The origins of the term “mad lad” can be traced back to the UK slang “absolute madman” — someone who does something incredibly wild, dangerous, or rebellious. It’s a compliment reserved for people who pull off mundane stunts.
It was usually a badge of honor, even if a slightly ridiculous one.
The term took off on the internet around 2016, when a Dublin student noticed the phrase popping up all over Reddit, so he built a subreddit around it and called it r/madlads.
#5 What A Real Madlad
#6 Not Wrong Tho
What makes the subreddit interesting is that it’s a compliment and a joke at the same time.
As Philip, the subreddit’s creator, told Vice, “A lot of the time, people will be led to us by an ‘absolute madman’ comment, and they’ll understand pretty quickly that it’s a parody of lad humor.”
Over time, though, the definition has blurred.
For example, it features the woman who hit a N**i with her purse — an act that was emotionally charged, deeply personal, and entirely unplanned.
Others sit in murkier territory, like a prison escapee convincing a cop he’s just out for a jog.
The subreddit doesn’t really take sides. It just respects the nerve and the courage it takes to act.
So why do some people follow the rules to a T, while others love breaking them?
Experts call it reactance. First proposed by Jack Brehm in 1966, the theory says that the moment you tell someone they can’t do something, they want to do it more. It is the motivation to regain a freedom after it has been lost or threatened.
“Everyone experiences some psychological reactance. If someone gives you an order, tells you what you should be doing, even a friend giving forceful advice, it can get our backs up,” says Trevor Case, associate professor in the department of psychology at Macquarie University.
He believes that even little kids show this. “Classic experiments with children show that it is the toy that they are prohibited from playing with that they want the most. Adolescents, too, are renowned for their psychological reactance to parental restrictions.”
#14 Mad Lad Fixes Bug
But the thing about rule-breaking is that it is a slippery slope.
Research shows that people who break rules experience genuine cognitive conflict when they do it, but still choose to go through with it anyway. And the more often they do it, the easier it gets.
Ultimately, people no longer feel guilt. Instead, they think they’re more capable than others.
Research from the University of Washington, Harvard University, and other institutions found that people who break small rules actually feel smarter, and surprisingly cheerful.
It’s often called the cheater’s high.
A 2011 study found that rule-breaking is strongly associated with how powerful a person feels.
In one experiment, people who watched someone break a small rule — arriving late, throwing their bag on the table, putting their feet up — rated that person as more powerful and more likely to get what they want.
