So Bad It’s Good is the core idea in this piece, and the practical takeaway is straightforward: much like “plan 9 from outer space,” there’s media out there that so terrible, so awful, so poorly-done that it flips around the scale back to being good.
Much like “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” there’s media out there that so terrible, so awful, so poorly-done that it flips around the scale back to being good.
In films, you have “Plan 9” and “The Room.” Commercials featuring the late Billy Mays (OXICLEAN!) and Vince Offer (The ShamWoW guy with the jaw). Or any commercial featuring a spokesperson with the title “Crazy.” Music brings us the phenomena of William Hung, “Barbie Girl,” “Achy Breaky Heart” and a lot of the disco produced in the 1970s. Literature has “Fifty Shades of Grey” and the “Left Behind” series.
Not even presidents are immune. H. L. Mencken said that Warren Harding’s English was “so bad that a kind of grandeur creeps into it.”
At some point in your career, you’ll hit upon the idea of making something bad on purpose, hoping to get the so-bad-it’s-good magic that’ll make your production (in)famous.
DON’T DO IT.
All of those blashpemies/masterstrokes just listed have one thing in common: they were all made in dead earnest, by people trying to make their art to the best of their ability. Those people failed spectacularly, and by failing, succeeded.
For every piece of media that’s awesome in its incompetence, there are thousands that are just plain incompetent. The odds are massively against you. If you attempt the “so bad it’s good” lottery, you’ll end up with a piece that not only makes you look silly, but risks damaging your (and your client’s) reputation.
Note that “cheesy” is a related, yet entirely different, animal from “bad.” Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal’s work for “Commercial Kings” is undeniably cheesy. They’re making incredibly and meticulously technically solid love letters to awful local commercials, however.
And don’t mix up “bad” and “camp.” John Waters’ movies might be campy as all hell, but there’s not a bit of badness about ‘em.
Even more insidious is the temptation to go with “ironic bad.” Y’know, as in “I know I could make it better and do it right, but I’m doing it wrong on purpose to make my point about creating something so bad it’s good. I’m such a hipster.” That’s bullshit. You’re just being lazy and finding an excuse to cut corners.
Do your best. Ed Wood was trying to do his best – he did it badly, but it was that drive to make art that gives the resulting train wreck its charm. Simple’s fine. Not every spot you produce has to be a Ming vase. Just do your best and don’t be cynical about it.
Never Do It Twice: The Rule That Killed My Busywork – The Jake Hallman podcast
So Bad It’s Good in practice
If you are working through so bad it’s good, the point is to make the next decision clearer, more repeatable, and more useful in real work.
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