Post #696639 by White Devil on Fri, Oct 18, 2013 9:39 AM

...but mere words don't do them justice.

In the beginning were The Gods, and they were carved into images such as these...


This is what we now call "art". Note that none of these graven images are grinning idiots. They were used as the basis for the first "tiki mugs", which supplanted the hula girl as the primary icon of faux Polynesia. What do any of those pagan gods have in common with the likes of these below...?

The above image seems more appropriate for a girl's tenth birthday party.

Racing stripes?

Do what, now?

Of this batch, the above seems to veer toward a legitimate tiki image.

When I posited the possibilities of a steampunk/tiki crossover a few years ago, this grinning idiot was not what I envisioned.

Rockabilly (or hillbilly, or hulabilly, or whatever this is supposed to be) is not tiki, and vice versa. Tiki Farm is by no means the only offender: Eekum Bookum's Tiki Oasis 2013 outhouse abomination is just as un-tiki.


Mmm-hmm. Right.

Seriously? Seriously?

A coincidental likeness?

Is that a wahine or a golf bag hanging there?

For my taste, the plastic monstrosities at Party City have more legitimate Tiki content than most of these recent (Beyond) Tiki Farm designs. For those who like face mugs, monster mugs, Hello Kitty mugs, etc., I'm sure these fill a vital niche, but they cannot accurately be described as "tiki", nor do they deserve to be.

I think this thread is a great place to begin a new tradition of Tiki Mug Criticism, a la music, art & book criticism. If we're going to have the Tiki stream littered with crap, we deserve the right to a soapbox. Otherwise, Tiki will be sucked into the lowbrow vortex which only ever gets lower, and lower, and lower...