Bacon is cured pork belly (or turkey), but online it became shorthand for a mid-2000s internet fandom around bacon-topped food, bacon-flavored products, and bacon-themed novelty items[1].

Where did Bacon come from?

The LA Times traced the internet's bacon craze to a wave of blogs, StumbleUpon links, and Twitter chatter that swelled through the late 2000s[1].

What does Bacon mean?

Online, 'bacon' usually stands for gleeful food excess, whether that's bacon-wrapped meatloaf or bacon-covered chicken wings, as The Onion satirized in 2006[3].

How do you use Bacon?

People post photos of absurd bacon products, bacon-topped dishes, or new bacon-flavored releases, following the format set by early bacon blogs like Bacon Today[9].

Is Bacon still popular?

The frenzy peaked between the 2008 Bacon Festival[2] and Oscar Mayer's 2015 Sizzl app[8], with mainstream bacon-meme coverage cooling after the mid-2010s.

When was the first Bacon Festival?

Insurance salesman Brooks Reynolds ran the first Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival on March 1, 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa, timed to National Pig Day[2].

What was the 2012 bacon shortage?

On September 20, 2012 the UK's National Pig Association warned a global pork shortage was 'unavoidable,' and the story went viral around September 25 with variants running in CNN, CBS, and the Washington Post[5].

Was the bacon shortage real?

Slate argued the story was really a British trade group pushing higher local prices, and pointed out that UK 'bacon' isn't even the same cut Americans mean by the word[5].

Sizzl was an iPhone dating app launched by Oscar Mayer on September 16, 2015 that matched users by their bacon preferences and replaced the swipe with a hold-down 'Sizzl' button[8].

CNN's Jarrett Bellini summed it up during the 2012 shortage panic, joking that if bacon could think Americans would 'appoint bacon as our forever leader'[6].

Bacon

2004food meme / internet fandomclassic

Published August 15, 2026

Bacon is the cured pork strip that became an all-consuming internet joke in the mid-2000s, when bloggers, novelty companies, and early social media users started treating it like a lifestyle brand. The trend produced everything from bacon-scented alarm clocks to a viral 2012 shortage panic and Oscar Mayer's 2015 bacon dating app.

food memes late 2000s memes consumer culture memes meme merchandise food trend memes

Overview

Bacon, cured strips of pork belly (or turkey), became an all-consuming internet joke in the mid-2000s when bloggers, novelty companies, and early social media users started treating cured pork like a personality trait1. The LA Times declared the trend a full-blown meme in April 2009, listing bacon lampshades, bacon iPhone cases, bacon watches, bacon alarm clocks, and a photographed 'bacon man' shrine as evidence1. The Onion had already reported on the joke as satire back in August 2006, publishing a fake USDA study that named meat 'America's No. 2 Condiment' and singled out bacon for taking over cheeseburgers, wings, and even other bacon3.

The bacon meme is less a specific image and more a running gag about excess. Novelty retailers stocked bacon-flavored gum, lip balm, toothpaste, and hot sauce alongside bacon-printed wallets, wrapping paper, and bandage strips4. Twitter fed the fire with minute-by-minute reports about bacon sandwiches, bacon burgers, bacon-heavy kimchi stew, and one much-shared photo of a 'bacon bra'1. The joke works because bacon is already loved as food, so any new bacon-flavored, bacon-shaped, or bacon-adjacent product feels both ridiculous and inevitable, as CNN put it during the 2012 shortage panic6.

Origin & Background

Platform

Blogs (Bacon Unwrapped) / Twitter and StumbleUpon (viral spread)

Date

2004

The internet's bacon obsession has documented roots on January 16, 2004, when blogger Heather Lauer launched Bacon Unwrapped, the first site dedicated to tracking web culture's fixation on the cured meat, later expanded into her 2009 book 'Bacon: A Love Story'4. The joke crossed into mainstream satire in August 2006, when The Onion published a fake USDA report titled 'Report: Meat Now America's No. 2 Condiment,' predicting bacon would overtake mustard and Worcestershire sauce by 2015 and calling out 'deep-fried, bacon-wrapped bacon sprinkled on pork chops'3.

How It Spread

The trend jumped from blogs into physical space on March 1, 2008, when Des Moines insurance salesman Brooks Reynolds staged the first Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival on National Pig Day, complete with a bacon bracelet, bacon lecture, bacon menu, samples, and a bacon-eating contest for a $30 ticket2. Bacon Today launched the same year as an ongoing bacon news, review, and recipe outlet9. By April 2009 the LA Times was cataloguing bacon iPhone cases, bacon watches, bacon alarm clocks, and constant Twitter posts about kimchi stew with bacon1.

The meme peaked in September 2012 after the UK's National Pig Association issued a press release warning that a 'world shortage of pork and bacon' was 'unavoidable'5. Village Voice ran the story on September 26, blaming drought damage to corn and soybean crops that had made pig feed too expensive7. CNN's Jarrett Bellini joked that if bacon could think, Americans 'would simply appoint bacon as our forever leader'6. Slate cut through the panic, arguing the British trade group had every incentive to inflate the story and noting that what Brits call 'bacon' is what Americans call Canadian bacon, while the American pork-belly cut is 'streaky bacon' in the UK5.

Corporate America kept feeding the joke into the mid-2010s. On September 16, 2015, Oscar Mayer launched Sizzl, an iPhone dating app that matched users based on their bacon preferences and replaced the standard right-swipe with a hold-down 'Sizzl' button whose length signaled interest8. The app was built by the same team behind Oscar Mayer's earlier bacon-scented alarm clock app, and Mashable noted that Oscar Mayer insisted in the app's own FAQ that 'it's real and it's incredible'8.

How to Use This Meme

The bacon meme typically works by adding bacon to something absurd (a bra, a lampshade, an alarm clock), photographing wildly bacon-wrapped or bacon-topped food, or announcing a new bacon-flavored consumer product1. There's no fixed image template, so the joke lives in the willingness to escalate. Brands can plug straight into it, the way Oscar Mayer did when Sizzl launched with a bacon-themed dating pitch8.

Cultural Impact

The 2012 shortage story drew coverage from CNN, CBS, CNBC, the Washington Post, and the CBC within days of the National Pig Association's press release, with Slate calling out the story's press-release origin and Village Voice tracing the pork panic back to bad corn and soybean harvests5 7. The Onion had already predicted the trajectory in 2006, quoting its fake Agriculture Secretary saying ketchup might be dethroned by bacon by 20103. Sizzl's 2015 launch showed how far big brands were willing to go on the joke, with Oscar Mayer running a swipe-left parody of Tinder as its ad8.

Fun Facts

The 2012 'bacon shortage' hype started with a September 20 press release from the UK's National Pig Association, not any actual sold-out shelves5

Oscar Mayer's Sizzl app measured your interest by how long you held down a button, not by swiping8

The Sizzl team also built Oscar Mayer's earlier bacon-scented alarm clock app8

What UK shoppers call 'bacon' is what Americans call Canadian bacon; the pork-belly bacon Americans love is called 'streaky bacon' in Britain5

The first Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in 2008 charged $30 admission but threw in a bacon bracelet, a bacon lecture, and one $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon draw2

Derivatives & Variations

Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, first held March 1, 2008 in Des Moines, Iowa, tied to National Pig Day[2]

Bacon Today, a bacon-focused news, review, and recipe site launched in 2008[9]

Sizzl, Oscar Mayer's bacon-themed iPhone dating app launched September 16, 2015[8]

An earlier bacon-scented alarm clock app from Oscar Mayer, built by the Sizzl team[8]

'Bacon: A Love Story,' Heather Lauer's 2009 book expanding on her Bacon Unwrapped blog[4]