ATBGE stands for “Awful Taste But Great Execution.” It is internet slang, and the name of a Reddit community, for something made with genuine skill in service of a tasteless idea: the craftsmanship deserves respect even when the concept does not.
Origin
- August 4, 2016, Reddit. According to Know Your Meme, “Reddit’s /r/ATBGE was created on August 4th, 2016,” and “The phrase was virtually unseen online until 2016, coinciding with the creation of the subreddit /r/ATBGE.”
- A car-mods spin-off. A moderator told Bored Panda that “a person created it after their submission got rejected from the S****y Car Mods subreddit.” The moderator added: “In the beginning, /r/ATBGE focused heavily on automotive-related posts, but we knew doing this would potentially limit our user base,” so the community opened up to other subjects.
- Growth. Know Your Meme reported that “As of June 2021, /r/ATBGE has over one and a half million members.”
How It’s Used
The moderators describe the subreddit’s content as things that “display quality craftsmanship in the least elegant way possible” (Bored Panda). Know Your Meme explains that the phrase is used “to express disapproval of the motivations or concept behind a work of engineering, artwork, technological design and more,” while acknowledging the skill involved. Know Your Meme tags the term with “diy,” “diy fails,” “art” and “tattoos,” and links it to its DIY Fails and Tattoo Fails entries.
In practice “ATBGE” works as a one-word verdict: half insult (the taste) and half compliment (the execution).
The Taste × Execution Matrix
ATBGE is one corner of a simple two-by-two grid. The other three corners are descriptive labels used here for comparison, not established communities.
| Great execution | Awful execution | |
|---|---|---|
| Good taste | Good taste, great execution: simply good work | Good idea, poorly made: a fail |
| Awful taste | ATBGE: tasteless idea, made with real skill | Awful taste, awful execution: nothing to admire |
What makes a post ATBGE is the tension between the two axes. A badly made tacky object is just a fail; a well-made tasteful one is just good work. Only the combination of skill and questionable judgement earns the label.