open/close all folders
In-Universe
Fan Works
Marina: I don't understand how inklings find this (terribly-scripted sitcom)... entertaining.
Pearl: I mean... most stuff on TV is already junk, but that... that was a new kind of terrible. Even for me. (Beat) Welp! Those are two and a half hours we'll never get back.
Marina: My question is, why did we sit here and willingly continue to watch it?
Pearl: Honestly. I think it was one of those scenarios where it was so bad that it was good?
Pearl: I mean... most stuff on TV is already junk, but that... that was a new kind of terrible. Even for me. (Beat) Welp! Those are two and a half hours we'll never get back.
Marina: My question is, why did we sit here and willingly continue to watch it?
Pearl: Honestly. I think it was one of those scenarios where it was so bad that it was good?
— I've Got Your Back, Chapter 7
Literature
"While all this information is being hosed into the reader's eyes like a geyser of crazy, this book rockets from 0 to 60 on the loony meter and overdelivers on practically every level. From the moment the Gestapochauns play a mean practical joke on the old Irish washerwoman who works in the kitchen to the moment that the lawyer/fiance realizes exactly what the Nazi leprechaun named Greta is up to in his pants, it's one fifty-page freakout that's firing on every cylinder."
— Grady Hendrix, Paperbacks From Hell
"It isn't enough that a movie be campy and mediocre. It must show incomparably flawed craftsmanship in every detail. It must be so stupefyingly artless that it IS ART, albeit of the most accidental kind."
— Jeff Sconce on the Cult of Bad cinema, quoted in Henry Jenkins' Textual Poachers
Live-Action TV
"That sounds terrible. I wanna watch it twice."
— Troy, Community
"Pretty awful? Pretty awful? It was a masterpiece of awful!"
— Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother, "Stuff"
"The thing about you is you're so bad you're brilliant. You know? I could listen to you for hours, I really could. You came to entertain yourself, but you entertained me, the audience, I mean, we loved you. You were horrifically entertaining."
— Piers Morgan about Britain's Got Talent contestant Donald Bell-Gam
Statler: Now that was a hilarious!
Waldorf: Yes, it was really funny.
Statler: You suppose they meant it to be?
Waldorf: Yes, it was really funny.
Statler: You suppose they meant it to be?
"They suck, but they're great. But they also mostly suck. But they're also mostly great."
— Ted giving his opinion of Hallmark Christmas movies to Roy, Ted Lasso, "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
Theatre
"It was shocking, outrageous, insulting... and I loved every minute of it!"
Video Games
"Some things are so stupid they become awesome!"
— Cilia, Knytt Underground
"OK, that's bad. But it's so bad that I'm kinda starting to like it. Is that weird?"
— Yunaka, after eating a bad meal, Fire Emblem Engage
Web Original
Green Chair Guy: Is it just me, or is this movie making less and less sense?
Blue Chair Guy: I think it is.
Green Chair Guy: Then why are we watching it?
Blue Chair Guy: I don't know. I think we're watching it because it doesn't make any sense.
Green Chair Guy: Oh. But that doesn't change the fact that this is crap.
Blue Chair Guy: Nope.
Green Chair Guy: Wanna watch some more?
Blue Chair Guy: Yep.
Blue Chair Guy: I think it is.
Green Chair Guy: Then why are we watching it?
Blue Chair Guy: I don't know. I think we're watching it because it doesn't make any sense.
Green Chair Guy: Oh. But that doesn't change the fact that this is crap.
Blue Chair Guy: Nope.
Green Chair Guy: Wanna watch some more?
Blue Chair Guy: Yep.
Submitter: Have you ever listened to your hold music?
Worker: No, but we've been asked who chose our hold music. Is it that bad?
Submitter: (laughing) It's the worst! But it gave me the best laugh, ever. Whoever this guy is, he's almost squealing when he sings the chorus.
Worker: Now I have to hear!
Worker: No, but we've been asked who chose our hold music. Is it that bad?
Submitter: (laughing) It's the worst! But it gave me the best laugh, ever. Whoever this guy is, he's almost squealing when he sings the chorus.
Worker: Now I have to hear!
Webcomics
Leo: This Chun-Li movie is going to be baaaaad.
Aeris: Well, so was the first Street Fighter movie.
Leo: Yeah, but that was bad in an awesome way.
Aeris: Well, so was the first Street Fighter movie.
Leo: Yeah, but that was bad in an awesome way.
— VG Cats
Helix: This is so bad it makes my brain hurt. What a great movie!
Sam: It's like fine Texas chili. It burns, but it's a good kind of burn.
Sam: It's like fine Texas chili. It burns, but it's a good kind of burn.
Helix: I don't think Florence likes cheesy Japanese monster movies.
Sam: All the more reason to rescue her. Without us around, who's going to teach her to appreciate the finer things in life?
Sam: All the more reason to rescue her. Without us around, who's going to teach her to appreciate the finer things in life?
— Freefall
Tycho: Are you kidding? It was brilliant.
Gabe: That movie was two hours of absolute torture.
Tycho: Yes. Exactly. Listen, any hack can make a movie about Silent Hill. It takes a true master to transport the audience themselves into a realm of perpetual suffering.
Gabe: That movie was two hours of absolute torture.
Tycho: Yes. Exactly. Listen, any hack can make a movie about Silent Hill. It takes a true master to transport the audience themselves into a realm of perpetual suffering.
Western Animation
Pop psychology at its worst. That girl's theories are unfounded, her professional manner's a joke, and her training, if any, is shoddy at best! I love this show!
—Joker, The Batman
Butt-head: You know, like, this band sucks. But it's like, they suck, like, in new ways, you know?
Beavis: Yeah.
Butt-head: Like, they suck in ways we haven't, like, seen stuff suck before. So it's, like, pretty cool.
Beavis: Yeah.
Butt-head: Like, they suck in ways we haven't, like, seen stuff suck before. So it's, like, pretty cool.
— Beavis and Butt-Head, on the music video for "Chemical Imbalance" by Skatenigs
Reviews
On Anime & Manga
"It is so far down on the bad anime ladder, that it breaks through the floor like an old Nintendo game, then ends up at the top of the screen next to my best anime of all time list."
— kenny lauderdale reviewing Chargeman Ken!
Chargeman Ken!"It is an enigma that transcends the limits of trash itself to become something beyond. A perfect car crash of garbage that takes the Lowest Common Denominator and divides that by zero. This isn't just trash; it's a full-on fucking landfill, and in doing so, has become the ultimate work of art."
— Gigguk on Eromanga Sensei
On Films — Animated
"Shark Tale is such an atrocious movie and I don't understand how people like it. With that said, I love this movie. I am obsessed with it. It is such an abject failure of a motion picture in every conceivable way that it is truly captivating. [...] The animation is laughably unfinished. Every single character other than Puff Daddy and the octopus is either annoying or unlikable. Oscar is literally a villain that the movie refuses to call out. [...] Literally every single thing people hate about DreamWorks is in this movie. It is the perfect storm of awfulness that only comes once in a blue moon. It's probably the true worst DreamWorks movie, but I can't realistically rank it last because it is a joy to watch and think about and meme and be absolutely baffled by. I am never bored watching Shark Tale. I am always fully alert and attentive. I adore this movie and my obsession with it has only grown with time. And that's because it is, without a doubt, a cinematic disaster."
On Films — Live-Action
"It's a perfect storm of shit."
"Dungeons and Dragons is one of those rare films that simply gets everything wrong. The casting is wrong. The writing is wrong. The story is wrong. The effects are wrong. And this strange combination somehow turns out a beautiful, beautiful butterfly of absolute horribleness."
"This is some of the most gorgeously refined garbage I have ever seen."
— Rob Walker on Sleepwalkers
"Wow. it's rare that I see a thriller that seems to have gotten its plan from Yosemite Sam trying to con Widow Granny out of her fortune. While I'm glad that this movie is on Netflix in that I can get an episode of it out sooner, a movie like this should be seen on the big screen and with the largest audience possible. Me sitting alone and screaming 'WHAT?!' to myself doesn't have the same effect. Tyler Perry is a soap opera-writing genius. He does know his audience. He knows why they're here. He knows how to write things as crazy as possible to get you hooked on this madness!"
"So why do I love this movie so much if I don't think it's particularly competent? Well I don't know, why do people like The Room so much? Yeah, I'm genuinely sorry if you clicked on this video with a desire for me to explain why this is an unironically great film, because it's not."
"I am not trying to sell anyone of you to think that Catwoman (2004) is a good movie; because it is not. It is, in my humble opinion, something better."''
"The movie is unconscionably long, and I can't imagine ever wanting to watch it again, but I am glad I got to see vampires playing baseball."
— Smart Popcorn on House of the Dead
"If it were better, it wouldn't be as good."
— Brendan Gill on Butterflies Are Free
"A few dozen minutes, immersed in a universe with your friends, wondering how one can possibly stoop so low, trying to reconstruct the creation process to find the precise moment where the film went wrong, seeing the director's intents collapse spectacularly in a majestic crumbling of awkwardness, and feeling safe laughing like drunk pigs while mocking the film, until you realize that you only feel tenderness and indulgence towards it, and that thanks to it you just spent a wonderful moment with people dear to you."
— Karim Debbache reviewing Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
"Pompeii is laughably stupid, but I don't say that as a bad thing because heaven knows there are enough films that are boringly stupid."''
— Mark Kermode on Pompeii
"Few Christmas albums are as truly terrible as Star Wars: Christmas in the Stars, George Lucas' ill-fated cash in on the Christmas season. But between the secret celebrity hiding in the credits to the seven songs sung by "robots," few Christmas albums are as enjoyably terrible as this one."
— Allmusic guide review for Star Wars: Christmas In the Stars
"Let me see. We have a bunch of women killed with gardening tools within a few city blocks. All the women used the same gardener. Nope. Got me baffled. Even Steve McGarrett couldn't figure this one out."
— James Lowder, review of The Love Butcher (1975) for Polyhedron
(1975) for Polyhedron"Mamma Mia! is terrible, and yet, it's one of the very few movies that passes right through the wall in the Star Trek-way where they reverse the polarity, and you come out the other side and go, 'It's strangely wonderful!'"
— Mark Kermode on the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! (2008)
"I wish I could simply write, 'Look, of course it's one of the worst movies ever made. But it has hilarious dialogue, a weirdo action climax, a bizarre explanation for the faces of Easter Island, and dozens if not dozens of beautiful bare breasts.' I am, however, a responsible film critic and must conclude that Rapa Nui is a bad film. If you want to see it anyway, of course, that's strictly your concern. I think I may check it out again myself."
— Roger Ebert on Rapa Nui
"Here is a movie so outrageous and preposterous it is either (a) suicidal or (b) throbbing with a horrible fascination. I lean toward (b). It's a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? Godawful and boring, that would be a reason."
—Roger Ebert on Basic Instinct 2
"Those of you who have seen The Heretic have doubtless already guessed that my mind was a good deal more blown by the time I had finished watching it. As for the rest of you -— well, it’s like this… Exorcist II: The Heretic isn’t just a bad sequel to a good movie. Hell, it isn’t even just a terrible sequel to a great movie. Rather, it is a film so comprehensively misbegotten, so determinedly wrong-headed, so utterly incapable of realizing its nonsensical and overweening ambitions that it has become a classic in its own right, albeit of an altogether different species from its predecessor. It is almost as if, instead of merely stealing and egregiously misapplying The Day The Earth Stood Still’s themes, Plan 9 from Outer Space had been made as an official sequel to it, with the full blessing and backing of the original producers. There’s one hugely important sense in which that analogy doesn’t hold up, however, for Exorcist II was not made by any late-70’s counterpart to Ed Wood Jr. No, the blame for this hypnotic fiasco rests with a well and for the most part justly respected director -— no less a personage than John Deliverance Boorman! But what you have to remember about Boorman (and what Exorcist II’s producers clearly forgot) is that sometimes he’s John Zardoz Boorman instead. It was very definitely the latter avatar that arrived in Hollywood in the final quarter of 1975, bearing a cranium full of breathtakingly bad ideas."
— Scott "El Santo" Ashlin, 1000 Misspent Hours
On Literature
"Its delicious unconscious ridiculousness, and its enchanting naiveté, are as supreme and unapproachable, in their way, as are Shakespeare's sublimities... Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."
"There's an art to writing memorable trash as opposed to boring trash. In the original Sweet Valley series, Pascal and her army of ghostwriters created a preposterous but perfectly realised world where everyone was gorgeous, the sun always shone, local band The Droids were ready to play at every party and there was always a chance that a handsome newcomer, bitchy new cheerleader or serial killer would come along to liven things up. It was silly and stupid, but it was never boring."
— "So bad they're good", an article about the Sweet Valley High series
", an article about the Sweet Valley High series On Live-Action TV
"It's so wrong, it's right!"
"It’s so awful that...well, it's a waste of time and energy to spend one second hating it."
"Let me make this perfectly clear, though. Any jokes I make today at George's expense are not meant in malice whatsoever. I genuinely love this show precisely for how bad it is."
On Music
"You might remember how back in the early days of video games, you could get so many points that your score would flip from 999,999 back to 0, meaning that performing too well may actually cause you to fail miserably. The opposite of this phenomenon is the case with Hulk Rules. It is so bad in so many ways, that it actually flips the scoreboard in reverse to achieve an impossible level of greatness."
— Seanbaby on Hulk Rules featuring Hulk Hogan and the Wrestling Boot Band
"(Ummm... confession time: I actually have come around big time on "Gucci Gang".
It's one of the dumbest songs on two legs, but fuck, I think that may be what makes me love it so much.)"
It's one of the dumbest songs on two legs, but fuck, I think that may be what makes me love it so much.)"
On Tabletop RPGs
"I like how World of Synnibarr is uniquely deranged. The first time I read through it, I knew I would never see anything else quite like it, like only McCracken could have made a game that's fucked up the way Synnibarr is fucked up. It's the Plan 9 From Outer Space of RPGs... its execution was horrible, but its wrongness has this charming quality to it, and I can't help liking it nowadays. I've actually got more entertainment out of it than most of the "good" games I own, and I don't regret buying it, so in a bizarre way, McCracken actually succeeded."
— Jason Sartin
"Ah, yes, 'Anime Swordsman' [subclass]... 'Gloating Monologue' [class feature]. These are genius! This is no longer the 'crappy homebrew' video, this is the 'amazing homebrew' video."
—XP to Level 3, "Reviewing the Lowest Rated Homebrew for D&D"
" On Video Games
"Play it, and you'll laugh your way to tears."
— Stuttering Craig from ScrewAttack on Growl
"The combination of hilarious fail unseen since the CDi Zelda series and pretty decent voice acting propelled Boreale to his current status. In short, much like the Zelda CDi series turning into the single largest repository of hilarious YTPs and Rebecca Black being awesomely hilarious than being failtastically hilarious, Boreale swung the bar of fail so hard that fail transposed into awesome."
— 1d4chan Page on Indrick Boreale
on Indrick Boreale"I love that it is a train wreck mishmash of Final Fantasy and Disney where you play as the biggest dork to ever grace a video game. I also love that the plot is several bad anime series blended together into a mess that is nearly incomprehensible. The games for me are the equivalent of playing a so bad it is good movie like The Room or Showgirls".
— Commenter bartok here on Kingdom Hearts
on Kingdom Hearts"The critic in me is forced to give it our lowest possible score, but that comes with my highest possible recommendation."
— Geoffrey Thew reviews Magus
reviews Magus"It's a rare gem of a game that manages to be immensely entertaining despite having no obvious redeeming qualities whatsoever."
— Danny Cowan reviewing Magus
Magus"It's nothing but shiny, glorious failure, and I love it like a mother loves a child who won't stop eating paste."
— Bennett the Sage on the OVA adaptation of Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer
"The Sega CD had its place in history... It's a piece of shit, but it has a certain appeal."
— The Angry Video Game Nerd, Sega 32X review
review"'YOU'RE WINNER!' is the kind of stuff that turns horrible games into legends. It's the cherry on top of the diarrhea shake."
"Oh, it's just beautiful! You could not craft something as bad as this if you set out to try."
— TotalBiscuit, while playing Ride to Hell: Retribution
"That is the best worst thing I've ever seen. That I would play. Happily. Without remorse."
"It is the very model of a modern game calamity
The glitchy graphics, stupid plot and just the lack of sanity
The bad design and car controls inspire much profanity
And physics that lack gravity and go for abnormality
A barely-tested product rushed before its true finality
The goal: a certain favored holiday of Christianity
Some beta testing really could have helped this sad disaster cease
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming master-asterpiece!"note
The glitchy graphics, stupid plot and just the lack of sanity
The bad design and car controls inspire much profanity
And physics that lack gravity and go for abnormality
A barely-tested product rushed before its true finality
The goal: a certain favored holiday of Christianity
Some beta testing really could have helped this sad disaster cease
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming masterpiece!
And then we would have crowned this mess a modern gaming master-asterpiece!"note
"Ride to Hell is the kind of bad that leaves me with a smile on my face. It's a little retarded child with its head stuck in a cereal box and a massive big dump in its big boy pants, saying "Imma real game now!" [ruffles hair] Of course you are, Ride to Hell. And that's why I think everyone should buy it. Just to fuck with some heads! This could be our Plan 9 from Outer Space!"
— Zero Punctuation reviews Ride to Hell: Retribution
"This is the thing: You want to classify Dead to Rights as, like, one of those games that tries to do everything and doesn't really succeed. But I think a more accurate description is: Dead to Rights is doing everything humanely possible to be awesome, and it's just not sure how to do it."
— Slowbeef, during his Let's Play of Dead to Rights
"I'm one of the biggest supporters of Virtual Boy I know, which usually boils down to saying stuff like, 'Yeah, it's godawful, but it's hilarious.'"
"I understand completely when people say that they don't play Doom Eternal for the plot. They're just wrong. I play DOOM Eternal for the plot. And that might sound strange to you. But Eternal's plot is pure insanity, and it does everything that it needs to. We are painfully aware that the plot exists as a contrivance because the environmental designer went fucking ballistic. I just don't care. I played every single level, gleefully wondering 'Oh boy, what stupid shit is next? I cannot fucking wait.' So, play the game for the plot. It is integral to the experience of DOOM Eternal."
—Max0r, on the plot of DOOM Eternal
"This Mighty No. 9 commercial is probably the prime epitome of a bad ad. Not just for games, but for anything. Yet, for me, it just tips over that threshold into so bad, it's incredible. Not only does the trailer actively show you how much the game looks like a domino spatulata, but it also says things like "It's freaking cool!" and things like "Crazy addictive, like popping bubble wrap addictive!" Ah yes, the addictive pastime of... popping bubble wrap." [cut to Caddy attempting to pop bubble wrap] "Something I do for maybe like seven seconds. Which is more time than I spent on Mighty No. 9!"
—Caddicarus, The Insane World of Video Game Commercials
"I personally love the look. I don't care that the game is notorious for its graphics - and rightfully so with a framerate that tends to hover somewhere between 5-15fps depending on what's going on. It's all super-chunky, it chugs worse than a pickled bar vet, and the main character looks like a complete tool (just check out his aptly named "Fairy armor"!), but somehow, all of these things coalesce into something that's extremely endearing. Have you ever had an animal in your neighborhood that is so grotesque that nobody has the heart to turn it away? A cat with one eye and a severe case of the mange that everyone feeds despite the public health risk or how much they complain about it?
Well, Virtual Hydlide is that cat. Nobody seems to want to admit that they love it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a good many of the people that played this for any length of time found something redeeming in it."
Well, Virtual Hydlide is that cat. Nobody seems to want to admit that they love it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a good many of the people that played this for any length of time found something redeeming in it."
— NintendoComplete on Virtual Hydlide
On Western Animation
"I always kind of liked them. They were so bad or silly that they were good, if you know what I mean, and I think the passage of time might make them more fun now."
— George Harrison on The Beatles cartoon
"Donkey Kong Country doesn't hold up to scrutiny that well...or, at all. It isn't well-written, it's very 90's in tropes and feel, and...I mean, look at it. But it's special. There's an earnestness to these performances, with some legitimately great singing and over-the-top voice work put in. The desire to emulate Donkey Kong Country's technical achievements as a video game through 3D animation and motion-capture technology is incredibly admirable. And while it's aged rather horribly, it's fun seeing all of this wild, untrained energy brought to the forefront. It has all the love and joy of a community theater production; the presentation isn't great, not all of the cast is seasoned, but it's clear that there's a lot of heart, and that makes it endearing far beyond quality."
— Phyrrhickong, Designing For, "Bluster Kong: The Greatest Villain"
"