Regarding cuteness...

[Neverhoodian]

My sense of "cute" is probably a bit skewed, seeing as how I did a minor "d'awwwwww" on seeing the picture. Then again, it might be because I used to go hunting for grasshoppers in the back yard with my dad when I was a kid (it was strictly catch-and-release). Having said that, I did get a bit creeped out a few seconds later when I realized how huge it was. I typically don't mind bugs as long as they're small.

I thinks lots of animals are "cute," even if they aren't commonly regarded as such. Frogs, toads, (non-poisonous) snakes, lizards, daddy long legs and jumping spiders all fall under the "cute" category for me.

Spoiler

Isn't it pwwwwwecious?

 

[Aeriath]

I don't really find many things cute, and when I do (puppies, kittens, baby mammals etc) it's usually a pretty weak feeling.

As for the picture: Kill it with fire.

I could not concur enough, even if I had moved the stars in the sky to spell it out.

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

^^ KILL. KILL NOW AND WITHOUT HESITATION

If it has fangs/pincers/spines then I'm generally fearful of it. I tend to find your average things cute: kittens, baby animals etc. I also find small model houses cute...

 

[Suicidejim]

I usually despise insects that aren't dead and in display in a glass case (and they even make me uncomfortable then), but that picture was actually kind of cute. If it was here in real life, I'd have set it on fire and dropped a hardcover book on it (my Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe usually does the trick). But yeah, boring sense of cute; kittens, penguins, girls, baby seals, manga, etc. I guess my only slightly odd one would be sharks. Actually, most marine life (not octopi, to hell with them). Generally it has to be alive though.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Baby puppies and kittens are still the ultimate embodiments of "cute".

That thing makes me want to take a few long steps back..

 

[Hero in a half shell]

-snip-

I was mowing the lawn once, and found a green cricket in the grass, (I'm from Ireland, so crickets are really small here, it was less than an inch long) I cupped it in my hands and brought it over to my teenage sister, who, at first reacted with absolute horror, letting out that annoying screech teen girls do, and running away shouting "ARGH WHAT IS THAT!?!" But when I told her it was a grasshopper she stopped mid scream and walked back over to look and coo at it.

So yeah, I think our ideas of cuteness is largely a social construct, there was nothing special about the cricket, but when she only knew it was an insect it was disgusting, and when she found out it was a cricket it was adorable.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Insects I do not find cute. Not really repulsive or anything, I'm just pretty much indifferent. I suppose what I find cute is somewhat atypical; cats, dogs, bunnies, ponies (the animated kind), certain art styles, certain people and generally things that are fluffly, sweet, gentle and big eyed.

 

[Justanewguy]

Zooey Deschanel

Mmmmmmmm...Zooey... *drools*

 

[Blow_Pop]

awww cute insect and spider photos....i think my view of cute is warped I also find snakes and sharks adorable and if it were possible (well it is but I doubt I'll ever have that kind of money) for me to own any shark in the world I wanted, I'd be one happy woman.

 

[Dfskelleton]

The insect itself would be be somewhat repulsive anywhere else, but the fact that it's trying to eat a carrot takes it from slightly repulsive to moderately adorable. Animals doing things that they clearly have no ability to do is a perfect formula for cuteness.
Captcha: Treepu airy.
Does that sound like the name of a town to anyone else?

 

[AZ03]

I'm sorry but I'm too distracted by all the people responding like that picture is of a real thing. I don't mind bugs but I'm finding it hard to believe one could get that big. Do they? I'm a little afraid to ask for proof. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9qVkQgHrE

I think that's proof enough that they definitely can get that big

As for me, when first viewing the picture, I admitted to thinking it was a little bit cute, but then again I already know my sense of what's considered "cute" is greatly skewed...and let's leave it at that >_>.

 

[me.vicky]

Hmm, isn't this a TVTropes page?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatMeasureIsANonCute
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UglyCute
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FreakyIsCool

Oh, yes. Yes it is.

OP: In typical "girl" fashion (or so people keep telling me) I think anything that is smaller than standard is cute. So I don't think big bugs are cute, but tiny ones? Yes. Giant weta? Not so much. Weta the size of a ladybug? Yes please!

 

[mip0]

You have a point, what brilliant observations. It's a funny interesting picture in lack of other words. I think it's cute with revulting aspects if you know what I mean. There's sort of an opposite too, small "extreme" breeds of dogs, you don't know if there cute cuddly heavenly wonders or disgusting twisted deranged freaks of our nature.
Might this be the meaning of pictures saying more than a thousand words, it'd feel like a relatively short discussion if one wasn't allowed at least mice as many.

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[Matt King]

when i saw this i actually went aww that's pretty cute

 

[blackcapedmanx]

I have a phobic revulsion to any insect that jumps (and can thus land on you,) stemming from crickets and grasshoppers and extending to cicadas and whatever else looks like them. Something about the tactile sensation of them landing on your skin, and then pushing off from it rather than just crawling or flying away (the long rear legs with big thigh parts is also a problem, nixing house centipedes and their ilk, but not millipedes.) So wetas are right out.

I like standard cute, but I also find things that most people think of as ferocious as cute, particularly with big dogs, which many people shy from, where I always want to tackle and roll around with (my dream is to own a Tibetan mastiff, which is basically a dog that put all of it's character creation points into "lion," allegedly pairs of them have killed tigers, the only primary source of which on the English internet is this: http://www.wayangtimes.com/rich-chinese-woman-pays-more-than-us500000-for-rare-tibetan-mastiff-dog.html , and I think they're they cutest things ever.) Like, you know, bears are good. Angry horses, especially in person, which is frightening to think about because they can easily kill you.

I also think giant isopods are adorbs, which is in no small part due to this shirt design by Jeph Jacques: http://theoystersgarter.com/2008/08/14/because-i-happened-to-have-a-giant-isopod-in-my-office/ (the thought bubble says, "I feel pretty,")
(Also, apparently no longer available from QC? how do I tear drop emote?)

 

[DannyJBeckett]

when i saw this i actually went aww that's pretty cute

So did I as well.

I also love Spiders, especially big ones (except Brown recluse spiders, those dudes are bloody evil). Whenever I come across people who are arachnophobic, which turns out to be more men than women, I just tell them to think of their enormous hairy fangs as a big moustache, like this: (WARNING: BIIIIG Spider picture alert) http://i.imgur.com/BLl2p.jpg

 

[Matt King]

when i saw this i actually went aww that's pretty cute

So did I as well.

I also love Spiders, especially big ones (except Brown recluse spiders, those dudes are bloody evil). Whenever I come across people who are arachnophobic, which turns out to be more men than women, I just tell them to think of their enormous hairy fangs as a big moustache, like this: (WARNING: BIIIIG Spider picture alert) http://i.imgur.com/BLl2p.jpg

now you see, no i don't like that, not one bit that is probably an example of, i will let you live but if you come anywhere near me i will purge you with fire,

but if that thing wasn't deadly (which i'm assuming it is) i would love to put it on my 6'6 (and also built like a monster truck) brother's head while he slept because he instantly becomes a girl when faced with spiders

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Yeah I thought this was cute. In a weird sort of a way. I think it's the way it's happily eating the carrot provided and not pinching everyone with it's pinchy bits.

 

[RandV80]

I don't find it 'cute' but as I said somewhere else for claiming the title of 'largest insect in the world' nature took it really easy on us with this one. A giant cricket that eats carrots? Man it could be way, way worse than that.

 

[DannyJBeckett]

now you see, no i don't like that, not one bit that is probably an example of, i will let you live but if you come anywhere near me i will purge you with fire,

but if that thing wasn't deadly (which i'm assuming it is) i would love to put it on my 6'6 (and also built like a monster truck) brother's head while he slept because he instantly becomes a girl when faced with spiders

Actually the spider in the picture was a harmless, regular house spider, no bigger than about an inch in leg-span, but my friend (who took the picture) used a 180mm camera-lens he'd just bought to make it look humongous, and it worked.

A twist of irony about it is that my friend in question is one of the arachnophobes I mentioned earlier, and apparently sucked up a lot of courage to take that picture, even though the spider was dead when he took it.

Also about the spider's big fangs/moustache, just think of them as talking like this.