Giant misshapen pumpkins

They are shaped like that because of their weight. They just dont have the structure to be nice and round as they grow. Where I live, they have 'Pumpkinfest' every year, which started as a pumpkin growing compitition, but also became a huge car show that takes up 1/4 of the town for a weekend. In 2004 they had the world record pumpkin weighing in at 1446 pounds!

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#9 posted by jimphelps , October 17, 2008 8:21 AM

This makes me think of the line from Elephant Man:

"I am not an animaaaal"

I am a vegetable...

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#10 posted by snagglepuss , October 17, 2008 8:40 AM

Meanwhile, outside at "Tumors'R'Us"...

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#11 posted by Junior Mad Scientist , October 17, 2008 9:08 AM

Misshapen and weird pumpkins are the best for carving, though to work the ones in the photo, you'd probably need a chainsaw instead of a steak knife.

This year we scored one that had tons of bumps and scabs on the skin so that it looked like it had eczema. It also had a big line around the middle, sort of an equatorial indent, that made it look like an orange Muppet. All in all, a great pumpkin.

(until three days later when it turned all black and fuzzy inside. and not the good kind of black-n-fuzzy found on Zeppelin or Hendrix posters.)

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#12 posted by n , October 17, 2008 9:09 AM

They look like those enormous people you sometimes see on the Discovery Channel where they have to, like, excavate a wall to get them out of their house.

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#13 posted by nehpetsE , October 17, 2008 9:22 AM

This just in: Pumpkin spends three months in bathroom. Must be surgically removed from toilet seat

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#14 posted by Webbie

, October 17, 2008 9:32 AM

I'm sure I saw these two on Maury last week...

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#15 posted by Vidya , October 17, 2008 9:34 AM

Wow, people can't even comment on *pumpkins* without expressing fat-hate. Disgusting.

I think these are wonderful -- so unique, with lovely undulating lines and curves that invite tactile engagement.

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#16 posted by Anonymous , October 17, 2008 9:55 AM

I wonder if it's possible to sort of 'babysit' a pumpkin through this growing process so that you can have a massive, normal shaped pumpkin?

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#17 posted by sammich , October 17, 2008 10:11 AM

It disturbs me more than a little that Takuan @ 6 has pulled up a clip of pumpkins, floating on water, stuffed with people. I do hope they're on a land-locked lake.

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#18 posted by Takuan , October 17, 2008 10:14 AM

you like stuffed peppers? I can't have the odd snack?

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#19 posted by TEKNA2007 , October 17, 2008 10:40 AM

somewhere in canada, at long last, a lightbulb went on, and a designer bent over his easel to begin work on costumes for the next cirque de soleil.

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#20 posted by Antinous , October 17, 2008 10:44 AM

Doesn't it seem likely that this is what pumpkins normally look like and those perfectly round, bright orange things at the supermarket are the product of Monsantification?

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#21 posted by sg , October 17, 2008 11:02 AM

I wonder if you could put some kind of form against the skin of these, so that the pumpkin would grow into it and then when you removed the form you'd have it embossed on the surface? Like a reverse-carving...

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#22 posted by Xopher , October 17, 2008 11:22 AM

I guess I'm the only one who, reading the title of this post, immediately had it playing in his head to the tune of "Hava Nagila."

Yeah, thought so.

But now you've got it, don't you? "GI-ant...misshapen PUMPkins...misshapen PUMPkins..."

This earworm brought to you by Xopher, whose mental cruelty knows no bounds.

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#23 posted by CedricMnich , October 17, 2008 11:40 AM

I bet those are American pumpkins :-)

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#24 posted by Editz , October 17, 2008 12:42 PM

NPR had a story on giant pumpkins recently. I didn't know they posed an explosion risk, but one grower said it's absolutely true.

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#25 posted by Junior Mad Scientist , October 17, 2008 1:57 PM

Explosion risk?! Then it's a good thing they're not anywhere near the propane tanks.

oh, wait . . .

(btw: are these pumpkins illegally parked in a handicap spot?)

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#26 posted by Ike_Arumba , October 17, 2008 2:28 PM

There was a great special on PBS last year about giant pumpkins and the folks who grow them. Nothing grows as fast as those suckers -- up to 40 pounds a day. You can actually see them grow.

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#27 posted by Sekino , October 17, 2008 3:35 PM

I must say: The combined comments (even the 'mean' ones) for this post are the funniest thing I've seen all day. #9 had me slapping my knee...

And 'pumpkin' must be one of the silliest, most harmless words in the English language... so placed next to 'giant' or better yet 'exploding'. it just greatly adds to the humour, somehow.

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#28 posted by Elvis Pelt , October 17, 2008 6:45 PM

Uh, misshapen? Seriously? Oh, right, as in Lake Tahoe is misshapen. I get it.

(Maybe go with funny-shaped or look-at-those-giant-orange-blobs.)

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#29 posted by Xopher , October 17, 2008 8:08 PM

Elvis? I don't understand. Those aren't the shape that we normally associate with pumpkins, and they look kind of distorted and...well, yucky. I think 'misshapen' is a pretty good term. What's your objection?

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#30 posted by Beezy , October 18, 2008 4:43 PM

Square pumpkins (and watermelons!) can be seen here:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11618

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#31 posted by john1961 , October 20, 2008 6:16 PM

Kind of reminds me of what's left of the evil CEO character at the end of "The Fly II"