-->''"It isn't enough that a movie be campy and mediocre. It must show incomparably flawed craftsmanship in every detail. It must be so stupefyingly artless that it IS ART, albeit of the most accidental kind."''\\
-- '''Jeff Sconce''' on the Cult of Bad cinema, quoted in Henry Jenkins' ''Textual Poachers''

-->''"It is so bad that a kind of grandeur creeps into it."''\\
-- H. L. Mencken, on Warren G. Harding's English composition

-->''"We got the wrong play. We got the wrong director. We got the wrong actors. Where did we go right?"''\\
-- Max Bialystock, in ''TheProducers'', after their play ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Springtime for Hitler]]'' becomes a smashing success.

-->''Natasha Fatale: You are so bad, you're good!''
-->''Boris Badenov: It's good to be bad!'' \\
-- ''Boris And Natasha'' a film which epitomizes this trope.

Once in a while, a WallBanger gets so bad, it creates a disruption in the badness continuum, and wraps right around to good. Maybe the [[SpecialEffectFailure hubcap-on-a-wire flying saucers]] are cute, or the spontaneous brothel scene goes on for [[OverlyLongGag so long it's hilarious]], or the technically oriented [[{{Narm}} find humor]] in the way the [[PlayfulHacker hacker]] can [[EverythingIsOnline suborn the traffic lights of New York]] with no perceptible effort.

Whatever the reason, a truly horrid piece of work can become an [[{{Narm}} unintentional riot]] and even get [[http://www.rinkworks.com/badmovie/ its own fandom]] for its very lack of quality. This can well be an ongoing process as attitudes change, budgets grow and cynicism increases.

On occasion, the writers may ''intentionally'' [[TheyPlottedAPerfectlyGoodWaste try to pull off this trope]]. Of course, this almost ''never'' actually results in something that fits because it's hard not to [[LampshadeHanging "wink at the camera",]] [[BetterThanABareBulb so to speak.]]

Something which is [[SoBadItsGood So Bad It's Good]] has a high probability of becoming a CultClassic. Many are heavy on {{Camp}}, therefore falling far onto the silly side of the SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness, and are often considered GuiltyPleasures, although neither is necessary. See NarmCharm. This is also often seen in MemeticMutation, when people combine two or more horrible things (or pieces thereof) into something good. LeeroyJenkins, for example.

If someone just keeps on churning out work that's SoBadItsGood, they're probably GiftedlyBad.

Unfortunately, [[SoBadItsHorrible there's worse]]. Fortunately, [[SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome there's also better]]. There's even [[SoOkayItsAverage in between]]. A good visual of all four can be found in [[http://xkcd.com/653/ this xkcd comic.]]

Compare StylisticSuck and SoUnfunnyItsFunny, which [[PlayedForLaughs play this trope for laughs.]]

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!!Examples broken down by medium:
* SoBadItsGood/{{Advertising}}
* [[SoBadItsGood/{{Anime}} Anime and Manga]]
* SoBadItsGood/ComicBooks
* SoBadItsGood/FanFic
* SoBadItsGood/{{Film}}
* SoBadItsGood/{{Literature}}
* SoBadItsGood/LiveActionTV
* SoBadItsGood/{{Music}}
* SoBadItsGood/NewMedia
* SoBadItsGood/VideoGames
* SoBadItsGood/WebComics
* SoBadItsGood/WesternAnimation
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling ]]

* {{WWE}} wrestler The Boogeyman is an almost-bald ScaryBlackMan with his entire head painted red with black spots, who walks like he's having a seizure, smashes giant antique clocks over his head, speaks almost entirely in singsongy nursery rhymes, eats worms by the handful, and his catchphrase is, "I'm... THE BOOGEYMAN! And I'm comin'... TO GETCHA!" The whole thing is as hilariously awful as it sounds.
** It should be noted that his backstory actually [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the ludicrousness involved -- an actor for a show that didn't materialize who snapped (falling too deep into method acting) and became the Boogeyman, but was [[ExecutiveMeddling sicced]] onto WWE's SmackDown! brand anyway to see what would happen and because he was still under contract. Seriously.
** Even more hilariously awful is the time in one skit with D-Generation X, he appeared from underneath the ring, and told Triple H and Shawn Michaels: "I'm...THE BOOGEYMAN! And I'm comin' to - (briefly sans Boogeyman gimmick) - see if I can join DX."
* Would ''ReadyToRumble'' count?
** [[SoBadItsHorrible No.]]
*** OH, COME ON!!!
* Wrestle-licious, baby!
** In the same vein, any all-woman promotion David [=McLane=] was involved in, whether it be GLOW, WOW, or POWW. Stupid, cheesy fun with stupid, cheesy gimmicks, stupid, cheesy action, and stupid, cheesy [[FanService cheesecake]].
* Mick Foley deliberately went for this while wrestling as Dude Love in order to separate the gimmick from his other personae (the sadistic Cactus Jack and the psychotic Mankind).
** It wasn't the first time he had done this. During his "anti-extreme" gimmick in {{ECW}} (a promotion that prided itself on high-quality, high-risk wrestling), Mick (as Cactus Jack) reduced his entire moveset to one move: a headlock. Thus, his matches would consist of nothing but ten straight minutes of assorted headlocks, gaining ''incredible'' heat from the quality-hungry ECW fans.
* WCW's San Francisco 49ers Match between Jeff Jarrett and Booker T is one of the most hilariously stupid matches of all time. It's basically a glorified pole match ([[VinceRusso gee, I wonder who booked this disasterpiece]]) with four wooden boxes at the end of each pole; one contains the WCW Championship and the other three contain "weapons:" a blow up doll, a framed picture of Scott Hall, and a coal miner's glove. It began with an old lady trying to smack Jarrett with a shirt Booker T gave her and ended with Beetlejuice (not ''that'' {{Beetlejuice}}, the Wack Packer from Howard Stern) giving Jarrett five [[GroinAttack "high blows"]]. The title fell out of the box, and Dave Penzer... I mean Booker T became the WCW Champion.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Theater ]]

* TheMusical adaptation of StephenKing's ''{{Carrie}}'' has acquired this reputation. Its commercial failure on Broadway became so notorious that it was the inspiration for the book ''Not Since Carrie'', a chronicle of Broadway musical flops of the latter half of the twentieth century.
* ShowWithinAShow example: "Pyramus and Thisbe" in ''AMidsummerNightsDream''. It's so badly written and wretchedly performed that it's hilarious. The Duke and his guests order it performed just for the SnarkBait.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Toys ]]

* ''[[ChallengeOfTheGoBots GoBots]]'' Rocklords. Think ''{{Transformers}}'', but instead becoming something cool like a car, a dinosaur, a plane, or a tank, they became rocks! You could choose between granite, quartz or shale amongst others!
* The [[ForTheEvulz Piraka]] [[GangstaRap rap]] from {{Bionicle}}. Listen to it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1CTPC02n0c here]] in all of its hilarious glory.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Food ]]

* KFC chips (that's fries in Yank-land). They taste terrible, and nutrition-wise you'd be better off eating your money. Yet you eat them anyway. Indeed, much fast food qualifies.
** Must be YourMileageMayVary, this troper prefers them over the tiny, tasteless things [=McDonalds=] and Hungry Jacks (Burger King) sell.
** Second this, KFC probably have the nicest chips out of all the major fast food joints.
***Must be an international thing. [=McDonald's=] usually gets commended for its excellent fries here in the U.S. The rest of its food, however…
****But it also depends on the market. Many KFC's instead offer much more savory and delicious potato wedges instead of regular chips/fries.
***You've never been to In-N-Out...One of the very few reasons why I live in California...
* Sugar cereals. They wreck your teeth, turn you into a prime diabetes candidate, are usually over-sweetened to the point of being stomach-turning, and are generally the last thing you should be eating in the morning. Yet we love them. A lot of other GuiltyPleasure foods qualify.
* Hot Pockets. Jim Gaffigan: "They should come with a warning label. WARNING: YOU JUST BOUGHT HOT POCKETS! Hope you're drunk or heading home to a trailer!" But we still keep eating 'em!
** Or you're a college student who's sick of cafeteria food and ramen.
* Sucaritos. OK this troper is dead serious, while visiting relatives in Colombia there was a commercial for Sucaritos (or named something very much like it) which bascially translates to 'little sugar bits'. The commercial starts with 5 first grades sitting in the middle of the desert (why?), shifting the sand talking about bored they are. Then a polar bear shows up on an ATV and says that they need to have fun, so he offers them a bowl of corn flakes and then says 'and lets add sugar', to which the kids reply 'we want more'. 'more' he adds sugar to the flakes, 'we want more', he adds even more sugar, 'no, MORE' and then even more sugar goes on them, followed by the kids suddenly riding sand skidoos, paragliding and sand surfing. When did our American commercials stop being that bad/good about selling sugar?

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* FormulaOne fans over the past few years have grown to love Kimi Räikkönen's hilariously bad interviews. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd9-Hlg8KWc Like this one from just after he's won the most prestigious title in all of motorsport for the first time.]]
* Some {{Troll}}s fall into this. Instead of [[InternetBackdraft causing an uproar]], they end up being the laughingstock of whatever individual or group they decide to harass.
* JackThompson's pursuits. It's hard to be taken seriously when you do things like harass legal personnel, spam threatening faxes ''until the recipient's fax machine breaks'', send gay porn to judges (as a bribe, even!), ''lose your license'', and still go on making childish threats and uproars.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Art ]]

* The entire Dada "anti-art" movement was specifically made to be so stupid it's art. Why is an upside-down urinal considered art? "Because I said so".
** Said Upside down urinal was called "The Fountian" when submited to the art galleries. When asked "why the fountian"? The Artist replied "It's interactive art, you need to engage in ''making'' it a fountian." SoYeah.
** Similar to the above mentioned Dada movement, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Of_Bad_Art "Museum of bad art"]] is dedicated to collecting the worst paintings they can find.
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