The NSFW Viral Kebab Photo That Has Internet Sleuths Stumped
The extremely online might have previously come across a meme picture of a kebab. Specifically, the one that features what could either be a poorly produced piece of meat or an excellent specimen of excrement. For those who have managed to avoid it, here's an example of it shared on Facebook on April 13 and one shared on March 13, 2021. Is it meat? Is it poop? Whatever it is, the image has become a much-maligned internet mystery.
The reason people across the internet have grown so interested in the picture is because YouTuber PaymoneyWubby grew so obsessed over the question of what actually was photographed that he conducted an investigation. This became a 26-minute documentary-style YouTube video uploaded on April 15. Wubby quickly dated an earliest appearance of the photo to a Google review made by a Lee R in March 2020 about a shop in Blackpool. He learned from a contact in Blackpool that the establishment knew about the post, denied it was their food, and tried to have it taken down. As of writing, the review has been removed, but many more Google reviews have flooded in trying to contact Lee R. or making a joke out of the whole thing by reposting the photo.
Wubby also interviewed a gastroenterologist who said the picture could be poop but believed it was a bad kebab, as well as a kebab restaurant owner who did not even mention the feces aspect. In the end, Wubby was none the wiser.
The internet launched an investigation
YouTuber PaymoneyWubby ended his April 15 investigation with an appeal for help from the video's viewers, which currently number just over 600K. In the days since the video aired, the Lee R angle with which Wubby was obsessed has been dropped. First, a Redditor found the same image in a trolling review of a pizza shop in Germany. As of writing, the image has been removed from that review as well.
Then, @GingMate shared on Twitter that Lee R could be related to the restaurant once called Lee's Raj. However, they then added that they believe the whole Lee R lead to be a blind alley. They found multiple photos on Facebook predating Lee R's. It seems to have appeared in 2019 and taken off as a meme in 2020. "Definitely think your best bet to finding the origin will be directly through UK Facebook meme pages," they suggested. They recommended Rate My Plate, as the page's admins receive submissions directly.
People who are still hung up on Lee R might want to know why he's not speaking out. After all, the review was taken down, so he must be aware of the interest. Another Redditor noted that in the U.K., defamation laws place the onus of proof on the person making the claim. So, Lee R might not want the hassle of proving the factuality of their joke review of an oddly-shaped kebab. Whatever the reason, Lee R doesn't appear to be the answer.
Is it really food?
Even after gathering multiple expert opinions, PaymoneyWubby couldn't end his YouTube video feeling confident that what he was looking wasn't excrement. It's easy to see why ... literally. But some maintain that it could be food. One Redditor advanced the theory that it was poorly cooked pork tenderloin that had been rubbed with a kebab spice blend. It wouldn't be halal, but pork kebabs are not uncommon in the U.K., as shown by an easily found BBC recipe.
Another Twitter user, however, maintains that the dish in the photo is actually Şırdan. Şırdan is a dish from the southern Turkish city of Adana. Food Trends explains that it's prepared by stuffing the stomach of a sheep or cow with spiced rice. That would explain why the object in the picture appears to have undigested corn littered in it.
Also, it should be noted that a really badly prepared kebab can look like excrement. People will happily point this out on Facebook when they share their attempts at kebab meat. "That's a kebab on my plate not a huge turd," one example protested in 2011.
However, as one response to the tenderloin theory argues, even if it is meat, someone seems to have gone through extreme measures to make it not look like meat. It could be an elaborate joke. It could be poor lighting. Or the answer could really be that it's not meat at all. The internet, however, won't rest until it gets an answer.