I’ve written here in the past about the ever-popular website Cute Overload that posts photographs of ridiculously cute animals—usually baby ones—that people sit in their cubicles and coo over. But where one trail is blazed, others are soon to follow, and riding on the coattails of Cute Overload comes the semi-spoof website, Ugly Overload. I say “semi-spoof,” because it’s actually not making fun of ugly animals at all. (If that was the case, I would most certainly berate the cynics responsible for the site instead of applauding their good souls). Quite the contrary: Ugly Overload simply gives the less attractive (but still adorable and lovable!) animals among us the credit they deserve. As the site’s tagline says: “Giving ugly animals their day in the sun. We avoid the simply tragic, diseased, or maimed. Rather, these creatures are only as hideous as nature—or their owners—intended.”
Animals basking in this particular spotlight range from the everyday mole to the Mekong giant catfish to the desert horned lizard to pugs. For me, however, it’s not the photographs that make the site, but the little science lesson or history lesson (or National Geographic video!) that accompany each picture. (For instance, did you know that something called a camel spider resembles both a scorpion and a spider, but is neither, and instead is its own unique kind of arachnid?) In doing so, the site is not simply about cooing at animals when they yawn or fall asleep in their milk dish. It’s about truly appreciating them, and that’s not just a way to waste time at the office.