What Are Memes About 'Good Vs. Bad Art' About? The Viral Art Comparison Sheet Meme Explained

An X (formerly Twitter) user's attempt to provide a final answer to distinguishing "good" art from "bad" art seems to have backfired, with many criticizing his attempts at moralizing the age-old debate. Jash Dholani, who goes by @oldbooksguy on X, created a fifteen-point-long chart detailing various aspects of what differentiates good art from bad, judging the two styles based on categories like "Emotional Effect," where it either "Improves Mood," (good) or "Makes You Feel Weird" (bad).

Here's a recap of the events surrounding the tweet, and the public on X's general response to the Good Art vs. Bad Art Comparison Sheet.

What Is The Good vs. Bad Art Comparison Sheet?

The "Good vs. Bad Art Comparison Sheet" was posted by X user Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) in late August 2023, with Dholani dividing his general critical response to art into various categories. These included somewhat comprehensible categories like "Mental Effect," but also stranger ones like "Good GPS, Bad GPS."

Needless to say, Dholani's chart promptly got him ratioed on the platform, receiving more than triple the number of quotes as he did likes.

What Were Some Responses To The Good vs. Bad Comparison Sheet?

Some of the earliest notable knee-jerk reactions to Dholani's chart zoomed in on various sections of the document to note the absurdity of some of the statements it made. X user @EmmaTolkin noted how the chart suggested that "Bad Art" "Makes you feel weird," saying that body-horror filmmaker Cronenberg was "canceled" by this definition.

Other users zeroed in on the initial qualifiers of "bad art" as listed in the chart, with many announcing that they found the supposed qualities of "bad art" rather appealing. X user @michael_deforge claimed that the qualities were something he hoped to portray in his own next creative venture.

What Did Jash Dholani (@oldbooksguy) Have To Say In Response To The Backlash?

Dholani, to his credit, did not back down from his strong assertions about what counts as good and bad art. Instead, he chose to post a meme showing himself as Apu Apustaja and the masses disagreeing with him as a mono-colored monolith.

For the full history of the Good vs. Bad Art Comparison Sheet, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.