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Old People Are Trolling Young People With This ‘Hack’ And The Comments Are Hilarious
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Old People Are Trolling Young People With This ‘Hack’ And The Comments Are Hilarious

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Apparently, kids these days know little about the hardships of life. And one is still as vivid as if it happened yesterday. You see, back in the day, people had to cook a hard-boiled egg for a computer mouse every single week in order to scroll up and down that screen. Don’t ask me if it’s true or false, just follow this Twitter thread to see where it takes us.

After getting better with every comment, the hack has evolved into an unpolished gem of boomer comedy. Let’s see what the old-timers had to say about these “ah, good ol’ days” down below.

If you’re confused, remember that so are the hundreds of youngsters who legitimately can’t wrap their heads around it.

When someone pointed out this hardship hack on Twitter, everyone got on board to add some fire to the joke

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And the trolls started pouring in

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Bored Panda contacted Aram Bartholl, a German artist working with the themes of surveillance, data privacy, technology, and the absurdity of digital lives, to find out what exactly the egg and computer mouse meme says about our society. Check out Aram’s work on his website.

Aram felt strongly positive about the prank: “I think this is a very beautiful prank compared to usual memes and jokes. The lookalike of the classic mouse ball and the egg yolk is indeed very striking,” he told us. “This joke plays with the uncertainty of the younger audience, who cannot really tell if it is true or not.”

Young people just couldn’t wrap their heads around it

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The artist believes that this case isn’t really about a clash between generations, but rather it shows the gap of knowledge. “Of course, back in the day, one had to invest a lot of time to get a computer to work or just to connect to the internet. There is all this weird old technology which is hard to get a grasp on today,” he explained. “Yes, you had to clean your mouse ball once in a while, it was always dirty and dusty.” In this sense, the prank does really sound a lot like truth.

Social media is so prominent and fast today that all the seemingly nonsensical ideas spread real fast. “All you need is a good picture and a good story.” Aram gave us an example: “I have one for you. Back in the day, the computer’s CPU was cooled with coffee! All you had to do was place your cup on the CPU and start up the computer. Always hot coffee!”

But everyone kept on trolling like there’s no tomorrow

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After all these comments, youngsters were left baffled by whether it’s all a meme or not

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demi_zwaan avatar
Demi Zwaan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was really, really hard on us vegan gamers. We tried vegetable based balls, but they just weren't the same, fell apart too easily. Could never get into competitive gaming with those.

sergiobicerra_1 avatar
Sergio Bicerra Descalzi
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used my grandma's glass eyeball. Worked perfectlly for a while till she started complaining she was seeing fussy.

Load More Replies...
charlotte_18 avatar
Charlotte
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can someone please tell the author (and the rest of the internet) what a Boomer actually is? I'm 40. My parents are Boomers: I'm Gen X / Millennial cusp. They wouldn't have known how to change the mouse egg to save their lives! The few people in that generation who were using computers at home would just get their kids (who were late teens by then) to solve any tech issues like that. We also had to connect their modems, change the ink cartridge and program the VCR for them.

awoodhull avatar
Anna Woodhull
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eggsactly! It was Gen X and us old Millennials who were the pros at using and cleaning out egg yolk mice.

Load More Replies...
pseudo_puppy avatar
Pseudo Puppy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

try being kid from a broke family where the choices were: eat breakfast, or have a functioning mouse. The number of times I went hungry for that yolk. Well worth it though!

shannonodland avatar
Dippin Dot
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why we got used to eating just the whites... best of both worlds!

Load More Replies...
meghanhibicke avatar
Evil Little Thing
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As Charlotte pointed out, this is classic GenX. Boomers were never able to figure out how to do it right because they kept salting and eating the eggs. I mean, I get that Millennials are bad at math and Zoomers think everyone over 25 is a relic, but there's a world of difference between Boomers and GenX - they had Leave It To Beaver; we had Thundercats.

leodomitrix avatar
Leo Domitrix
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Gen X, never saw Thundercats, too busy figuring out how things work and fix them instead of hoping an app would show up and tell me ;-P

Load More Replies...
veritech-pilot avatar
onitsuka
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sigh...people reminding me of the harder times. I didn't even learn the fish oil trick until around the time of Quake Arena. Thankfully Newegg came around not too long after that to provide high quality egg yolks.

wianjama avatar
Rissie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here in the Netherlands we called it a visdooier. My biggest problem was when my mom would buy small eggs for a recipe and you were left with a wobbly yolk. Totally messed up my Quake game.

Load More Replies...
e-samberg avatar
Tardis42
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where to young people think the term Baller originally came from? It initially referred to someone who could cook the perfect round, hard mouse yolk. Then basketball ripped it off, and it's all anyone knows now.

webmaster_8 avatar
Paul K. Johnson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And that's why trackballs never gained widespread popularity. Getting a 2" yolk meant sources that specialized in uncommon birds and they were quite expensive. Not only that but you could never get them hard enough all the way through so they didn't last very long - particularly if you did large spreadsheets or played Doom or Quake.

merlinthecat1 avatar
Monika Rhodes
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And forbid- the boiled yolk cracked and you're out of eggs- no gaming for you :(

patriciaross avatar
tuzdayschild
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why I invented that cool ergonomic mouse with the big avocado seed on top.

iajdini avatar
wianjama avatar
angelmatthews avatar
Angela
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love every letter of every post here. I can't stop enjoying this. Takes me back to 8th grade mouse troubles. Love this!

dboplollipop avatar
Cats
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not going to lie, my head hurts after reading this

earloflincoln avatar
Martha Meyer
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Did user Gary really just call his supposedly egg-laying chicken a “he“?

emiamohler avatar
SirPatTheCat
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my God people have to stop continuing to generalize whole groups of people. Of course there's going to be some young people like this, but the majority of us know that the egg yoke was the mouse ball. Smh even if we didn't use it we still know about it, you can't just show the comments from the small percentage of people who didn't know...

hnmk5433 avatar
Royakuss
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to tell Gamers to clean the gunk out of their mouse ball when they used to complain about their PC/Internet performance in World of Warcraft. Good times.

oogieboogie61 avatar
OogieBoogie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You could always tell if it wasn't cooked properly, the smell after a few days was awful !

aameef avatar
Jan Willem ten Dam
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

stanflouride avatar
Stannous Flouride
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People forget that the very first touchpads were made out of reconditioned animal skins. Fortunately they figured out how to make synthesized ones and then the rare earth ones we have now.

cassiewilliams avatar
Cassie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It really sucked when you forgot to make sure the water level stayed high enough for the full boil and boiled off, resulting in exploding eggs. The whole kitchen would sound and look like a war zone.

kitipurr avatar
Kimberly Brady
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My favorite thing is the comment about using egg yolks being unsanitary. I remember being in a class in a public school, popping the ball out and sucking on it for a few seconds to clean it off. The computer equivalent of tossing your sandwich on the floor of a McDonalds, then picking it up and eating it anyway. Our gen didn't think about 'unsanitary' unless it was a public bathroom. Even then, your mom would be like 'What, is your brother going to lick your butt after you sit on that toilet? Wipe it off and go back outside!'

kim-bowie avatar
Kim
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Boomer comedy? haha the only boomer comedy I can remember is my mother (a boomer) asking me (a millenial) to fix all the tech stuff. She still does btw. 😂 Now during the pandemic she can't watch tv or use the internet because some wire's broke and I can't get over there to plug a new to the wall and push the on button. 🥴 I said I could help her over facetime but she hasn't figured that out either. 🙈

laura_63 avatar
Laura Odelius
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

jaybird3939 avatar
Jaybird3939
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really love Deviled Eggs. It sure was hard to get any in those days.

claudiaapple127 avatar
BowtieMax
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lmao I am a Gen Z kid but yet I use to own one of those mouses and they were so difficult to clean. It sucked. The computer I had at that time barely supported google too. It was around 4 years ago when I got a functioning computer. Growing up without much money kinda makes you live a couple of years back

evan_graham avatar
Evan Graham
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could use an intact turtle egg instead. They're not easy to get, but they're perfectly round and about the same size as a chicken egg yolk if you get the right kind. You could leave it in the shell and boil it, and that bad boy would last for MONTHS.

bettye000 avatar
Bettye McKee
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This one is the winner. I had completely forgotten that you had to mark your calendar to make sure you completed the task every week. We are so lazy now.

alyssabrittain avatar
Starlight
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay but real talk this reminds me of the lore that people developed in the comment section of the 80s remix of Baby by Justin Bieber.

demi_zwaan avatar
Demi Zwaan
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was really, really hard on us vegan gamers. We tried vegetable based balls, but they just weren't the same, fell apart too easily. Could never get into competitive gaming with those.

sergiobicerra_1 avatar
Sergio Bicerra Descalzi
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used my grandma's glass eyeball. Worked perfectlly for a while till she started complaining she was seeing fussy.

Load More Replies...
charlotte_18 avatar
Charlotte
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can someone please tell the author (and the rest of the internet) what a Boomer actually is? I'm 40. My parents are Boomers: I'm Gen X / Millennial cusp. They wouldn't have known how to change the mouse egg to save their lives! The few people in that generation who were using computers at home would just get their kids (who were late teens by then) to solve any tech issues like that. We also had to connect their modems, change the ink cartridge and program the VCR for them.

awoodhull avatar
Anna Woodhull
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Eggsactly! It was Gen X and us old Millennials who were the pros at using and cleaning out egg yolk mice.

Load More Replies...
pseudo_puppy avatar
Pseudo Puppy
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

try being kid from a broke family where the choices were: eat breakfast, or have a functioning mouse. The number of times I went hungry for that yolk. Well worth it though!

shannonodland avatar
Dippin Dot
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's why we got used to eating just the whites... best of both worlds!

Load More Replies...
meghanhibicke avatar
Evil Little Thing
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As Charlotte pointed out, this is classic GenX. Boomers were never able to figure out how to do it right because they kept salting and eating the eggs. I mean, I get that Millennials are bad at math and Zoomers think everyone over 25 is a relic, but there's a world of difference between Boomers and GenX - they had Leave It To Beaver; we had Thundercats.

leodomitrix avatar
Leo Domitrix
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Gen X, never saw Thundercats, too busy figuring out how things work and fix them instead of hoping an app would show up and tell me ;-P

Load More Replies...
veritech-pilot avatar
onitsuka
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sigh...people reminding me of the harder times. I didn't even learn the fish oil trick until around the time of Quake Arena. Thankfully Newegg came around not too long after that to provide high quality egg yolks.

wianjama avatar
Rissie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Here in the Netherlands we called it a visdooier. My biggest problem was when my mom would buy small eggs for a recipe and you were left with a wobbly yolk. Totally messed up my Quake game.

Load More Replies...
e-samberg avatar
Tardis42
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Where to young people think the term Baller originally came from? It initially referred to someone who could cook the perfect round, hard mouse yolk. Then basketball ripped it off, and it's all anyone knows now.

webmaster_8 avatar
Paul K. Johnson
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And that's why trackballs never gained widespread popularity. Getting a 2" yolk meant sources that specialized in uncommon birds and they were quite expensive. Not only that but you could never get them hard enough all the way through so they didn't last very long - particularly if you did large spreadsheets or played Doom or Quake.

merlinthecat1 avatar
Monika Rhodes
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And forbid- the boiled yolk cracked and you're out of eggs- no gaming for you :(

patriciaross avatar
tuzdayschild
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why I invented that cool ergonomic mouse with the big avocado seed on top.

iajdini avatar
wianjama avatar
angelmatthews avatar
Angela
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love every letter of every post here. I can't stop enjoying this. Takes me back to 8th grade mouse troubles. Love this!

dboplollipop avatar
Cats
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not going to lie, my head hurts after reading this

earloflincoln avatar
Martha Meyer
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Did user Gary really just call his supposedly egg-laying chicken a “he“?

emiamohler avatar
SirPatTheCat
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my God people have to stop continuing to generalize whole groups of people. Of course there's going to be some young people like this, but the majority of us know that the egg yoke was the mouse ball. Smh even if we didn't use it we still know about it, you can't just show the comments from the small percentage of people who didn't know...

hnmk5433 avatar
Royakuss
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to tell Gamers to clean the gunk out of their mouse ball when they used to complain about their PC/Internet performance in World of Warcraft. Good times.

oogieboogie61 avatar
OogieBoogie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You could always tell if it wasn't cooked properly, the smell after a few days was awful !

aameef avatar
Jan Willem ten Dam
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

stanflouride avatar
Stannous Flouride
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People forget that the very first touchpads were made out of reconditioned animal skins. Fortunately they figured out how to make synthesized ones and then the rare earth ones we have now.

cassiewilliams avatar
Cassie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It really sucked when you forgot to make sure the water level stayed high enough for the full boil and boiled off, resulting in exploding eggs. The whole kitchen would sound and look like a war zone.

kitipurr avatar
Kimberly Brady
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My favorite thing is the comment about using egg yolks being unsanitary. I remember being in a class in a public school, popping the ball out and sucking on it for a few seconds to clean it off. The computer equivalent of tossing your sandwich on the floor of a McDonalds, then picking it up and eating it anyway. Our gen didn't think about 'unsanitary' unless it was a public bathroom. Even then, your mom would be like 'What, is your brother going to lick your butt after you sit on that toilet? Wipe it off and go back outside!'

kim-bowie avatar
Kim
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Boomer comedy? haha the only boomer comedy I can remember is my mother (a boomer) asking me (a millenial) to fix all the tech stuff. She still does btw. 😂 Now during the pandemic she can't watch tv or use the internet because some wire's broke and I can't get over there to plug a new to the wall and push the on button. 🥴 I said I could help her over facetime but she hasn't figured that out either. 🙈

laura_63 avatar
Laura Odelius
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

jaybird3939 avatar
Jaybird3939
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I really love Deviled Eggs. It sure was hard to get any in those days.

claudiaapple127 avatar
BowtieMax
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lmao I am a Gen Z kid but yet I use to own one of those mouses and they were so difficult to clean. It sucked. The computer I had at that time barely supported google too. It was around 4 years ago when I got a functioning computer. Growing up without much money kinda makes you live a couple of years back

evan_graham avatar
Evan Graham
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If you wanted to get really fancy, you could use an intact turtle egg instead. They're not easy to get, but they're perfectly round and about the same size as a chicken egg yolk if you get the right kind. You could leave it in the shell and boil it, and that bad boy would last for MONTHS.

bettye000 avatar
Bettye McKee
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This one is the winner. I had completely forgotten that you had to mark your calendar to make sure you completed the task every week. We are so lazy now.

alyssabrittain avatar
Starlight
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay but real talk this reminds me of the lore that people developed in the comment section of the 80s remix of Baby by Justin Bieber.

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