Have I Murdered Hufu?
Two weeks ago I linked to the website of a company with plans to sell human-flavored tofu. I thought it was kind of funny at the time, but after posting the link I didn't think much about it until a few days ago when I received an email from Mark Nuckols, CEO of HUFU (the human tofu company). Mark requested that I remove the post about Hufu from my site, because by mentioning his product on the Museum of Hoaxes, he was concerned that people might think that Hufu wasn't real, or that it was some kind of hoax. Specifically he wrote that, "having it even come up on "museum of hoaxes" implies something not true, and as a debunker of hoaxes I am sure you don't wish to inadvertently or carelessly libel people trying to undertake the difficult enough task of starting a business."
I told Mark that I thought his product was funny and I definitely supported it, but that I wasn't about to remove the post from my site. I have a real problem about removing things from my site unless they're shown to be false.
My response didn't satisfy Mark, who is now up to his third email to me. He seems like a nice guy, and I'm not certain that he isn't pulling my leg about this whole thing (although his emails sound very serious). But he really wants the post about his company removed. In fact, he's making me feel very guilty. In his last email he said that "being on your website is going to kill this undertaking in its crib... I am sure putting our business in jeopardy is not your intent." Ouch. But I'm not ready to accept that kind of blame. Sure, my site is called the Museum of Hoaxes, but that doesn't mean that everything on it is a hoax. Plus, the question I raised is a valid one: how would any customers know if this stuff really does taste like human flesh?
Anyway, my purpose in posting about this is so that if people google 'hufu' and find my site, they'll also see this post where I'm going to state that I don't want to be responsible for the death of Hufu. I genuinely think it's a funny marketing concept, and Mark Nuckols insists that it's real. However, I still don't understand how he can know that it really tastes like human flesh.
I told Mark that I thought his product was funny and I definitely supported it, but that I wasn't about to remove the post from my site. I have a real problem about removing things from my site unless they're shown to be false.
My response didn't satisfy Mark, who is now up to his third email to me. He seems like a nice guy, and I'm not certain that he isn't pulling my leg about this whole thing (although his emails sound very serious). But he really wants the post about his company removed. In fact, he's making me feel very guilty. In his last email he said that "being on your website is going to kill this undertaking in its crib... I am sure putting our business in jeopardy is not your intent." Ouch. But I'm not ready to accept that kind of blame. Sure, my site is called the Museum of Hoaxes, but that doesn't mean that everything on it is a hoax. Plus, the question I raised is a valid one: how would any customers know if this stuff really does taste like human flesh?
Anyway, my purpose in posting about this is so that if people google 'hufu' and find my site, they'll also see this post where I'm going to state that I don't want to be responsible for the death of Hufu. I genuinely think it's a funny marketing concept, and Mark Nuckols insists that it's real. However, I still don't understand how he can know that it really tastes like human flesh.
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Categories: Food Posted by Alex on Wed Jun 01, 2005 |
Comments (79) |
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I'd think that behaving like a tit is going to do the guy's company more harm that being linked to from here...
I really can't believe there's much of a serious market out there for this product (I'd be damned worried if there was!); most of any business is going to be students looking for that perfect gift for a flatmate and stuff - in which case this site is just the kind of plug he wants. Or would be, if he wasn't undermining it by making himself look so tarned humourless...
Posted by paul in prague on Mon Jun 06, 2005 at 06:37 AM
I really can't believe there's much of a serious market out there for this product (I'd be damned worried if there was!); most of any business is going to be students looking for that perfect gift for a flatmate and stuff - in which case this site is just the kind of plug he wants. Or would be, if he wasn't undermining it by making himself look so tarned humourless...
Well, you CAN buy hufu on the site. Why not buy some hufu and see if it comes and eat it?
Unfortunately, I'm thirteen and my grandparents would not approve of me buying hufu, even if it is FAKE human flesh.
Posted by Madolyn on Mon Jun 06, 2005 at 01:51 PM
Unfortunately, I'm thirteen and my grandparents would not approve of me buying hufu, even if it is FAKE human flesh.
Perhaps this Mark Nuckols character takes himself a bit too seriously. Does anyone really believe that hufu classic strips will generate any more interest, over the long run, than does fake scat sold at joke shops?
Posted by Dennis the Menace on Tue Jun 07, 2005 at 11:09 PM
This reminds me so much of Soylent Green
Posted by Gabe on Wed Jun 08, 2005 at 03:53 PM
Are you REALLY supposed to feel sorry if the company goes under? I hope it does. Disgusting!
Posted by carp on Sun Jun 12, 2005 at 02:40 AM
How many hits do you think he gets a day just because people saw it here and were curious? I know I just thumbed through his website. I still think it's bullshit. I mean come on. PLENTY of shirts available, but the "HuFu" is back ordered.
Zer010
Posted by Zer010 on Thu Jun 16, 2005 at 04:27 PM
Zer010
Posted by Splarka on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 11:30 PM
I've been visiting the site periodically since before it "went live" after hearing about it on an internet radio program, and because I blogged about it. From my perspective, the site went live first with just the promotional paraphenalia (shirts, aprons, etc.) The first time I actually saw the link for buying Hufu, it said it was back-ordered. Now, I suppose that it is quite possible that all the available product was sold immediately, but it does look suspicious to me. I haven't tried (nor will I) to buy any of it to see if the purchase actually will go through, but I've got an inkling that the whole thing is an elaborate scheme to sell T-shirts and aprons......and flesh-eating DVDs. Brilliant. Disgustingly brilliant.
Posted by Bobbie on Thu Jun 30, 2005 at 06:22 PM
It's nice that Hufu is so concerned with going out of business, and that the president of the company himself would email this site, because these guys still haven't replied to any of my emails about the t-shirt they never sent me.
If my experience is any example, the only hoax going on at Hufu is them taking people's money and not delivering anything in exchange. And I believe the technical term for that is Internet Fraud, not hoax.
--rick
Posted by Rick on Mon Jul 04, 2005 at 04:20 PM
If my experience is any example, the only hoax going on at Hufu is them taking people's money and not delivering anything in exchange. And I believe the technical term for that is Internet Fraud, not hoax.
--rick
I actually had the opportunity to taste hufu, i guess my friend and i were lucky enough to order it before the "back order" came up. Interesting flavor, who knows if it tastes like people.
Anwyays, I ordered a shirt from them a couple months ago and have yet to receive it, they've charged my card, and I cannot get a response out of them with several emails wondering if it has been shipped or what. Anyone else have any problems?
Posted by 00twan on Sun Jul 10, 2005 at 04:44 PM
Anwyays, I ordered a shirt from them a couple months ago and have yet to receive it, they've charged my card, and I cannot get a response out of them with several emails wondering if it has been shipped or what. Anyone else have any problems?
This is a wonderful hoax! With the coming of the internet age, the ability to pull the wool over the entire world is now possible. The seemingly indignant founder of hufu asking for its removal from this site only compounds the greatness of the original hoax.
I say bravo, and please pass the hufu!
Posted by Me on Fri Jul 15, 2005 at 12:02 PM
I say bravo, and please pass the hufu!
"tastes like chicken"
No, humans most certainly do not taste like
chicken. They taste most like pork. Just ask
any cannibal.
This fact is well-documented in any number of
slightly soggy but spicy notebooks left behind
by missionaries.
Posted by Irv on Sat Jul 30, 2005 at 03:43 PM
No, humans most certainly do not taste like
chicken. They taste most like pork. Just ask
any cannibal.
This fact is well-documented in any number of
slightly soggy but spicy notebooks left behind
by missionaries.
This is like that disgusting ManBeef.com hoax a couple of years ago. Don't these people have anything better to do?
Posted by Jade on Sun Aug 28, 2005 at 04:31 AM
actually, most of you are wrong.
human flesh actually tastes like beef but a bit sweeter and not as tough.
i know this because i have ate flesh and hufu tastes identical to it.
hufu is a very real thing, i advise ppl to try it, its really nice!
Posted by calavera on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 07:14 AM
human flesh actually tastes like beef but a bit sweeter and not as tough.
i know this because i have ate flesh and hufu tastes identical to it.
hufu is a very real thing, i advise ppl to try it, its really nice!
hufu is definitely not a hoax. i live near one of the guys who organized it, and they gave me a sample. it definitely doesn't taste like chicken.
Posted by phybre on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 11:36 PM
Anyone watch the daily show with jon stewart tonight????
sam bee ate some hufu
Posted by weeboo on Thu Oct 27, 2005 at 09:22 PM
sam bee ate some hufu
Jon Stewart was kewl,,,,Hufu,,brings new meaning to Campbell's Soup,,,,,made with REAL Campbells!
Posted by Mild Bill on Thu Oct 27, 2005 at 09:33 PM
HUFU looks like poop. I wouldnt eat poop shaped food if it tasted like strawberries. On a side i wonder if they offer virgin flavor, vampires seem to like virgins and they should know, they dont need no substitutes.
Posted by Knives420 on Thu Oct 27, 2005 at 09:41 PM
Just watched the daily show where they talked about hufu, and they showed what it looked like which was dog shit {for real} and its definitely real...
If i can find it i'll try it, though i dont think it will taste like chicken.
Posted by Drusilla on Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 12:22 AM
If i can find it i'll try it, though i dont think it will taste like chicken.
Personally, I wouldn't remove the reference... especially from a "Hoax" site because of Mark Nuckols' (CEO of HUFU, LLC) own words. I won't post the entire entry (only a quick quote - read the rest at http://www.eathufu.com/blog.asp), but if anyone who reads this particular entry on the Hufu site's blog might well wonder why he feels a reference here would hurt his product.
"Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Imagination: The Essential Ingredient in Hufu
... We of course conducted considerable research into the taste of human flesh in developing the hufu concept, but sometimes you have to move ahead with imperfect knowledge. Hufu is meant to be a decent approximation of the taste of human flesh, but it was never intended to be a perfect facsimile. And without imagination, hufu loses much of its taste and effect..."
Posted by RM on Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 03:22 AM
"Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Imagination: The Essential Ingredient in Hufu
... We of course conducted considerable research into the taste of human flesh in developing the hufu concept, but sometimes you have to move ahead with imperfect knowledge. Hufu is meant to be a decent approximation of the taste of human flesh, but it was never intended to be a perfect facsimile. And without imagination, hufu loses much of its taste and effect..."
I think this is a great product with enormous potential... this isn't bad publicity, it is free publicity!
I wonder if my dogs would like it
Posted by Brian on Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 12:24 PM
I wonder if my dogs would like it
Have you seen this stuff? It looks more like human turd than meat. Mmmmm. I can't wait until mine gets off back order...
Posted by Marcus Dupree on Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 06:00 PM
And in response. Yes, I googled hufu and came up to your site.
Posted by just me on Fri Oct 28, 2005 at 06:03 PM
I think this is not so black and white. This guy is clearly trying to make this a "legitimate" business but his approach and comments bely that seriousness. For ex., this from his blog18/10;
Posted by Norman Jackson Ford on Sat Oct 29, 2005 at 03:32 AM
"So I grew up, went off to New York City, and left behind my boyhood dreams of baby seals. Oh, sure, I'd see the PETA people handing out flyers about clubbing baby seals, but I'd never even bother reading what they said. (I assume PETA is a tour operator that offers adventure tours, doing cool stuff like going to participate in the baby seal hunt, but I could never afford that kind of vacation. I bet a week up in Canada going on the hunt runs into the thousands of dollars, and I just didn't have that kind of money.) Of course my great food enthusiasm has always been cannibalism. You know what I mean, the visceral thrill of chewing the sinewy flesh of another human being, there's nothing that can beat that. But old desires tend to linger in the forgotten corners of our heart, and baby seals were never far from my thoughts. With the launch of eathufu.com, sales of our healthy human flesh substitute soared past our wildest expectations. As I watched our business grow, I thought, "if you can make tofu taste like human flesh, why not baby seal?" Well, we at eathufu.com accepted wholeheartedly the challenge of developing a healthy soy textured product that captures the uniquely delicate flavor and taste of baby seal meat. Take one bite of Delicious Baby Seal
I actually expected something like Hufu to come along as an intermediate step to commercial cannibalism. (See my website.) But so far Hufu seems like a hoax to me. If it's an actual product, why aren't there photos of the packaging ? Go to any other food company's website and you'll see pictures of their products prominently displayed. There are none at the Hufu site.
Posted by Lastkrell on Mon Oct 31, 2005 at 06:56 PM
I'm with you 100 percent. There's no way that Nuckols can claim that Hufu tastes like human flesh without having conducted taste-tests involving the real thing, and no way that he can admit in a court to having done so, or been party to such tests. Therefore, even if he's completely sincere, there's almost no way for us to know if Hufu isn't a hoax. It might as well be.
Posted by Thomas on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 02:27 PM
well his product WAS on the Daily show..........
Posted by Schafe on Sun Nov 06, 2005 at 01:53 PM
Just because you don't believe something, that doesn't make it a hoax. You're obviously not accustomed to this kind of thing. It's strange to you, but it may not be strange to someone else from another culture.
His product was first aimed at anthropology students, so they could know what it is like to be cannibals. This seems reasonable enough, because to REALLY learn something about a culture, you must try and think like them, act like them. So I'm sure this product would help the students understand cannibals more.
There's nothing at all wrong with this product, as I see it. It may be a little unorthodox, but aren't a lot of new products at the beginning?
I'm guessing you did not see any stories about Hufu on the news as I did? I think it's stupid to put things as a hoax when you're not even sure if it actually is one.
"I have a real problem about removing things from my site unless they're shown to be false."
Why don't you show that the hoax is TRUE then? Maybe you'd have a better site if you actually tried to prove these things instead of basing it all on your opinion of whether it's true or not?
Thanks.
Posted by Yum! on Sat Nov 19, 2005 at 12:29 PM
His product was first aimed at anthropology students, so they could know what it is like to be cannibals. This seems reasonable enough, because to REALLY learn something about a culture, you must try and think like them, act like them. So I'm sure this product would help the students understand cannibals more.
There's nothing at all wrong with this product, as I see it. It may be a little unorthodox, but aren't a lot of new products at the beginning?
I'm guessing you did not see any stories about Hufu on the news as I did? I think it's stupid to put things as a hoax when you're not even sure if it actually is one.
"I have a real problem about removing things from my site unless they're shown to be false."
Why don't you show that the hoax is TRUE then? Maybe you'd have a better site if you actually tried to prove these things instead of basing it all on your opinion of whether it's true or not?
Thanks.
You know, if they are truley worried about people viewing their products as a hoax, it was probably a bad idea to have it featured in a segment on Comedy Centeral's 'The Daily Show'. That just brings up more questions of validity.
Posted by JimmyDarkside on Mon Dec 12, 2005 at 07:23 PM
So lets go make some food that tastes like humans! lol this guy must be on drugs
Posted by Satan on Wed Jan 11, 2006 at 09:39 AM
{stupid336x280}
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