If You Thought a Potato Salad Kickstarter Was Bad

Most Kickstarter pitches are complete bullshit. People resort to tears, feeble prizes, and empty buzzwords to encourage complete strangers to support their random, often entirely unfeasible businesses. In the past, people have sought (and found) funding for “Crystal Bacon” ($2,786 pledged) The World’s Largest Jockstrap ($854 pledged), and an animated romance adventure between a muffin and a banana, entitled “The Banana King Returns” ($250 pledged).

Perhaps that’s why the infamous Potato Salad Kickstarter from last week earned so much attention...and over $43,000 in funding. It was refreshingly honest and no frills. The campaign asked for a modest $10 to make a classic American side dish and refused to pretend the Kickstarter was about anything more profound than just potatoes and mayonnaise in a bowl. And, some setbacks aside, it worked.

Taking this honesty approach to new levels, Alyssa Onofreo and Kyle Vorbach made a video parodying such crowdsourcing pitches. Entitled “The Most Honest Kickstarter Pitch You’ll Ever See,” the video promotes a nonspecific "Bullshit Product" in order to mock the pathetic tropes common to many campaigns on the website, such as highfalutin jargon, pathetic prizes in exchange for pledges, and an appearance by the "Techie Hipster." If you get a kick out of ridiculous Kickstarter campaigns, this is worth a watch.

And remember: vertical integration.