Right now I have an unlimited supply of content at my fingertips; I subscribe to a few streaming services, packed with more programming than I could ever watch in my mortal life. I have a backlog of games on my PC and a stack of unread books, and I’ve also fallen behind on my hobbies. It feels impossible to catch up, especially since there is a constant flow of new things, all designed to be consumed as easily as possible. This is the sloppy age of entertainment, where quality has been sacrificed and quantity is king.
Today, the term “slop” encompasses a wide range of media, from TikToks where an AI narrates a post from /r/AmITeAsshole to major Disney productions like The acolyte. That’s a broad range, but it makes sense when you consider that slop refers to content that is meant to be consumed, not explored, critiqued, or unpacked. This includes the “no thoughts, mind blank” ritual where you lie in bed and stare blankly at an endless stream of short videos while your thumb occasionally twitches like a rat pressing the button for its dopamine snack.
But slop also refers to business ventures, even ones where many of the individual artists and creators involved may have had noble intentions. Think of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its endless stream of shows, dropped plot points originally teased in post-credits stingers, and constant series of Member Berries to earlier, more popular versions of the same franchise. Slop slides out of your brain even as you look at it. Slop rejects deeper thoughts or attempts at interpretation and goes for the easiest payoffs. Like jingling keys to a baby, slop may have a degree of spectacle or excitement, but all the rough edges have been sawn off. Slop works best on a second monitor, which you can enjoy in the background while you do something else – and perhaps consume even more slop, for maximum brain pleasure.
Red Letter Media, a popular YouTube movie channel, briefly presented a satirical program called The Nerd Crewa mocking look at the big fan productions built to spruce up corporate properties. In one episode, Jay Bauman, one of the faces of RLM, responds to a question with the line, “Don’t ask questions. Just consume the product and get excited for the next product. That is the perception of corporate sloppiness; they are media created by committee out of a sense of obligation to long-standing franchises.
This results in more than just a few bad scores on Rotten Tomatoes; the VFX industry is being crushed by short production cycles and demands for big, bombastic battles. The people who create these massive beam battles are subject to relentless grinding and instability. We can see the effect of pushing for more content at any price, including in gaming; Many publishers and developers behind major, constantly updated online titles have been subject to layoffs and closures.
The label of slop implies a certain disrespect for the public, the expectation that once the slop hits the trough, the little piggies will come and feast, no matter how good it is. That’s not entirely fair, though, since we all enjoy a little popcorn entertainment every now and then. New audiences, some of whom are put off by the constant stream of big blockbuster products, are returning to older shows like Columbus, Houseor Friendsall of which are available in the streaming age. Even older comfort shows can be like cotton candy; enjoyable for the moment, but without lasting enrichment. There’s nothing wrong with a guilty pleasure, and not everything has to be an intellectual pursuit.
However, the rise of AI and online content farms has made the presence of sloppy behavior in our media diet much more apparent. I’ve lost several evenings to the endless scroll, getting lost in short videos of cute huskies, random fandom fun facts, and cake recipes. The algorithm is so well trained to create an endless source of things to catch our attention, all captivating in the moment, but completely forgettable after just a few minutes. Before long, the feed is offering AI voices summarizing the events of a movie scene, or a man reading tonelessly from a 40K wiki about AI-generated images of Space Marines and Imperial Guard.
Slop media invites slop criticism. It’s no secret that negativity gives the algorithm much more pleasure than thoughtful commentary. For every innocuous corporate tidbit we get, there’s an endless stream of social media controversies, YouTube videos about evil awakening, and explainer videos laboriously sifting through the tiniest details for a “gotcha” moment.
The rise of slop has forced me to become more critical of my own media choices. I don’t care if something is low-budget or ugly; In fact, that’s starting to appeal to me more and more. I’ve set aside a lot of AAA titles for weird little indie gems, I’ve started following media critics I respect and trust to give me recommendations before diving into a new show, and I find myself craving sincerity above all else.
I’m not claiming to be more virtuous in my media consumption choices, but I do think it’s a better habit to adopt. The more social media tries to draw me in, the more I reflexively withdraw. I still have my guilty pleasures and cotton candy shows, but I’m careful not to fall down a rabbit hole. I’ll be keeping an eye on it, and if the media landscape continues this way, I expect the term will only become more common and relevant in our discourse.