Last Updated on: 23rd July 2014, 10:41 am
I spend a lot of time yelling at people for not seeing jokes for what they are, jokes. But in the case of this supposed joke on a restaurant’s website, I cannot make the journey.
A restaurant due to open soon in Berlin by the name of Flime has a strange request up on its website. It is asking for human flesh from donors, which they can use to cook and serve to customers. It goes so far as explaining that potential donors must fill out a questionnaire, and the restaurant will only pay for hospital expenses for the part’s, um, extraction. They then have a want ad for an open-minded surgeon.
Local politicians think they are making a horrible joke about the case of Armin Meiwes, a man who killed and ate a Berlin man who volunteered to be killed and eaten, and they’re not amused.
You know, I love a sick joke or two. But this, I can’t even grasp the joke factor. It would be just as unfunny if a gun shop set up shop at a place in Toronto where a lot of shootings happen, and then had an add that said “Come over to our grand opening and get shot!” And then you asked them what was up with that, and they said it was a joke, because lots of people get shot here. Whaaat? I don’t get it.
I also don’t get what they’re trying for. If they’re trying to capitalize on that disturbing case and turn it into some kind of publicity in the hopes that weird people fascinated by the tale will come to their restaurant, I don’t think it’s a smart plan. All they’ll ever get are the super weirdos. The sensible ones won’t be sure of what they’re eating, and the paranoids sure as hell won’t show up. So even if their food is good, and does not actually contain any human flesh, most folks won’t try it, for one reason or another.
You know, I heard about the case way back in the day, but I mustn’t have read it fully back then. I sure did now, and…yikes! I wonder if Meiwes’s neighbours are wondering what was on the menu when they had come over to eat with him.
But I did have to sorta kinda chuckle at the line about an open-minded surgeon. But the rest? I don’t get it. I just don’t.
