Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Explain Which Things They Find Weird That Are 100% Normal

People Explain Which Things They Find Weird That Are 100% Normal
Andre Hunter on Unsplash

Our environment influences what we perceive as being normal.

But when we leave our bubble, the different circumstances we're not accustomed to can only be interpreted as the complete opposite of normal.

Take the act of tipping in America, for instance. Those in the service industry expect customers to tip them based on how well they did their job.

But considering how other countries pay their employees well enough not to have a tipping policy and incentivizing workers to do their job efficiently can seem "weird" to us American travelers.


Curious to explore other customs and behavior that may seem strange to us, Redditor Thiccbokuto asked:

"What’s something you find weird that is 100% normal?"

Some of our behaviors were never considered as strange...until these Redditors made it that way.

And The Crowd Goes Wild

"Cheering in a crowd. I just can't bring myself to woooooooo!"

– RedstoneRelic

LOL

"The entire concept of laughter. why does our face contort and our diaphragm spasm when certain things happen? and how do our brains decide what things are funny and what things aren’t?"

– TechnicallyNotRon_

Let The Music Move You

"Dancing. Like people flail around in weird and awkward ways to sounds."

– ScrotusMahotus

Communication

"Languages, or just talking in general. The fact that we’ve given meaning to a bunch of random sounds made by our vocal chords is bizarre when you think about it. Like, how did this even start? How were we able to decide what should be called what? For example, how did we decide that a rock is called a rock or that the sky is called the sky?"

– Vinny_Lam

Mwah!

"Kissing. I mean, I like it. It's nice. But honestly, who was the first person to say 'let's mash my mouth against your mouth and see what happens?'"

– Aceandmace

Some people thought animals and animal behavior were strange the more they thought about it.

Dairy

"The fact humans drink other animals milk. Like that liquid isn’t for us. People find the thought of drinking human milk gross but it’s especially formulated for us. It’s something that should be consumed for nutrients when we’re babies, not a regular drink."– zoeymadison

Animal Co-habitation

"As a dog owner and cat owner I sometimes look at them and think, 'there is literally an animal living in my house whose ancestors ran free and hunted other animals and it is just laying upside down all cute on its bed beside me and also can't eat unless I give it food'. So I guess that."

– Tacticalbiscit

Sense Of Direction

"Birds having a built in GPS system. They can fly south for the winter, then fly back to the exact same tree up north."

– DeathSpiral321

We Are Family

"Literally every day my husband and I marvel at the weirdness of a different species of creature being part of our family. Like we care so much about this tiny fluffy non-human woodland critter and he cares about us too."

– shampoo_mohawk_

Scientific phenomena are wild the more you think about it.

The Force

"Gravity."

– Lurkwurst

"It's working against me"

– lu3go

Now Swallow This

"Our stomach naturally produces hydrochloric acid. It's corrosive and can burn through your skin and tissues. Bbuuuuutttr our stomach lining is covered in mucus to prevent us from eating inside out."

"Have you seen hydrochloric in a science experiment? That chemical reaction is insane! Makes sense as we eat meat, bones and catrilage sometimes. If not our poop is gonna be bony..."

– pleasegivemealife

It's Cheesy But It Saves Lives

"Some mold is edible. No matter how stinky it is."

– Mood_Kaonashi

"Even crazier is how mold has shaped modern medicine. The romans used to put moldy bread on wounds which then developed into modern day penicillin."

– Au_Uncirculated

The Web

"The internet. How it works, and also just the whole concept of it. Complete strangers on literally the other side of the planet can interact with me almost instantaneously."

– Wishyouamerry

What is normal, really, anyway?

We have been socialized to think certain things are either normal or utterly bizarre.

I always thought our mere existence as living, sentient, humans is a mind-blowing concept, and many of us take the gift of life for granted.

But maybe having a nonplussed attitude keeps us from completely freaking out about how truly weird it is to roam this planet for an unknown period of time.

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

hantavirus illustration
Joao Luiz Bulcao/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images

Infectious Diseases Expert Speaks Out After MAGA Makes Predictably Unfounded Claim About Hantavirus

For those unaware, ivermectin is an FDA-approved antiparasitic medication used to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms as well as external parasites like lice.

Parasites are organisms that depend on a host to both survive and spread. There are three main types of parasites that call humans home—the endoparasites protozoa and helminths (worms), which cause infection inside the body, and ectoparasites, which cause infection superficially within or on the skin.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hayden Panettiere
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Hayden Panettiere Just Publicly Came Out As Bisexual—And She Explained Why She Waited So Long

Scream and Heroes star Hayden Panettiere is soon releasing her memoir This is Me: A Reckoning, and according to an interview with US Weekly, she almost didn't write it.

Despite many of her characters being confident, kind, and often bubbly in nature, Panettiere's life at home was riddled with dark moments, including tremendous public pressure, abuse, drug addiction, and tragic loss.

Keep ReadingShow less
Brian Niccol
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

The CEO Of Starbucks Just Gave A Mind-Numbing Defense For Charging $9 For Coffee 'Experience'—And People Aren't Having It

What's the absolute most you'd ever agree to pay for a coffee? If you said the absurd amount of $9, you're apparently Starbucks' ideal customer.

The coffee chain's CEO Brian Niccol is getting dragged on the internet for insisting that $9 is a perfectly reasonable price for a cup of joe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Zohran Mamdani
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani Praised For His Post About Fashion Industry's Unsung Heroes After Skipping Met Gala

Each year, the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—dubbed just The Met—hosts an invite-only fundraising gala in New York City, currently boasting a $100,000-a-ticket price tag.

The Met Gala has been called "fashion’s biggest night" with icons of fashion and entertainment rubbing elbows with the uber-wealthy in The Met's Fifth Avenue location on Manhattan's Upper East Side. This year's theme was "Fashion is Art."

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Massie; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Ilhan Omar
Heather Diehl/Getty Images; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

'Satirical' MAGA Attack Ad Slammed For Using AI To Claim GOP Rep Is In 'Throuple' With AOC And Ilhan Omar

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie and his ex-colleague, former George Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, criticized a "satirical" attack ad running in Kentucky that claims Massie is in a "throuple" with New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar.

The ad opens with the line, “Thomas Massie caught in a throuple! In Washington, he’s cheating with the Squad on the America First movement,” before showing AI-generated images of Massie holding hands with Omar and sharing dinners with her and Ocasio-Cortez in staged scenes.

Keep ReadingShow less