50’s Jell-O Salad is Actually a Shoggoth

“It was a terrible, indescribable thing… a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light.” – H. P. Lovecraft

Many thanks to Paul Komoda, ever the friend of Coilhouse, for pointing out the eerie similarities between this 1952 advertisement for vegetable-flavored salad Jell-O, spotted in a  SocImages post discussing “how tastes are shaped by history” (see also:  “The Social Construction of Prunes“),  and this 1936 cover of Astounding Stories for Lovecraft’s  “At the Mountains of Madness.”

If you wish to further penetrate the Mysteries:

Posted by Nadya Lev on September 22nd, 2009
Filed under Cthulhu, Food, Madness, Surreal, Testing your faith, Ye Olde

10 Responses to “50’s Jell-O Salad is Actually a Shoggoth”

  1. nicolas Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 2:07 am

    Jell-O salad? How insane!

  2. Paul Komoda Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 4:32 am

    Happy to be of service.

    This has, most definitely opened my eyes about the potentials of Jell-O flavoring.

    The SocImages post about Aspic was also interesting, because they look like weird foods you’d find in a dream.

    I’ve always loved Dali’s quote, “Repulsion is the sentry that guards the gate of all we most desire.”
    Not that I’m about to develop a craving for any of those gross looking preparations, but, as a culture, we put so many otherwise revolting combinations of food and drink into our mouths, without giving it a second thought, everyday.

  3. Jessica Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 am

    I always knew that stuff was pure EVIL.

  4. Irene Kaoru Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    OMG SHUT UP I LOVE JELL-O SALAD!!!!

  5. Zoetica Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    Irene, I’m with you. That stuff id deee-lishus!

  6. Nadya Says:
    September 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    I made no disparaging remarks regarding the Jell-O salad! Though I don’t find it delicious so much as…. HYPNOTIC.

  7. D Says:
    September 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 am

    I suppose the left image could use a catchphrase too

    ‘Don’t let a week go without eating one!’

  8. lizzelizzel Says:
    September 29th, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    UNCANNY

  9. didimono Says:
    October 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am

    http://www.farmanddairy.com/recipes/desserts/corned-beef-jell-o-salad/

  10. Paris Michael Says:
    May 9th, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    Funny about Lovecraft and his, well, sometimes over-written style – AND the sililarity between jello and some of his creatures… I had a chance to work with the voice over artist for the recently released audio book version of At The Mountains Of Madness – some of those lines are more than a mouthful! It’s available at stellajamesstudios.com and the same publishers are not making the movie adaptation. Del Toro and Cameron lost the project. At The Mountains Of Madness is being made by film making partners Carrie Cain Sparks and Shadow Mihai. See the press releases at http://stellajamesstudios.com/pr-views