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Two Cakes Rule
Synonyms: | two cakes theory |
See also: | |
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The Two Cakes Rule asserts that while the artist may judge themselves against the best in the field, the audience is usually glad to see an increased number of offerings. It is an expression of how audiences appreciate art, even when it seems less fancy than other art. The two cakes rule is frequently reblogged and referred to in media fandom. It has been used to encourage fanworks, original creations, comments on fanfic, and many other kinds of participation in artistic and creative communities.
It comes from a simple ms-paint comic commonly found on Tumblr, with the art originally by stuffman (who is now stuffman-art) in a now-deleted post sometime around 2013 to early 2014.
Caption:
- People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter [1]
On July 18, 2014, sqbr, sqbr added a transcript:
- [The artist, putting a simple cake next to a much fancier one: “Aw man, that guy’s cake is way better than mine.” The Audience, gleefully holding up a knife and fork “HOLY SHIT! TWO CAKES!”][2]
Two Cakes Response
- Knowyourmeme Page with spinoff examples, Archived version
- Two cakes still helping people in 2018 on Reddit on Reddit about Erasermight fandom community
- Vent post about two cakes rule + discussion in comments, Archived version
Variations
- 'i made a variant of [link: two cakes] to illustrate a related principle' (Oct 2023) by orchidbreezefc
References
- ^ stuffman post "people-have-written-a-lot-of-touchy-feely-pieces" posted by stuffman (now stuffman-art), 2013-2014 (deleted as of 2019-07-05, no wayback or other archive entry)
- ^ sqbr post "the-artist-putting-a-simple-cake-next-to-a-much" posted 2014-07-18 by sqbr, wayback page