You know you should probably just go to sleep when you've reached the bizarre depths of cyberspace and have gotten to the weird part of the internet aka TWPOTI.
Does that usually stop me? No. Do I typically fall further into a trance-like state where I become completely consumed by the wacky and strange train wreck that I have deemed internet-gold? Absolutely.
For this week's TWPOTI I would like to focus on a spectacular kind of YouTube video that seems to have become quite a phenomenon amongst expecting mothers: gender cake videos. What is a gender cake you might ask? A gender cake or a gender reveal as some call it, is a cake baked with a blue or pink inside to indicate whether the expecting parents are having a girl or a boy. How it all goes down - typically the parents to be give a copy of their ultrasound to a baker (not seen in the video) and then mommy and daddy dramatically cut into the cake in front of their entire family to reveal that they're having a little Jane or Johnny. Then I would guess that they eat the cake but usually there's too much shrieking and crying for the family to film that part. Aside from the obvious blunder/confusion about gender vs. sex, I am fascinated by the pure creepiness of using a cake, a dessert item that you eat, to deliver information about your future child's genitals. Not that I expect much in the "tone down the smugness" or "lack of cliches" department (see this lovely tune by Garfunkel and Oates), but what ever happened to good old email or telephone to deliver the news? So without further ado, I present the best of gender cake videos:
Despite the sheer number of gender reveal videos, most people still haven't figured out to cut a corner of the cake so it's easier to see...
The kid in the Spongebob shirt is pretty much going to be a superstar, I can tell.
This family is so excited about their cake reveal they forget their screaming will scare the baby, you know, the one that's actually born.
Wedding/cake reveal double whammy.
This week's TWPOTI wouldn't be complete without an epic cake fail.
Basically my feelings on gender cakes can be summed up in one picture from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life:
