Culinary failure snobbery:

When I was young, I was over at a friend's house when we heard fire trucks on the next block where another friend lived. Of course we ran over to see...there was a blackened pot sitting in the driveway, and the embarrassed family apologizing to the firemen. It was not a big city, so the fire 'report' made the "daily happenings" column in the newspaper.

"Burned pot roast causes small fire"... something like that.

I had looked in the pot... it was a dozen hot dogs that had boiled dry. (The father was a well-known captain on the police force.)