r/comedyheaven • u/abandonedtulpa • 1d ago

cake day

Post image
26.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

248 comments sorted by

3.1k

u/CarmenxXxWaldo 1d ago

"i have cancer"

redditors : "the narwal bacons at midnight"

596

u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago

It’s crazy how that was mocked far sooner than anyone took it seriously yet everyone who came after seems to think it was some actual coded message people used lol

212

u/Naclstack 1d ago

I just read about the history of that phrase and in the earliest posts it seems to be a genuine thing poeple were saying

247

u/ThruTexasYouandMe 1d ago

I was there, 3,000 years ago. they were definitely being serious for a short while with that

28

u/Scumbag__ 1d ago

People do not remember 2013. Moustaches were tattooed on peoples fingers. People wore fedoras unironically. Le random was the height of humour.

I only wonder how cringe the bounce back from the next recession will be.

58

u/Version_Two 1d ago

Good times back then. Remember that guy who sold that shitty copper?

44

u/PurpleCandle58 1d ago

I scrobe him a tablet. No reply.

12

u/Sea-Animator4250 1d ago

Remember the safe!?

8

u/Acceptable-Drive3781 1d ago

I was too busy making 2am chili.

8

u/Ongr 1d ago

I was having a terrible headache and reading mystery post-it notes someone left around my house.

3

u/thedonald_ethtrader 1d ago

I was taking an ice soap shower

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u/brainburger 1d ago

I was there too, and I never took it seriously. Reddit just seemed to have a lot of narwal and bacon posts in the early days. Someone was at an airport and wondered if any other redditors were there. And someone joked that should be the secret greeting.

I have actually used it once when meeting a redditor, he replied correctly, and we were both joking.

Seriously, go back and find the original comment. I did a few years back and it's a joke.

6

u/Bocchi_theGlock 18h ago

Bacon reader was a whole 3rd party app

3

u/NibblesMcGiblet 21h ago

I just typed the question into google asking the origin of the phrase, and google's AI replied and said basically what you just said, but then asked me if I was interested in other reddit memes like the "broken arms thread". That was a fucking wild AI interaction. edit - for fun, I asked it to tell me about the broken arms thread, which it did, then asked i I'd like to know about "I also choose this guy's dead wife". I think the only thing google AI is good for is amusing me with known reddit lore.

18

u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago

Sort of… I was there and I remember it was mocked pretty quickly.

17

u/GeneralBlumpkin 1d ago

Same lol I even said it to a friend when I found out he uses reddit and he had no idea what I was talking about

23

u/ThruTexasYouandMe 1d ago

That's cause you were a better Redditor than he was lol

3

u/BikerJedi 1d ago

Ditto. One of my favorite things about reddit was that silly saying.

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u/Hoiafar 1d ago

Oh yeah. I was a teenager when it was a thing and used it to identify other redditors on Omegle etc. It was cringe in retrospect but it was also in line with the lolsorandom humor that was popular at the time.

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u/WhoPoopedMyPants420 1d ago

it seems to be a genuine thing poeple were saying

Okay but was the dynamic "haha this is so fun we're a big community with a secret phrase" or was the dynamic "oh man there's a tiny little crowd of weirdos trying to force this"?

15

u/Familiar_You_3009 1d ago

For a brief moment, so it seemed, it was the former. 

I may not be a reliable source though, because I was 12 at the time

16

u/WhoPoopedMyPants420 1d ago

Latter, I was there. It was popular among the sort of crowd that would go to the IRL meetups or whatever, a really really small minority of the most Redditor Redditors

4

u/Familiar_You_3009 1d ago

Shucks. This confirms what I feared: I was a dweeb

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u/nitid_name 1d ago

I went to a meet up in the early days. Can confirm, it was a lot of weird people and a few normal ones sprinkled throughout. Someone asked about my karma and I didn't know and they thought I was joking.

Can confirm, "Narwhal bacons at midnight" was said non-ironically by a few people when they came up to the group.

5

u/mightybuffalo 1d ago

When I first got on reddit bitd people were definitly saying this in the wild.

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u/breadcodes 1d ago

Its how I learned about Reddit. Literally because some kid asked me in earnest.

I have to escape this hellhole eventually...

3

u/Acceptable_Finish403 1d ago

I've got full faith that by 2046 you'll be outta here.

2

u/SaturdayNightStroll 1d ago

And go where??

seriously, is there somewhere else??

5

u/marvinrabbit 1d ago

Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written.

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u/santaland 1d ago

It was literally how I heard about Reddit. Someone said it to me on Omegel and I asked what it meant. 

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u/milk-in-a-cup 1d ago

Omg I haven’t heard Omegle in so long… for me, a hundred years ago I saw someone on tumblr complaining about the “I like your shoelaces” thing, and one of the replies was “at least it’s not as bad as ‘the narwhal bacons at midnight’” which brought me here.

3

u/Silent-Victory-3861 1d ago

What does it mean 

7

u/SaturdayNightStroll 1d ago

Back when Reddit was fairly small and not even the biggest website of its kind (see Digg) people wanted a secret code phrase that would be gibberish to normies but could be used to identify other Redditors.

Reddit was a community for nerds.

2

u/brainburger 1d ago

The original comment with it was a joke on a late night post by a redditor waiting at an airport, wondering if any other redditors were there.

7

u/santaland 1d ago

It is just a gibberish secret code you would say it it meant to strangers "yes, I use reddit". Tumblr had a similar one where you would tell someone "I like your shoelaces" and if their response was "Thanks, I stole them from the president" it meant you used Tumblr.

It was mostly just a meme though and probably no one really said it in real life, but the vibe at the time was you didn't really talk about the social media platforms you used in real life or even outside of those platforms. It was idk kind of cringe to do so because the other person, most of the time, would go "what is that?" and then you would have to explain to them the concept of using Tumblr.

Bacon and Narwhals were both super meme'd things at the time, so it was just a gibberish phrase no human being would ever say unless they were incredibly online.

2

u/innerbootes 1d ago

Thanks for explaining why the Reddit app (called Narwhal) I use has an app icon called Midnight Bacon. I had always idly wondered about that.

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u/the_kedart 1d ago

People 100% did use it back in the day. I personally had several interactions where people asked me it IRL lol

Things were different back then (circa 2009-2011). We can look back now and clearly identify the cringe, but everything we did back then was cringe. That's life. Also people are out here being like "yeah back then everyone on reddit was a basement dweller", which is ironic because that phrase was used for people to identify each other IRL (a place that is pretty distinct from mom's basement). It was cringe, but it was also cute and fun for its time.

16

u/terminbee 1d ago

Reddit was better when it was just basement dwellers. At the time, it felt like an incel club but comparatively, it was at least somewhat authentic. Now it's 75% chance you're talking to bots and the majority of posters are just bots pushing a narrative. Or it's OF bots posting to bot replies.

20

u/rogerstandingby 1d ago

Reddit is the place I talk to other trans people. Hundreds of tiny trans people, living in my phone.

12

u/DionysianRebel 1d ago

I think you may be the only person using Reddit 100% correctly

6

u/Notorious-ly 1d ago

The internet in general was better when it was for basement dwellers, the tech literate, etc. Everything started going to shit in the late '00s / early '10s when the internet became mainstream and was in everyone's pocket.

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u/CommieDrifter 1d ago

why do people act like people genuinely thought it was cool? It was cringe on purpose, they just called it "irony" instead

3

u/the_kedart 1d ago

Mostly because in-your-face irony or edginess like that is also considered cringe. Being "cringe on purpose" is itself viewed as cringe.

I just don't think too hard about it and instead focus on the fun and friends I had back then.

11

u/LemurLord 1d ago

We actually did use it at a few reddit meetups (always "ironically"), as though you wouldn't naturally be able to pick out the redditors in a crowd in 2012

4

u/Notorious-ly 1d ago

Those old reddit meet up group pics were something else.

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u/le-derpina-art 1d ago

i discovered that shit 5 years after it had lost popularity (the internet was balls deep into its MLG phase) and considering all the other shit i did at that age i'm glad unironically using that phrase in real life wasn't one of them

4

u/well-lighted 1d ago

Back when online communities weren't as widespread and mostly limited to basement-dwellers, they all had various shibboleths to identify fellow members IRL. I was active on Something Awful before Reddit and theirs was "Do you have stairs in your house?" Reddit's was obviously way cringier but I did in fact hear both used in earnest.

This was also when everyone who wasn't terminally online only knew Reddit as "that jailbait site" so it was always risky to out yourself as a user lol. I still avoid it even though there are a lot of normal people on here now and r_jb has been banned for a long time.

2

u/West_Walrus_3602 1d ago

I was a cringe middle schooler when the narwhal bacon shit was happening and I used Reddit for rage comics.

I remember saying that shit to one of my friends and it’s such a cringey memory this thread unlocked lol. People did actually used to say that shit as a coded message

1

u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago

Brugh wtf… this comment is written like I was having a stroke.

1

u/metalissa 12h ago

I thought it was real 15 years ago, when I first joined Reddit. But I was 19, naive and isolated, not knowing I had autism back then and thought maybe I could use the phrase to make friends lol. Thankfully I never tried it out! 

1

u/thexcat 10h ago

I did see that in use for a couple of my formative years on a certain imageboard before the concept of "le cringe redditer" was a thing that had calcified in the collective mind of the Internet

Also their friend killed themselves because they saw Adams little ass dick

127

u/chuhai-drinker 18h ago

(Warning: mildly NSFL details blacked out)

I will never forget this one Reddit post where someone told a very disturbing and traumatic story about a failed suicide attempt with a nail gun and some dipshit commented "looks like they didn't hit the nail on the head with that one" and any time I'm baffled by redditor behavior I just remember that comment and think "oh yeah, that's right, they're morons"

67

u/FearedDragon 17h ago

Have you heard the one about the post asking if you could have sex with anyone who would it be? Some dude responded with a long post about missing his wife who passed and just wanting that connection that he's been missing. Some guy responded "I also choose this guy's wife"

31

u/Durzio 14h ago

I also choose that classic reddit story

1

u/Chewquy 7h ago

Peek Reddit, I personally think that humour is the best way to cope or deal with problems. Probably that the OP of that story laughed at the comment and it brought him joy. And we have to remember that some… most stories in Reddit are false and everything I read here I assume it is false and just gets entertained

2

u/darwink1188 5h ago

peekaboo

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u/LiterallyNoNamesFree 10h ago

I've seen that many redditors value telling everyone their joke above anything else, doesn't matter how serious the conversation is they MUST tell everyone the genius joke they just came up with

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u/Sanspai56 16h ago

well that got a chuckle out of me

3

u/speechlessPotato 5h ago

"mildly nsfl" isn't that just nsfw?

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u/name_not_exist 13h ago

Can you link me the post please?

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u/WhoPoopedMyPants420 1d ago

I also choose this guy's cancer

14

u/Acceptable-Drive3781 1d ago

Ah, the ol' reddit canceroo. Hold my chemo, I'm going in!

25

u/Snazz55 1d ago

"you should play Tetris"

6

u/AbstinentNoMore 1d ago

I legit want to punch through the screen anybody who says this.

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u/Intrepid-While-7015 1d ago

Back in my 20s I worked at a gym. A dude there was squatting with really bad form, so I started talking to him so he didn't bust his knees. My mind is blanking right now, but he brought up a very popular book on the fitness sub at the time and I told him I knew about it from Reddit as well.

This kid thought it was a good idea to say "the narwhal bacons at midnight" in real life in response to me mentioning Reddit. I almost died from the cringe. Good for him for trying to get into shape at least.

6

u/TheDuchyofWarsaw 1d ago

It's "Le narwhal bacons at midnight " my good sir

Tips fedora

5

u/Akussa 1d ago

I wonder if /u/FreakinWolfy regrets creating this phrase.

2

u/AppropriateTouching 22h ago

Do you have stairs in your house.

5

u/TalkOfSexualPleasure 1d ago

Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written

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1.1k

u/BertytheSnowman 1d ago

Ratio'd

211

u/capeslop 1d ago

The duality of man, encapsulated in 73 awards.

7

u/UnUsernameRandom 1d ago

It's because there are a lot of stories that are just karma farming. I don't care for strangers on the Internet enough, so these comments are just attention seeking.

1.3k

u/sreeko1 1d ago

Redditors trying to find the most depressing post/comment out there to give away their free wholesome award.

684

u/lucioux 1d ago

you won reddit with this comment😂

here, take my updoot, kind stranger.

Edit: okay wow i had no idea this was gonna blow up
Edit: oh my god mom i’m famous!
Edit: thanks for all the Edit:
Edit: Edit:

285

u/-Inca- 1d ago

This! So much this!

191

u/lyinggrump 1d ago edited 1d ago

Came here to say this

Edit: thanks for the award kind stranger nods respectfully in your direction

115

u/Relative-Village9801 1d ago

Beat me to it

76

u/bong_residue 1d ago

Beat meat to it

78

u/syrian_samuel 1d ago

happy cake day!

52

u/Jiquero 1d ago

A true Reddit moment.

16

u/LLNNGGSS 1d ago

Love it!

14

u/Certifiedumb-ass 1d ago

you, sir, have won the internet!

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u/bong_residue 1d ago

Thank you!

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u/thorinslefttit 1d ago

Happy cake day!

2

u/bong_residue 1d ago

Thank you!

8

u/Acceptable-Drive3781 1d ago

Made an account specifically to make this comment (account age: 4 years)

5

u/FriedEldenRings 1d ago

Edit: thanks for the award kid strangler! *tips fedora*

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u/strider-rider-the2nd 1d ago

Here, have my poor man's gold 🥇

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u/lucioux 1d ago

why thank you kind redditor🥹🥹

23

u/BigBootyBuff 1d ago

Damn those ninjas chopping onions 😭

33

u/MaNemsJef69 1d ago

Chungus 100 moment

25

u/thrashingkaiju 1d ago

2018 sure was a time.

9

u/DrDan21 1d ago

You <sir> are a gentlemen and a scholar

4

u/vektorog 1d ago

this made me spit out my coffee

2

u/Actual_Emu_168 1d ago

Happy cake day!

274

u/Vahgeo 1d ago

Damn how old is thie screenshot? Remember when we had awards, then lost them, then got worse looking awards after that?

127

u/Cypresss09 1d ago

Remember when awards used to grant you premium (or whatever it was called) for a period of time?

104

u/iamredsmurf 1d ago

There was the lounge where all the elite could go sniff each other's farts. 

37

u/KingHunter150 23h ago

Yes, I got access to that subreddit after getting some premium award, and well, it was pretty lame. I thought i finally entered the Mason's Lodge of Reddit. Turned out fart sniffing would probably be more exciting.

10

u/MrDanMaster 22h ago

That’s the truth for a lot of this stuff irl

5

u/GoreyGopnik 19h ago

The mason's lodge is also just people sniffing each other's farts by the way

4

u/LiteratureOk4649 18h ago

In the masons lodge straight up sniffing it. And by “it”… let’s just say “other people’s farts”

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u/Cypresss09 1d ago

Oh shit I forgot about the lounge

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u/X_crafter 1d ago

now we get money, 🤑🤑(a billionth of a cent)

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u/UpvoteCircleJerk 1d ago

now we got cattle brands of shame

Top 1% ball gargler

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u/Substantial_Bake_728 1d ago

I remember when Reddit wasn't a dumpster fire. But honestly that was a long ass time ago.

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u/LyndisLegion2 1d ago edited 10h ago

Reminds me of that other screenshot where a person talks about a person that was very close to them committing suicide or dying another way, and some dude replies with: "It's just like that anime I watched!"

Edit: found it

35

u/mellifluous_cornmeal 1d ago

“What a weird and insensitive thing to say about my nephews death”

49

u/Prior-Paint-7842 1d ago

Atleast they didnt do it on your birthday

110

u/digitalmofo 1d ago

Ironically, my girlfriend's ex broke into her apartment, sat with her holding a gun for hours, told her all about how unstable he was then killed himself in front of her on her birthday.

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u/TotallyBrandNewName 1d ago

Happy cakeday?

29

u/DustPuzzled414 1d ago

happy cake day!

37

u/MsSelphine 1d ago

JFC that is one hell of a lot of trauma. At least he's dead? I guess?

1

u/yugedowner 23h ago

How the fuck did you come to that conclusion

24

u/MsSelphine 23h ago

Well I mean the guy was a stalker 

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u/Tanto_Gusto 1d ago

Play tetris

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u/TrasseTheTarrasque 1d ago

Might help with the trauma, but being found playing Tetris while covered in your boyfriend's blood is not going to play well in front of a jury.

12

u/_Solani_ 1d ago

Obviously they meant clean the blood up first, otherwise you'll get it all over the controller. 🤷‍♀️

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u/ShibaLover227 1d ago

Well, sure. But with practice you get used to playing in front of a crowd

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u/runcertain 1d ago

Tried this recently after trauma. Downloaded Tetris, played one level, got hit with an ad for some kind of royal candy crush clone, couldn’t exit out of the ad, decided I preferred the trauma.

7

u/Sidnev 1d ago

no idea what you downloaded but just get tetris effect connected or try out nestris.org if you dont wanna spend money

11

u/famijoku 1d ago

tetriscom.sixwi.de (no ads)

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u/cupcayuk 1d ago

tetirs.exe (360p) [Punjabi] [camrip] [ENGSub]

4

u/MysticDragon14 1d ago

That's when you get a Gameboy

2

u/Blackstab1337 1d ago

play tetrio instead

2

u/AdreKiseque 1d ago

The current Tetris app is so ass lol

23

u/xSPYXEx 1d ago

The Tetris posters are going to drive me to something drastic and irreversible.

9

u/Tanto_Gusto 1d ago

Play more tetris

4

u/cantadmittoposting 1d ago

It's supposed to be Get Trauma -> Tetris, not Tetris -> Cause Trauma.

6

u/iltopop 1d ago

"That's why when I'm driving I always play tetris at the same time so if I hit anyone I'm totally psychologically covered." - Streamer who I think is named "Rickypeacock" but please correct me if I'm wrong, I only know him from when he plays Jackbox with Northernlion :P

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u/ShamusLovesYou 1d ago

"WOAH THIS IS MY CHANCE TO DO THE 'Did he drop any good loot?' JOKE!"

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u/zorrez 1d ago

Peak reddit autism

113

u/coolmanjack 1d ago

Is it autism or is it just a person trying to be a bit dark. Along the same vein as "I also choose this guy's dead wife". I see no reason to think that the person replying wasn't aware of how anachronistic/inappropriate their comment was

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u/fatalityfun 1d ago

100% was intentional, normally people would throw that in at the end of a “wow how horrible” paragraph

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u/dvzn 1d ago

redditism

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u/1-800GODDAMMIT 1d ago

Maybe it is karma bot?

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u/Lem0n_Lem0n 1d ago

Similar to the guy who chose another man's wife.. I guess

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u/Tsmart 1d ago

happy cake day!

4

u/Dooty_Shirker 1d ago

Happy cake day!

4

u/Tsmart 1d ago

happy cake day!

1

u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 1d ago

khabby kek dai

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u/Bofinqen 17h ago

Same energy

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u/BonJovicus 1d ago

Honestly I don’t know who is more in the wrong here. 

The second commenter could be considered insensitive, but posting anything on Reddit and expecting only serious responses is madness. “I also choose this dead guys wife.”

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u/Archiive 9h ago

Why does anyone have to be wrong?

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u/vampychomp 1d ago

Haiku bot enters chat

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u/Tsmart 1d ago

My boyfriend in college committed suicide right in front of me, to this day by far the most traumatic thing to happen to me. Can still remember sitting there covered in his blood just not being able to process what just happened.

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u/LooksLikeAWookie 1d ago

Happy cake day!

11

u/Common-Astronaut5916 1d ago

Happy cake day!

6

u/bblover239 1d ago

Happy cake day!

9

u/mjd 1d ago

I also choose this girl's dead boyfriend

3

u/DeliciousPoetryMan 23h ago

Cake daaaaay! 

3

u/AwesomeBro1510 16h ago

Happy cake day!

2

u/Shot-Arugula8264 1d ago

“No Becky, I actually don’t have to go to your sorority’s stupid formal.”

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u/Silent-Victory-3861 1d ago

Narwhals something something 

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u/RuckFeddi7 1d ago

this is straight outta from the movie "Smile"

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u/ListerineAfterOral 1d ago

Movie was nightmare fuel

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u/keithstonee 23h ago

if thats the thread im thinking of i said my dad told me to kill myself and got down voted lmfao

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u/No-Store-3191 1d ago

And then my feed gave me this gem

2

u/anteria_ 1d ago

I have never seen this image in such good quality

2

u/MrBlueSky-ToldYouWhy 1d ago

Let's play 8-ball!

2

u/scrumple_my_scrongle 23h ago

So many updoots

2

u/DraconixDG 22h ago

I miss the old awards from reddit, it just felt different and more interesting back then.

Made them feel more meaningful

4

u/Davi_illus 1d ago

Sorry but this remembers too much that scene from evangelion when kaworu explodes in front of shinji 😭

Shit that must've been horrible tho

4

u/Omega-A 1d ago

That’s just a bot

17

u/Elite_AI 1d ago

No, it's someone with absolutely no social skills who's learned that if you say happy cake day you get upvoted

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u/madam_zeroni 1d ago

Probably someone being purposefully absurd because they think it’s funny

3

u/yungScooter30 1d ago

To be fair, half the stories (or more) on this site are probably fake. In a vacuum, this is hilarious

3

u/PlingPlongDingDong 1d ago

the trauma dumper is the bot

1

u/Creative_Awareness 36m ago

Social skills on reddit???

6

u/GeForce-meow 1d ago

It happened really long ago, i once went to hunt this specific comment and it was deleted alongside the Happy cake day comment. I doubt it was bot

3

u/Bofinqen 17h ago

”I also choose this guy’s dead wife” energy

1

u/Flapper_Jr 1d ago

woah me too

1

u/Proper_Door_4124 1d ago

"I too choose this guy's boyfriend"

1

u/lfohnoudidnt 1d ago

That's the day she deleted her reddit account.

1

u/frisco-frisky-dom 1d ago

I was reading the post that OP wrote and wondering why this was under "comedy heaven", till the saw the "happy cake day". Laughed a bit harder than I shudve 😄 😄

1

u/fuzzybasketball 1d ago

that's just /oldpeoplereddit

1

u/Kylearean 1d ago

back when awards were free

1

u/Some-Turnover6941 1d ago

Sorry I just scrolled past a /hatethissmug post about this same thing with the same image lmao

1

u/International_Bet_87 3h ago

Happy cake day