this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
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Likely many other, I've been grossed out by some of the shit getting churned out with generative ai. But it's also made me notice some of the existing things that give me the same feeling.

Poorly translated stuff, as often seen on cheap Chinese imports, has the same uncanny valley awkwardness. It sounds like English, but it isn't what an actual human who spoke English would say. And if we want to talk about an algorithm that's gone rogue and is destroying the world while trying to fulfill some arbitary metrics, there's always late-stage capitalism...

Anyone else notice things like this?

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[–] magic_lobster_party@fedia.io 75 points 2 months ago (7 children)

YouTube channels that are mostly just reading Reddit comments.

[–] superduperenigma@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Especially if it's using that annoyingly upbeat robot voice.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 months ago

That would be AI slop by most standards since the robot voice is "AI" in a way.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Similarly, youtube channels about disaster events that are just reading the Wikipedia page with some spooky music.

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[–] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Those garbage/misleading mobile games in ads

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[–] remon@ani.social 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)
  • Super Hero movies

  • almost anything Disney produces these days.

[–] VivianRixia@piefed.social 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I'd say more specifically, Disney's live action remakes of their old films are slop. Though I've not watched a Disney film since Turning Red, they've not seemed appealing for a while now.

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

Oh God yes. The studio push for reboots, remakes and adaptations already runs the risk of by-the-numbers 'creativity', but those live action remakes are the natural progression. Not even a new take or reimagining, just a lazy, safe cashgrab.

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[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 32 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"Silverberg's Law"

Someone once asked science fiction writer Robert Silverberg why 90% of the SF stories they read were crap.

Silverberg replied that 90% of everything is crap.

[–] LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And that's why older media is usually better. Only the good parts have survived and the 90% has been forgotten.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The trouble is that a lot of the good stuff is forgotten as well.

Here are some movies you've probably never heard of.

"The Day of the Jackal" [original]

"The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" [original]

"Silent Partner" Elliot Gould

"The 3 Musketeers" Raquel Welch and Oliver Reed.

"Little Big Man"

I never hear them mentioned but people will rewatch a Hitchcock movie fifty times.

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[–] emb@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

SEO slop is the first thing that comes to mind. It's super-charged in ubiquity with AI now, but it's been a thing about as long as search engines.

Sometimes you land on a page and you can tell you're only there because they loaded it with keywords, repeating the same phrases you searched for in every variation.

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago (6 children)

SEO is actually one of the things that started me thinking about this. Although those dumb overly long cooking blogs were (previously) written by humans, the incentives led to a style that was no longer genuine. Much worse were those shameless fake review sites that existed solely to promote some VPN or antivirus. Sure, a human might've put that together, but so many words with so little regard for meaning.

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[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 28 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ghostwritten sequels to series whose original author is dead.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sanderson did a decent job with Wheel of Time, though.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

He didn't ghostwrite that, his name is on it. He also worked closely with Harriet, and had access to Robert's notes including whole sections already written. See also Brian Henson making Muppet Christmas Carol and Treasure Island, or Christopher Tolkien publishing supplements to the Silmarillion. Care, authorship, and intimacy abound. Not slop.

Compare with "New Hardy Boys" or the Dune prequels (which may have Brian Herbert's name on the cover but was clearly ghostwritten in large part). Slop.

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[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Shovelware video games could be included in the slop category.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 17 points 2 months ago

Also included in this: the thousands upon thousands of mobile games that are literally the same exact game with minor asset switching.

Like, 99% of those "town/castle/whatever building" games that have fixed locations for buildings etc., they're all based on maybe 2-3 white label game "engines" that are ready to be re-labelled with new assets, new logos, new story (even though the story events driving it are the same, the "side dish" storytelling changes minimally).

This also goes for pretty much any game format that becomes trending. You can bet your tushie that the moment a game format is even just borderline popular... there will be a dozen or so Chinese software houses copying the mechanics and looks and behaviour, and within a week you can buy a white label version of it for a few thousand dollars.

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

DropShipping. Basicly everything made in China

If we want to really strech it: plastic. We should have never invented plastic. The world would be a better one

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 18 points 2 months ago

Plastics are wonderful in certain use cases. Medical, yes please. Automotive, sure. Several layers of packaging on a plastic toy that's also bound together with plastic wire, no thank you.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Hallmark Christmas movies are proto-slop. Same goes for Lifetime Original movies. Example with Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig, literally doesn't feel real.

[–] thatonecoder@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think that one is satire, it ought to be.

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[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most phone apps, a lot of modern software, SEO bullshit, the current web, virtually every show, the vast majority of Hollywood films, a lot of the music that makes it to the charts, influencers' "content", adverts, the overwhelming pile of crap that no one buys on Steam, lots of AAA games that too many people buy on steam, the poorly-written bottom of the barrel fanfiction that passes as books, and a depressing amount of stuff posted on social media, including this comment.

Yes, I am grumpy today, why do you ask?

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[–] DickFiasco@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The "cooking blog" style where a simple answer to a simple question has to be padded with eight paragraphs of garbage. Like, I just want to know how to put a comment in a YAML file. I don't need a table of contents for this, I don't need to hear a brief history of how the comment was invented, just tell me the character to type.

[–] TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

what is the reason behind this? i never understood it. is the garbage supposed to raise the SEO score or something?

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[–] fargeol@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)
  • Funko pops
  • those Hong Kong ninja movies from the 80s that mixed chinese movies and ninja scenes
  • food that lost all taste and is basically salt, sugar, water and/or fat
  • any movie franchise or TV show that has a 37th sequel or season
  • The Loudness War in music
  • Fast Fashion
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

those Hong Kong ninja movies from the 80s that mixed chinese movies and ninja scenes

You shut your whore mouth, those chopsocky films are a treasure! The difference in quality and how the stories barely go together are some of the appeal of those movies. It's really cool how far some creators go to make their movie and have everything sorta be a somewhat cohesive narrative.

Shit like Kung Pow are great examples of the genre being done very well (even as a parody).

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[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

The absolute epitome of non-AI slop has got to be these creepy videos that were on YouTube back in ~2017:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsagate

Its exactly the kind of thing you'd expect would be the product of AI, but it actually came before AI. I think a lot of it was procedurally generated though, using scripts to control 3D software and editing software, so different character models could be used in the same scenes and different scenes could be strung together to make each video.

I think a similar thing happens with those shovelware Android games. There's so many that are just the same game with (incredibly poorly done) asset swaps that I think they must just make a game once and then automatically generate a thousand+ variations on it.

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[–] FridaySteve@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

Background music for all advertising during the holiday seasjinglejinglejingle jazzybellsbellsbellsbells BING BANG BONG BING DING DANG DONG although I suspect this is increasingly AI slop at this point

[–] PopcornPrincess@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago

Liberty Mutual’s commercials are utter non-sense, no plot, not funny.

Please make them stop the slop.

[–] presoak@lazysoci.al 12 points 2 months ago

100 years of video advertising. Here let me rub this on your eyeballs.

[–] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago

The Jerry Springer Show

[–] ptz@dubvee.org 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Pretty much any movie franchise on or after the 3rd film (Transformers, Fast and the Furious, etc). If it's based on a book series, then the first one after the source material runs out (e.g. Jurassic Park III and later).

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Reaction videos - prime example of slop. WHO DAFUQ WATCHES THESE? Like, am I going crazy by not getting this? Why would I watch some person just sit there and react to shit, often exaggerating their reaction to get attention of a watcher, that brings literally 0 fucking worth to the original content?

Prank videos - only are second to reaction videos. 99% of the time are either fake or they do some questionable stuff to expectorating bystanders.

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[–] JoshsJunkDrawer@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago

Every annual-ized video game. 2K, Fifa, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed. Copy and paste, low effort trash that offers nothing new, different, or interesting. They're designed to be as bland and disposible as possible, to keep you addicted for a year and selling you loot boxes and additions until the next edition comes out.

[–] paultimate14@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I kind of like the idea of using the word "slop" solely for AI and finding other words to describe stuff that's just poorly made. Trying to ascribe "slop" to other things dilutes the word and will help AI companies to keep doing what they are doing.

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[–] rook@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

fast food...

at this point can you even call that meat?

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[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

anything made by a boardroom, or"focus tested" or modified to appeal to xyz demographic.

the majority of pop music.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 9 points 2 months ago

The Family Circus cartoon (and probably other old newspaper cartoons that never die). I saw a video analyzing how they reuse the same cartoons over the years with small changes to keep them from looking too out of date, but increasingly lazily.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Adam Sandler films post 2010

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[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's a ton of stuff that applies to the female demographic - all kinds of stupid words with LED lights on them, idiotic fake wooden plank signs that say wine o'clock, horrible "inspirational" messages in that goofy curly font, something that you'd normally sell to a guy except they hot glued a pink pom pom on it.

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[–] Denjin@feddit.uk 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Law and Order, Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Law and Order Organized Crime, Law and Order Toronto, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Law and Order LA, Law and Order Trial by Jury, Law and Order True Crime, Law and Order UK, Code of Law (aus), Paris enquêtes criminelles (fra), Закон и Порядок. Отдел оперативных расследований (rus), Convictions

[–] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 months ago

Fast fashion.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Temu dollar garbage. Especially 3D printed stuff

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[–] snooggums@piefed.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Pop music, B movies, and tons of knock off entertainment media the recycles something that worked before but made superficially and without the underlying reason why the prior stuff was good.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Like a lot of tv shows.

Like... especially those cop shows, "police proceduals", booorrring. Also copaganda.

When I wanna find something new to watch, I basically have this routine where I start reading the plot summary of the thing on wikipedia, and if it sounds too boring, I'll just skip it. If I read like a few sentences and it sounds exciting, I stop reading the rest of the plot and just start watching.

I remember watching a lot of Hong Kong TV shows, those were sometimes fun, but its very like... I can almost predict the plot sometimes, like I just see a character and I know they're gonna flip sides.

But then we get to the Mainland Mandarin TV Shows... omg, okay so this was before I really got into western media.

So the Mainland stuff, its either:

  1. Romance... boring, never watched those, cuz that felt very "adult" to me, not really appropriate for me as a kid, i thought (its always cringy to me)
  2. Ancient China... royal courts... schemes... coups... enunichs... one of the emperor's wife plots against the concubine or some weird shit, some of the emperors sons fight each other for the throne... blah blah... ugh, boring, idk how I even stand watching those as a kid
  3. Resistance against japanese-invasion... I mean I kinda used to like the espionage thing and morse code stuff, but like... now looking back, its so repetative... they have like so much of stuff about the japanese invasion, like... lol, they really want to instill the anti-japan hate into young Chinese kids

like... I don't think there are even shows or movies from China that are even interesting. I think the politics has to do with it. Like, you can't make anything originak and intriguing without getting censored, so they just stick to "safe" formulas. Thus the boringness.

Like. I tried to watch 3 body problem in the Tencent version.

Omg, why is it so boring?

I'm a native Mandarin speaker and I got to like episode 8 out of 30 and I just gave up... too slow, too boring. I liked the Netflix version better, especially the Cultural Revolution and Struggle Session scene they cut out, cuz Pooh bear said no.

So... I have Cantonese and Mandarin as my languages... that I just have no fun content to watch in... ugh...

But it felt good watching 3 Body Problem Netflix edition, and like being able to hear and understand everything said in both languages, perks of being bilingual xD

[–] zecg@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Short form video comedy with cringy facial expressions synced to music is my most hated example

[–] BlackVenom@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Recipe websites.

Any trump speech.

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