Behold Suicide Food, a blog devoted to cartoon food mascots who encourage you to eat their brethren. Yes, these cartoon quislings actually exist, and they’re so happy to have you eat them! Shades of Cluckin’ Chicken here.
(Thanks to Cartoon Brew’s Jerry Beck)
What? No mention of the most famous suicidal food mascot in history?
Sorry, Charlie.
Not to take away from the blog, but James Lileks did it first.
Robin
An interesting site, but I find the angle the people running it are coming from rather flaky. Their description of “Suicide Food” is: Suicide Food is a bellwether of our decadent society. Suicide Food says, “Hey! Come on! Eating meat is without any ethical ramifications! See, Mr. Greenjeans? The animals aren’t complaining! So what’s your problem?” Suicide Food is not funny.
I disagree on two counts. First, Suicide Food mascot images are funny, in an ironic way. I was amused by the image of the pig trying to escape the smoker, for example, and was originally hoping for a collection of exceptionally ironic ones, only to find a collection of only mildly outrageous ones (well, except for the flayed rabbit with the head of Bugs Bunny :eek: ) annotated with hand-wringing and sanctimonious commentaries.
Second, I think the use of such “suicide food mascots” is doing the exact opposite of suppressing the ethical ramifications. What does that is the veiling of the source of meat (the slaughter and butchering of living animals) by packaging it as a product, so that people can think of “cows” as those four-legged things standing in a field somewhere and “beef” as red ground chuck under plastic wrap that gets grilled into a burger. By visually representing the animal associated with the meat, it forces a reminder that the meat did originally come from an animal.
If you are put off by an image of an animal trying to escape its fate (like the pig gasping with his head stuck out of a smoker), reading into it such a dramatic tragedy as [the pig] wonders at God’s hatred for him. He spits out the Apple of Death so that he might offer a final word, to imprint upon the wind some trace, some echo of his existence…, then you are someone who will probably go vegetarian for ethical reasons at some point (with an observed recidivism rate of well over 50%). Same thing for those people who get freaked out by getting served a whole roast or fried chicken at a Chinese restaurant, which comes with the head and the feet on the side as an indicator that a fresh, whole chicken was used for the dish, and where fish is always served whole and not boned and filleted. If it bothers you to realize meat = killing, you shouldn’t be eating it.
On the other hand, if you’ve come to terms with eating animals for sustenance (like me), then you think, obviously they don’t cook pigs alive, so this is just a humorous representation, plus they’re assuring me their meat is really cut from a pig and not processed blocks of pressed protein parts.
And lastly, if such an image forces you to make one choice or the other (to reject or come to terms with being an omnivore), then it’s a good thing, not a bad one. Sorry if my conclusions aren’t the same as those of the website runners.
I assume that said blog is parody, but if it isn’t; then…wow.
What we need is an animal that not only wants to be eaten but is also capable of saying so . 
Sure, I was aware of Lileks’s takes on it. What I didn’t realize is that suicidal animals were so damn prevalent. Even crossing species lines- Big Bird wearing a fake chicken comb outside an Asian chicken restaurant!
I think the “suicide food is not funny” slogan is meant to be ironic: of course it’s funny, and the people who make these images probably don’t realize the ramifications. A pig advertising pork products- makes sense! It comes from pigs! But is the pig really trying to tell us “eat me and my friends?” Maybe. (I’m reminded of a commercial for Pork- The Other White Meat™ where three cartoon pigs- apparently the three little pigs of story fame- are surfing channels and come across a bunch of cooking shows about pork. First pig: “Hey, we’re popular again!” Second pig: “Yeah, with mashed potatoes.” Third pig drops remote in shock.)
You mean like this?
I personally get the feeling that this website and its “diagnosis” section are meant to be taken seriously. If the website was intended for humor, I doubt that the flayed Bugs Bunny picture would have been included.
I agree with robardin on this one. The ethical ramifications set in when the cow and the steak are seperated in the mind, not when they are juxtaposed.
How little faith you have in us at Suicide Food! Charlie was profiled on January 17, 2007!
(See Suicide Food: Starkist's Charlie the Tuna)
We are nothing if not thorough.
—Ben
Lileks is a profound influence on us at Suicide Food, to be sure, but what, exactly, did he do first?
He offers hilarious commentary, but offers little in the way of sociological relevance.
That’s our beat.
Just that he raised awareness of suicidal cartoon animals. I think it’s wonderful that you’re taking it further, however, and delving into the meaning.
I feel like the cause should have a magnetic ribbon or something.
Robin
Although Charlie definitely fits the criteria, he is a failed suicidal food mascot. After all, Star-Kist doesn’t want tuna with good taste, they want tuna that tastes good.
Thanks for bringing this suicidal animals out into the forefront, brave bloggers, and thanks for responding!
And then there’s also Chick-Fil-A’s weird reversal of the suicidal animal theme, where they have cows saying “eat the chickens instead of us,” basically.