Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers: Public Mockery on Aisle 9

An elderly man with huge breast implants spilling out of his open shirt. A black woman in knee high I-skinned-Elmo red fringed boots and a matching red crop top and Elmo hair extensions. A white woman dressed in stripper heels in a micromini dress bending awkwardly over her grocery cart. The people - or "Wal-creatures" as the site names them - are all real Wal-Mart shoppers and are all featured on a new website called People of Walmart.

Admit it: if you saw any of these people at your neighborhood Wally World, you'd chuckle. You might even text a friend. I did exactly that the other day, actually, when I was waiting to try on a sports bra and the person waiting directly behind me was a man. Also holding a sports bra. It was weird and hilarious and the friend I texted was amused for hours. But what if I had snapped a pic on my cellphone? And sent it out as a text blast? And posted it to my Facebook? And then sent it in to People of Walmart?

Where do you draw the line between getting a harmless chuckle out of the strangeness of everyday life and cruelly poking fun of people who are, after all, just trying to buy some groceries?
The Case for Funny
- Life would be boring if everyone were the same, right? I love me a good character. Heck, sometimes I am that character.
- Why was the Internet invented if not to pass around funny pictures? Hello, remember Awkward Family Photos??
- The site also features harmless pics like a bike with training wheels chained to a sign or this one of a car with a homemade plywood spoiler on the back:

- Wal-Mart is a magnet for strange. It's about time someone capitalized on that.
- Everyone should get their 15 minutes of fame, right? Why else would anyone leave the house dressed like that if they didn't want the attention?
- We laugh at celebrities all the time for looking like morons - isn't it only fair that we're the targets sometimes too?
- The captions are usually pretty benign. Actually, they're usually hilarious.
- They are equal opportunity mockers. Sure there are quite a few fat-people-in-bad-clothes shots. But there are an equal amount of weird mullets. And lots of bizarre cars. Not to mention all the crazy stuff that Wal-Mart actually sells.
- Anyone wearing a swastika sweatshirt deserves to be publicly shamed.

The Case for Cruel
- While the captions may be mostly nice, the commenters sure don't hold anything back. They are mean. Of course, the Internet in general is plagued by mean commenters.
- If you can't go to Wal-Mart looking schlubby then where can you go at 2 a.m. in your pjs for cough syrup? Must we always look perfect before stepping out in public?
- Most of the featured people look disadvantaged in someway - either elderly or handicapped or poor or not of our culture or just not "all there." Isn't making fun of people who don't know better and/or can't help themselves the definition of cruel?
- The pictures generally appear to be taken covertly as most of the subjects don't seem to know they've been snapped. I don't know if I'd be okay with that.
- The site calls them "Wal-Creatures", as if they're not even human.

A Grand Social Commentary
Gawker.com went so far as to declare the site neither funny nor cruel but rather a compelling portrait of 2000-era Americana in all it's unairbrushed, quirky glory. I can see their point - in a world where we are bombarded with carefully crafted media messages that only show perfect people, it does seem important to remember that most of us are just normal people living lives that are only remarkable in small ways. Or maybe that's just a justification for laughing at others so we can feel better about ourselves?

I did a little poll on Facebook and of my 8 friends who answered me, all came down on the side of funny (albeit some a little guiltily). What say you: funny or cruel? Or something else entirely?

Comments

[spiderbucket]

Wal Mart attracts freaks. Not the good kind either.

[PatA]

Don't forget the man that I saw at a Wallymart, in Oklahoma, wearing a mullet wig. I almost rolled on the floor. Yes, I'll admit that I followed him (very discreetly) to look at the wig! It was the highlight of my shopping days at Wallymart.
I no longer shop there. One big laugh was enough.

[larry278]

This makes not being walk over 100 feet tolerable.

[68-lukeburlington]

Written public huilmiliation (for the companies; not their customers) dished up daily....

http://www.suburbanempire.com

Critical of our Suburban Empire? So are we.

[nightwind928]

I love "people watching". I can sit along a sidewalk cafe with a cup of coffee and watch for hours as the human race displays itself in all it's abstract glory. To me, it's like watching a human gold fish bowl. There are those tight assed people who find this voyeuristic practice offensive and think it somehow unseemly. To those I would say "If one consciously puts themselves on public display, they can consider themselves actors on the stage of life". If a person goes to Wall Mart dressed like some clown on acid then they put themselves into the spotlight as willing participants. It isn't I who humiliate them, they willingly humiliated themselves before they left the house. America is a mixture of diverse cultures, eccentric people and, in some cases,outright half wits. The law of the land gives them the right to be as extravagant as their imagination can embrace. It allows them to wear inappropriate attire with offensive slogans that offend, humiliate and repulse those around them. But, as in the children's story "The Kings New Clothes", it also allows us to observe their foolishness and call it as we see it... and even find it mildly amusing on occasion.

[itolduso]

nightwind928- To those I would say "If one consciously puts themselves on public display, they can consider themselves actors on the stage of life" ..........­..........­...On the 'stage of life', just like in the theatre, 'hecklers' are considered to be ill-mannered bullies

[foghorntom]

I'm sorry, but these people NEED to be "heckled". They need to know that you don't go out in public wearing shirts bearing Swastikas or The 'F' Word, that you don't dress like an escapee from The Muppet show, that you don't try and squeeze a size 24 ass into size 10 shorts.

Please spare me the bleeding heart "they can't help but be that way" nonsense. They can. You need to get over your denial that there are idiots walking among us, and that a far higher percentage of them will be walking among us when we're at Wallyworld.

[onlyred]

I'm thinking if you thought it was cruel, you would not have reposted SIX pictures from the originating site to illustrate your story. ;-)

[haleyw]

In addition, it looks like posters are "required" to have the permission of the person in the photo, although how that is enforced, I do not know.

"Submit A Wal-Creature
Any picture submitted must have the full consent of the person(s) in the picture and the person(s)
must be over the age of 18. This includes both single persons and groups.
Please include: Headline, Tag Line, Location & Photo.
Please Send To: info@peopl­eofwalmart­.com"

[haleyw]

I'm one of those people who do NOT like making fun of others, I don't find home videos of people falling to be very funny, etc., so I completely understand where you're coming from. But I love watching people and just soaking in the many differences, so I will say that after looking at the site, I did not find the captions to be cruel, very much enjoyed looking at the pics and found some of them pretty funny. However, I did not look at the comments, and I know how cruel some people can be, which is why something like this probably is not a good idea. I confess that I would be very upset to find a picture of me on this site.

[johnsopinion]

Yes, people can be cruel, but generally only if they have been cruel to,
as in, not made to go to school by the concerned 'he's gotta learn to
swim on his own' caring parents.

I do laugh at people mainly because I can also laugh at myself. I've said
for years that I'm my own best situation comedy. TV could take some lessons
from me.

And I love watching people, in parking lots, anywhere, but especially as I
wait on my friend to come out of the supermarket. You can spot the little
old lady or man who comes out, follow them as they head towards their
cars and then stop, look around and hear their thoughts. "Now where did
I park that car this time?" Some almost reach the point of panic when they
suddenly spot the 'old friend' and relief washes over their faces.

Some I've watched have duplicated my own problems and knowing how
I solved mine, I leave the safety of my vehicle and offer my assistance.

It's all fun! Love the photos.

[BlackJAC]

Jeff Foxworthy made his name mocking such people in similar fashion. They gave him two TV shows for it.

[zombie fairy]

I think the About page on People of Wal-Mart clears it up:

"This is purely for entertainment purposes and strictly limited to the outrageously bad / ugly / creepy / crazy shoppers. There is no reason to send us pictures of people that are seriously and unfortunately handicapped so don’t be an a-hole. We are trying to have some fun here and there is a difference between someone who is mentally challenged and a person who has a fu Manchu and is still rocking MC Hammer pants."

[jennysez]

I not only went and checked out that site (and laughed myself silly), I also read the Time interview with its creators, and they do have a few rules that keeps the site from becoming downright cruel.

-No pics of the handicap or other people with physical limitations, even the morbidly obese in scooter.

-No pics of walmart employees, I guess they figure its hard enough having to work at walmart, no need to ridicule them online

-No pics of the Amish

[itolduso]

jennysez- you believe that because they don't make fun of handicapped or people with physical limitations that that keeps the site from being 'downright cruel'..... ...now explain to some little girls on a school playground which other little girls it's o.k. to ridicule & mock.... is it the one whose clothes don't fit right, or maybe are out of style? ...the girl with the frizzy hair?......is it o.k. for them to laugh and tease the girl who gets dropped off everyday in a beat-up old pick-up truck, or the one who can't buy her own lunch? How will you tell your own daughter that it's o.k. to make fun of people if she's the one being laughed at? People that hold other people up for ridicule aren't being funny....they're being BULLIES....and it's just not right.

[writerjohnny]

Cosigned

[iMissMollyIvins]

We're not mocking or ridiculing CHILDREN, we're mocking and ridiculing grown adults that, presumably, dress themselves.

[itolduso]

There's a meaness in this country, a bubbling intolerance so heated by selfishness & fear that we all risk being scalded every time we venture out. Those that are 'different' are easy targets, but don't think you are made safe by your 'sameness'.... the 'rules' of this game can change in an instant, our 'group's title' becomes a 'curse' depending on the crowd that surrounds us. Ridiculed for having faith...punched for being pro-choice.... shouted down & mocked for wanting care.... surrounded by men armed with guns for speaking your mind. Respect, tolerance, fairness, compassion.... the gifts that make us more than 'just an animal'. There's nothing funny about throwing those gifts away.

[EuripidesTheYounger]

I agree. We make a choice to feed meanness or to ignore it and allow it to whither on the vine. I feel bad enough when I catch myself watering and nurturing meanness. I feel a need to call it out when it's posted as an informative article on this site. Such pictures and commenst would, in fact, violate this site's moderation TOS. Therefore, I see no reason they should allow it to pass in any other form.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

It would be overly precious to think these pictures were cruel. The people in them chose to go to a public place where they had no expectation of privacy. The cruelty, if that's what it is, is that they have decided to inflict their brand of insanity on the rest of us.

One of the interesting things I find about Wommit stores is that only a few of them seem to attract the crazies. I have three Wommits within a 20-mile radius of my home, and only one of them attracts the Hill People. The other branches are full of relatively normal people.

I no longer visit the Wommit from Hell. Each time I went there I had a horrible experience with at least one other customer. On two occasions I witnessed mothers abusing their children - one of them slapped her daughter and left a mark - in the checkout line. Am I going to stand there and keep quiet like the other sheep? No way. Am I going to be riled up and upset by the encounter and the woman's glazed uncomprehending reaction to my anger for the rest of the day? You betcha. Not what you expect to experience when shopping.