The line about 14 people bringing mac and cheese is almost too perfect, like a bad sitcom script. But I gotta say your food plan didn't backfire because of potluck chaos, it backfired because nobody actually planned it. If you send out a sign-up sheet and half the list is still blank the night before, you're rolling dice. I've seen this at block parties for years, one person says "just bring whatever" and you end up with nine bags of chips and zero forks. The smoker thing is on whoever lit it, not on the potluck idea itself.