Welcome, one and all, to the 2023 Peely Awards for the Worst in Pop Culture! This is the Avocado’s premiere space for celebrating bad art, and we do like to think of it as a celebration. We’re mocking, but also partaking in the silliness of culture. And if there’s a bit of justified schadenfreude, all the better.
This was a year of very grand highs and lows, particularly when it came to the world of art. The video game industry had a laundry list of classics, but also the tragic result of terrible business practices and a notable increase in high profile shovelware. Rightwing movies and songs dominated the discourse. A bunch of people blinded themselves in worship of false technological innovation. And ill-conceived vanity projects and white elephants seemed to pop up the second the previous one left the public eye. I almost completely forgot The Flash, but there it was, stinking up theaters. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum up there in the header is a perfect example of 2023’s many wild lows.
For those of you who are new, here’s how this goes. The central gimmick of the Peely’s is that the categories, not just the nominees, are chosen by you, the readers. Isn’t that exciting? We all get to be involved in dictating the direction of each year. All you need to do is put forth a category you think would be fun and upvote other people’s if you like them (and don’t worry about voting for multiple options! That’s part of the fun). We’ll generally choose the ones with the most upvotes, though we might omit, combine, or slightly edit ones—and we’ll almost certainly choose a few that didn’t accrue many upvotes if we think that they add to the milieu. It’s all about cultivating a garden of joyful mockery, like a Super Mario 64 world but for Ryan Murphy television productions. Assuming he had one this year and people vote for it.
Of course, we’ll also have a few perennial categories for worst video game, album or song, television season, piece of prose, and movie… and, of course, Silliest Title for an Eric Roberts Project. Gotta have that one (and I know there are plenty of lizard brain moments worth an honor, so definitely nominate that one). If this is your first time, here’s the first round from last year.
We do have a few new house rules for 2023, though, largely pertaining to local and international politics. This year has been a very dark one, and… well, to be blunt, this place is meant to be relatively light and celebratory. We’re here to indulge in the pleasure of bad art, and an active genocide doesn’t give me much pleasure. Because of that, we’re gonna be not banning or barring, but definitely deprioritizing political categories. That includes—for this year, at least—temporarily retiring the “Worst Hot Take” and “Worst Thinkpiece” categories that I know are quite popular. The person who argued that “environmental energy practices are bad because wind power was ‘responsible’ for the slave trade” that I had in my notes just dodged a bullet, eh? “Worst Use of AI,” though, now that’s totally acceptable.
Well, time to go ahead! We look forward to seeing your contributions. Our only request is that you suggest categories that can hold at least five nominees—so if you like one suggestion someone made, put in some options as a reply. We read all of them! It just helps us figure out what to pick. And remember: vote for everything that seems fun!