“Passing The Bounds Of What’s Usual”: 50 Unhinged Pics That Are As Confusing As They Are Amusing

The ‘Outré Bizarre’ project has seen massive success over the years. It has a considerable presence on all the major social media networks, and it’s very likely that you’ve seen some of the memes shared by the curators in your feed.

On Facebook alone, nearly 890k internet users follow the ‘Outré Bizarre’ page.

Meanwhile, the project also has 53.4k loyal fans on Instagram, as well as 17.8k followers on X (formerly Twitter). And speaking of Twitter, the ‘Outré Bizarre’ account has been on the platform all the way since March 2013.

However, at the time of writing, it seems like the project is focusing on posting weird photos mainly on Facebook and Instagram.

The project’s name, ‘Outré Bizarre,’ clearly had a lot of thought put into it. The word ‘outré’ means that something is very strange, unusual, shocking, or—as the Britannica Dictionary notes—_bizarre_. So, funnily enough, ‘Outré Bizarre’ essentially means ‘Bizarre Bizarre.’ And that’s exactly the kind of content that the project posts.

Bizarre internet pics can be quite a double-edged sword. On the one hand, weird stuff draws people in because they’re curious about the world.

So when they see something unusual or unexplained, they can’t help but stop scrolling and try to figure out exactly what it is that they’re seeing. And let’s not forget that many of us enjoy sending weird memes to our besties, helping memes go even more viral.

On the other hand, extremely weird content isn’t up everyone’s alley. People find different things funny, so weird pics won’t cater to everyone’s sense of humor. You’ll always have people who enjoy dad jokes and bland boomer memes more than bizarre post-ironic humor. And that’s perfectly fine.

You cannot expect everyone to be a fan of the memes you share, so it’s best not to worry about that and instead focus on the followers that you do have.

Still, other internet users recognize that the vagueness of the images provides the opportunity for everyone to come up with their own theories about what’s happening in the frame. So, in a way, these pics are a reflection of who we are as individuals because we interpret them through our own unique perspectives. 

Aside from curiosity, there’s another reason why people enjoy weird content that borders on the gross. According to Alexander J. Skolnick, Ph.D., an assistant psychology professor at Saint Joseph's University, disgust has a very useful evolutionary function. “It keeps us safe. Rotten food has a sour, bitter flavor, and that's a cue to us. We spit it out,” Skolnick told ‘Shape’ that this extends to weird photos or videos.

Meanwhile, Clark McCauley, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Bryn Mawr College, believes that looking at gross, scary, or bizarre content is similar to going on a rollercoaster. “You feel fear, even though you know you're safe,” he explains that these things get your heart racing.