Awful Taste, But Great Execution

About

Awful Taste, But Great Execution is a phrase used by users of the internet to express disapproval of the motivations or concept behind a work of engineering, artwork, technological design and more. It often refers to something created non-commercially or in a DIY setting in an attempt to create something that is more visually appealing in its final form but is still regarded as distasteful in motives. This categorization of images is frequently used on Reddit and Pinterest.

Origin

The phrase was virtually unseen online until 2016, coinciding with the creation of the subreddit /r/ATBGE. However, the same phenomenon was observed as early as March 2014, when Eric Weiss,^[1] creator of Zombieriot.com and Riotdaily.com, tweeted this image (seen below) to his following, describing it as Furby necronomicon. Along with 60 likes and 59 retweets, it ignited a debate over the merits of the image both in the 9-comment Twitter thread and on the many sites where it reappeared. It was the first known post to leave viewers unsure whether a creation was simply awful or done exceptionally well. Later, it was featured in Cheezburger’s article "27 Creations of Awful Taste But Great Execution."^[2]

Spread

After first appearing on Reddit,^[3] images fitting within this category spread to Pinterest.^[4] On Pinterest, most pins following this trend were highlighting the visual appeal of a stunning execution of a mediocre idea rather than DIY attempts at similar concepts. One early example is this pin (seen below) from 2017 of a rainbow holographic convertible sports car.

ATBGE Subreddit

Reddit’s /r/ATBGE was created on August 4th, 2016. The top post of all time on /r/ATBGE was a photograph (seen below) submitted by u/Thuck_My_Ballth, which was submitted in 2020 and has earned over 77,400 upvotes and 84 comments in one year. As of June 2021, /r/ATBGE has over one and a half million members.

Related Memes

DIY Fails

DIY fails are homemade creations often that don’t serve a reasonable purpose. Successful DIY fails are frequently associated with the phrase "awful taste, but great execution" due to the intricacies in the finished product despite it not having a justifiable application in the real world.

Tattoo Fails

The term Tattoo fails encompasses bad tattoo designs, both those that turned out as impressive works of art or those that turned out looking nothing like the original. In cases where talented tattoo artists successfully completed the tasks of tattooing a poorly-conceived idea for the client, the resulting image is frequently shared on /r/ATBGE and throughout the internet under the phrase.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References