About
Weber Cooks is a local cooking show that originally aired on Weber State News[1], a student-run television station out of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The show is hosted by Steven Reed and is intended to instruct college students on creating simple meals with a microwave.
Origin
The videos were uploaded to YouTube sometime prior to October 31st, 2012, when a GIF animated excerpt of an episode showing Reed preparing chili and cheese nacho dip was posted to Tumblr.[4] Though the original linked version has since been taken down, a duplicate version reuploaded on November 28th, 2012 earned more than 280,000 views in less than a week.
Spread
On November 4th, 2012, the same chili and cheese nacho dip episode[2], as well as a new Rice-A-Roni episode[3], were submitted to the /r/NotTimandEric subreddit, which prompted a discussion on the resemblance between Weber Cooks and Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s comedic skits,[5] such as Reed’s unkempt appearance, awkward pauses and heavy breathing.
Reed’s videos gained a wider audience after the internet culture blog Nothing To Do With Arbroath[6] shared a LiveLeak[7]version of the chili cheese nacho dip video on November 27th, 2012. The same day, several Weber Cooks episodes were posted on Gawker[8], Laughing Squid[9], Screen Crush[10] and Los Angeles Magazine.[11] Over the next several days, the chili cheese dip video was featured on Reddit[15], Viral Viral Videos[12], I Am Bored[13] and MSN Now.[14]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[2]Reddit – Weber Cooks – Chili & Cheese Nacho Dip
[3]Reddit – Weber Cooks – A Rice Dish
[4]Tumblr – sirjolt | I find this so bewildering.</>
[5]Wikipedia – Tim and Eric
[6]Nothing To Do With Arbroath – Cooking with a sad demeanour
[7]LiveLeak – Cooking is Fun!
[8]Gawker – Steven Reed Is the Saddest TV Chef of All Time
[9]Laughing Squid – Weber Cooks, A Series of Microwave Cooking Videos For College Kids
[10]Screen Crush – MEETSTEVENREED, THEGREATEST TV CHEF OF ALL-TIME
[11]Los Angeles Magazine – Weber Cooks: College Education Gone Horribly, Horribly Wrong.
[12]Viral Viral Videos – The Most Depressing Chili Cheese Video Recipe Ever
[13]I Am Bored – Weber Cooks: Chili & Cheese Nacho Dip
[14]MSN Now – Hopefully this is the saddest cooking segment you’ll ever see