At the moment I have an unlimited supply of content at my disposal; I subscribe to a few streaming services that offer more programming than I could ever watch in my mortal life. I have a backlog of games on my PC and a pile of unread books, and I’ve also fallen behind on my hobbies. It feels impossible to catch up, especially because there are new things coming out all the time, all designed to be as easy to consume as possible. This is the slop era of entertainment, where quality has been sacrificed and quantity is king.
These days, the term “slop” covers a wide range of media, from TikToks where an AI narrates a post from /r/AmITheAsshole to major Disney productions like The Acolyte. That’s a broad spectrum, but it makes sense when you consider that slop refers to content that is intended to be consumed, not examined, criticized, or unpacked. This includes the “no thoughts, mind empty” ritual of lying in bed, staring blankly at an endless stream of short videos, your thumb occasionally twitching like a rat pressing the button for its dopamine snack.
Image: Marvel Studios
But slop also refers to corporate 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, the omitted storylines originally teased in post-credits stinger films, and a constant string of Member Berries to previous, more popular iterations of the same franchise. Slop slips out of your head even as you watch it. Slop rejects deeper thoughts or attempts at interpretation and strives for the simplest results. Much like jingling keys in front of a toddler, slop can have a certain level of spectacle or excitement, but all the rough edges have been sawn off. Slop works best on a second monitor that you can enjoy in the background while you do something else – maybe even use up more slop for maximum brain-off pleasure.
Red Letter Media, a popular film YouTube channel, briefly hosted a satirical show titled The Nerd Crewa mocking take on the big fan productions aimed at gentrifying corporate real estate. In one episode, Jay Bauman, one of the faces of RLM, responds to a query by saying, “Don’t ask questions. Just consume the product and look forward to the next product.” This is the perception of corporate sloppiness; They are media created by a committee out of a sense of commitment to long-standing franchises.
This leads to more than just a few bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; The VFX industry is overwhelmed by short production cycles and requirements for big, bombastic battles. The people who create these massive beam battles face unrelenting pressure and instability. We can also see the effect in gaming when we push for more content at all costs. Many publishers and developers behind large, constantly updated online titles have experienced layoffs and closures.
Image: Lucasfilm/Disney
The term “slop” implies a certain disrespect for the audience, an expectation that once the slop enters the trough, the little piggies will come and feast, no matter how good it is. However, that’s not entirely fair since we all enjoy a little popcorn entertainment every now and then. New viewers, some turned off by the constant stream of big blockbuster products, are returning to older shows Columbo, Houseor Friendsall of which are available in the streaming age. Even older comfort shows can be like cotton candy; pleasant at 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 content farms on the internet has made the presence of slop in our media diet much more evident. I spent several evenings endlessly scrolling and getting lost in short videos of cute huskies, random fun facts from the fandom, and cake recipes. The algorithm has been trained so well that it produces an endless supply of things to grab our attention. All are captivating in the moment, but completely forgotten after just a few minutes. Soon the feed will show AI voices retelling the events of a movie scene, or a man tonelessly reading from a 40K wiki over AI-generated images of Space Marines and Imperial Guard.
Slop media invites slop criticism. It’s no secret that negativity pleases the algorithm much more than thoughtful comments. For every innocuous corporate spoof we get, there’s an endless stream of social media controversies, YouTube videos about evil awakening, and explainer videos that painstakingly pore over tiny details for a “gotcha” moment.
The rise of Slop has forced me to become more discerning in choosing my own media. I don’t care if something is low budget or ugly; In fact, this is becoming more and more attractive to me. 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’m craving especially sincerity.
I don’t claim to be more virtuous in my media consumption decisions, but I think it’s a better habit to adopt. The more social media tries to attract me, 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’m on guard, and if the media landscape continues like this, I expect the term will only become more common and relevant in our discourse.
