It always amazes to see what catches on culturally.
Do you remember your first Snuggie commercial?
It was a hilariously stupid idea.
5 years later everybody had one.
I think people walked a few runways in them.
That is just the tip of the iceburg.
Somethings that were meant to be silly have become way too real.
It's like gossip, it can all catch on fire and destroy society.
Redditor kk653 wanted to hear about the parts of life that have gotten to the opposite extreme of where they started. So they asked everyone out there:
"What started as a joke but people take it way too seriously today?"
Crocs. How did they become a thing?
Seriously?
happy tom cruise GIF by South Park Giphy"Scientology. Come on. He's a Sci-fi writer and now a bunch of people believe they have Mendichloreans or some sh*t in their blood making them do bad things. Wow."
Gillbreather
Stop Complaining
"Nyquil chicken."
"There was a guy who made a video on TikTok jokingly saying that he had a great recipe for cooking chicken in Nyquil. A few people made response videos, but everyone who saw it knew it was a joke."
"Then mainstream media picked it up, and blew it out of proportion. They made it sound like it was an actual trend for people to be cooking Nyquil. There are already plenty of problems on TikTok, we don't need to invent new ones to complain about."
TheAres1999
Morons
"That science can't explain why bumblebees can fly. It literally started as a joke among scientists. Now some anti-scientific morons use it as an argument against science. Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummel-Paradoxon"
"Edit: English version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee#Misconception_about_flight"
Schlaueule
"I worked with a guy who literally used this as an argument for God against science. Which, regardless of your beliefs, is absolutely silly because I showed him multiple videos and articles telling how bees fly and he kept saying, 'Yes, but we can't explain it.'"
"*itch, they just did. Ten times! Listen!!"
kingferret53
The Test
"The Bechdel Test. Not that the issue it raises shouldn't be taken seriously, but people totally misunderstand that it was only supposed to highlight how absurd it is that so many movies fail to reach the very low bar it sets. I've seen filmmakers brag at Comic-Cons and the like now about how their movies pass the Bechdel Test and it's seen as a female character representation stamp of approval when it really just means it reached a satirically low bare minimum threshold originally created by a cartoonist."
VULCAN_WITCH
Fame
Donald Trump GIF by Election 2016Giphy"Celebrities becoming politicians."
ZaryssThesia
"After all this, I never want to be told I need experience for a job ever again."
ajlposh
Our political system isn't a joke, it's a travesty.
Currency
Shiba Inu Cryptocurrency GIF by Daryl AlexsyGiphy"Dogecoin."
Eparii
"I remember a Twitter post where someone asked the Dogecoin creator whether they thought about the environmental impact when creating this coin. He replied saying he took 2 hours to create the cryptocurrency and did not consider anything."
daaniscool
Types
"Those masculinity types, like Apha, Omega and Sigma male, etc. Some people take this too seriously."
Nihlus-N7
"People thought that's how wolves operate and just projected it onto humans. Turns out that wolves also don't do that."
idk_this_my_name
"I think the best part of that whole thing is the fact that the guy who first thought that's how wolf packs worked is the same one who found out it's not how they work."
DarthOptimist
Meow me not...
"Schrodinger's Cat was formulated as a thought experiment to illustrate how odd quantum mechanics is, not that the cat is actually both alive and dead."
uraniumraven
"Not just that, Schrodinger came up with it to demonstrate how absurd and ridiculous the idea was. It was just that his peers thought it actually demonstrated their ideas quite well and started using it as a layman's explanation."
AzyKool
"Schrodinger's cat lived long enough to become the villain."
macewystan
Science
flat earth sour brite crawlers GIF by TrolliGiphy" Flat Earth."
Pichuk
"I remember that it's a forum, i think it's called www.flatearth.org or something. The forum said that it was a debate training ground. The idea was, if you can defend such a ridiculous idea as saying that the earth is flat, then you can defend anything.
"Little did we know..."
nyenkaden
Brain power
"Brain only using 10% of its ability." - ksaunders8
"A better understanding of this would be that a traffic signal is only utilizing 1/3 of its capacity at any one time. If you observe over a time period/with diverse tasks you'll likely see 100% utilization." - Dry-Manufacturer-165
Bootstraps
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps." Get on the floor and try it. It's impossible. That's the meaning. It was originally used as a sarcastic joke. But today it means the opposite because fanatical capitalists co-opted the phrase and changed the meaning to the opposite." - neonomen
Halloween Candy
"The idea that people are putting drugs or razor blades or other hazards in your kid's halloween candy."
"That is pure unadulterated media fear-mongering. They've been doing it for decades, and it's pure BS every time. I have to wonder if it's not some propaganda paid for by a candy company so people will buy candy to give out on Halloween instead of making it themselves. Sounds like something Nestle would do." - Generico300·
Music Choices
"Hating on Nickelback apparently." - honeydew_bunny
Birds work for the bourgeoise
"Birds aren’t real. I believe the guy who started it actually came out saying it was all intended as a joke and he’s surprised people actually take it seriously now." - jozzywolf121
Religious affiliations
"The church of the flying spaghetti?!" - WobblyBroth
Well that's a lot of jokes that didn't really land.
@skylergisondo/Instagram
@Pretefunkera/X
@bonnieblue2025/X
@Andie00471/X
@21Naija/X
@woodo/Bluesky
@woodo/Bluesky
@lindsayfickas; @notagallopho/Bluesky
@dmccoy_01/X