Exploring Midjourney’s “Weird” Parameter – Let’s Get Weird!

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Are you ready to get weird?

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Let’s do it.

Midjourney dropped a new experimental feature/parameter on June 30, 2023, called “Weird.” The Weird parameter does exactly what you would expect: It makes your Midjourney creations more weird. Per Midjourney’s documentation, weird will “produce quirky and offbeat qualities to your generated images, resulting in unique and unexpected outcomes.” Who wouldn’t want to do that?

Well, there’s one thing I can guarantee you. If you tell any of your non-AI enthusiast friends about this, their reaction will look something like this…

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Now that you know what you’re dealing with, let’s keep going.

How to Use Midjourney’s “–weird” Parameter

Here’s the rundown:

• Want to get weird? Simply add “–weird” to the end of your prompt.
• The –weird parameter accepts values from zero to 3000.
• The default –weird value is 0. So if you don’t use the parameter, you get zero weirdness. Makes sense.
• Weird is a highly experimental feature. What’s weird may change over time. Now that’s weird!
• The –weird parameter is compatible with Midjourney versions 5, 5.1, and 5.2.
• Weird doesn’t play nice with seeds. Full compatibility is not available yet.
• Weird is supposed to work well with “–stylize” if you want “weird and beautiful” images.
• If you use “–weird” and “–stylize” together, give them equal values.

Now that you know what you’re doing, it’s time to see it in action.

You had a dose of Run The Prompt weirdness with our comical mock dating apps. Now you can tell all your friends that you took it one step further after running through the section below.

Weird Midjourney Image Examples

Let’s dive in head-first. We’re going to go from zero (0) weird to maximum weird (3000) to show you the difference between the weirdness. Although Midjourney provides four images for each prompt, I’m only going to show the best one out of each batch. Kind of like the best cookie in a batch.

1. Zero Weird

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies”

This looks about right. It’s not weird at all. I’m not so sure if that looks exactly like a frat boy bro, but maybe Midjourney doesn’t understand what that means.

2. Weird Level: 250

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 250”

Okay, so Midjourney recommends starting at 250 weird. This is the starting point. It’s already weird.

This guy looks to be in his thirties, so he’s definitely nowhere close to being a frat boy bro. Now take a look at what he’s doing. He’s scraping the cookies off of the mother fucking floor and shoveling them into some kind of metal canister. The other canister just kind of hangs suspended in the air via magic.

If I were to place a bet, he’ll probably eat those filthy cookies later on in the evening. Vomit.

3. Weird Level: 500

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 500”

Cranking up the weird another notch here. This guy does indeed look like a frat boy bro, although an older variation of one.

Apparently, this guy has a twin brother who bakes cookies with him while wearing the same clothes. Those are some potato-looking cookies, though. I’m not sure what the hell either twin has in their hands, but I don’t think Midjourney knows either.

Remember, everyone…this feature is experimental. However, that adds to the weirdness and surprise.

4. Weird Level: 750

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 750”

Creepy! Something about this image makes me want to hate cookies. However, it seems like Midjourney is dialing up the “bro” when I dial up the weird. Now that’s weird.

5. Weird Level: 1,000

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 1000”

We’re up to weird 1,000 now, which means we’re 1/3 of the way to maximum weirdness. This one is damn weird. It looks like something that walked off of the Cartoon Network at 3:00am. Also, it’s more “bro” than the last one, while ironically being more purple.

5. Weird Level: 2,000

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 2000”

Does this one look familiar? It should. It’s the hero image on this post. I like this one, even though it’s certainly the weirdest one yet. It’s definitely unique. When I look at this one, I like the weird parameter!

6. Weird Level: 3,000 (Maximum Weird!)

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon frat boy bro baking cookies –weird 3000”

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Midjourney must have a sense of humor. I don’t think this is the weirdest one. But it’s definitely the funniest. 3,000 is as far as the scale goes, so if weird is what you want, use 3,000. Although this isn’t the weirdest, it is just one example.

Bonus! Maximum Weird Parameter + Random Words

Prompt: “/imagine cartoon planet in the sky blowing up and shattering into a million pieces as an alien spaceship hovers over it and shoots water cannons, hot air balloons, shoes, straws, puppies, kittens, rainbows –weird 3000”

With this dumb prompt, I stumbled into a whole new prompt category with this one: word vomit prompts. Oddly, I think I’m onto something. This is a truly unique image. Although much of it is nonsense, it’s intriguing and incredibly detailed.

I hope you try some nasty word vomit prompts for yourself. Be sure to add a 3000 weird parameter to the end of your prompt for the full effect.

Wrapping it up

Midjourney’s new experimental feature, “Weird,” offers an exciting way to add a touch of eccentricity to your creations. With the ability to generate unique and unexpected outcomes, the “Weird” parameter opens up a realm of strange possibilities. Unleash your creativity and dive into the realm of the peculiar with Midjourney’s “Weird” parameter. I’ll say it one last time: It’s time to get weird.