TikTok’s latest food trend has gone way beyond judging whether someone’s casserole looks appetizing. What started as a playful series called “Potluck Court Room” has spiraled into a spectacle where disappointing dishes are “sentenced” to medieval torture devices, the most notorious of which is the “pear of anguish.”
The "pear of anguish" is a gruesome invention from centuries past that FoodTok has gleefully adopted as shorthand for the worst possible culinary crime.
There are no food crimes heinous enough to justify this punishment, yet here we are.
What is the "pear of anguish"?
We’re going to give a bare bones explanation of what the pear of anguish is and let your imagination do the rest. One end is shaped like a pear. That end goes into an orifice of the human body. The handle expands the pear. Now, immediately think about something else. Anything else. It looks like this:
Why is TikTok talking about the "pear of anguish"?
How we got from potlucks to horrific torture methods is the kind of lore future historians will study for centuries. It started with @shaiie_foeva and her popular TikTok series “Potluck Court Room.”
In these videos, Shaiie clips in footage of people showing off the platters of food they brought to a potluck. The TikToker then judges and sentences each one, typically to an extreme fate, to hilarious effect. Potluck attendees can get the death penalty for bringing something they didn’t make themselves or forgetting to include toppings with their taco platter.
Those who do well might get to see the prosecution dragged off to prison instead.
As time went on and the standard death penalty bit wore thin, Shaiie got more creative with her punishments. By 2025, medieval torture began to enter the mix. In one recent video, a woman who brought a cherry pie that did not meet the TikToker’s visual expectations got the scavenger’s daughter. That video gained 15.3 million views.
In March, a man who brought a sashimi platter on a paper tray received a worse fate.
“The pear of anguish,” judged Shaiie. “You did not make that. Next.”
“Cooking to avoid the pear of anguish”
As fans and imitators began to repeat the phrase and people started to look it up, references to the pear of anguish spread across FoodTok. It may currently be the worst fate a cook can suffer, but you know folks are going to dig up something worse any day now.
One TikToker who received the pear of anguish judgment from her followers even tried to redeem herself with a new cooking video begging for mercy. This trend seems like it’s turned everyone on the app into a vicious food reviewer.
“The last video got a million views and everyone told me to walk the plank,” said @ruby_x_jade. “I was getting the brazen bull, death row.”
It’s Gordan Ramsey turned up to 11 over here.
Other users are offering up their dishes in advance of Shaiie’s judgment, hoping for a more merciful sentence.
“If it pleases the court, I would like to ask for clemency,” joked @jessicabreslin8709 in August. “I made my first caramelized onion and chicken tart. It’s not the prettiest thing that I’ve ever seen but the inside tastes amazing.”
“I understand if I can’t get parole but if you could just give me 25 to life, and please, spare my Uber driver.”
The description further begs for “anything but the Pear of Anguish really.”
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