Review: Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame, and the History of the Worst Thing Ever

Epic Fail: Bad Art, Viral Fame, and the History of the Worst Thing Ever by Mark O'Connell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Loved this, a long-form essay from Kindle Singles on the history and prevalence of "Epic Fails" or really, the sneering ironic judgement of failed or artisically terrible expression - something that is almost impossible to escape in the hyper-connected modern world (as O'Connell says, we're now in the Global Village and everyday a new village idiot is appointed). Touching on Wiseau's The Room, Rebecca Black's Friday and others, O'Connell is interested in what it says about us and our ethical code now - the mean-spirited streak that runs through a lot of discourse and criticism today.

There's probably not much here that you won't have thought about already if you're interested in the subject, but O'Connell writes so eloquently and interestingly that I couldn't put the short book down.

Highlight of the book though for me was this:

"The research originated in the Offbeat News Stories section of the 1996 World Almanac. Here, Dunning came across an account of the arrest of one McArthur Wheeler, of Pittsburgh, for two counts of armed bank robbery on the same day in 1995. At five-foot-six and 270 pounds, Wheeler must have been a conspicuous figure at the best of times, so it would have been in his interest to have worn some kind of disguise while robbing two banks at gunpoint. He nonetheless neglected to do this, and when his image was broadcast that night during the 11 o’clock news, he was recognized by a number of viewers, several of whom contacted the police. His arrest, less than an hour later, perplexed him. “But I wore the juice!” he said. He had somehow managed to convince himself that rubbing lemon juice into his face would render it invisible to cameras. He had even taken photographs of himself, to make sure the process worked, and was happy enough with the results. (The police later surmised that he’d either temporarily blinded himself with lemon juice or misjudged his aim with the camera.)".

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