15 Reddit Threads That Went Viral

Reddit, also known as “the front page of the Internet,” is an online community filled with subreddits (r/nameofsubreddit) interested persons can read, comment and upvote on for virtually any topic. For example, r/aww is full of pictures of kittens doing kitten things, along with sweet photos of puppies (puppers as the community likes to call them), etc. However r/50/50 lists two things that could await you after the link jump: for example, a picture of a field of daises or a picture of a person trapped in a vehicle on fire. As you can see, some of the subreddit threads are much more pleasant than others, but that is what draws so many people to this site - it's where you can see anything.

Reddit has also been instrumental in helping people lose weight, start or end relationships, get financial advice and more, through subreddits such as r/personalfinance, r/keto and r/relationshipadvice (think of it like Yahoo Answers where you actually get helpful advice instead of being trolled). Lately, the site has also been going nuts about everything Donald Trump, which is alternately amusing and alarming.

The reason most of the comments are helpful and inspiring (or horrific nightmare fuel if you are into those subreddits) is because account holders upvote what they like and downvote what they don't. Bots also help commenters stay on track.

With over 500 million monthly visitors and a raking as the 7th most visited website in the US, it's no wonder that some of Reddit's stories have jumped into the mainstream news and gone viral.

Bonus pictures at the end of the article

15 MyLifeSuxNow

Redditor MyLifeSuxNow noticed some suspicious texts on his wife's phone and turned to Reddit to vent and get the community's opinion. What followed was days of the story unfolding bit by bit as MyLifeSuxNow hired a private investigator, discovered a scandal with his sister-in-law and became increasingly paranoid. Redditors were so fascinated that they took over the site by flooding it with comments, opinions and even a fake movie poster of the ongoing saga. The story overflowed to other social media channels as everyone debated what he should do about his wife “Jenny”, and soon the whole viral affair was being talked about in the mainstream media as well. There is plenty of discussion about whether or not MyLifeSuxNow was having an online marriage breakdown or if he was just putting a really good story out there, but one thing is certain - it was one of Reddit's most viral, and most entertaining, stories.

14 Naratto's “Confession Bear” Drama

User Naratto used the “confession bear meme” to let Reddit know that he killed his sister's abusive meth-addict boyfriend, but he did it by injecting him (the boyfriend) with his own drugs while he was unconscious, so it was ruled as an overdose. Of course, Reddit users jumped on this, determined to know if it was real or fake. The pressure got to Naratto, who later followed up with, "There is SOME truth behind it, but I'm not saying what was true and what wasn't. Sure you can find information about ME, but linking me to something that happened is completely different." The Reddit community was relentless and didn't stop until they found out the real name of the user. They were not going let this be an unpunished crime, or a trolling story. The community won. The police got involved and launched an investigation, and Naratto's sister popped up to say it was all just a very ill-advised prank.

13 Woody Harrelson's AMA for Rampart

When Woody Harrelson did his movie, Rampart in 2011, part of the PR campaign was a stop on Reddit to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything). AMAs produce some of the site's best chatter but Woody took things to a new level with over 9,400 comments. He only had 15 minutes so, of course, there was no way he could get to all the questions, but it was just as well. A backlash started in which Redditors doubted that Woody was writing his own answers and was, instead, being fielded by a movie PR rep. “Oh, I can burn 15 minutes and answer two or three questions, but still ping my name and movie to thousands!" snapped one Redditor. “Just kind of a lame thing to do, and not what I would expect from such a man,” griped one commenter. “The former Chuck E Cheese worker AMA was a million times better than this,” snarled another.

12 Barack Obama's AMA

Woody may have failed to impress on his AMA, but the then President of the United States, Barack Obama didn't have any such issues. In an Internet-breaking and Reddit history making session, the President racked up more than 23,000 comments and his heartfelt, humble answers had many Redditors, even those that were struggling Americans, appreciating what he had to say. His final charming comment on the thread was: I need to get going so I'm back in DC in time for dinner. But I want to thank everybody at Reddit for participating - this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run. AND REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER - if you need to know how to register, go to http://gottaregister.com. By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience - NOT BAD!”

11 The Man with Diphallia's AMA

It's not just famous people that do AMAs on Reddit. Plenty of people that have unique features or an interesting job or experience to share do AMAs too. Three years ago a man with diphallia did an AMA and Reddit exploded with curiosity. If you are wondering what diphallia is, think of a plate with two hot dogs on it. That's right. Two where there is normally one. Reddit was full of medical and personal questions and he did his best to answer as many as possible. He also had a funny story about when a doctor, shocked at the sight of his double members, grabbed several other doctors to take a look. The diphallia patient's mother said, “My son is not a freak show!” and slapped one of the doctors. One comment pointed out that diaper changes must have been a bit of a nightmare for his mom.

10 The r/fatpeoplehate Scandal

Free speech is one thing, but an outpouring of hate directed at one specific group is quite another. Reddit's r/fatpeoplehate subreddit showed humanity at its ugliest. It was a subreddit where people came together to mock, laugh at and post photos of fat people. More than 150,000 people subscribed to the thread and actively posted other people's social media photos (or photos the Redditors took themselves) with scathing remarks such as “filthy pig,” “disgusting,” and much, much worse. The bullying often spilled onto those targeted's personal social media pages where trolls spewed hateful messages. The then CEO, Ellen Pao (who would be horribly vilified for this decision) shut the subreddit down, saying "Our goal is to enable as many people as possible to have authentic conversations and share ideas and content on an open platform… We will ban subreddits that allow their communities to use the subreddit as a platform to harass individuals when moderators don't take action. We're banning behavior, not ideas."

9 The Button

Reddit isn't above a good April Fool's joke. On April 1, 2015, the site opened r/TheButton. Registered Redditors could press the button, which was always counting down from 60 seconds, to reset it. Once the button hit zero, it would disappear. Naturally, Reddit went a little crazy, especially since pressing the button at certain times earned them a flair color to put next to their username. Those that couldn't resist clicking just after the button reset got a purple or blue flair. Those that held out and hit the button just before it hit zero got a red flair. Posting these flairs generated its own fair share of buzz across the community. The experiment wrapped up after 1,008,316 clicks. When it was all over, one Redditor quipped, “This was the greatest thing I never took part in.” Tellingly, purple flairs accounted for 57.58 percent of the clicks while red accounted for just 6.43.

8 The Biggest Secret

Who doesn't love a good secret? According to how fast a thread in r/AskReddit blew up, the answer is: everyone! "What's your secret that could literally ruin your life if it came out?" asked a user. The flood of responses ranged from depressing to horrifying. Some used throwaway accounts to confess their sins, while other brave souls used their actual usernames - which would be fine if their families and friends weren't on Reddit; but when this hit other media sites, screen shots showed those usernames to the world. One funny response was the guy that snooped through his friend's diary for intel when he was cat sitting at her house. He used his newfound knowledge to woo her and now they are married. Another response noted that the Redditor was homeless and a prostitute, but her friends and family thought she had roommates and a good job.

7 Adam West's Phone Number

There are times when a Redditor takes his or her hijinks off the community and out into the real world. One such prankster is the user that paid for four listings in a local phone book. The entry entitled “West, Adam” does not have a number. It says “See Bruce Wayne, Millionaire.” However, when you flip to “Bruce Wayne, Millionaire,” you are instructed to consult “Crime Fighters in the Yellow Pages.” The sole entry under Crime Fighters is… .you've guessed it! “See Batman - White pages.” It's an endless loop. The user photographed his prank, put it on Reddit and collected a ton of karma (Reddit points that increase your popularity on the site). The story broke off Reddit and was reported online too, to the absolute delight of Batman fans around the world. This happened back in 2012, but there are still places online to see the funny phonebook photos.

6 The Bus Knight

Reddit loves it some feel good stories and few are more feel-good than The Bus Knight. When a disrespectful patron didn't have money for the bus in Brisbane, Queensland, he quickly started berating the driver. The driver (presumed Russian) was being harassed with racial slurs and foul language that had everyone looking around, not sure what to do. The Bus Knight calmly waked to the front where the altercation was taking place and defended the driver. The rude man then threatneed The Bus Knight and challenged him to get off the bus for a fight. Still as cool as a cucumber, The Bus Knight agreed to the fight, but when the man stepped of the bus, the Knight calmly requested that the driver shut the bus door. Which he did. The bus riders cheered. The rude man was left in the dust, and the story enchanted Reddit.

5 The Spanish Problem

Back in 2010, Redditor SnailFarmer had an issue. His tabs and preferences on Reddit were showing up in Spanish. He checked his settings, which indicated that everything was in English. “What's going on?” he asked the Reddit community. He should have known better. He got a ton of responses - all in Spanish. Since the thread itself was still in English, this was a case of the people responding answering in Spanish. Frustrated, SnailFarmer took to Google translate to decode the messages, only to read nonsensical phrases such as “where is the library”. He started to see the humor in the situation and in the joke that was being played on him. After more than 1,500 unreadable responses, he disabled his FireFox extensions, cleared the cookies and relaunched the site. Everything went back to English and everyone had a good laugh. “I do not know what possessed my computer to run for the border, but I am glad it is back,” SnailFarmer concluded.

4 Magic the Gathering

In 2014, Redditor OB1FBM did as so many others in the community had done before him - posted a photo of himself enjoying something he loved. In this case, it was him playing in a Magic the Gathering (MTG) Tournament. MTG made its debut in 1993 as a card playing/trading game and it rose rapidly in popularity. In 2015, an estimated 20 million players around the globe were involved in the game. That alone was enough to make OB1FBM's post go viral, but what really caught the community's eye was how many people in the tournament were suffering from a common affliction: pants that promoted the “plumber's problem”. Despite the prevalence of behinds in the photos, they were tasteful and not body shaming in any way, which, considering the snafu of r/fatpeoplehate, showed the entire community that you can be who you are online and not have to be the subject of discrimination.

3 Rome Sweet Rome

This story demonstrates the unique power of Reddit, and it's not the first time the community has propelled someone within it to stardom (see the story behind the man that wrote and sang Take Me to Church). Redditor The_Quiet_Earth had a question: Could the ancient Roman Empire under the reign of Augustus be destroyed if time travelers arrived with modern U.S. artillery? One of the Redditors decided to answer in story form. Within a week, Prufrock451 had penned more than 3,500 words of a story about how the event could possibly play out. Reddit loved it and gave it plenty of attention. So much attention, in fact, that Warner Brothers' ears pricked right up. Prufrock451 got an actual movie deal based on his ongoing saga and even though it fell apart in the end and still has not been made, it's just one more example of how Reddit influences the world around us.

2 Testing. Just Testing

Sometimes when you are on a live site but not sure how everything works, you just want to do a little test. Such was the fate of Redditor qgyh2, who typed “Test post. Please ignore,” to which the Reddit community promptly said, “Hahahahaha, no,” and did everything but ignore it. “This must become the highest rated test post of all time!” joked one Redditor. “Don't tell me what to do! Upvoted!” laughed another. The joke went on with the test post being constantly upvoted by Reddit users until it reached legendary status. In the end, the humble request to ignore what was just meant to be a quick test was upvoted more than 21,000 times. “I think we did it!” cheered a Redditor of the hard and important work the community collaborated on that day. Redditor qgyh2 did learn the ins and outs of Reddit and became active on the site.

1 What Do Insanely Poor People Buy?

In January 2015, a Redditor asked “What do insanely poor people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about?” The post got more than 12,000 upvotes and the stories were completely heartbreaking. One Redditor raised money by selling plasma and “dined out” on crackers and ketchup. One saved up nickels and would work late so he could discretely buy tampons from the ladies room's vending machine at work. He gave the tampons to his wife. There was plenty of helpful advice too, from those that had been poor in the past and those that knew where the struggling Redditors could get help and resources. In the end, the post, like so many of Reddit's stories, not only went viral, it helped lots of struggling people find ways to better manage their situation; and at the very least, vent about it. And in the end, isn't that what Reddit is really all about?