A Slice of Satire — Bakers' Bread Bowl Bitterness, Explained

The Gist:

• A viral TikTok video shows bakers appearing sad as people turn their loaves into bread bowls, sparking curiosity about why bakers hate this.
• The video is actually satire, and bakers don't hate bread bowls, but they may find it wasteful as turning a loaf into a bowl involves carving out a significant portion of the dough.
• The humor in the video comes from the emotional attachment bakers have to their creations, as they hate to see their hard work go to waste.

It’s easy to see why fake news can spread like wildfire when a video goes viral on TikTok. A video posted by TikToker @araw.tube, aka Chop boy, on Oct. 24, 2023 already has over 7.7 million views. The video’s title says, “Forcing bakers to watch people turn their loaves into bread bowls” with the caption, “A modern-day tragedy.”

As hundreds of TikTokers commented on the video, they couldn’t help but wonder why the bakers were so overwhelmingly sad in it. And why would bakers hate bread bowls? We’ll give you a hint — the video is not as realistic as it seems.

Contrary to what many TikTokers seem to think, the video of bakers crying as their loaves of bread get turned into bread bowls is satire, not reality. So we shouldn’t take the video too seriously. In fact, someone even commented, “Why am I laughing so hard?” because they didn’t even realize the video was satire. Luckily, they’re meant to be laughing!

The video was first published on ClickHole’s YouTube on Sept. 8, 2015, over eight years ago now — but everything gets a new life on TikTok. Even still, there are some bakers (and normies) who could relate to the plight of watching their bread get turned into a bowl.

The joke of the video is that bakers get emotional seeing their works of art, their loaves of bread, get turned into a bowl. That’s because when it’s turned into a bowl, much of the dough is carved out and discarded, which is just a waste of food. Not only should bakers hate it, but we all should! There are enough people in the world with food insecurity that we shouldn’t be throwing out perfectly good bread.

“As someone who makes bread and messes with recipes, I get it,” someone commented. “And that’s why it was funny af. All that work for them to just use the crust.” At least they’re in on the joke! But all humor is based on truth, so the level of truth behind it is simply that bakers (or anyone who makes anything) hate to see their hard work go to waste.

On the original ClickHole video, someone wrote, “It’s like watching your child go through surgery, but it’s bread.” That’s exactly it! It’s hard to see something you love so much, something you created, go under the knife. Even if that knife could make it better. (Kidding, a bread bowl will never be better than the OG loaf!)