Some plans just don't play out. They may even sound good in our heads but when it's time for action, all that we're left with is our intentions.
About a year ago, we did a piece on the subreddit r/ThereWasAnAttempt. But since then, the community has featured so many amusing fails, we just had to do an update. So here it is.
From hugging a bodybuilder to texting teenagers "in their languages", here are some of the funniest hiccups that recently appeared on the sub.
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To Give The Worst Land
"In 1913, Sarah Rector, a 10-year-old black girl received a land allotment of 160 acres in Oklahoma. The best farming land was reserved for whites, so she was given a barren plot. Oil was soon discovered there & she became the country's first black millionaire."
To Trick The Allied Forces
"During WW2, the Germans built a fake wooden airfield with wooden aircraft, vehicles, and hangars in order to trick the Allies. The RAF, having known of the secret project for months, patiently waited for them to finish and then dropped a single fake wooden bomb on it"
One of the subreddit's moderators, F4T4-M0RG4N4, told Bored Panda they think what sets it apart from other similar communities "is how the posts within the subreddit are usually direct posts, whereas r/fail, [for example,] has mostly links to YouTube, and most Redditors prefer to stay on Reddit than to be redirected to another site altogether," they explained. "Besides, I also think that because of the size of r/ThereWasAnAttempt, it's a lot easier to get a post to be seen (plus, the algorithm helps)."
F4T4-M0RG4N4 said the mod team tries to be as impartial as possible, allowing the members to shape r/ThereWasAnAttempt however they see fit. To a certain extent, of course. "The most common problems are [the same that are] seen throughout all subreddits that I mod/have modded in the past, but it's mostly spam and hate speech (which we always remove), though hate speech is mostly in the comments."
To Spread Anarchy
To Comfort A Foster Kitty By A Deaf And Partially Blind Pup
To Protest
"As for the community of the subreddit, I don't think I could really summarize it," the moderator said. "This is another thing I see throughout most subreddits, but the communities are made up of many different people, with different stances on ideas and different personalities. That's also what I love about Reddit, everyone is on here using the platform, be it for better or worse, you get a little bit of everything."
F4T4-M0RG4N4 also wanted to use the opportunity to express their gratitude to everyone involved. "I would like to thank everyone on the subreddit for my unique modding experience!"
To Take A Family Beach Photo
To Steal Snacks
To Rob A Store
"On April 19th, 1995, a man robbed a bank disguised with lemon juice on his face. Since he knew lemon juice could be used as invisible ink, he thought it would make his face invisible on camera."
Psychotherapist Amy Morin, LCSW, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Verywell Mind and the author of the bestselling book "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," believes that failure is something we all endure and it's important to know that there are things we can do to feel better about it.
First off, embrace your emotions. Morin highlighted that failure is often accompanied by a variety of emotions, including embarrassment, anxiety, anger, sadness, and shame, just to name a few. Those feelings are uncomfortable, and many people will do anything they can to escape the discomfort they cause but according to research, allowing yourself to feel bad is actually motivating. It can help you work harder to find better solutions so that you'll improve next time.
To Be A Good Kitten
smart kitty, first tried electricity to get rid of your human, and now a snake
To Make A Poster
To Steal Food
I get palpitations every time I see this picture! Gah, poor thing wouldn’t survive in my house - too many clumsy people rushing about slamming doors…
Next up, we should make an effort to recognize our unhealthy attempts to reduce pain. "You might be tempted to say, 'I didn't actually want that job anyway,' but minimizing your pain won't make it go away," Morin explained. "Distracting yourself or filling the void you feel with food, drugs, or alcohol won't heal your pain either. Those things will only provide you with some temporary relief."
After that, we can start focusing on healthy coping skills instead. "Calling a friend, practicing deep breathing, taking a bubble bath, going for a walk, or playing with your pet are just a few examples of healthy ways to deal with your pain," the psychotherapist explained. "Not every coping skill works for everyone, however, so it's important to find what does for you."
To Escape The Vet
To Face Swap
To Sell Bigger Burgers
"A&W created the third-pounder. It was the same price as McDonald's quarter-pounder. It bombed massively. When they tried to find out why, it was discovered that Americans thought they were being cheated because three is a smaller number than four. A&W — realizing they can't explain grade school fractions to fully grown adults without coming across as condescending assh*les — quietly took the burger off the menu"
A review published in Clinical Psychology Review that looked at 46 studies examining reactions to failure found that a "more positive attributional style" was a strong factor in how resilient people were to the emotional distress caused by failure. In other words, they saw failure as a result of something specific and external rather than something internal.
"When you find yourself thinking that you're a hopeless cause or that there’s no use in trying again, reframe your thoughts," Morin suggested. "Remind yourself of more realistic thoughts about failure such as: a) failure is a sign that I'm challenging myself to do something difficult; b) I can handle failure; c) I can learn from my failures."
However, you will probably need to repeat a phrase or affirmation more than once in order to ward off negative thoughts or to reinforce to yourself that you can bounce back.
If you've spent most of your life avoiding failure, it can feel really scary when it finally catches you off-guard. However, facing your fears can really improve your quality of life.
Practice stepping outside your comfort zone, and over time, you'll learn that messing up isn't as bad as you thought.
To Wrap A Gift For Christmas
To Catch A Live Mouse
To Car Safety
"A concept design for car safety belts from the 1960s"
To Champion "Straight Pride"
To Go Outside
To Drink The Milk
"He thought he could get to the milk by licking the outside of the bowl"
To Make A Cute Panorama Picture
To Lie About Traffic
To Promote The Use Of Machinery
"want to get rid of your wife but don't know how? Electricity will do it!"
To Stop Google Eyes
To Have Fun With A Halloween Decoration
When the police actually show up you know you won the neighbourhood decoration contest haha
To Protest
"Not sure if she's anti-gun or pro-domestic violence"
To Open Door
"Door was jamming from inside so phoned for a guy to repair it. He managed to open it, left his tools outside, came in and shut the door. Now we both stuck."
To Be Encouraging
To Hide An Illegal Marijuana Farm
Yup. They even fly police helicopters around when it snowed, to bust people like this.
To F**k With A Cat
To Hug The Bodybuilder
I guess someone learned an important lesson about not touching people without their consent.
To Advertise For A Photo Studio
To Take A Family Photo
The cat on the bottom reminds me of the Chesire cat from Alice in Wonderland.
To Live Forever
To Make A Nice, Wholesome, Jesus Themed Light Switch
To Formulate An Interesting Question
To Put A Hat On A Frog
To Give Jfk A Memorial
To Handcuff This Man
To Be Handicap Inclusive
To Build A Nest
To Make Kids Learn Angles
To Create A Novelty Drinking Device
To Make An Anti-Drug Ad
To Make You Feel Safe
To Make A Positive Statement About Law Enforcement
How did the people involved not realize what it looks like?! Shocking lol
To Outsmart The Police
To Get $1,000
what are you talking about? she typed some of the lyrics to waka waka she's obviously Shakira!
To Save The Teens
To be fresh with the kids... That's not even what yeet mean😂😭this is painful to read
Maybe I'm just getting too old, but they lost me after the word "is"
This is in Utah, they change it every week and sometimes they're actually funny, usually it's a pun
Where is this sign? What is yeets? Why should I send my seatbelt out the window? And finally - where in the hell am I, anyway?
cmon this adult just wanted to fit in with the kids these days
Gesundheit! Oh, you were not sneezing? What was that supposed to mean then?
Perhaps they were suppose to use "leet" instead of "yeet"? I am not fluent in teen-speak but I know "yeet" means "to throw" so just guessing.
To Solder
To Spell Trump
To Prevent The Wipers From Freezing
To Come Up With A Clever Reply
To Translate The Sign
To Hide
To Show Off The Latest Fashions
To Make A Plaque
are they planning ahead? is there gonna be world 3,4,5,6,7 and so on wars?
To Count To 5
To Take Away Car Privileges...
To Take A Cute Picture Of A Guinea Pig...
To Spell September
At Making A Mascot For Vaccines In Brazil
America isn't the centre of the world, most people in Brazil have probably never heard of the kkk
To Spell Bird
That would work for me - it's a common abbreviation of the town I was born in!
To Have A Selfie With Mona Lisa
To Mix Some Paint
To Become All-Purpose Flour
To Label The Bottles
seriously for the last time if your wee is that colour go to the doctor!!!
To Play With My Boy On The Swings
To Face-Swap
Even more nightmare fuel! As if the first face-swap wasn't bad enough
To Make Stairs
To Make Infinite Money
To Be Safe
To Have Stylish Elegant Home
To Protest Sincerely
To Spell Chocolate Name
To Drive Carefully
To Replicate This Tattoo
To Write A Motivational Quote
To Advertise Giving Blood
To Inflate A Tire With A Fire Extinguisher
To Use An Fruit Slicer
To Park A Bicycle
Why do ifeel like this is something my dad and brother would both do?
To Encourage Students
Annabeth: "Blush is a contraction of blood rush" Nico: "Never is a contraction of not ever" Percy: "And studying is a dam contraction of student dying" If nobody gets this im alone.
At Having A Sale
To Make A Promotional Poster
To Scoot Down The Sidewalk
To Support Gay Rights
To Fight The Pandemic
To Build A Bridge Across A River
To Put Sunscreen On My Back
To Explain A Simple Concept
I struggle enough to open a normal door, how do you expect me to open this one?
To Censor Disrespectful Language
To Get A Tattoo Of Your Newborn
...to Give Atheists Coronavirus
To Hide The Package At My Front Door .. Thanks Australia Post
At....i Don't Know...parking?
To Be A Snake
To Eat A Spider
To Call Out Vengeance
To Say, “Fit Forever”
To Stop Underage Kids From Purchasing Cigarettes
To Enter The House As A Mouse
To Hide Someone's Identity
Very, very trashy to post this everywhere. It's bad enough that they didn't hide her face, but to then spread that mistake even further? What were you thinking?
To Beat Covid
To Tell Someone They Can't Deliver
To Ship A Laptop With The Packaging Material Placed Correctly In The Box
To Fix A Grammar Mistake
My dad would litteraly throw this out and make a new one to be here instead
To Protect This Condenser
To Prevent Beggers From Sitting On The Wall
To Wear A Mask
To Mix It With The Plebs
To Make A Loving Frame
To Do Basic Math
You know, something tells me this book won’t be the best for education
To Make A Baby Yoda Cake
To Taste A Hemp
i've wanted to eat soap before, and I have to ask, what does it taste like?
To Pretend This Rental Car Was Cleaned. Ever
To Make The Other Side Look Like They Hate Women (He Deleted His Account After Being Called Out)
Why can't women exist without men making disgusting comments about her body/brains. This is sad to me
To Immortalize The Wife
Have you seen my wife? Yeah, medium length hair, brown eyes, pentagon shaped face... one nipple.
To Buy Trendy Clothes
well someone got a nipple tattooed on their arm, so id say they're pretty trendy
To Get An Ice Cream Sandwiche
... To Make Chicken Bucket Themed Cake
To Provide
To Be Inspirational
True, because it would make you able to perceive real life... Yuck.
To Prevent The Corona Virus...
Don't know who Life Clinic are but I would not trust them with my health. I wouldn't trust them with a bloody ficus.
To Make Cool Crocs (Balenciaga)
..to Hide And Cross The Checkpoint
To Make A Pot Modelled After Shrek
To Promote Cornelius
To Stay Safe
To Construct A Basketball Court In Old Town
To Realize Everyone Int Loyal
I have come to the realization that face swaps are the devils work lol
I have come to the realization that face swaps are the devils work lol