actually a binary choice. “Supremely wonderful food can also be sphincter-tighteningly precious, and I will cheerfully deride the pretension whilst also applauding the skill and imagination required,” they said.
My Submission Because Apparently It's Stupid
This $10 Cheesy Garlic Bread I Bought Tonight
Americans, Are You Okay?
“And really the pretension in food is about the creator, not the food itself nor the outcome. Consequently, although it is very difficult to define what makes food stupid, it's actually very easy to decide whether it is stupid or not, it's a subjective call which we are all equipped to make," the founder of the community told us earlier.
The founder revealed that they allowed the community to grow naturally. “Stupid Food is an entirely different creature to what I originally envisaged, but I've allowed it to grow in its own way and here we are. To be honest, I don't like the modern Stupid Food nearly as much as the thing I conceived but it has been fascinating to watch it grow and mature," they said about their perspective at the time.
What In The Diabetes Is This, America
Facebook Is Wild
My Friends Hated This, Cranberry Sauce Over Rice. Is It Really That Bad?
For u/Clackpot, food is “highly subjective,” so making any absolute statements about it would be “unmitigated piffle.” They said that “literally every human being consumes food and we each have our own view, some of which will differ wildly from one another.”
Blooming Bologna. I Have No Words
What The Hell Is This
I am a pickle fanatic! I'd eat that in a heart beat. But the pickle should be sliced a bit thinner. How are you supposed to take a bite!?!
Asked For Extra Cheese In Bean Burrito, Got Almost All Cheese Instead
From the founder’s perspective, pretentiousness ought to be confronted head-on and should “have its feet held to the fire of ridicule, it needs us to laugh in its face.” However, the customers are partly to blame for so many chefs going bonkers with their creations, too.
What Do You Think About This?
Hamburgers Or Hotdogs? Why Not Both??
There's something about this picture that puts me in mind of something but I can't quite put my finger in it uh I mean on it.
One Slurp Each I Said! 🎃
“For culinary pretension to work requires credulous individuals to buy into the conceit that, for example, dropping salt onto your steak via your elbow—lookin' atchoo Salt Bae—is somehow an improvement over a salt cellar or a grinder; that serving dishes directly onto tabletops and worktops gives them an indefinable je ne sais quoi which is simply not available from common-or-garden crockery; or that adding gold leaf to excessively expensive liquor effects some great improvement which is too subtle for the hoi polloi to understand. It is essentially a confidence trick,” they said.
The After Effects Of This Seem Unpleasant, At Best
You made your bed. Your extremely stinky one. Which you won't be sharing with anyone for long.
The Size Of The Pasta Dish I Ordered In A Fancy Hotel In India
Is This Now Coffee, A Donut Or Ice Cream?
Which of the dishes featured in this list did you think was the stupidest of them all? Were there any that you’d be willing to try, no matter how much people judged you? Which ones made you say ‘yum’?
What is the weirdest dish you’ve recently seen at a restaurant in person? Grab a snack and let us know in the comments.
Believe It Or Not: Deep Fried Pizza
This Kinda Stuff Is Why Europeans Mock Us
I’d Go On Another Date With Him
Old Guy I Worked With Mixes Peanuts With His Coca-Cola Apparently This Is An Old Country Thing
This Is A Real Post On Facebook
My Dad Made Ribs And Beans But I Decided To Have This Instead For Dinner
Inquiring Minds Are Inquiring
Will it be jam, custard, Archbishop Desmond Tutu or the 14th Century?
Carnivores For Christ
Apparently I’m Dying On This Hill, But Am I Dying Alone?
Ice Cream! Except By That I Mean I Stuck Buttercream In The Freezer And Started Eating It With A Spoon
Wife Gifted Me With This Absolute Banger Today
British Food Strikes Again
I'm Sure Everyone Is Dying For A Peep Dog
My Dad Cooks Chicken In The Microwave
Whatever sins those chickens committed in life, none of them deserved a fate like this.
I Thought Y’all Would Appreciate My Office Grilling Technique
Canned Sea Water (No Sodium)
Discovered You Can Glue Meat Together - It's An All-In-One Surf And Turf Steak
Zero Waste! You Know Minus The Coffee Grounds You Just Wasted
There’s Stupid And Then There’s Facebook Level Stupid
Saw This On Facebook
Pickled Cheesecake With Pretzel Crust
Mother-In-Law’s Homemade Eggnog. Cognac Did Not Want To Mix
During my wasted days, there was a wonderful little pub in Fort Washington that served a drink called the brain hemorrhage. Looked similar, but was intentional.
Stupidly Giant Ice Cream Servings
I Had To Reread This Twice To Understand
I'm Just Going To Leave This Here
Real Deviled Eggs
How Many Years In Jail For This?
In A Weight Loss Sub
It helps you lose weight by making you lose your appetite. Genius, really.
One Of My Student’s Breakfast
I Present To You All The Furger And Bries
$60 After Tax And Tip
I Genuinely Don't Know What To Say About This
How Do Yall Like Your Pancakes Cooked? I Like Mine Medium Rare
My Mom Made A Gravy For Dinner Tonight Containing 21,000+ Mg Of Sodium
Used the wrong image of the lot. Each bullion cube from that jar is 910mg (40% daily) of sodium, their mother used the entire jar of cubes, and added even more salt from the shaker to make the gravy. Also salted the rest of the food, and suggested that the leftover gravy be frozen and revived at a later date with even more bullion cubes.