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The photos on this list may not be posted with the intention of sharing cursed pics, but many of them do fall under that umbrella. And if you’re wondering why the internet is so obsessed with these bizarre images, Paper published a piece discussing where cursed images came from and how they exploded in popularity across the internet.
Apparently the first ever “cursed image” was a photo of a farmer standing in a room full of crates of tomatoes that was posted on Tumblr in 2015. "At the time, I had a voyeuristic hobby of searching the archives of Flickr to look at forgotten flash photography from years in the past," the original poster shared. “Some of these forgotten photographs just had an eerie mood about them, like someone had captured a moment from a dream or another life.”
The thing about cursed images is that they typically cause some sort of strong reaction in their viewers. Upon seeing a photo of a toilet full of baked beans or a hot dog cocktail, you might feel disturbed, disgusted, unsettled, and/or confused. There’s no reason why this photo should exist, and it contradicts what we consider “normal.” And yet, we can’t take our eyes off of it.
A great cursed image might even be subtle. You may not be acutely aware of why the image makes you so uncomfortable, but it has a sort of je ne sais quoi. "It's the perfect cursed image to me because there's nothing inherently unsettling about any part of it," the original poster said about the iconic tomato photo. "It's a totally mundane moment transformed into something else by the camera and the new context I've given it."
Wired also published a piece discussing why cursed images are so appealing, and they pointed out that it might have something to do with the fact that they are unique. “Humans evolved to be drawn to things that are novel,” Margee Kerr, a sociologist who studies fear, told Wired. “We're descendants of humans who had the curiosity and motivation to go out and explore, but also the ability to quickly notice and take action when confronted with something new.”
There’s also an inherent sharability in these photos. They might not be memes, but they certainly get a reaction out of people, which makes us want to send them to our friends. “Have you seen this image of hot dogs wearing flip-flops?” is a great conversation starter! Once the shock of the photo has worn off, it might make you laugh. Or you may even wonder why you’ve never thought to take a photo like that yourself. It’s rare to see something shocking nowadays, so encountering a cursed image can be extremely refreshing.
Another possible reason why cursed images are so popular right now is that, in general, many people believe that we’re living in “cursed times.” The New Yorker published an article explaining that this doesn’t mean cursed as in haunted or under some sort of spell; in this context, living in a cursed timeline simply means experiencing generalized feelings of anxiety and malaise. For example, you probably feel worse every time you read the news, and you might even spend hours doomscrolling voluntarily.
It’s unfortunate that as a whole society seems to have abandoned the optimism that we had only two or three decades ago and replaced it with an overwhelming amount of cynicism. The present is cursed, and the future will only get worse. So what can we do? Distract ourselves with bizarre images online and try to make jokes about the horrors that persist. But in a strange way, these unsettling cursed images might actually be bringing us together, or at the very least, making us smile. So maybe the world isn’t a complete lost cause.
