What amuses me about these sorts of midcentury grossout recipes is that they simultaneously assume you want to use prepackaged/instant everything for maximum ease, but are willing to spend an hour+ arranging those things into pineapples/igloos/gardens.

I know, right??? I guess that must have been how you showed your mad culinary skillz: since you didn't have to actually COOK anything, you had to DISPLAY. Kind of like, I don't know, this guy.