St. Patrick's Day Flower Basket Full Of Potatoes, Stereotypes (PICTURE)

Ah, St. Patrick's Day. The day reserved for Irish pride that often becomes a celebration of one of Ireland's favorite hobbies: drinking. You'll have plenty of opportunities to embarrass yourself on St. Patty's day, between the heavy consumption and the gratuitous green clothes, so we'll stop you right now from getting this embarrassing (and baffling) gift basket for anyone in addition to all of that.

Someecards spotted this flower basket option on 1-800 Flowers that features pretty green flowers, a nice shamrock ribbon and... Potatoes. Yep, three big, old potatoes. In a flower basket.

Let's get real: the "symbolic" food of Ireland as they describe it is really a stereotypical gag, and a callback to one of the country's biggest hardships. Let's not forget they're also cheap filler for a $50.00+ gift basket. We're going to file this one under "FAIL."

Comments

[b4pangea]

02:35 PM on 03/17/2011

Deliciously tacky. Green carnations and all. Happy SPD, everyone!

[David Mullin]

11:37 AM on 03/17/2011

Let's get real,

Have a beer and lighten up.

Sincerely,

Paddie McYockers

[Citygirllost]

09:46 PM on 03/16/2011

It's like a beautiful flower arrangement, plus a snack for later. I don't get it, how is that bad. PS- I'm Irish.

[David Kamedulski]

01:11 AM on 03/16/2011

At the very least, this is aesthetically offensive. Dumb and lazy and ugly. Way to go 1800. Which is run by the irish mafia basically.

[oopsiedaisy]

06:38 PM on 03/15/2011

I'm Irish & think this is funny. I'm only offended by the price. FIFTY BUCKS! Buy me a case of of Guinness and you'd still have the scratch for the shamrock ribbon.

[abbraxus]

04:52 PM on 03/15/2011

One thing I've noticed about the Irish people responding here. They are not offended. We should all take that attitude and not take ourselves too seriously. The world would be one heck of a better place if we would.

[CAMBEL]

12:43 PM on 03/15/2011

Sorry, but any of my Irish Friends would think this is hillarious.

[BestFunnyBlog]

10:23 AM on 03/15/2011

Where's the bunch of four-leaf clovers?

[Jguig]

09:04 AM on 03/15/2011

Would it be funny if we made up flower baskets to stereotype other nationalities or cultures?

Why don't they do something for Black History Month? What offensive things could one put in there?

How about for others? Latino awareness? Gay Pride (I can't imagine what might come in that one)? Why aren't they doing that?

[KIVPossum]

11:53 AM on 03/15/2011

I'm Irish and not offended. The only thing is, they should have put in two Guinness

[jennysez]

12:38 PM on 03/15/2011

Honestly, and where's the nip of Jameson's?!

[jglow77]

02:16 AM on 03/15/2011

So absurd its almost pop art!

[jonathonz]

12:24 AM on 03/15/2011

Umm, didn't about a million Irish people die in the Irish Potato Famine? Is this a joke?

[Pennsylvanianne]

07:16 PM on 03/15/2011

Between 1 million and 4 million Irish died in the potato famine (some may have left the country), which was more genocide than anything, as the occupying British troops took all the crops and left the Irish nothing but the rotting potatoes. Visit Ireland and you will learn that whole families died in droves; some resorted to eating grass and died anyway. This potato famine was truly a holocaust. Though the people who claim to be Irish on this site are saying they think it's funny (I am not Irish), I think they must be very far removed from Ireland or they too would think putting the potatoes in this flower arrangement is incredibly insensitive.

[dmac]

12:48 PM on 03/16/2011

Spot on. I won't say it's "offensive" because if you are Irish or at least still-know-your-relatives-in-Ireland Irish-American, you'd spend the entire day offended with the gross stereotypes of drunken brawls.

What it is is ignorant of history.

[CapableOne]

09:55 PM on 03/14/2011

Needs some Jameson's and some, I dunno, Van Morrison. Slainte!

[Arts4u]

08:52 PM on 03/14/2011

Use this as a good reason NOT to order your flowers from 1-800-Flowers or any of the other 'order gathers' one sees on the web. They are not florists, but just skimmers who end up just using your local florist anyway and they take a huge percentage for doing this.

If you wish to send flowers locally or out of town, just google 'florist and the town you need something delivered in. You will get a better deal and better design. The designs which the order gathers come up with are typically cheesy.

[llisa]

09:34 PM on 03/14/2011

Yes!

[Arts4u]

09:56 PM on 03/14/2011

The order gatherers have gone so far as to buy google ads on-line which falsely suggest that they exist in the town/city you are interested in.

Be sure to confirm with the company that you do call that they are indeed a local company and confirm it. I've called google ads several times advertised as being in my local area and the salespeople for these 'order gatherer/skimmers' will outright lie about it.

[David Kamedulski]

01:09 AM on 03/16/2011

Crazy florist propaganda. The 'order gatherers' bring a lot of business via channels the mom and pop florists are too dumb to leverage. Yes, never go on Google! Use your yellow pages! And pay $100 for a dozen crappy roses when you can get better quality at the local supermarket.

[Arts4u]

01:22 AM on 03/16/2011

Actually, that's not true. The local supermarket buys older, discount priced flowers. Bulk stuff that's on its way out. Only lasts a few days.

And no... the 'order gatherers' do not bring a lot of business. They, in fact, have skimmed so much (30%) from florists that they are driving them out of business. They also have started to directly import from south america, ship loose cuts (not arranged because they are using unskilled columbians) and charge customers frequently more than the florists do. They are, in effect, trying to cut out the small business interests in the floral trade.

Quality suffers, selection suffers, design suffers, and you end up with few small businesses in your area.

[demorick2]

08:37 PM on 03/14/2011

Try giving something like that to an Irish lass...she'll make Maureen O'Hara's character in "The Quiet Man" look like a timid church mouse...