About
Obvious Plant started as paper, not products: a Tumblr blog, on January 4, 2015, whose first post was a "Wanted" poster asking people to come watch someone "do sick judo moves in the park." Three weeks later it had a name and a public introduction -- a fake brochure for a fictional dad-themed amusement park called "Dad Land," slipped into a real tourist kiosk on Hollywood Boulevard.
From signs to shelves
The same month, deadpan fake rules -- "no alpacas" among them -- started turning up on posts around Griffith Park. From there the project kept finding new surfaces: fake book jackets slipped over real books at Book Soup in West Hollywood, and invented "alternative animal facts" signs left at habitats in the LA Zoo.
Eventually the paper became objects. Past pieces have included a toaster that burns a selfie onto the toast and cans of "unicorn meat" on a real grocery shelf -- reported at the time by Fast Company. By 2019 there was enough of a back catalogue for its own show: the Museum of Toys, a pop-up display of more than 100 invented objects that never should have existed.
Who makes it
Jeff Wysaski, an LA-based comedian who got his start in internet comedy at Pleated Jeans, is the person behind Obvious Plant. He writes, designs and -- for the vast majority of it -- plants every object himself.