Saturday
May162009
Demons of "Stupity"
May 16, 2009 I'm sure this will be shocking to absolutely none of you, but I've always been a big Dilbert fan. Probably because he reminds me so much of my Dad, who I think is an engineer, but to this day I couldn't tell you exactly what he does for a living. (Words like "quality" and "resource" and "Brillouin-Scattering Centro-Symmetrical Birefringence" factor in there somehow, I believe.)
Anyway, for those of you not familiar with the strip, Dilbert's dog Dogbert likes to go around exorcising people of their stupidity, like so:
Which is pretty hilarious, and also what Leni's coworkers wanted on their department manager's birthday cake.
Instead, they got this:
And that's "unintentional irony" for the win! Score!!
Reader Comments (97)
I almost peed my pants. I definitely snorted. That was just too good.
Aw man, the really sad part is that I had to look at the cake a minute before I realized what was wrong with it! I am pitiful :p
your cakes are amazing as is your blog
The cake's price sticker says "French Bread" too...lol.
That's one of the "best" stories to date! Ha ha...
Does the price label say "French Bread?"
This is a classic! I'm a huge Dilbert fan, though I think this wreckerator may have actually improved upon the strip. Perhaps Dilbert should include this cake as Dogbert attemts to exorcise it?
You sure your dad isn't in space tilemetry? :)
Is it bad that I didn't notice anything was wrong until I started reading the comments?
**telemetry. Wish I could say that was on purpose...
The label says "Fresh bread every day at 5 or it's free" (or something very close to that) - Pretty sure this is a grocery chain near me that uses that advert on ALL its bakery/deli items. It's the blackout that gives it the additional irony of appearing mis-labelled.
I <3 Dogbert.
I have a question.
Do the demons of stupity fear chocolate or pink flowers more?
@Ricalynnand: yeah, thats kroger.
Love the pink roses. It goes with the I hate you affect
HAH! Go, Safeway cake! Lovely.
(...but speaking as an employee of Slaveway, I'd like to take this time to say that our cakes are always perfect. Join us now for our Go to Grill event at a Safeway near you.)
ohmygoodness, that is totally funny.
I want that on a t-shirt!
BITTER OLD BITCH said...
"Somewhere, out there in a bakery...there is a decorator that has no idea what kind of hilarity they've unleashed upon humanity with this masterpiece."
**********
Don't you mean, "hilarty" being unleashed upon "humity"?
(heheh)
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@Haiku Joy :
It popped into *my* head as Lady Macbeth's "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"
But that was not a dog, like "Spot."
Awesome. Just ... awesome. :)
You should forward that cake to Scott Adams. :)
Jenn
This would be perfect for your book cover. People would have to buy the book just to find out what that cake was supposed to be.
How...How!...HOW??!?!? do things like this ever leave the bakery?
um, yeah...
even if it has been spelled right, does anyone else think this is just a strange cake to put it on?
because, pink flowers and stupity go hand-in-hand! :)
Seconding Ricalynnand's comment...there's a particular grocery chain which starts all its bakery labels with a little ad saying "French bread hot at 5pm or it's free" before identifying the actual stickered product. It's a bizarre practice, but not unique to this wreck, which stands on its own stupity. ;)
Dilbert is a hoot, but this cake takes it...(the cake, that is.) Even though stupidity seems to be running rampant through the world these days, chocolate and rosy stupity is a refreshing (and amusing) change!!!
Rock on stupity!!!
Thanks for the laugh, Jen! :)
Love it! It needs to be a shirt.
Haha. That is great. I love the little roses substituting for Dogbert.
I laughed so hard I just peed a little (but I'm pregnant, what's your excuse?)
Miciah, there are multiple forms of irony. This cake is an example of situational irony.
-Eva
@sendingintheclowns
Thanks! I'm glad someone else saw the allusion. Both are to Shakespeare's Macbeth, but because of the syllabic confines inherent in the haiku, I chose to pun on the word spot as though it were a dog's name. If I could have thrown in a Data reference somehow, I would have.
wv: mograt
And the mograts outgrabe.
So, I was ever so casually reading something (okay, it was Norman D. Knox' essay, "Irony", in Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, ed. Philip P. Wiener (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), Vol. II, pp. 626-634.) {ahem}
At any rate it said, in part: "IRONY may be defined as the conflict of two meanings which has a dramatic structure peculiar to itself: initially, one meaning, the appearance, presents itself as the obvious truth, but when the context of this meaning unfolds, in depth or in time, it surprisingly discloses a conflicting meaning, the reality, measured against which the first meaning now seems false or limited and, in its self-assurance, blind to its own situation." (emphasis added)So, to belabor the obvious, Dogbert's "out!! out!!" upon the cake turned the joke and conflicted it's meaning and then, turned it again. (Are we insiders or outsiders, audience or mark? Hmm.)
Let me also note that the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary states that the word origin for irony is the Greek eironeia meaning ‘simulated ignorance’. This cake would definitely be unintentional simulated ignorance. How unintentionally ironic. Which, I believe, is how it was labeled. I would also say that the meaning has unfolded, that it is, assuredly, a depth of {er} stupity that unfolds upon further examination. (I certainly did a double take on the cake.) I'd say this is definitely an ironic error.
At least that's what I'd say if I were the grammar police.
Lol. My father is an engineer too and I too have no idea what he -specifically- does :P
~ Rachie
lol awesome! :P
Stu Pity called...he wants his demons back. ;)
the sticker says french bread.
HAHAHAHAHA
BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Wow, that is win X 1000!
Joy? Was it brillig? Did the slithy toves gyre and gimble in the wabe? And were the mimsy borograves there? ;)
In the words of Baldrick: "Stupity, stupity, stupity!"
Our local Safeway store often has everything in the bakery section labeled French Bread. Someone is just too lazy to put in the correct label.
haha Baldrick! LL Blackadder.
HHAHA! Epic Win!
My Monday blues have been beaten!
To Orangeophelia: I feel I must point out that the buyer probably picked a random cake out of a display case and requested writing on it; not that the wreckerator was too lazy to draw dogbert or picked pink roses. Hence, it would be the buyer who was too lazy to order a cake ahead of time. That said, it was hilarious!
@holly
We simply must go snark-hunting sometime.
Poor Dilbert. My favorite was the fatherhood cake. The video was hilarious. I laughed as hard as the guy behind the counter and the lady behind the camera.
Awful and Funny .. LOL
heheh Thats tooo Funny :p lawl
The roses are a nice touch.
Love it! The little pink roses really go with the theme, too.
I think this is in my Top Ten Favorites.