Does This Jeffrey Dahmer-Inspired Pizza Cross The Halloween Line?

Netflix latest hit Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has broken streaming records, making it the second most-watched drama series on the platform after Stranger Things 4. The release happens to coincide with the Halloween season, no doubt by design. As a result, fans of the show have begun celebrating the real-life killer.

According to TMZ, a pizza parlor called Capital Pizza in Lubbock, TX has also joined in on the Dahmer craze. On display beside their cash registers is the “Jeffrey Dahmer Special”, an imitation pizza with a finger and eyeball surrounded by guts. Although it’s actually made of ramen noodles, pepperoncini garnish, and prop body parts, the sight alone has caused mixed reactions. Many have complained since its debut three weeks ago, yet the restaurant owner says a lotta customers love it. 

While Halloween is a day to celebrate all manner of monsters, it begs the question, does celebrating real-life monsters cross the line?

No doubt the usual monsters we dress up as for Halloween have taken twice the amount of lives as Dahmer, in equally if not more gruesome ways, but the difference is, Dahmer ACTUALLY took those lives.

Our fascination with crime and desire to experience fear vicariously through entertainment is well documented, but what happens when we as a society reach a place where killers become folk-heroes?

When our access to the dark underbelly of the world through social media and entertainment allows us to humanize monsters, will we lose the ability to tell the difference?