‘Mildly Interesting’: An Online Group Exploring The Weird And Wonderful Side Of Everyday Life (50 New Pics)
The internet is awash with content designed to provoke a harsh reaction. Whether it’s spite for celebrities and their drama, anger from sensationalist reporting, or one of the latest cringe compilations, consuming all this can leave you with a bad taste in the mouth.
That’s why we’ve decided to help you with a little palate cleanser. It’s time to put on your slippers, grab a glass of room-temperature tap water and make yourself comfortable. When you’re ready, enjoy a few of Bored Panda’s latest entrées of ‘Mildly Interesting’ morsels.
The name of the Reddit page that collects these photos is a bit of a misnomer. Although /r/MildlyInteresting doesn’t post jaw-dropping content, there’s always something fascinating and it injects a little wonder into the everyday. We love the page here at Bored Panda, that’s why we’ve written on it once, twice, thrice and uh… four times before. So, be sure to check them out after this one!
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My Hotel Phone In Iceland Has A Special Button That Will Wake You Up If There Are Northern Lights In The Sky
/r/MildlyInteresting has captured the intrigue of over 19M people, so it goes to show that the content is more than just a little bit interesting.
Bored Panda spoke with one of the moderators, RedSquaree, on the continuing success of the page. They said, "I think we've done an amazing job of curating a subreddit that is still niche despite being hugely popular."
"The content is roughly the same today as it was almost a decade ago. Most subs change (for the worse) as they grow, but we've kept things mild—just the way people want it," they explained.
My Dining Room Table Houses A Secret Spiral Staircase
My Apartment Complex Rented Out 200 Goats To Eat Away At The Overgrown Path And Riverbed Behind Our Buildings!
New career goal: owning a Rent-a-Goat business ("No Job Too Shrubby")
Missing Cat Owner Posted A Follow Up Where The Previous Missing Posters Were
I Came In My Kitchen To Find A Lizard Using A Sponge As A Raft In The Sink. (I Live In New Mexico)
Woo Hoo - this is fun!!!! Come back in 10 - I'm enjoying myself here.
I Gave My Wife LEGO Flowers For Her Birthday
It's hard to define what makes something 'mildly interesting' but in my opinion, there’s a certain theme running throughout. The images shared usually go against the grain of what we consider as “normal”. Or, they highlight some bizarre coincidence that we would never have expected.
However, everyone sees it differently. Since RedSquaree has been moderating the page for some time, I asked for their views on the secret formula behind the photos posted and how they would define them. They said, "Everyone probably has a slightly different interpretation or idea of what is mildly interesting." But they believe that the concept of relatability is most important—it has to be "nothing spectacular but something novel".
But this can also make it difficult to moderate the content being posted on the page. They explained further, "Sometimes we see users post to /r/mildlyinteresting first (because if they didn't, it would break rule 3 of our page). Then, they go on to crosspost to /r/damnthatsinteresting. And we're thinking to ourselves, '/r/HolUp, it can't be both'."
This Incredibly Detailed Picture I Took Of A Bonfire
When I Went To Switzerland And Happened To Look Exactly Like This Random Wood Statue
Miniature Traffic Playground In Copenhagen Where Kids Learn To Bike In Traffic
Driver training course (Verkehrsübugsplatz) - We have those for children and bigger ones where you can learn a bit of driving outside a driving school.
That is such a great idea, JuJu. I would love to see those things implemented where I live (Pacific Northwest, USA). Kids would be so much safer if they could experience the street like this before riding on an actual street. And having a place to practice driving after driving school rather than just entering open traffic would be so helpful for both new drivers and others on the road. This should be everywhere.
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Traffic education is mandatory here in germany or at least in most parts. Most elementary schools have minature traffic playgrounds in various sizes. In third or fourth year of elementary school, police officers specialised on childrens education come to your school and teach you how to participate in traffic on a bike. We actually did get a bicyle license we had to carry lol it was AWESOME!
Yes. I grew up living near one of these. Somehow it always ended in a crash with another bike
Because they are learning to cycle safely on the road. Not all roads have cycle lanes
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We had one of those! It wasn't a playground, though, it was literally an educational facility for teaching kids about road rules. Still fun, mind you. Sadly it's since been shut down and the mini road system was all overgrown with weeds last time I saw it. :(
(I should add that we had to sit through a video presentation/lecture first and that we went as a school trip, which is why I called it an educational facility).
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Leave it to the Danes to come up with this brilliance! Here in the US, we seem to be more concerned with taking away responsibility from children (they never truly mature into adults and blame others for their troubles) rather than teaching them to be more responsible (they can handle their own troubles maturely).
We had that at a local park I used to live near! (but on a much smaller scale and the traffic lights weren't real).
In my home town (Aalborg) in Denmark there are even miniture cars you pedal at the local miniture city
I should have added, the police said, the bike was 26 in, therefore he should not have been on the sidewalk, also he had a stop sign, he was not taught !!!
Oh my, fantastic idea, every city should have this, some parents don't teach the kids, in fact, a boy 12yrs, I had the right away, he was on his bike, on the side walk, for some reason, I came slower to the intersection, the boy came flying at me, I hit the brake, he hit my front right fender, hit my windshield, landed on the hood, his helmet saved him, it was cracked, he was fine, parents teach the kids !!!
We could use those in the US. Maybe then people would learn which side of the street you are supposed to ride on!
There's (or was ) one like this is North London. Loved it as a kid, but we moved.
Timsbury Lake in England is home to a school for captains of tankers and other large ships. They learn the ship-handling characteristics of these giants by sailing scale models that appear to be about 20' long and accommodate both student and teacher.
Imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth if money was spent on something like this in the United States. Yet, we always have lots of money for bombs and prisons.
There used to something like this where I grew up, the council had all the traffic signals in a park and place where you could rent a bike. but the money ran out years ago and it is in disrepair.
Imagine the rich bois bringing their go karts on the road, that would be fun.
This reminds me of driving in lego land in the third grade 😭 I completely sucked, and in addition I lost my magnetic legoland license
This is in Finland also but there kids drive small cars. Its so much fun for kids but not this real looking. This is build very well
We had a version. No traffic lights though. In my South Wales primary school playground in the 1970s needed it for our cycling proficiency test. Don't know if that's even a thing anymore.
We have them too! I still remember doing this as a kid. It was so much fun! Our teacher made us do laps around the place if we violated a traffic law but if we did good, we could cruise it with one of the view "cars" they had (cant remember if they were electric or with pedals)
Wow. There are actually countries who help children learn important lessons. Why can't US have nice things?
Reminds me of the first time I went out in an electric wheelchair to take the test (as I legally wasn’t allowed to go out with the chair unless I passed). It wasn’t nearly as impressive as this, but it got the job done & they said I passed with flying colours. I have to admit, this is a great idea to teach kids to be road safe. I try to teach my younger niece & nephews whenever I can, but sometimes it takes more than one lesson to get the point across, especially with short attention spans. 🤷♀️😅
I remember going to something like this while growing up in Illinois. It had cute little roads, fake houses and buildings, a little railroad crossing, etc.
So, should the content be strictly regulated before posting? RedSquaree doesn't think so, at least for now. They said, "Many people have recommended we make a Rule 7, so content must be mild or it gets removed. But it would be so problematic to enforce that we haven't gone that far... yet."
They also told us about their personal favorites handpicked by the moderator team. RedSquaree said, "We have a 'Quality Post' link flair which we use (sparingly) to tag on submissions we find particularly mildly interesting. Everything we've marked 'Quality Post' can be considered officially mildly interesting."
A Supplier Of Ours Now Fills His Packages With Air-Cushions Made Out Of Paper Instad Of Plastic
How much does a packet of air cost? Because I want in on this ASAP.................
How Well Our Movers Tetris’d Our Stuff
Dang, that is genius level! it should never be touched again: a monument to perfection.
Last Night My Wife's Uber Had A Duck In It
When we’re so accustomed to seeing something in one way, our thoughts are suddenly shaken up when it suddenly appears differently or juxtaposed with something else. It’s a great reminder to rethink what we know and open ourselves up to new possibilities. But there’s a reason why we build these cognitive biases in our minds.
I Was Trying To Take A Picture Of The Guy In The Costume And A Person With With Opposite Colors Walked Into The Frame
My Butter This Morning Looks Like A Happy Naked Man
My Local Library Has Cake Pans Available To Check Out!
A research paper called the Theory of Cognitive Pattern Recognition seeks to find out how and why we build these links in our minds. The paper defines pattern recognition as “a process of inputting stimulating (pattern) information and matching it with the information in long-term memory, then recognizing the category that the stimulation belongs to. Therefore, pattern recognition depends on people’s knowledge and experience.”
Found An Arrowhead In A Dried Up Stream!
The Banisters At My Hotel Were Held Up By Little Metal Men
Townhouse In Dc Has A Cute Little Model Townhouse In Its Front Yard (And The Model Has Its Own Model!)
My Fiancé Capped The End Of A Cut Banana With Banana Skin
Before It Was Sprouted, This Tree Went To The Moon
This Ornamental Hand At My Local IKEA With The Middle Finger Ziptied Down
The Tailgate Of This Truck Is Painted To Look Like There’s A Bulldog In The Bed Of The Truck
This Group We Came Across In A Forest Casually Hiking In Medieval Outfits
A Cast Iron Cauldron I Found Buried In My Forest
There Was A Massive Pirate Ship Driving Around My Neighborhood
This Shopping Cart Has A Spot For Kids To Stand On While The Parent Pushes
The Way My Wife Eats Cheetos Without Messing Up Her Mouse
Brilliant! No need to have a mouse that looks like Donald Trump's face
One Of Our Local Libraries Moved Into An Old Marsh Supermarket
Feels like one of those dreams where you see familiar places but get confused too.
My Cat Fell Asleep Looking Like He's Standing Up
Saw A Knight In The Park The Other Day
The Gap In My Bedroom Window Became A Pinhole Camera
Color Coordinated Wristbands For Back To Work Post Covid
Bought 2 Different Sizes Of Shoes, But The Boxes Align Perfectly With One Another
A Century Old Suit
Found An E Than Survived The Recycling Process On The Cardboard We Use At Work
This Jeep’s Break Lights Are Jeeps
60 Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine Ready To Go
The Crack In The Door Splits My Grow Light Into Different Colors
My Wife And I Had Plane Snacks That Matched Our Books On Our Way To Our Honeymoon
Lowercase Stopsign
The Air Filter I Just Took Out Of My Lawnmower vs. The One I Replaced It With
This Pressure Washer Looks Like Mike Wazowski
The Hallway To My Dentist Office Looks Like A Stanley Kubrick Scene
It does! So does the hallway outside my floor. Every single time i see the twins. Every single time...........
The Door Into My Work Casts A Solid Rainbow For A Few Minutes In The Mornings
My Peas & Lentils Look Like An Ishihara Test
The Inside Of My Inflatable Air Mattress
This Is A Truck Carrying The Signs You See On The Interstate
Really gives you perspective on how big they are (obviously I know they’re huge but you can’t always tell how big while driving in a car)
This Egg Has No Yolk
A 130 Year Old Crypt Found While Renovating A Church In Sc, They Put A Glass Window On It So You Could See The Face
My Mom Still Has Napkins From The Original Space Jam
Note: this post originally had 89 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
So do I, Stephanie. I usually scroll through the new articles to see what they have added, and this is the first one I read when I find one like this. More than "mildly" interesting to me.
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Very interesting! I love it. I never seem to find interesting things like that.
This sounds like an excellent real world mindfulness challenge
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Interestingly enough, while reading this I learned that my phones touch screen registers bread. So I can use bread to scroll down the list. Knowing how unhygienic phones are though, im not gonna do that
LOVED these images - surreal dada and expressionist moments in real life that prove we live in a beautiful world full of visual poetry if we just take a moment to ponder and enjoy the bliss.
I enjoyed this. I think the first thirty or so were moderately to extremely interesting, and after that, it hit a stride of mildly interesting.
So do I, Stephanie. I usually scroll through the new articles to see what they have added, and this is the first one I read when I find one like this. More than "mildly" interesting to me.
Load More Replies... Very interesting! I love it. I never seem to find interesting things like that.
This sounds like an excellent real world mindfulness challenge
Load More Replies... Interestingly enough, while reading this I learned that my phones touch screen registers bread. So I can use bread to scroll down the list. Knowing how unhygienic phones are though, im not gonna do that
LOVED these images - surreal dada and expressionist moments in real life that prove we live in a beautiful world full of visual poetry if we just take a moment to ponder and enjoy the bliss.
I enjoyed this. I think the first thirty or so were moderately to extremely interesting, and after that, it hit a stride of mildly interesting.
