Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

The Biggest 'Trolls' In All Of History

Nothing gets people riled up more than a troll.

No, not the kind of trolls in fairy tales who live under bridges, or the iconic dolls with neon hair and groovy clothing.

But the kind of trolls who say or do something purely to instigate conflict and rile people up.

Today, trolling is most commonly associated with the internet and social media, where people make a habit of writing rude, sometimes offensive comments purely intending to get a rise out of people.

But trolling has been around long before the days of Facebook or Instagram.


Redditor drbdrbdr was eager to hear who people considered to be the most notorious troll in the history of mankind, leading them to ask:
"Who is the biggest troll in history?"

Amazing What Good Pictures Can Do...

"The guy who opened a fake restaurant in London using Google reviews and his back garden and shed with microwave meals."- dirtyaccomplice

Just... Why?!?

"April fools day 1974 when a man burned 70 rubber tires on a dormant volcano in Alaska!"

"This has to be up there."

"He waited 3 years to get a helicopter to fly the tires to the top to get a picture perfect condition."

"He even got the coast guard called out too."- jgpdvs

Team Salieri?

"Mozart didn’t like this singer so much that he wrote a piece for her with high and low notes constantly because he noticed that when she hit low notes her chin went to her chest and when she hit high notes her head would fling back."

"So it was like she was bobbing like a chicken."- danielokane

Giphy

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs!

"In the 30s-40s BBC did an April fools broadcast where they told people how spaghetti was made, on trees.'

"They literally showed fake spaghetti trees and since not many people in that time knew how spaghetti was made, lots of people believed it."- Voicedtunic

He Made A Mockery Of All Of Them!

"There was a Prussian, I can't remember his name, who managed to make an officer's uniform out of scraps of clothing."

"He used it to convince a few guards on patrol to follow him into a government building, ordered the arrest of the man in charge, confiscated all the money personally, sent the arrested man to Berlin calming it was all on order of the King."

"He then ditched the uniformed, got on a train to Berlin him and managed to beat the guards there."

"He then sat back and watched the absolute confusion happen."

"The guy was eventually arrested but the public turned him into a celebrity and his actions into a play that was performed all over Germany."

"He wasn't incarcerated for long and after his release he lived an easy life from there on."- TheGermanMofo

Outsmarting The Enemy

"Technically this isn't a troll since it was serving a purpose, but Admiral Nelson was escaping a French fleet when a man fell overboard."

"It was Nelson's policy of never leaving anyone behind so he turned his ship around to go pick him up."

"The French saw his ship turn back toward them, assumed he had reinforcements coming beyond the horizon, so they turned and ran."- ScarletCaptain

Episode 18 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy

That's Quite A Grudge...

"I was thinking more like the mortician who patented the automatic telephone switch 3 years after finding out his rival's wife worked as a telephone operator and would reroute calls asking for his funeral parlor to her husbands."

"The guy put a whole worldwide workforce out of work for one person's actions."- ThrowawayKarensBane

By Hook Or By Crook...

"Theodore Hook."

"The perpetrator of the Berners Street hoax in London in 1810 in which Hook sent thousands of letters summoning all manners of various vendors and service people and physicians and dignitaries and others to all come to one random person’s home."

'Literally shutting down a large part of London as they all descended upon the same address throughout the day, all while Hook and a friend sat watching from a house across the street, presumably laughing their a**es off the whole time."- VictorBlimpmuscle

Reverse Psychology

"In China there was the war of the three kingdoms."

"The Wei, Shu, and Wu."

"Two of their armies met in battle and the smaller was out of arrows."

"They were separated by a river."

"One night, the leader of the smaller army stocked the front of their boats/rafts with straw bales and moved toward the opposing army over the river."

"They were immediately hailed with arrows."

"The men ducked behind the straw while the arrows stuck in the straw, undamaged."

"They then sailed away and yelled."

"''We thank you for the arrows, we will return them shortly!"''

"This may just be a tall tale from Romance of the Three Kingdoms but it may be true."- Mr_Caterpillar

You Got It Animation GIF by SWR KindernetzGiphy

Generally speaking, these were deliberate acts of malice, which served no other purpose than to baffle and infuriate the public.

Although, one can't help but wonder if all of these so-called trolls had an ulterior motive.

Deep down, they must have known that these duplicitous pranks would ensure that people would remember their name, or at the very least their actions, for a very long time.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshots of Will Thilly breakdancing
New York Post/YouTube

Guy Breakdances His Way Into Town Hall Meeting To Ask Why Taxes Went Up—And Becomes An Instant Legend

Cranford, New Jersey town council candidate Will Thilly went viral after dancing his way up to the podium at a recent town hall meeting to ask why property taxes in Cranford have gone "up so much."

Thilly's unique tax protest began when he danced his way up to the podium and continued to dance even after a Cranford Township official said, "Mr. Thilly, I started your time." People laughed when Thilly held up a finger to stop the official and continued to dance anyway.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Brian Kilmeade
Fox News

Fox News Host Apologizes After His Suggestion That Homeless People Be Euthanized Sparks Outrage

Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade was criticized for suggesting that homeless people with mental health issues get "involuntary lethal injection" after the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in North Carolina—and was swiftly condemned for an insincere apology several days after the fact as many are calling for Fox News to terminate his contract.

Zarutska was stabbed to death at the East/West Boulevard station on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte last month; her killer, a homeless man with a history of mental health issues, has since been charged with first-degree murder.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sofía Vergara
Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

Sofía Vergara Reveals She Missed Presenting At The Emmys Due To 'Craziest' Medical Emergency

Almost everyone has a favorite television show they like to turn on at the end of a rough day or binge-watch for a bit of nostalgia, and most of us pretty frequently check out new shows to see if we can spot a favorite.

Needless to say, the Emmys award show is a huge deal every year, honoring all of the people involved in the projects that are currently gracing the small screen, and basically anyone who's anyone will attend.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rep. Nancy Mace
CNN

Nancy Mace Just Tried To Claim She's Never 'Dehumanized' Her Colleagues—And The Internet Brought The Receipts

South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace was called out for hypocrisy after she claimed on CNN that Democrats in Congress have been "dehumanizing" Republicans, a move she would "never" do—despite her record of doing just that.

Speaking to anchor Katie Bolduan while the search for the suspect who killed far-right activist Charlie Kirk was ongoing, Mace objected to Bolduan's observation that she was using "us v. them" language, only saying that things are "very one-sided right now." She also suggested that the situation is so bad for her that she's actually afraid of "just walking out in public."

Keep ReadingShow less
A younger man stand on top of a mountain with his arms outreached and his face looking to the sky. It's a beautiful day and lakes and mountains are the backdrop.
Photo by Kyle Loftus on Unsplash

People Who Quit Their High-Paying Jobs For Happiness Explain How It Turned Out

Sometimes money isn't the goal.

It is a BIG goal for many.

Keep ReadingShow less