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There are three things that we believe without a shadow of a doubt. First of all, Planet Earth is ruled by a shadowy cabal of Feline Overlords—The Illumeownati who spread their influence through cat pics. Secondly, pineapple definitely belongs on pizza, and there’s nothing you can say that’ll change our minds. And finally: fact really is stranger than fiction.

The past is a far stranger land than many of us assume. We’re surrounded by weirdness every day on the internet, on the subway, and in our very own minds. But after taking a good long peek through the fuzzy black-and-white static into the decades and centuries that came before us, we can safely say that we’ve always been living in an extended special of The Twilight Zone.

From weird vintage contraptions, knick-knacks, and clothes to bamboozling products, ads, and inventions, some of the strangest things that human history and creativity has to offer end up being shared on ‘The Museum of Curiosities’ Twitter page, run by the Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow musical group.

Cue the creepy carnival music and grab a bag of popcorn, Pandas, we’re about to travel back in time for a heavy dose of Weirdness with a capital ‘W.’ Don’t forget your fave pics, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments. Just… don’t feed the clowns. Intrigued by the pics? Check out Monsieur Pompier’s socials and album, too. Their music has a pretty cool vibe.

Bored Panda got in touch with Paul, aka Monsieur Pompier himself, and he was kind enough to tell us about the 'The Museum of Curiosities.' An incredibly cool thing is that he's actually planning on turning it into a real-life museum! This is the very first time he's revealed this publicly. "The big news is that I am turning the museum into a reality! Next year I am hoping to open my own real-life physical Museum of Curiosities here in my hometown of Dublin, Ireland. I can't say much more about it for now, but if anyone would like to help make this dream a reality they can donate here." Check out our full interview below, Pandas!

More info: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Album | MonsieurPompier.com | Donate

Paul, aka Monsieur Pompier, revealed to Bored Panda that originally, 'The Museum of Curiosities' was called 'Vintage Oddities.' "Then, after that, I used the account more as a vehicle for my band Monsieur Pompier's Travelling Freakshow. Over the past year or so I decided to go back to my roots with the account and focus more on weird curiosities and oddities of the past, especially as the idea to launch my own 'real life' museum was building day by day," he said.

"I took big inspiration from one of my favourite websites on the internet 'The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things' curated by Dr. Chelsea Nichols and Viktor Wynd's 'Museum Of Curiosities' in London as well as a bunch of other museums both real and fictional who operate in the same strange world as me. I'm a magpie for anything oddball and unusual, especially from the past so I'm always on the lookout for stories about things like old medical devices, bad taxidermy, the occult, bad inventions, weird unsolved mysteries, and so on.

Monsieur Pompier shared his thoughts with Bored Panda about why the Twitter account's content resonates with so many people. "People are always looking for something outside of the ordinary, something beyond their reality or as an escape from mundanity. It's probably similar to the success of ghost stories or horror movies, there seems to be a magnetism towards what frightens or unsettles us," he said.

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AW
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can easily get one custom made by brands like goyard or louis vuitton for like $30-50k

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Just Me
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have one of these....my favorite trunk in a very large collection!

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tara
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of the one from Joe Vs. The Volcano.

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Huddo's sister
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hadn't heard of that movie before, but it just happens to be wat is playing on tv where I live right now, talk about coincidence!

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Colin Timp
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back in the day when other people carried your luggage. This wouldn't be at all practical today.

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P Mo.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Back in the day, most steamer trunks were like this. My grandfather had one which is still in solid shape. Weighs more than you expect though.

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Janine B.
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Still there's surely someone trying to argue why this is hand luggage. 😂

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Barbara Vandewalle
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my granddad come to the US, one of his trunks resemble this. The drawers are long gone, but I have shell.

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Janet Graham
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have seen these up close. We should have a modern version. But, it would likely weigh too much to fly with.

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Mariana DaVe
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I fell sorry for the person who would carry this... seems sooo heavy!

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j miller
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just think how much airlines would try and charge people for luggage this size! Must be 30k+!

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Breezy
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay its pretty cool... but how fricken heavy would this be??

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Senkise
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just imagine to travel with this heavyweight wardrobe...

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Ruth Hempsey
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why did this go out of style? Aeroplanes instead of passenger ships. Apart from cruises that is. 🤷‍♀️

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Demongrrrrl
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My great-grandmother had one of those! She had some beautiful dresses in it, too. I was mad when my father got rid of it.

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K. Lange
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In would love it for my craft supply. Put it on a board with wheels to love it around in the Appartement

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Amy Taylor
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I needed this!! It would be amazing for storing table linens!!

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Oneil More
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1 year ago

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Copy this now to start trading with just $500 and earn $20000👇👇👇👇 https://bit.ly/3f8PiHR

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"I think particularly now as we're living through the sterility of the internet age, these strange physical objects of the past with fascinating back stories harness an even greater aura of mystery and shine a light on bygone times and customs."

Paul mused that when the people of the future look back on this era, they might actually see it as "the second wave of quack medicine, with self-medication and the power of pharmaceutical companies growing all the time."

"Elsewhere, some of the face masks and skincare treatments currently available very much hark back to the often mocked beauty treatments of the 1930s and '40s. One thing I hope we will look back on with a great deal of cringe is the prevalence of the 'laughing-crying' emoji."

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Finally, we were incredibly interested to hear about Paul's band, Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow, their inspiration, and their passion for music.

"Monsieur Pompier's Travelling Freakshow is my very eccentric rock group and sometimes cabaret act. We've been performing all around Europe and in our homeland of Ireland since 2018 with a rotating cast of characters including The Ear Fairy, Guts The Cat, The Crabbit, as well as newcomers such as Betty Bogweed and Sister Whispers. On stage, I attempt to sing my ridiculous songs whilst the 'freaks' interact with me or the audience as they interpret and act out the story of their individual songs," he said.

"Our shows are very surreal and often end up in complete chaos—it's all about getting people out of their comfort zones. Last year, we were proud to release our debut album Teatime Terrors on Cleopatra Records and since then we've transformed into a fully-fledged four-piece live band. In many ways, the museum is an extension and evolution of the Travelling Freakshow, taking the concept to the next level."

Monsieur Pompier draws inspiration from horror stories, unsolved mysteries, psychedelia, experimental and new wave music, children's television of the 1970s and '80s. I enjoy taking mundane topics and blowing them up into something theatrical and grandiose—like a new song I'm working on called 'Billy Breakfast' about a neglected housewife who has an affair with her breakfast when the face in the pan comes to life."

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At the time of writing, ‘The Museum of Curiosities’ had 17.4k loyal followers on Twitter. They focus on highlighting the unusual, the peculiar, and the low-key unsettling in their social media posts, and we think it works perfectly.

We don’t know about you, Pandas, but we’re pretty big fans of vintage weirdness. It’s a lot of fun when you start digging up all the odd ideas and behaviors the people of the past lived with. It helps put our modern world into context and how, after a few decades, we too might seem like complete oddballs to the humanity of the future.

‘The Museum of Curiosities’ is the brainchild of Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow troupe. “A nightmarish cabaret steeped in the surreal, Monsieur Pompier makes music about inside-out cats, hedgehog swallowers, and devious doctors,” the band writes on its website.

The aim of the musical group is to “unite all oddballs and outcasts welcoming them into his midst with open arms.” In short, they’re all about inspiring others to embrace their own inner weirdness, and learning to recognize it—with a wide, toothy smile—in others. Created in 2017, the band signed up with Cleopatra Records in 2021. Their debut album, Teatime Terrors, is available in digital form, as well as in vinyl, which we think really suits the group’s vibe.

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Jan Puckett
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

how could this exist, and I not know about it? I now have proof that I was officially deprived as a child

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Vintage weirdness is a fascinating topic, and one that we’ve touched upon a number of times here at Bored Panda. For instance, a single glance at how much the beauty industry has changed over the past couple of centuries can really make your jaw drop.

Dr. Jane Nicholas, from St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo, previously explained to Bored Panda that, as the world became more modern, more and more people moved to cities from the countryside. As such, it became difficult to know who everyone was, meaning that people began judging each other even more based on their appearances. This led to the beauty industry having even greater importance than before.

“When dislocated from their context, what was typical in one time period seems strange in another. Today, we see the highly filtered, fully made up selfie as quite ordinary. When you pause to consider it though, it is interesting to think about how those reflect changes in technology (both digital and in cosmetics), as well as in dominant presumptions of what is considered beautiful. It can also be reflective of the democratization of techniques in lighting and makeup application that were historically reserved for insiders within modeling. Now, anyone can use them,” Dr. Nicholas explained to Bored Panda.

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LapCat
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Very interesting! They got the concept correct but could only use things that existed to them at that time to portray it

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“Using X-rays for hair removal [in the past], for example, also reflects the fact that technology emerges before the full impact of its use is known,” she said. “It’s quite ordinary today to inject a form of botulism into your face or to dress in the skin of another animal. Over time, though, as our collective beliefs and values change, these ordinary acts might come to be seen as extraordinary.”

Meanwhile, psychologist Lee Chambers told Bored Panda that the audience enjoys analyzing at the darker, stranger aspects of the human condition because of how we’re wired. "When considering why the darker side of humanity and entertainment are so compelling, we have to first look at our evolutionary journey as human beings. For the majority of our existence, we were prey and always hyperaware of threats to our safety, which created a negativity bias that we are drawn towards," he said.

"But in today's safe and often sanitized world, we are rarely threatened significantly, and the ability to explore evil, frightening and gruesome entertainment is one of the few ways we can visit this part of humanity while remaining safe and comfortable. There is a level of novelty to it, it removes boredom quickly, and it helps us to discover our emotional limits,” he explained why, for instance, many people are so drawn to the true crime genre.

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2WheelTravlr
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love how some of these make me dig deeper for more context and I land on great articles like this one talking about how this was actually part of a series of similar expectation/reality comics first printed in 1919. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-43783521

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Marley Nachi
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

this is the early version of keeping all the tabs open at once on your browser

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glowworm2
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love them, especially the very last one on the bottom right corner. It’s adorable.

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As strange as the past seems to us now, we’ll almost inevitably end up being a source of amusement for the future inhabitants of Planet Earth. Though we might think of ourselves as rational, progressive people, we still hang on to a ton of superstitions. Meanwhile, as science continues to advance, technologies and behaviors that we’ve embraced as facts now may turn out to be far more nuanced in the future… or wrong, entirely.

Aaron Genest, from Siemens Software, told Bored Panda during an earlier interview that in order to predict the future, you have to look ‘upstream’ in the investment space. In other words, follow the money to see what tech will likely be widespread in the near future.

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Amanda Rose
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Humorous historical photos are some of my favorite things. I have a photo of an ancestor riding a pig while wearing a three piece suit.

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"For instance, it takes almost two years to develop and produce a computer chip and get it to market for a phone, and five years to get something into a new kind of car. So if we want to have a sense for what, for instance, the gadgets in our cars will look like in 2026, we just need to look at what the car manufacturers are asking their suppliers to design today,” he told us that investors aim to recoup the money they’d put in.

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Jack Holt
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Similar birds have been observed carrying branches that are on fire (either from bushfire/lightning strike/campfire) and drop it into an area they want to flush prey out of. They effectively create a new fire in order to get an easy dinner. Very smart birds

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For Ramona Pringle, from the Creative Innovation Studio at Ryerson University, the future, no matter what shape it takes, is bound to hold a few unchanging things. “We love stories, and we love to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Be it oral storytelling, books, blogs, movies, or video games, we’ve never lost our love of narrative,” she said that these elements are very likely to be present in the way that the technology of the future is used.

“For the last decade, we’ve leaned into virtual reality because of how it enables both of these. We can step inside a world and have influence over it, and the story or experience that unfolds. I think one of the things we can expect moving forward is, in a sense, the opposite of virtual reality. Instead, more of an enhanced reality or fictional reality, wherein the entertainment isn’t in a headset, but instead, all around us,” Pringle told Bored Panda.

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glowworm2
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No thanks. I don’t want to draw on the sidewalk with Creepo the Clown’s teeth.

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“A decade ago, we didn’t talk to robots. Today, many of us do. Siri and Alexa are some of the more common bots, but we already interface with non-human characters regularly. As technology advances, including augmented reality and mixed reality, I think we can expect that entertainment will be something we can engage with off of the screen, but out in the world, with characters and stories we can engage with throughout the day, or throughout our houses.”

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Kitty Purry
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hers is an amazing story. Pretty effed up her own cousin Queen Elizabeth I imprisoned her for several years before beheading her. She was the mother of King James, as in King James of the Bible translation.

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Adam
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This movie is a classic. The band named after the character Ludo, is also amazing.

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I'm Kid A
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It come with a whack-a-mole mallet and tiny spyglass?? Who's gonna be like "Hark, I see-eth a vampire not but twenty metres yonder!" "Only twenty metres?! surely you jest, Hezekiah, let me take out my pirate-telescope and search for such beasts!... Ah yes, 'tis true! No matter, we shall pound the stake into the fiend's heart with our trusty mallet!"

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Torben Møller-Nielsen
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Dane Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen was a larger than life explorer, journalist, actor, resistance fighter and much more. His life would make an excellent story for a great Hollywood picture.

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jade s
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I feel like this is still used in films. Wise wizards have long beards, evil guys have long eye brows, megalomaniacs have long moustaches.

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Note: this post originally had 128 images. It’s been shortened to the top 54 images based on user votes.