Man Raises Thousands of Dollars Online to Make Simple Food Item

In the Internet's endless search for novelty, sometimes it feels good to support an American classic.

More than 1,500 backers had contributed over $21,000 by Monday afternoon to Zack Danger Brown's Kickstarter campaign.

What was the campaign for?

Potato salad.

Image via Shutterstock

"I thought, 'I've never made potato salad, so, I should try making some potato salad,'" Brown told WSYX-TV.

This is the face of a man who is receiving tens of thousands of dollars to make potato salad. (Image source: screengrab via WSYX-TV)

So he set up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the experiment, and it quickly went viral — and global.

"People tweeting in Japan, we got a comment from someone in Norway who said they were really excited that we were doing this potato salad Kickstarter, that they hadn't seen anything like that before," Brown said. "France, a lot of tweets from France this morning."

Brown has made a lot of promises that will likely prove impossible to keep.

For starters, he has pledged, "I will say your name out loud while making the potato salad," to every single person who donates $1 or more.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, 1,618 people had contributed to the campaign — it's unclear how he plans to say all those names.

He's also invited everyone who contributes $10 or more to hang out with him in the kitchen as he prepares the dish — another tall order, given the groundswell of support.

But whether or not he fulfills his promises, the biggest question remains: what kind of potato salad does one make on a $20,000+ budget?

With all the money he's raised, he could spring for something fancy like Martha Stewart's All-American Potato Salad.

He could go even fancier with the Barefoot Contessa's Lobster and Potato Salad.

Or maybe he seeks richness, in which case Paula Deen's Texas Country Potato Salad might be the way to go.

At the rate he's accumulating donations, Brown could conceivably soak his potatoes in Ley .925, but for now, Brown's potato salad preferences seem to be pretty darn broad.

"There's that potato salad, like, the yellow one?" Brown said. "I really like that one."

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Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter