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Bored Panda

Indrė Lukošiūtė

68 People Shared The Strangest Things They’ve Ever Found, And There Are So Many Questions

Gold Jonathan Mason Internet

The internet is a vast space where you encounter a wide assortment of content every time you scroll. Within the first five minutes, you will see something that makes you burst out laughing, something that enrages you, and something that weirds you out.

Today, you’re likely about to experience the latter. The following images are from the Strange subreddit, which is all about the random oddities of daily life. It’s been running for the last 17 years and has amassed 161,000 followers who share a fascination with the bizarre, the peculiar, and the eccentric.

Scroll through to see if any of these posts stand out to you. Feel free to upvote those that do.

#1 Statues Under A 70 Year Old House

#2 The Trees Where I Used To Live Look Like A Pack Of Prehistoric Animals

#3 Wiggly Door

Many of these images are straight-up strange without context. For many people, that can be quite jarring and unsettling, yet this type of content nonetheless draws fascination. Why is that?

According to Jonathan Mason, Edge Digital’s managing editor, it has to do with how we humans are wired to link fear and curiosity together.

#4 Goat Herders Of Yemen

#5 Sounds Even Scarier, Somehow

#6 Mom Received An “Abuelita” Mug By Mistake For Christmas And We Laughed It Off. 3 Days Later I Found Out I Was Pregnant

The brain is designed to prioritize and flag potential threats and uncertainty,” Mason told Bored Panda. “So it's an extremely effective hook that makes audiences want to check for content, scan the comments for explanations, and just generally engage with the content at a higher level than they would with something that makes sense on the face of it.”

#7 A Homeless Man Gave A “Diamond” To My Mother

#8 Ever Come Across A Piece Of Public Art That Feels Like A Glitch In The Simulation?

#9 The Night I Got Up For My 3am Pee , Half Asleep, I Lifted The Toilet Lid (They’re Kept Down To Keep My Cats Out) And I Found A Squirrel Of Some Sort Swimming In My Toilet Bowl!

From the fear of the unknown, there is also curiosity. Everyone loves a good mystery trope, which makes pieces of content with a peculiar theme resonate with people.

“'Strange' content mixes novelty and ambiguity and grabs people's attention, so now people design content that way on purpose,” Simplee Digital co-founder and CEO Rafael Rositsan explained.

#10 I Opened A Pack Of Pickles And Was Greeted By This Pickle

#11 Curious Encounters Walking In The Woods

#12 This Doesn't Feel Real

Rositsan further noted that strange content is similar to rage-baiting in that they elicit a strong reaction from the audience. Creators are also aware of the people’s “permanent appetite for anything weird and unsettling.

Content that elicits strong emotions is an automatic scroll-stopper, which, according to Rositsan, is also why it works so well in drawing attention. That helps the algorithm do its work.

#13 Found An AirTag In My Carryon After An International Flight. No One I Know Owns One

#14 The Text On These Cheap Sandals My Sister Got From Shein

#15 A Plane Seemingly Abandoned In The Middle Of Nowhere?

“Weird visuals tend to win attention because they break the pattern of everything else you’re scrolling past,” Rositsan explained. “Once someone rewatches, comments, or sends the post to a friend, the system reads that as valuable engagement and pushes it further, which is why niche formats like analog horror can suddenly become mainstream.”

#16 This "Petrified" Banana That I've Now Had For 6 Years

Not sure how this happens, but about 6 years ago I found a banana in my room while packing to move. It has no smell, is hard as a rock, and hasn't changed at all since I found it.

#17 What Is This?

#18 How The Hell Did That 400lb Rock Get 40 Feet Up In The Tree?!

#19 Grey Hair Turning Back To Brown

#20 Drawing Of Sisyphus Being Happy On My Local Laundromats Wall

#21 Secret Compartment Behind Mirror

#22 I Saw The Creepiest Thing On The Road Today. Left Me Speechless

I was driving in Miami and I saw this older model car with a car seat in the back. The car seat had a baby doll strapped in. There was also another doll that was on top of what looks like s statue of a wolf.

#23 Why Do People Put Teddy Bears On Their Cars

#24 "Kid Chair" Found At Rack Room Shoes

#25 My Hands Turn Red Like A Tomato When Warm, And Blue/Purple When Cold

#26 Found A Tiny Tree Branch That Naturally Spells “Love”

#27 Every Time I Go To The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, This Dali Painting Haunts Me

#28 I Momentarily Forgot How To Write The Number 5

#29 My Flexible Hands

#30 11 Paper Cups In One Reeces

#31 Friend Ate Gold In His Sleep

My friend had awoken last light at 12:30am to realise he had roughly 0.3grams of gold in his mouth, we are keen gold miners in newzealand and his collection of gold is roughly 14grams (Lucky he didnt eat this)

Weird thing is he had cleaned up 0.6grams of gold the previous day to give to his friend that had been helping him, this was placed in a plastic container within another container (That he keeps all his gold in) and was left at the end of his bed on the floor. Somehow throughout the night he got up while sleeping, opened the main container and opened this small vile containing 0.6g and ate half of it, put the lid back on and closed the main container and then woke up at 12:30am (Works on a diary farm) To find that his mouth full of gold. long story short he then weighed the jar that was in his container to find half of it missing