Pop culture expert Mike, aka Hollywood's Ultimate Insider, shared his thoughts with us about why peculiar internet pics jump out at us so much.
"Online content is usually carefully curated. Weird or bizarre content immediately jumps out and grabs attention, because it’s not what we’re used to seeing. It’s the contrast with what’s usually posted online that gets the initial attention," he stressed that weirdness really stands out because it's vastly different from the type of content we usually see in our social media feeds.
The expert doesn't see humor changing much in the future. However, what we joke about most definitely will.
"Humor is here to stay, and I don’t see the style of humor changing much in the future. Of course, the subject of what we find humorous will change because the best humor is of the moment, it’s about what’s happening now," he said.
Mike pointed out that memes from the future probably wouldn't make much sense to us right now in 2022. "Today’s memes are funny to us today, but if we were to look back at them from five years into the future, we’d probably wonder why they grabbed the attention they did," he told Bored Panda.
The pop culture expert from LA said that, in his experience, the best content "rises to the top." That's why we shouldn't be overly focused on getting views and likes. Instead, we should dedicate ourselves to the quality of the content itself.
"Trust that quality content will naturally get views and likes. If you’re only posting with the goal of getting views and likes, as a content creator, you won’t have longevity," he warned. "You may get a momentary burst of attention, but people will soon move on if they see the rest of your content lacks quality."
The @junkmanbaby Instagram page had 36.1k followers at the time of writing. The founder of the account clearly has a finger on the pulse of the internet. Or, well, its weird side at least.
When regular memes no longer make you laugh, rest assured, there’s a whole wealth of esoteric and meta-comedy waiting for you. To a certain extent, the Instagram page is a celebration of unpredictability, uniqueness, creativity, and chaos. All part and parcel of life on Planet Earth.
However much we might intrinsically enjoy order and predictability, life by design will hold a ton of surprises for us. Many pleasant. Some—unpleasant. Learning to navigate life when you don’t know what happens next, and figuring out how to embrace flexibility (when we’d rather have structure), become somewhat of a puzzle as we’re growing up and maturing.
Comedy expert Ariane Sherine, from the United Kingdom, told Bored Panda during a previous interview that the more bizarre something is, the more likely it is to make us giggle.
“The weirder and more surprising the photo, the more likely it is to make us laugh,” she told us that it’s the weirdness that catches us unaware that really gets to us. “I tend to laugh the most at animals pulling human expressions while doing crazy things!”
In the expert’s opinion, humor is instantaneous. The quicker we get the joke, the funnier it tends to be. On the flip side, the longer it takes, the shakier the laughs.
“Context is important only if we’re unlikely to get a joke otherwise, as I think the sooner we get a joke, the funnier we find it. If it takes us a while then that initial shock and surprise is delayed and so we’re less likely to laugh and more likely to go ‘oh, I get it now!’”
The photos featured in this list are far from the ordinary. Some can really take you by surprise. A while back, Bored Panda also got in touch with psychologist Lee Chambers, from the UK, for a chat about unpredictability as a whole. He noted that people have a very deep desire for structure and knowing what will happen.
"As human beings, we have a desire for certainty and routine that keeps us feeling safe and able to plan what lies ahead in an organized manner. When unpredictable situations or accidents impact us, it can be traumatic, and we will likely feel a sense of disappointment, frustration, and loss," the psychologist told Bored Panda during an interview, earlier.
"It is important however that we embrace the fact that the world can be unpredictable and uncertain, and become more tolerant of this being a reality. Understanding that things are sometimes out of our control helps us to accept that not everything goes to plan, and accept when things happen to us that are negative,” he said.
“This acceptance allows us to embrace the change and difference, and manage our expectations so we can become more resilient to the ups and downs that all our lives lead,” the psychologist explained that the key lies in accepting the reality of what life offers.
