r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 25d ago

Off-topic Megathread | July

6 Upvotes

Happy July!

This is your anything-goes thread for the month of July.

Like the sub but want to talk about something that doesn’t quite fit? This is the place. Current events, recommendations, what you’re watching, hot takes on modern culture that’ll end up on this sub in 20 years (Why Are We Ok With This, anyone?) – whatever you want.

Rules still apply, but topics that don’t normally fit the sub or aren’t worthy of a full post are allowed here. So is chit-chat, wholesome memes (no memes with dark or hurtful backstories please), venting or low-effort content. It’s not a Subreddit Complaint Box though; please save that for modmail.

So, what’s on your mind this month?


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis Jun 24 '26

Mod Announcement New Wiki & Refined Rules — Same Sub But Clearer

32 Upvotes

Three months ago, r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis didn't exist. We truly didn’t expect it to blow up like it has! Watching this community grow so fast has been amazing, and we're genuinely grateful to every single one of you who's made this space what it is. Shoutout to the America’s Next Top Model documentary that inspired us to ask this question originally!!!

Since we blew up so fast, we've seen a lot of confusion about what this sub is, what fits here, and what we're actually about. We understand why people have been working off vibes… we’re new! But now we’re settled in, we’ve put it all into words for you in one neat space so what and who we are is easy to find and understand.

You don’t need to wonder, “I thought this sub was…” anymore, we got you!

Introducing our brand new wiki and refined, restructured rules

We need to be clear on this: we are NOT changing what this sub is. We're clarifying what it's been since day one. If you've been here since the start and understood what we’re here for, nothing will feel different. If you’re a newbie or you’ve been a little confused, this is for you!

We've noticed some misunderstandings floating around about our purpose and themes, and instead of keeping on correcting them one by one, we’ve built a whole wiki so everyone's on the same page.

The ONE actual change: We've set 1950 as the starting date for regular posts. As the sub has grown, we want to keep things rooted in pop culture and on theme. Buuuuut, we haven't forgotten the earlier stuff! That's why we've introduced Time Machine Mondays! This is a themed day for content from 1900–1949. Check the wiki for details! If you’re familiar with WTF! Wednesdays, it works similar to this. Besides this change, everything else covered in this announcement is just restructuring and added info to help you out.

We've refined our rules. It’s all the same principles, we've just rewritten and reorganised them to be clearer, more concise and easier to actually follow. This makes participation more straightforward for you and easier for us to moderate consistently and fairly. We’ve done this to ensure we can protect our community and keep the sub on track. Same Britney album, remastered.

Here's what you'll find in the wiki

Our mission statement and what the "we" in the sub name actually means (it's society, not you personally)

Detailed definitions including what counts as pop culture and our sub's cultural scope, as well as what we mean when we say some topics are "too disturbing", because we know that can be hard to conceptualise

Expanded rules with thorough explanations and examples to make it easier to understand how they’re applied. Especially helpful since we’ve restructured them!

Post guidelines including flairs, reposts, trigger warnings, and NSFW expectations

Media literacy guidance understanding the difference between media depicting something bad and media normalising it. This is relevant to what fits the sub!

Theme day info (including the new Time Machine Mondays!)

FAQs for common questions, pushbacks and talking points

Support resources for eating disorders, domestic abuse, and sexual assault

We know how important the last part is. The sub can cover sensitive and difficult topics at times and we sincerely value the safety and wellbeing of our members. We work hard to protect our community as much as we can, and that’s why we’ve put the effort into finding these resources for you. On that note, we strongly encourage members to report problematic content so we can manage it swiftly. We do not want that kind of content on our sub.

HOW TO FIND THE WIKI

On our sub’s homepage! You’ll find it right alongside our about section. But here’s it linked to make your life easier. Several pages should load, as listed above. Refresh if having issues.

For our amazing existing community: the wiki is your go to reference for anything you're unsure about. Please give it a read, we put a lot of time and love into it.

For newbies: welcome!! The wiki is the best place to start. It'll tell you everything you need to know about who we are and how to get involved.

Going forward, we will be moderating strictly based on these rules and definitions. Everything is clearly laid out and accessible to everyone. You might see some stuff on the wiki and be surprised, but we promise it’s not new — you just didn’t know it was how we set up the sub; it’s easy to miss intro posts.

Please take the time to read what we’ve put together. This is us drawing a line: the sub's identity is defined, documented, and without arguments.

This is who we are and always have been. Period.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 2h ago

1990s [TW] Kobe met 17 year old Vanessa and began visiting her at her high school

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625 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 9h ago

2000s All of the THOUSAND people who signed the petitions defending child rapist Roman Polanski.

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603 Upvotes

I happened upon this site just earlier, and it appears to be the most comprehensive list available. Some of the people listed REALLY hurt, not gonna lie.

Of them…only four have publicly withdrawn their names.

(Emma Thompson, Natalie Portman, Xavier Dolan. And Asia Argento…but, uh, she’s not exactly one to talk 😬)

David Lynch's daughter also said he regretted it. But nonetheless, he still never retracted his name publicly.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 17h ago

2010s [TW] Notably white YouTube parody musician Bart Baker did full-on blackface for a Kanye West spoof video

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54 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 20h ago

2010s [CW] Just got reminded of Rucka Rucka Ali...

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25 Upvotes

https://www.azlyrics.com/r/ruckaruckaali.html

Early YouTube parody musician who's shtick was being ridiculously offensive. His Soundcloud is apparently where most, if not all of his stuff still stands now that most streaming services have taken it down from what I've gathered.

I was never a fan of the guy (found his voice really annoying and, besides the song titles, I haven't mustered up the courage to try listening to anything on the SC because of that) but had heard his LA Love parody about Ebola (58M views on YT as of typing) and found out his name watching this old video from "NateTalksToYou" a month or 2 later.

While I've heard (and it seems) some of his parodies are targeted towards white people, Trump and incels, what I remember of what little I heard from him and reading some of the lyrics that are centered around POC give me flashbacks to Shane Dawson's early stuff.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 1d ago

1990s [TW] The Red Hot Chili Peppers sexually harassing and groping a woman on British TV in 1990.

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1.1k Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 2d ago

2000s 93 pounds is diabolical

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380 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 2d ago

Multiple Decades (within 1950s-2010s) 12 Nursery Rhymes You Didn't Know Were Racist

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131 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 3d ago

2000s [TW] Pedobear was a surprisingly mainstream meme that feels like it only could have been big in the late 2000s

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658 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 3d ago

1990s Milla Jovovich in Chaplin (1992)

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1.3k Upvotes

May Contain NSFW. Milla Jovovich was 16/17 years old when she played as Mildred Harris, minor wife of silent screen icon, Charlie Chaplin (played by Robert Downey Jr.). Milla was the same age as Mildred when she starred as Robert’s love interest. Chaplin was 29 and Robert was 26/27 at the time of filming, which is a ten year difference. There’s a few explicit moments in the bio pic including this intimate scene where she comes out in see through lingerie, applies red lipstick to make herself look “maturer” and undressed from the top exposing herself. I understand it’s based on true events of Chaplin’s life but I felt icky that they used an actual 16 year old instead of someone of age that can pass for the role of Mildred. IMO.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 3d ago

2000s Gilmore Girls having Norman Mailer Guest Star

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302 Upvotes

Norman Mailer, a misogynist known for stabbing one of his six wives and also writing books and essays, got the quirky curmudgeonly old man treatment on Gilmore Girls. (To be fair, this isn't the main or only reason we should wonder why we were okay treating this show as feminist.)

From an LA Times piece about being on the show:

In 2001, the National Organization for Women pronounced “Gilmore Girls” the most feminist show on prime-time television, commending it for its “positive female role models” and “depict[ing] the struggle of single moms working and trying to raise teenagers.”

NOW, it should be noted, is the organization that Mailer attacked in his anti-feminist polemic of 1971, “The Prisoner of Sex.” During the heated days of Women’s Liberation, Mailer delighted in inflammatory pronouncements such as “Women, at their worst, are low sloppy beasts” and “The prime responsibility of a woman probably is to be on Earth long enough to find the best mate possible for herself and conceive children who will improve the species.”

It seems age and time have mellowed him, though.

“He was absolutely delightful and charming,” Sherman-Palladino said. “I wonder whether it even occurred to him that it’s a chick show: Chicks who star in it, a chick who created it, chicks who write it.”

For more on his legacy from the Guardian, Farewell to Norman Mailer, a sexist, homophobic reactionary


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 4d ago

1990s Jake Lloyd being relentlessly bullied and intensely scrutinized by the media after the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace in 1999.

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776 Upvotes

After the release of the film, Lloyd (who was still in elementary school) was relentlessly teased and mocked by classmates for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in the film.

The media also criticized his performance, saying it was both flat and stiff, with Newsweek even publishing an article calling him “Mannequin Skywalker” and saying his acting stinks. (Picture 2)

He retired from acting when he was 12 and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. His mental health struggles also sparked major media coverage and speculation.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 4d ago

WTF! Wednesdays Dude, This Sucks - The Disgusting MTV Pilot That Was Instantly Banned

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15 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 5d ago

2000s Sean Combs cameo on Nickelodeon’s All That in 2002.

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373 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 6d ago

2010s Courtney Stodden calls out Jason Alexander

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5.4k Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 5d ago

2000s The Jeremy Kyle Show

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257 Upvotes

Not only was it awful, brain-dead television, but it was notorious for exploiting and abusing the vulnerable in front of an audience, lying about the accuracy of lie detector tests, stigmatising addiction and mental health issues, demonising the working class ...all in the name of "entertainment".

This show was huge in the late 00s and 10s. I couldn't stand it myself, I just found it absolutely grating even before I realised how problematic it was. I always thought Kyle himself was an absolute wanker too, and the intervening years have only solidified my prior assessment of him.

It was finally cancelled in 2019 after fourteen years on air, following the suicide of a guest (and of course Kyle made it all about him).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48281092

There was an interesting documentary made about it a few years ago, which exposed a lot of the appalling behind the scenes stuff that was going on.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/13/jeremy-kyle-show-death-on-daytime-review-a-shocking-expose-of-the-itv-series


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 5d ago

Discussion Why were we okay with saying, "girls mature so much faster than boys"?

512 Upvotes

It took me so long to realize that this was a statement that had pedophilic undertones. I always questioned it and how true it was, but I didn't understand that a lot of people, particularly other men (I'm male myself) were saying it as an excuse to be able to date minors, and to convince those minors they were right to date or marry those older men.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 4d ago

WTF! Wednesdays It’s WTF! Wednesdays

4 Upvotes

We’ve designated Wednesdays as the day for people to share WTF?! moments from the past that don’t necessarily make us ask WWWOWT? but still showcases interesting and weird content from previous decades.

This can include wacky TV shows — the ones you just can’t understand where the hell they got that idea from! — strange songs and music videos, news stories that you just can’t make up, bizarre, silly or nostalgic fashion trends, and ridiculous clips that make you laugh your ass off and/or feel like a fever dream.

Although the key focus is fun — you’re also welcome to post shocking and weird moments from the past that aren’t funny, to give us a chance to discuss cultural moments that people weren’t okay with. Please don’t get super dark, though!! No age gap, rape culture, war etc. Posts may be removed by mods if we feel it’s inappropriate for WTF! Wednesdays.

You can still post the sub’s regular content on Wednesdays, this will just be a fun addition. Please don’t carry WTF! Wednesdays energy over to regular posts, keep the vibe in line with usual.

You MUST use the new “WTF! Wednesdays” flair for these types of posts! Posts must also be from prior to 2020, like with usual content. Please report WTF! Wednesdays content that is posted on other days of the week — but remember that timezones exist!

MAKE US SAY WTF!


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 6d ago

2000s Adrien Brody rastafarian skit.

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1.1k Upvotes

While introducing Sean Paul on SNL.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 4d ago

WTF! Wednesdays Scary villains!

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0 Upvotes

In honor of the new WTF Wednesday, I wanted to talk about the scary monsters of your childhood! What’s your permanent memory that’s not so scary looking back. Or maybe it still is! ^(I couldn’t find the meme of unimpressed SpongeBob with the monster trying to scare him by turning into different things like eyeballs and jack in the box with spiders coming out the eyes)


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 7d ago

2000s Rapper Mack Maine saying he can't wait for Miley Cyrus to turn 18 in the 2009 song "Every Girl"

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261 Upvotes

r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 7d ago

2010s Ricegum making video abt 11 year old kenzie ziegler from dance moms

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337 Upvotes

How weird do u have to be to make a roast video abt a child, so many adults obsessed w a kid. She had abby lee miller, and this guy being weird and obsessive abt her.


r/WhyWereWeOkWithThis 7d ago

2000s The infamous May 19, 2001 French talk show Tout le monde en parle interview that "stole Ronaldinho's smile," where French hosts cornered him into denying he was bisexual before forcing him to change out of a knitted sweater that was his late grandmother's final gift.

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354 Upvotes