Talent is a gift. Taste is a separate gift entirely, and the two are not always a package deal. We want to applaud people who put in the hours and develop their skills, but when they deploy them this diabolically, it raises more questions than answers. The execution might be flawless, but the decision to do so is another matter.
Everyone, from nail and tattoo artists to hobby painters and decorators, needs to stop sometimes and ask themselves, “Just because I can, does that mean I should?” Well, we can’t be angry. We cannot even be disappointed. We can only stand back, acknowledge what we are looking at, and respect the commitment even as we question every single choice that led to it.
#1 These Nails Are Authorized By The High Council Of Remulak
Image source: BottomsUnder
#2 KFC Moist Towelette Tattoo (With Bonus Bee Movie)
Image source: onrv
#3 Truly Art
Image source: ValenMcb
Talent and taste are not the same thing, and nobody has proven this more thoroughly than the people in this collection. There is something almost admirable about a person who has spent years developing a real skill and then looked at every possible application for it and chosen the most unhinged one available with full commitment.
The Victorians were doing this long before anyone could post it online. There were entire exhibitions dedicated to sculptures of fleas wearing tiny functioning shoes, portraits of royalty painted on single grains of rice, and complete copies of the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on surfaces you needed a magnifying glass to read. And people paid to see them! Unlike us, who just mooch off free forums online. The crowd understood that watching someone do something extremely well for absolutely no reason is a category of entertainment in its own right. OH, how right they were.
#4 Grater Phone Case
Image source: LemonWaterLover
#5 I’m Not Sure I Could Stomach This
Image source: kwenlu
#6 The Jurse
Image source: ImmediateCake
What separates the entries here from regular bad decisions is the execution. A terrible idea done badly is just a mess. A terrible idea done with obvious care, with real hours behind it, with the kind of attention to detail that makes you stop scrolling and zoom in, is something else.
But before the internet, most of this work had nowhere to go. The outsider art world tried to do something about it, and has been collecting and selling work made outside any official tradition since critic Roger Cardinal named the category in 1972. The Outsider Art Fair in New York attracts serious buyers every year. What collectors recognized early is that making something with full commitment and no regard for convention yields a result that traditional art schools try to train out of people.
#7 Urinal By Hayden Clay
Image source: PhillyPhresh
#8 Mold Tattoo
Image source: MEOW-Loulou
#9 Fang Grills
Image source: Test4Echooo
Susan Sontag named the broader phenomenon in her 1964 essay Notes on Camp, defining it as a sensibility that finds beauty in artifice, exaggeration, and things that try too hard and succeed completely. Camp, she argued, is not about bad taste. It is about a love of the unnatural that is so committed it loops back around to being truly compelling. She was writing about theatre and fashion, but she was essentially describing everything in this article seventy years early.
#10 Found In R/Mineralgore
Image source: Unable-Cod-9658
#11 Works By P.puck
Image source: FriendlyCapybara
#12 Who Wants Night Bacon?!?!?!
Image source: blueeyeswhiteboomer
Thomas Kinkade, officially the most commercially successful artist in American history with an estimated 10 million homes containing his work, was almost universally dismissed by critics as producing sentimental, formulaic kitsch, aesthetically questionable paintings of cottages with improbable amounts of light coming from the windows.
Yet, despite his bad rap, he reportedly painted over 1,000 different images and generated around $100 million annually at his peak. So forget what the haters say, unleash your inner Kinkade and let your art soar.
#13 Burgerstocks
Image source: TheOuterEdge
#14 Does This Hummer H2 Stretch Limo With A Raised Roof And Patio In The Back Count?
Image source: Aggravating_Dog_7542
#15 Ssj4 Haircut
Image source: griphynx
The Bauhaus school, founded in Germany in 1919, built its entire curriculum around the argument that craft and artistic vision cannot be separated, and they tried to unify all design, art, arcitecture, and engineering under one umbrella. The school produced some of the most influential designers of the 20th century, but with their “form follows function” principle, it did not leave much room for creativity. The folks on this list would not soon be seeing Bauhaus acceptance letters in their postboxes.
#16 Yes, They Are Real
Image source: VegetableArtistic705
#17 From Skullet To ‘Stache
Image source: quickquotesquills
#18 Mural Pointing To The Bathroom In The Middle Of The Restaurant
Image source: violetw0rld
Jeff Koons is the art world’s most expensive example of this exact phenomenon. His Balloon Dog (Orange), a stainless steel sculpture that looks exactly like a twisted balloon animal you would get at a children’s party, sold for $58.4 million at Christie’s in 2013, making it the most expensive work by a living artist at the time. Koons employs over 90 fabricators and reportedly never touches the work himself, which means he has built an entire industrial operation around producing things that look like party supplies. Critics have called it glorified kitsch for decades, but the auction houses beg to differ.
#19 This Person Made A Giant Sequin-Covered Aquarium Shrimp
Image source: jelly_bean_gangbang
#20 What A Steal!
Image source: tankgirl619
#21 “Babe, You’ve Barely Touched Your Shrimp Luge”
Image source: RealisticSky8
The word ‘kitsch’ has a bad connotation, and when Milan Kundera defined it in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, he explained that it was the “absolute denial of [bad things]”. He wrote that it was the desire to create a version of the world that is purely pleasant, uncomplicated, and sentimentally satisfying. He meant it as a criticism because he did not agree with art and design that tried to exclude human suffering. The world is dark enough, buddy. Let the people make a crocheted Richard Nixon and call it a day.
#22 Teeth Earring Set I Made For An Art Show In Eleventh Grade
Image source: Cowboyintheclouds
#23 The Mewtwo Table Stays Put
Image source: ColbyRC01
#24 My Son Just Saw This In The Mall Parking Lot
Image source: splitfinity
The hyperrealistic cake is the 21st century’s proud contribution to this genre. Artists like Natalie Sideserf have spent years perfecting the ability to make edible objects that are visually indistinguishable from household items, cleaning products, shoes, and raw meat, all of which can be sliced open to reveal sponge and buttercream inside. The skill involved is extraordinary but the product is something that makes your eyes go cross and your brain feel scrambled. It is just when the results turn into grotesque swamp creatures of a toe with a fungal infection that we stop celebrating the craft altogether.
#25 Crucibrix Part 2
Image source: NotoriousPYG
#26 Ice Cream Burger
Image source: boriswong
#27 This Bathroom Rug
Image source: DjCanalex
But we still get pleasure in watching someone do something unnecessary extremely well, and it has nothing to do with agreeing with their choices. The brain responds to technical competence with something close to admiration, regardless of what it is applied to. So keep spreading joy, you weirdos! Our midnight scroll sessions will remain eternally unhinged and unapologetic thanks to your dedication.
#28 Who Needs High Fashion When You Can Carry The Bag?
Image source: bullseye208
#29 Danny Devi-Toe
Image source: ZombieBait2
#30 A Keyboard With A Functioning Rotary Dial Instead Of Numeric Keys
Image source: mattjh
#31 This Bohemia Glass Hoop
Image source: Minipiman
#32 Fur Covered Motor Scooter
Image source: exgaysurvivordan
#33 I Once Crocheted A Richard Nixon Blanket For My Now Ex
Image source: raise-your-weapon
#34 Kinky Gritty The “Transsexual Meance”
Image source: ZombieBait2
#35 Friendship Is Tragic
Image source: itwascolmustard
#36 Bathroom Art
Image source: brofessor592
#37 Jurassic Park Nails
Image source: shannon0303
#38 This Bathroom
Image source: bisasterous
#39 One Of The Most Unusual Funerals I’ve Ever Attended
Image source: GlitteringLocality
#40 Balenciaga Crocs. Yours For Only £650
Image source: Captain-Codfish
#41 In Souq Waqif, A Market In Doha
Image source: Top_Audience7471
#42 Some Gross Swamp Nails
Image source: Crafty-Factor6273
#43 It’s A Major Award!
Image source: thjeco
#44 Nails, But Teeth
Image source: tulipaie
#45 This Makeup
Image source: Frandelor
#46 This Cutting Board
Image source: CapnComet
#47 I Am A Snail Girlie But This Is Not It For Me. Gagged A Little Because It Looks So Much Like Snot And Booger With The Greenish Theme
Image source: Blcksheep89
#48 Toothy Rings
Image source: atomicxima
#49 Beer Cha-Lance My Friend Made In Order To Celebrate The New Home He Bought For Cheap Because The Owner Was Forced To Sell Due To The Local Factory Closing
Image source: TrainingRoutine2840
#50 Titanic Ice Cubes
Image source: zebenix
#51 Embroidered Armpit Sweat
Image source: anikkundu1998
#52 Found In The Weird Part Of The Warehouse
Image source: aubergine-pompelmoes
#53 Odd Bag Resembling Skinned Faces
Image source: Active_Driver_6043
#54 Really, Really Well Done. Really, Really Makes Me Uncomfortable
Image source: agequodagi5
#55 Lemon Pepper Pound Cake
Image source: EmotionalSnail_
#56 Satyress Robotics – Demon Robot For Lumberjacks
Image source: NH_OPERATOR
#57 A Very Faithful Customised Diecast… Based Off Of A Crash Where A Driver Had To Be Cut Out Because He Broke His Back
Image source: hwf0712
#58 Just Got Back From Melke1‘S Gallery Opening
Image source: konzertkarthi
#59 This Stroopwafel Victorinox
Image source: BlinkMCstrobo
#60 Custom Coffin Couch
Image source: ToolKitNotKoolTit
#61 Toothy Toothbrush Holder
Image source: msallin
#62 I Can’t Think Of Anything More Millennial
Image source: ConspiracyBarbie
#63 LEGO Clippings
Image source: Express-Level4352
#64 All Eyes On You
Image source: EbbAdministrative368
#65 This Gold Plated Ratchet At Harbor Freight Is Kind Of Ratchet
Image source: ntkwwwm
#66 A Bookshelf In Theory
Image source: storm0023
#67 1995 Chevy Lumina De Ville
Image source: trenton08618
#68 Nails I Did On Myself
Image source: Haunting_End_2080
#69 Thought My Old Halloween Nails Might Fit The Theme
Image source: Astroallyyy
#70 What’s The Occasion?
Image source: sticcydabliccy
#71 Pre- Wedding Photoshoot
Image source: MindlessContract
#72 Jar Jar Has Been Yaasified ✨
Image source: Tarrizard
#73 My Mom Bought Durian-Shaped Slippers For The House
Image source: oumoukaba
#74 This Leaning Tower Of Pisa Replica In Someone’s Front Yard
Image source: ITrageGuy
#75 I Was Told To Post My Disasperpiece Here
Image source: local_lesbian_barber
#76 My Trixie Mattel Dark Helmt
Image source: No-Instruction-1473
#77 Apocalypse Hellfire 6×6 – $145,000
Image source: Acolytical
#78 Facebook Marketplace Never Fails To Deliver
Image source: DatBassTho5
#79 Sneaker Puphood
Image source: Acolytical
#80 Hotel In Berlin Had The Carpets Designed To Look Like They Had Bare Footprints
Image source: magicdiskman
#81 Oldsmobile Cutlass With 50-Inch Gold Wire Wheels
Image source: StephenMcGannon
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