109Kviews
This Twitter Page Collects 50 Of The Most Ridiculous News Headlines Ever Printed Or Shared (New Pics)
For any well-informed citizen, it's crucial to stay up-to-date on the news. But considering the endless amount of information we’re bombarded with daily, it’s impossible to keep tabs on every hilariously bizarre thing happening on our planet. Or is it? Well, let’s just say that the internet has proven time and again that wild and ridiculous headlines will never go unnoticed.
After all, some of them totally catch us off guard and leave us unsure whether to facepalm or do a spit-take. Like "Bear breaks into Colorado house, plays the piano but not very well" or "Thief cut victim's grass before taking lawnmower". These are just a few little gems found on the 'Internet’s Craziest Headlines' Twitter account — aka the hall of fame of the most ludicrous titles noticed on TV and print.
So if you find entertainment in the Florida man and his antics whenever they manage to find a way to your feed, you’ve ended up in the right place! Let us present you with a new level of absurdity that is the compilation of images we wrapped up right below. Enjoy scrolling through these entries and hit upvote on your favorite ones. And if you've ever come across an outlandish headline yourself, we'd love to hear all about it in the comments.
Psst! More newspaper headline madness awaits in our previous post right over here.
This post may include affiliate links.
A brief scroll through this list may be all it takes to convince you that reality is often stranger than fiction. Even in this modern world where few things can genuinely knock us off our feet, people (and animals!) still manage to surprise us with the most absurd actions that exceed our expectations. News stories ranging from charmingly unexpected to plainly bizarre inevitably lead to funny headlines that are gaining popularity online every day. But this does beg the question: why are we so fascinated with them in the first place?
To learn more about the abundance of weird news items and the fine line between an informative headline and a fake one, we reached out to Deborah S. Bowen, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of PR Instruction at the University of South Florida. When asked what impact the digital world had on the spread of weird news stories, she told Bored Panda, "Because of its relative accessibility, the internet has become a powerful dissemination tool."
"Those fun stories from far-flung places (or not so far-flung!) are much more available now. People can amplify all kinds of messages across any number of platforms and can cast a net as wide as their imaginations," the professor added. "And all this posting can be done at no cost. It can even become a moneymaker for the person aggregating and publishing these wild tales. Besides, we love entertainment, and what’s more entertaining than the truth?"
Look for the bear necessities. The simple bear necessities. Forget about your worries and your strife.
Consider the Florida man scenario. The slew of stories that begin with those two words makes it look like the state is occupied by the wackiest and weirdest people ever. As a Florida resident, Bowen shared a few thoughts on the matter.
"Some might suggest that many stereotypes are rooted in some grain of truth," she explained. "I suggest that Florida arrests are part of the public record, and therefore become excellent content for communicators across the media! Admittedly, though, there's nothing like seeing 'Florida Man' in a headline and wondering, 'will THIS be the one I know?!'"
When it comes to our passion for these stories, the professor explained that their catchy and odd nature is what tends to spark our curiosity. "The best headlines — the infamous 'Headless Body in Topless Bar' being the classic archetype — grab the reader’s attention immediately and invite the reader on a newsworthy adventure."
After all, getting your headline clicked on is far from an easy task. The words you choose to wrap your title in are the first, and probably the only, impression you make on the potential reader. "It’s awfully hard to make day-to-day happenings sound cool and sexy; it’s much easier when a story is so absurd that the headline becomes an easy 'get' for the author," Bowen said.
"Wild headlines promise a real escape for a reader, and we crave, as humans, the emotional release that can come from reading a truth so different from our own. Whether hilarious or sad or evoking Schadenfreude [a German word meaning the pleasure we get from witnessing someone's misfortune], readers want the impact of the tale to be significant — to deliver the emotional punch promised by the headline."
While it’s fun to devour stories that bend the limits of our imagination, they also serve as proof that anything can be considered newsworthy these days. The problem is that with the heaps of information that consistently grace our feeds, it has become difficult to differentiate facts from fiction.
"One of my favorite sayings is 'Content without context is just noise,'" Professor Bowen noted. "It’s critical that we become informed and savvy consumers of media, and that we take no information for granted as truth. A headline tossed out casually on, say, a social media platform should always be questioned, even if the source is knowledgeable. Find the reporter or author. What has that person contributed to the news before? Is there an 'angle'? A bias?"
Still waiting for that third arm the anti-vaxxers promised me after I got the jab. My dresses don't have pockets.
But many readers forget to do their own due diligence before sharing stories on social media. In an attempt to prove it, the satirical news site the Science Post published a piece with a frightening headline: "Study: 70% of Facebook users only read the headline of science stories before commenting." The content of the text, however, was mostly blocks of "lorem ipsum" text. As of today, it has been shared over 194k times.
Interestingly, it inspired researchers at Columbia University and the French National Institute to do an independent study of news consumption on social media. They collected the number of Twitter’s 280 million followers who potentially viewed and shared a news link and how many clicks those same links amassed. The researchers found that 59% of links shared on social media have never actually been clicked — users retweeted the news without bothering to read it.
"People are more willing to share an article than read it," study co-author Arnaud Legout said. "This is typical of modern information consumption. People form an opinion based on a summary, or summary of summaries, without making the effort to go deeper."
It wasn't already? Damn! All this time I could have been.... wait. Did I say that out loud?
According to Professor Bowen, we, the readers, need to better understand the context in which news is being presented. "One important piece of that is to fact-check. Google will help readers find sources that are reliable and are generally truly journalistic in their approaches."
She stressed that it’s "absolutely imperative" to become media-savvy, especially when we "see deep fakes (visual and audio) on the horizon" as technology advances. "Media literacy is an important tool for each of us to have. It can save us from scams, phishing attempts, and, of course, 'fake news.' With media literacy comes the ability to distinguish fiction from fact and fact from opinion."
did she really need to prove anything though? really?
Bowen advised you, dear readers, to be diligent in searching for truthful information. "As William Shakespeare once said, 'Don't believe everything you read on the internet!' Make sure to find your information from solid, reliable sources. While their headlines might not be wacky, there's a treasure of truth to be learned. And enjoy every journey down your factually accurate and no less amazing rabbit holes," she concluded.
Snopes correction: "There is no evidence Austin and Geoghegan were aware of any terrorist threat in Tajikistan, or that they travelled through that region particularly in order to vindicate their belief in human kindness. There is ample evidence that their trip was motivated by no more than a desire for adventure and life experience." Which is still not brilliant, but not QUITE as stupid! https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/millenial-couple-isis-tajikistan/
Load More Replies...https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/millenial-couple-isis-tajikistan/ They were in an area with a level 1 travel warning by the US State Department which is the lowest level possible, and there is no evidence they were naive or trying to prove humanity is kind. The other posters deserve Darwin awards for believing everything they read and denigrating two human souls.
Me too, I don't understand the evil comments honestly
Load More Replies...Do read the articles other have kindly sourced. These were not idiots but NGO workers. You can absolutely question their choice to travel to these places, but it wasn't like they set out to bike through an ISIS stronghold. It sounds like a local ISIS cell, or even a group of freelancers, saw them on the road and decided to leverage the situation. Sad story, but not complete idiots either.
However, Austin and Geoghegan's dream trip came to a tragic and gruesome end when they got to Tajikistan, a country with a known terrorist presence. They were riding their bikes through the country on July 29 when a car rammed them, according to CBS News. Five men got out of the car and stabbed the couple to death along with two other cyclists, one from Switzerland and the other from the Netherlands. Two days later, ISIS released a video showing the same men sitting in front of the black ISIS flag. They looked at the camera and vowed to kill "disbelievers," according to The New York Times.
For the most part, it is a real headline. They were biking through the area with other people, and they were doing humanitarian work along their journey, which included Africa, Europe, and central Asia. They did not, however, specifically target an ISIS territory to prove a point, they were just riding through Tajikistan.
Load More Replies...sad in any way, sure, but sorry: what a couple of idiots... there the first sport is to cut heads!
Nearly as good as the vegan that decided she would prove that vegans were just as fit and healthy as omnivores by climbing Everest. She died about 2/3 of the way up. 🤦🏻😂
As I millennial, we’ve literally grown up with the world falling to s**t, but you can’t live in bubble wrap. Gotta get out there and live
Load More Replies...“What you doin’ babe?” “Just chillin’.” “Not after I caught you cheating on me, you ain’t.”
I guess the guy’s SHOTS were just too strong...I’ll see myself out now
Oh that’s fraud..? Gotta break up with 364 of my girlfriends then oops
This has been a test of the zombie apocalypse warning system. If this had been an actual emergency you would have been instructed to tune in to your local station for further instructions. Repeat. This was only a test.
Fake news, there wasn't any bible eating and the guy pictured is a sex offender, but he is not on death row.
For the non Brits Harrow is one of the fanciest private schools in the UK, along with Eaton, it is famous for churning out self-important rich twits who own golf courses.
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 49 images based on user votes.
Amusing but several are joke headlines. Would be better if they were all real.
Exactly. The "news headlines" in the title implies that they are real. Disappointing.
Load More Replies...one of the best headlines i ever read was a report of a Scottish football match between Glasgow Celtic and Inverness Caley thistle. Inverness won against all odds and humbled their opponents. The headline read: SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS!
Did anyone else read those bolder words like that one Mary poppins song
Load More Replies...No headline will ever beat this: https://www.gawker.com/5839596/gordon-ramsays-porn-dwarf-double-eaten-by-badger
"Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, It's Up Your A**e We Go" surely made me chuckle 👍
Load More Replies...Amusing but several are joke headlines. Would be better if they were all real.
Exactly. The "news headlines" in the title implies that they are real. Disappointing.
Load More Replies...one of the best headlines i ever read was a report of a Scottish football match between Glasgow Celtic and Inverness Caley thistle. Inverness won against all odds and humbled their opponents. The headline read: SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS!
Did anyone else read those bolder words like that one Mary poppins song
Load More Replies...No headline will ever beat this: https://www.gawker.com/5839596/gordon-ramsays-porn-dwarf-double-eaten-by-badger
"Hi-Ho Hi-Ho, It's Up Your A**e We Go" surely made me chuckle 👍
Load More Replies...