Author: Winn Sioux Christnot-Peters

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People Describe The Best ‘Poverty Meals’ From Childhood They Still Love To This Day

Childhood poverty is no joke.

But there are certain aspects of growing up poor that people actually enjoy that upper and middle class kids usually don’t experience.

One of those is the so-called “poverty meal”—a go to quick meal for when you’re really broke made from inexpensive pantry staples like macaroni, rice, potatoes and canned goods.

The dubiously named Redditor laced-with-arsenic asked:

“What’s your favorite poverty meal that you still eat regardless of where you are financially?”

Steak Fingers

“Grew up poor, but my mom sure knew how to stretch a dollar. She would make steak fingers out of the cheapest meat cuts she could find.”

“Tenderize, fry them up make gravy out of the drippings and serve with mashed potatoes. The whole meal probably cost less than 5 bucks in 70s dollars, and I’m telling you nothing tasted better.”

“I made it for my kids when they were growing up and they still ask me for it sometimes. She would be 94 today.”

“Love you, miss you mom.” ~ markarlage

Cereal

“Bowl of cereal.” ~ ApocalypseSpokesman

“My nephew was so excited when he realised that people ate cereal for meals other than breakfast.”

“Didn’t have the heart to tell him.” ~ lilithpingu

“A bag of generic cereal is like 5 or 6 bucks. That’s easily 10-15 meals at least.”

“A gallon of milk where I live is 3 bucks. And that’s good for like 10 bowls of cereal.”

“That comes out to less than a dollar per meal.”

“Add in a banana or toast and you hit at a dollar per meal. Super cheap.” ~ bhfroh

Quesadillas & Chilaquiles

“I’m Mexican. For us, it’s usually quesadillas without meat, rice and black beans as the sides.” ~ Reddit

“For us it’s usually chilaquiles.” ~ mattylou

“Bruh, we can’t even explain to the internet how cheap and tasty chilaquiles are.” ~ SteamFoxx

“Enfrijoladas.” ~ Bob__Kazamakis

“My girlfriend is Mexican and she makes this for us. It’s so wonderful. Homemade everything.” ~ yabaquan643

Sh*t On A Shingle

“Shit on a shingle? Sausage gravy served over toast.” ~ phenomagasm

“SOS! My mom made the gravy from scratch, just flour, butter, milk, and pepper, and used sliced corned beef instead. Mmmmmmm!!” ~ motherfuqueer

“Chipped beef on toast!! My mom was literally the only person I knew who ever made this.” ~ 910ee

“We ate this growing up and we weren’t poor. My mom was very poor growing up.”

“This was comfort food for her. We’d have it once or twice a year in the winter.”

“I still love it and ask her to make it when I visit.” ~ StarryEyes8194

Potatoes

“Boiled potatoes and butter. Don’t care if I am rich or poor that is my go to snack.” ~ dapornaddict

“Aww man this hits hard. Was living alone in London didn’t have much money at all.”

“I’d hit up Aldi get a full chicken for £1.75, a broccoli for 55p, and some potatoes for 55p.”

“I’d make a full roast like a king and still have potatoes to boil and have with butter after. So f’king good.” ~ EnemiesAllAround

“My family does something similar. Put some red skin potatoes, fresh green beans, chicken stock, and seasonings in a pot (or slow cooker) and simmer it for an hour or more.”

“Use a slotted spoon to put some in a bowl, then add a bit of stock and plenty of butter. It’s heaven.” ~ FitChemist432

“Fried eggs with fried potatoes.” ~ MrOtero

“The only meal Romanian dads knew how to cook when mom was away.” ~ Fabulini

“Ukrainian too. My old man can’t cook for sh*t, but I loved every time he made that.” ~ ExtraBitterSpecial

“Same for my Russian dad. I miss his fried potatoes and eggs.” ~ BarefootHippieDesign

“Oven-baked potatoes with salt and margarine.”

“Cheap ingredients found in almost every home and easy to make. Also, the starch in potatoes makes you feel full for pretty long.” ~ trashturmoilavocado

“I’m Irish and that is my go-to.”

“I can cook potatoes 100 ways.”

“I could have made a 5lb bag of potatoes last a week in my university days.” ~ guinnesshappy

Macaroni

“We called it ‘Ghetto Mac’ where you make some pasta and add in whatever you can find in the fridge or cabinets. Cheese, lunch meat, spam, spices, etc…”

“No two meals were ever the same.” ~ RhondaTheHonda

“We always called it poverty pasta.” ~ TehGogglesDoNothing

“We called that white trash casserole.” ~ WonBigMayor

“We always just called it goulash even though it doesn’t resemble traditional goulash at all.” ~ koolaideprived

“Called it goulash. Usually ground beef, stewed tomatoes and a can of vegetables in elbow macaroni but my mom had been known to do hot dogs, ham, sausage or just extra veggies.”

“Goulash is traditionally a soup but this was more of a casserole.” ~ Urithiru

“All this time I didn’t even know it had a name we would just do this to try to make a meal.” ~ JtDeluxe

Dal

“Dal.”

“Aside from tumeric you can buy all the ingredients for less than $2 a pound.” ~ Spam-Monkey

“Oh yeah! Dal is magic. Lentils in general deserve more love.”

“They are SO GOOD FOR YOU, and are delicious. They make a great meat substitute if you’re broke or just want to go meatless.” ~ tomboyfancy

“As an Indian, I see where you’re coming from, but I really never saw it that way before.” ~ RupesSax

“Dal by itself? Nah. But khitchdi? Now you’re talking! My favourite comfort food.” ~ hsihsadna

Squash

“We used to eat (zucchini or yellow neck) squash and eggs growing up. Grew the squash and eggs are cheap enough, or trade with the neighbors.”

“You just cut the squash into thin round and cook in a pan with a little oil until they’re just soft. Scramble the eggs with the squash, add a bunch of pepper, some salt.”

“Sometimes we ate it over noodles or rice.” ~ _Not-A-Monkey-St_

Soup

“Egg drop soup: – 1 quart chicken stock – 1 tbsp soy sauce – 1 tbsp corn starch – 1 inch grated ginger – whisk in 2 eggs – green onions sprinkled.” ~ csaszarcasa

“Soup boiled down with rice to bulk it up.” ~ StanMarsh02

“Dump a can of your favorite condensed ‘cream of’ atop a cup or two of rice. Best damn comfort food when you’re sick.” ~ Stargate525

“My grandma (who grew up during WWII) taught me that you can make soup from almost anything.”

“At least once a week I just throw a bunch of scrap veggies, left over meat, rice and whatever other random bits are left over from the week’s meals into a pot with some stock, boil it all together and bam.” ~ Reddit

PB & Sometimes J

“Peanut butter sandwich.” ~ Thinkpad200

“Nothing beats a good ole-fashioned PB&J, hold the J” ~ rezamwehttam

“My oldest son (about 4) would always say ‘I want a cooked peanut butter and jelly sandwich’, which meant peanut butter and jelly on toast.

“My middle son (about 2) would proceed to say ‘I want the same thing but not cooked and no jelly’.”

“I’d say so a peanut butter sandwich? ‘NO, I WANT A PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY NOT COOKED WITH NO JELLY!’” ~ ImNotBettyBoopg

“I had a PB&J recently and felt like a f’king fool! Why did I stop eating these when I became an adult?”

“Society lead me to believe this was the way. It is not!”

“Been having PB&J a couple nights a week since. I refuse to let societies unenlightened views dictate my dinner choices!”

“PB&J is a top tier dish for any occasion.” ~ Iminurcomputer

There are definitely regional and cultural differences. Many enduring comfort foods also qualify as poverty meals.

The recipes remain popular because they’re simple, quick and inexpensive.

What are the poverty meals you still love?

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People Break Down The One Message They’d Send Telepathically To Everyone On Earth If They Could

The ability to send a telepathic message to everyone on earth may seem mighty tempting, but what would you actually say?

Would you tell people to be kind? Try to bring an end to war? Play a giant prank on the whole of humanity?

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Redditor HarshJShinde asked:

“If you could telepathically say something that all 7.8 Billion people on earth could hear at once what would it be?”

No Escape

“WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU ABOUT YOUR CAR’S EXTENDED WARRANTY”

–rondoctor

“I always tell them I don’t have a car. Then they try to sell me life insurance lmao”

“The next time they try to sell me life insurance, I’m gonna ask them if they’re threatening me.”

–jcw10489

“Brah my car is 29 years old and they call me every week from a new number.”

–Redditor

“I literally just got 2 of those calls back to back within 5 minutes. And I can’t even not answer them since I have to take calls from work. It’s a pain in the ass to get any sleep.”

–SugoiBakaMatt

“Or the ‘IRS is going to press charges’ or whatever those calls are. Best part is, 95% of the world will have no idea what the IRS is, or have a very different interpretation.”

–boot2skull

“HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU, MY CAR IS 18 YEARS OLD AND I BOUGHT IT FROM SOME SKETCHY DUDE THAT BARELY SPOKE ENGLISH AND DIDN’T SIGN THE TITLE. IT DOESN’T HAVE A WARRANTY.”

–illpicklater

Countdown To…?

“A countdown, starting at a decently high number… Let’s say 255. It would be in a monotone, androgynous voice, and everyone would hear it in their own language.”

“The countdown would stop at 6.”

–thehonestyfish

Just Testing

“Test message. Please ignore.”

–swanny52

“don’t panic guys. just the simulation developer testing code in production mode. classic mistake.”

–ashesofturquoise

“Honestly though, that would get conspiracy theorists going. ‘I told you the government is trying mind control’”

–StudMuffinNick

The Most Annoying Part Of YouTube

“‘According to my YouTube statistics, only a small percentage of my viewers are actually subscribed. So if you end up liking this video, please subscribe. It’s free, and you can always unsubscribe later. Also, there’s been a YouTube glitch that’s been going around that makes you unsubscribe randomly, so if you could just scroll down and check if you’re subscribed, it would help me out a lot. With that out of the way, let’s get on with the video.’”

-SeffboiProductions

“‘Hey guys welcome back to my channel…’”

–pure_combistion

“‘This video is sponsored by raid shadow legends’”

-Livid-Classroom

Ye Who Smelt It…

“‘Whomever just farted managed to disturb the eternal conscience’”

–_Trygon

Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn

“‘You picked the correct religion. I am real, and this is the proof you’ve been asking for.’”

“Then I’d watch the world blow up.”

–watch_over_me

“all the atheists are gonna be completely stumped”

-AyeAye_Kane

“The reverse of this would be a lot better. ‘You picked the wrong one.’”

–ThePoultryWhisperer

“Damn, I almost like that better, lol. The whole world would just start freaking and going mad.”

–watch_over_me

“Thanks satan”

–The_gryphon_

Incoherent Screaming

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

“That’ll get the message across.”

–The_darter

Whoops

“Anything telepathic transmitted to every living human being on Earth without explanation would immediately be taken as the voice of God by the majority I’m sure.”

“Therefore, the only thing I’d say would be something along the lines of, ‘Whoops… sorry.’”

“EDIT: If, perhaps, this scenario was ongoing and the [mic] was left hot, I would probably maintain silence punctuated with a long series of well-timed Colin Robinson style annoying coughs that just… linger forever in the background of your mind.”

–Redditor

“‘Hey uhhh… I don’t usually do this but I just wanted to tell you all I’m sorry for… well you’ll see.’”

–TheHornyToothbrush

This One’s For The Programmers

“Hello world”

–lj_w

“You forgot the first part. ‘import universe as unv’”

–darklotus_26

Special Containment Procedures

“The following is a message composed via consensus of the O5 Council.”

“For those who are not currently aware of our existence, we represent the organization known as the SCP Foundation. Our previous mission centered around the containment and study of anomalous objects, entities and other assorted phenomena. This mission was the focus of our organization for more than one-hundred years.”

“Due to circumstances outside of our control, this directive has now changed. Our new mission will be the extermination of the human race.”

“There will be no further communication.”

–thatguysmellsalot

“Oh, sh*t, I like this one. Not even just a general ‘Hi, we exist’ but an excerpt from one of the SCP stories. I believe it’s called ‘A spectator at the end of the world’ or something similar.”

–FuzzieMonkie

Eternal Ear-worm

“‘Remember the time where Mambo No. 5 wasn’t stuck in your head?’”

–oliverklozov_

“‘Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mambo No. 5′”

–crisantocaz

“Some people just want to watch the world burn”

–NameRogue

That’s A Negative

“‘Don’t do it.’”

“Could save some lives. Could stop some petty crime. Could prevent a perfectly good wedding from happening. Who knows? Results would be interesting.”

–prophetuscaecus

“Imagine how many people wouldn’t microwave their burritos for dinner.”

–Redditor

More Impossible Ear-worms

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, A tale of a fateful trip That started from this tropic port Aboard this tiny ship.”

“The mate was a mighty sailing man, The skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day For a three hour tour, a three hour tour…..”

–dorvann

“Alright this, BUT”

“‘This is a story all about how, my life got flip turned upside down….’”

–TheHeresyTrain

It’s All A Simulation

“Act out a conversation between 2 people talking about shutting down the simulation, then freak out about accidentally broadcasting the conversation in the simulation.”

–King_Kezza

“One of my first experiences of sleep paralysis was essentially that only it ended with them deciding to make me think it was a dream.”

–a_stack_of_9_turtles

Get That Bread

“Not going to lie, I’m selling this massive advertising opportunity to the highest bidder.”

–freecain

“RAID: Shadow Legends”

–The__IT__Guy

“With telepathy like this you want to make sure your mind is secure. That’s why I use nord vpn.”

–IBeBallinOutaControl

“And thus, everyone on earth telepathically heard a voice say ‘Not going to lie, I’m selling this massive advertising opportunity to the highest bidder’.”

–ancientweird

“Tonight’s dreamscape brought to you by Nord VPN. Get the new Nord VPN brain bundle to protect yourself from nightmares.”

-Shadowedsphynx

Taking A Page Out Of Donnie’s Book

“’28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds.’”

–4GotMyFathersFace

“I’m beginning to seriously doubt your commitment to sparkle motion!”

–henREE_13

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish

“People of Earth, your attention, please. This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council. As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system. And regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you.”

–botchman

“There’s no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department on Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.”

–Stompya

“What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? For heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”

–Luxray1000

Whatever you would choose to say, everyone can agree this would be a world-altering event.

Choose wisely.

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People Break Down Examples Of The Laziest Person Doing The Most Difficult Job Best

Microsoft founder Bill Gates once said:

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job.”

“Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”

The idea is actually somewhat sound, although an efficient person might be a better choice.

The quote speaks to the concept of “work smarter, not harder.”

Choosing someone who will find the shortcuts to solve a difficult problem can be better than putting your most ambitious person on it. The most complicated way is often not the best way to complete something.

But just because a billionaire tech mogul said it and it sounds good on paper, doesn’t mean it works in practice.

So Redditors lauvnoodles and Slimer425 both asked variations of:

“There’s a saying about giving the hardest job to the laziest person because they’ll find the easiest way to do it—what is your best real-life example?”

Macros, Not Micros

“I knew a guy who had a low level data/reporting job. He had several daily/weekly work responsibilities, including a bunch of reports that needed quite a bit of tweaking from raw data to finished product. But like I said, low level.”

“We didn’t find out until way later, but he had set up macros for each of his major responsibilities where he could. Once set up, he’d just run the macros to do his work, but then he’d (smartly) hold off on delivering the reports until just a little before the deadlines.”

“He’d hit every assignment and was seen as reliable. He also would complain about the workload so people would leave him with that work. I doubt he did a full hour of work a day after he set up what he did.”

“Eventually he left the job for one with better pay. But damn did he work lazy.”

“Also, he was smart not to reveal until the end, because had he told them about it he would have gotten a pat on the back and would have been given a whole other workload, on top of maintaining those macros/etc…”

“Dude milked the job, not the other way around.” ~ daithisfw

Automate

“Any good IT guy will find a way to automate his job so he can sit around browsing [the internet].”

“I left my last Sys Admin Job for a better paying job and the next guy called me and asked how I was doing the work of 3 people. He was going through the daily playbook and was so far behind…”

“I asked him if he was going through the Manual playbook, or the Automated playbook, as I had left both on my desk. Evidently my former boss had taken the automated one to do the work in the interim and never told the new hire about it.” ~ Zooloph

“I remember I worked in a small IT department in college and the head admin had EVERYTHING automated. He’d spend the whole day playing games or watching YouTube but he still performed all of his duties in a timely manner.”

“One day we played a full game of Civilization V while monitoring the progress of a script that updated everyone in the office from Windows XP to Win 7. All of the work got done on time and correctly so we really weren’t doing anything ‘wrong’.” ~ Bearlodge

Know Your Equipment

“Was a temp.”

“Got hired for the day to print 30 packets with 100 pages each.”

“‘Why would it take a day?’ I asked.”

“‘Our printer doesn’t collate the pages so it will take you the day to sort the pages into the 30 packets,’ they said.”

“Right.”

“It was a standard office Xerox printer. It took me all of 30 seconds to find and click the ‘collate’ button. Clicked the ‘staple’ button while at it.”

“All got printed by itself into nice stapled packets and I got paid to browse internet for the day. They thought I was a genius for ‘fixing’ their printer and gave me glowing recommendations to the temp agency that led to more jobs.” ~ wilksonator

Math Is Your Friend

“At my last job, a truck suspension shop, we did inventory every December and it was someone’s job to count all the washers and screws of every size.”

“It was my first inventory and I casually mentioned that they should just weigh one screw or washer, then weigh them all and divide the weight to get the count. Everyone looked at me like I had given them the key to the universe.”

“Counting washers and screws went from a day or two, to just a few hours.” ~ codymreese

Automation Might Be Your Friend But Not Your Coworker’s

“I inherited a job where the last person spent half their time manually typing numbers into Excel. I turned a bunch of 5 hour jobs into 5 minute jobs and made the job really easy.”

“I was only in a 1 year assignment and spent a lot of it automating everything and got a promotion afterward so it all worked out.”

“Still though, using technology right can get rid of a lot of jobs. I work in corporate finance, and we can do the same stuff with a team of four that 20 people were doing 30 years ago.” ~ munchies777

“A college kid picked up an office job over one summer. He became friends with an older lady at the front desk who always needed help figuring out Excel.”

“He kept finding shortcuts for her, and eventually wrote scripts for her that took a load of work off her plate.”

“By the end of the summer he had made her job so easy that they decided they didn’t need her to do it anymore. They fired her.” ~ seancurry1

Outsourcing

“My brother gave my oldest nephew 10 dollars a week if he did all his chores without needing to be told or complaining.”

“One day he gets home early from work and sees the neighbor kid tossing a bag in the trash. He asks him what he is doing and the kid says he gets 5 bucks a week to take care of a few chores.”

“My nephew outsourced his chores.” ~ Downvotesdarksouls

“Now all he needs is to undercut his employee.”

“Scare him straight by telling him the kid down the block will do it for cheaper and this quarter the numbers are lower than expected so take the pay decrease or leave.” ~ AlDaBeast

Let The Machine Do The Work

“I plug clocks in at midnight so they’re already set.” ~ january21st

“Trip the main fuse in the house at midnight to do all the appliances too.” ~ niallw2101

Use The Shortcuts

“I worked ‘goods in’ for an aircraft manufacturer as a summer job at university. Parts would arrive, we’d open them and key in all the details into a terminal.”

“That bit was long winded.”

“I discovered the terminal keyboard had assignable shortcuts, and set up a bunch of them for all the boilerplate items so that keying in an item was about six keystrokes.”

“Saved myself and my workmate hours every day, which we would spend pranking each other, other warehouse staff and staff at other sites.” ~ john_C_random

Skip The Heavy Lifting

“Years ago as a student I got a job stocking shelves. Guys were carrying the heavy boxes, putting them on the floor and bending each time to pick up the items to put on the shelves.”

“I was maybe a light 100 pound (woman) and carrying the boxes was just killing me physically.”

“So one day I had an idea. I put the box on an old desk chair and rolled it around.”

“No more carrying and no more bending!

“Funny thing is that, instead of doing the same thing, most of the guys called me lazy and kept carrying the heavy boxes. Just to prove how strong they were.”

“Now they have special rolling carts to do the job because of all the injuries from lifting and bending.” ~ sonia72quebec

K-I-S-S Principle

“I began a job where 11-12 people each touched a small piece of one process. More time was spent doing the hand off through email between each of us than the actual work.”

“I suggested several steps it made more sense for me to handle completely instead of handing them off in an email. Soon others suggested the same for their pieces of the process and some people were identified as just in the process to ‘give them something to do’.”

“We now do the same process with only 1-3 people involved and it takes a fraction of the time. It went from over 20 busy work steps to about 5 efficient ones.”

“I’m not sure whoever set it up could have made it any less efficient. Keep It Simple, Silly!” ~ Reddit

So Why Are Things Inefficient?

“I never understood why a boss would want you to do a job that you can do in 1 hour, stretch it to 8 hours and let you do that. If the attitude of the corporate world wasn’t this bad, many things could be so much easier in life.” ~ Reddit

“Oh it’s easy. It’s because they don’t know how to measure productivity. They don’t understand what you do, nor how long ‘things’ take.”

“So they rely instead on the assumption that looking like you’re working is basically the same as ‘being productive’.” ~ sobrique

So it seems work smarter, not harder is pretty sound advice that a lot of workplaces are completely ignoring.

What about where you work?

Posted on

People Describe The Most Unappetizing Food They’ve Ever Eaten

Food is an integral part of our lives, serving both to sustain our bodies and to delight our senses.

Not all food is created equal, though.

Sometimes our senses are tormented rather than delighted.

Redditor phillygirllovesbagel asked:

“What’s the worst food you’ve ever tried?”

Knock-off Chain Restaurants Are Bad News

“I was visiting Fort Huachuca, AZ for work (not in the military).”

“They have a knock-off Panda Express there. Identical menu with different names. Like those bootleg KFCs in China that are identical to KFC but it’s ‘Kevin’s Funky Chicken’ or something.”

“Anyhow, I’m hungry, bootleg Panda seems like a good deal. I order up the usual. Chinese food, like pizza, gets pretty wide latitude. Even if it’s lousy, it’s not that bad.”

“This was straight-up inedible. I don’t even have the words to describe it. Just gristle and batter all fried together.”

“Ended up just tossing the whole thing out and going to Burger King.” -Deadlifts_n_Riffs

Home Cooking Can Be Dangerous Too

“my own chicken, honey, lemon concoction which was less ‘Italian summer’ and more like fisherman’s friend lozenge.” -Candy_Lawn

“Reminds me of the time I tried to make up my own orange-juice-based reduction/sauce thing for chicken and pasta. I don’t know what made me think I had any idea how to make that work. It did not work.” -super_aardvark

The Chili That Wasn’t

“There was a week where my mom was out so my dad had to cook for my brother and I. His first day he made chili. By chili I mean that he browned some beef, threw it in a pot with water and added one single packet of chili seasoning to the water and served it to us.”

“We had frozen pizza the rest of the week.” DrGingeyy

“I’m impressed he browned the beef first, that’s a common overlooked thing with first-time cooks.” –satooshi-nakamooshi

“Ah, watery ground beef soup–a college dorm classic.”

“That it was followed with frozen pizza only makes me more certain this exact sequence has played out on thousands of college campuses across the globe.” -drewhead118

“We have a chili cook-off at work every year before Christmas. There is usually 10 or so entries and 6 are really good, two are okay and two are absolute war crimes. Beef, water, chili packet, chopped and uncooked onions and green peppers and a can of beans.”

“It’s like badly flavored chili soup. I don’t know who makes them, but I feel horrible for their family.” -SafewordisJohnCandy

It Is Technically A Loaf Of Meat

“My ex MIL’s meatloaf. She literally just pressed ground beef into a square baking pan and threw it in the oven. Zero spices. Zero anything but hot ground beef.”

“She also made ‘baked spaghetti’ which was cooked spaghetti noodles with plain tomato sauce in a pan and baked.”

“Her cooking made me realize why I had to twist my ex’s arm to try REAL meatloaf and baked ziti the way it’s supposed to be made.” -SugarHooves

World’s Worst Burger?

“In the Dominican Republic, there is a mountain in Puerto Plata called Isabel de Torres. On that mountain there is a restaurant. That restaurant sells the worst goddamn burgers you will ever eat in your life.” -JoshPoshTheGreat

“Ok this is so f*cking oddly specific, I need more details.” -ThirdFloorNorth

“I actually came to say this. Amazingly, I’ve had these burgers twice. The second time we didn’t plan well and assumed the first time was a fluke. Fool me once…” -Semi-Pro_Biotic

“It’s incredible that 2 people both find the same obscure restaurant’s burgers so memorably bad but you guys GOTTA elaborate on the actual burger.” -JeromesDream

“Funny enough, I’m in Puerto Plata right now. I was going to take the cable car to the top of the mountain so I could take pics, give the play by play. However, the attraction doesn’t reopen until I leave. I wanted to go full metal Reddit, but whatever.”

“From memory, the beef in the Caribbean comes from a different species in the Bos genus than what is common in the US. The flavor is different, closer to farmed venison.”

“Side effect or intentional, it’s about 95-99% lean. Take that meat, ground coarse, make a very thin patty, cook it so that it doesn’t stick to the griddle, basically steams in it’s own moisture.”

“Throw that on a Latin roll, leafy lettuce, cheap tomato, gas station condiments. The sliced onion is the shining star.”

“Onions here are very good, sweet but tasty. The ultimate injustice then is when you bite, the texture is pasty and rubbery at the same time. Hope that helps.” -Semi-Pro_Biotic

“Jellied Salad” Says All You Need To Know

“Jellied salad.”

“Lots of my family still thinks aspics are a necessity for family dinners so there’ll usually be a variety of jellied salads. Tomato salad, shredded cabbage salad, usually some kind of weird olive and hard boiled egg combo for some reason.”

“All sitting on their plates, perfectly rectangular, wiggling away…” -LycheeEyeballs

“My mother constantly posts pictures on facebook for sole reason of grossing people out. The spagettio’s one that looked like a bunt cake got me.” -WinksAtLemons

“I didn’t know that people actually ate that stuff. I really thought they were a joke until this year.” -crackhappy

“My family has an orange one with veggies (canned corn or similar) and marshmallows.” -TheRealKestrel

Don’t Eat Rancid Meat

“On New Year’s day a few years ago, my dad bought ribs to make for dinner. Upon taking my first bite, I spit it out immediately.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever spit food out like that other than this one time. It turned out they were totally rancid, and to this day I still can’t eat ribs. Thankfully, none of us actually got sick.” -that-nerd

“I smoke ribs often. I’ve been going to my butcher for 10 years and never had an issue.”

“Over the 4th of July, I bought 3 racks of baby backs to smoke for the family up at the cabin. I thawed them out in the fridge.”

“Opened up the vacuum pack and it was the absolute worst smell in the history of smells. Pure f’king sulfur smell.

“Almost 5 months later, I can still smell it in my nose. I don’t know what the hell happened or even if they were edible but at that point, there was no cooking them. In the trash they went.”

“I had to air my cabin out for a solid 7-8 hours.” -DC4MVP

At Least She Tried

“My mom made this thing when i was younger called cheeseburger pie. no clue what box she got it from but my god did 9-year-old me not enjoy it.”

“I just thought it was a deconstructed cheeseburger, but no, there were like five other things in there and nothing made sense together.”

“She also made meatloaf a few weeks later and it was drier than the damn Sahara desert. never again.” -spacepharmacy

“My mom is a very good cook, but once she decided to make a recipe from the back of the Bisquick box, it was called impossible cheeseburger pie. The idea was that the bicuit mix was supposed to rise to the top and create something like a shepherd’s pie but with a dumpling topping instead of mashed potatoes.”

“After we all tried to choke some down, mom apologized, threw it in the trash, and we had waffles or something for dinner. Impossible cheeseburger pie became a running joke in our family. I wonder if that’s what you had.” -strum_and_dang

The Worst Flan

“I was in France and stopped by a place in Paris. I had been traveling for several months and missed Mexican food.”

“When the owner found out I was Mexican she insisted I try the flan she just made as a first attempt. The food was pretty alright, not like home but it hit the spot. She brought out the flan and stood there expectantly waiting for my response.”

“It was absolutely the worst flan I had ever had in my life. Like it just tasted bad. Like eggs that were off.”

“I couldn’t hide my reaction and she became visibly upset. I ate a little more to be polite but just couldn’t anymore.”

“I told her I’m just very picky and suggested a few things as I had worked in a bakery that had made some in the past (aside from family recipes). I gave her my contact info and a few weeks later got an email thanking me.”

“A group of Mexican musicians came through and told her while it wasn’t traditional it was very tasty and had a good texture and that any time I was back to please stop by for a meal on the house.”

“Unfortunately the next time I was back the place had closed down.” -Malignantrumor99

Let It Ripen First

“Unripe persimmon. It tastes ok but the tannins in the fruit, if not properly soft and ripe, make your mouth immediately feel fuzzy, like your tongue is shot with novocaine.”

“A completely unexpected mouth feel where your immediate reaction is ‘Get this out of my mouth NOW!’ Now i know!” -1_art_please

One can only hope to never experience any of the dreadful foods in this list.

Food’s primary purpose may be to sustain our bodies, but there’s no reason eating it should have to be a chore.

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People Explain Which Dating ‘Red Flags’ Actually Don’t Bother Them At All

Relationships are complicated, and dating even moreso.

People are often told to look out for “red flags” when dating, but what really constitutes a red flag?

Redditor TaxiDriverThankGod asked:

“What is seen as a red flag in dating which you believe is actually a ‘green flag’?”

It’s Not Always An Overshare

“Depending on the situation, oversharing. Some times you just gotta put it all out there right away and if they don’t like it, you’re not wasting your time.” -Cyndas-quil

“I’m lucky enough to be married to the love of my life and together for 15+ years since we were teenagers so don’t need to worry about dating but I have ADHD and am the absolute worst for over sharing, I’ll tell you my life story and all my deepest darkest secrets if you so much as hint that you might give a sh*t.” -InncnceDstryr

“I have very severe anxiety and I tend to get a lot of panic attacks so that’s something I like to make known right away because I’ve had too many experiences with guys dumping me and blaming my anxiety for it.”

“Mental illness can really complicate things when it comes to dating because it’s different for everyone so you can’t expect everyone to understand and want to stick around. You’re so lucky to have found someone who has been with you every step of the way no matter what. It’s not easy to find people like that.” -Cyndas-quil

“I overshare because I’m way past the point of giving f*ck about keeping up with false appearances or trying to seem like my life is more perfect than it is. These days I’d rather both sides lay it out straight, let’s not waste my time or theirs playing that stupid back and forth footsie game only for one of us to back out once all the information becomes clear. F*ck that, I’ve wasted far too much time due to that exact thing.” -Captain_Aizen

Excitement Is A Good Thing

“Being excited to go on another date, immediately.”

“Could be codependency, or it could be that you’re genuinely that interesting to her. Why wouldn’t I want to spend a lot of time with someone I like?” -uselessthrowawaydude

“Yeah it’s weird that society expects people to act like they don’t care that much when dating.” -vercetti87

“It’s really weird when it contradicts how you’d treat a friend. Like, it makes sense to not jump the gun and make grand statements of love and affection and so on right off the bat, but for schedules to really work and all that, any friend group knows that it helps to set up the next meetup, get an idea of work schedules, etc.”

“Yet with dating, it often seems the opposite and you get people trying to get the romance and the affection while limiting the discussion of logistics.”

“Ftr, it’s understandable why this springs up in context, but it just… seems like a miracle that anybody actually gets it to work this way.” -country2poplarbeef

Different Skills Entirely

“Being bad at dating in general. Dating and relationships have completely different skill sets. One requires timing and guarding your information and trying to show your best self and not being too weird and handling these various interested people while the other requires opening up and sharing your true self with just one person. Totally different skill sets. People who are terrible at dating might be just great at being in a relationship, ya know?” -TommyTuttle

“100% me. I absolutely LOATHED dating. HAAAAAAAAAATED it. I wasn’t good at the trade craft of it all.”

“I think I am a pretty darn good partner though. Now that all that BS is behind is, we can just get down to the business of being together.” -LifeOpEd

“Agreed. Awkward people can make the best friends and soulmates. I’m outgoing and my SO was always awkward and bad at flirting but we get along like nothing else.” -Helicocccter

Shouldn’t Wanting To Communicate Be A Good Thing?

“Being open. Texting multiple times. Not caring to much about social dating rules.” -goudendonut

“This. If a guy I’m interested in answers my text soon, not wait a day or a week later, it shows he’s interested and prioritizes me.” -PuzzledInside123

“It also makes it more authentic instead of going to that overthinking mode for cool responses.” -goudendonut

Why Make Them Wait?

“The three day rule is just plain stupid. I can’t count the number of times I’ve assumed someone wasn’t interested because after a first date they didn’t text for days. And have had several who thought I was weird for texting within that time. How is showing interest a bad thing? If it’s a bad date sure, but I don’t see any reason for this social norms bs of ‘don’t seem too eager or they’ll think you’re weak.’” -EvieJC

Find Out If You Want The Same Things

“Discussing life goals and future desires such as kids, marriage, work or education within the first few dates. Some people think it’s to heavy for getting to know someone, but to me nothing is more freeing than knowing the expectations and goals the other person has set so we can both make an informed decision.” -4Gotten1

“Yeah I’ve had friends who got engaged really quickly and I’ve asked them about things like if they’re gonna have kids, where do they want to live other things like that and they admit that they haven’t talked about it at all. Like you need to know about those things before you marry someone.” -Mangobunny98

“How do you make a commitment to a life with someone when you don’t even know if they want the same kind of life you do?? That’s wild to me.” -Proud_Hedgehog_6767

Being Able To Talk About Emotions Is A Good Thing

“Oversharing their emotions. I am too weak in understanding people. So if someone is very expressive about how they feel… I’m all in.” -friday_panda

“My girlfriend was like this when we first started to date. Wasn’t a red flag. More like a yellow flag at that time. But it’s turned out well because she’s always open to communicating and sharing her feelings whenever something is bothering her in life or in our relationship. We rarely ever get into arguments because she chooses to share and communicate and encourages me to before it gets to the point of it causing a fight.” -texxmix

Companionable Silence Rocks

“Running out of things to say. It’s a good sign that the person you are with is comfortable not jabbering” -SlapDickery

“If you can feel comfortable with them in silence, that’s a green flag. You don’t necessarily want the silence to be due to lack of mutual interest, but it is important that not every moment needs to be filled with speaking.” -omgtater

“Agreed! I’m generally the person in a conversation who likes to facilitate what others are saying and play more of a supportive role, but the people who will monologue at others like a steamroller on meth just drive me insane. Being talkative =/= social skills.” -MyGreatBurner5198

Weirdness Makes Things Interesting

“Honestly weirdness, I need someone interesting. Mutual weirdness is the way to go.” -Firm_Egg2505

“Weird can mean many things, good and bad. But I think I know where you’re coming from. I’m down for weird as in forgetful, goofy and funny way.” -DyingOfExcitement

Nerds Unite!

“Hardcore hobbies. Nerds make great lovers.” -RedneckNomad

“I’ve met my favorite lovers through medieval reenactment.” -Kataphractoi

Not everyone communicates the same ways, or looks for the same things in relationships.

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Etymologists Nerd Out On Their Favorite Word Origins

English is an incredibly complicated language which pulls many of its words from other languages.

The subject of how words came to mean what they currently do is often a fascinating one.

The study of word origins is called etymology.

Redditor ocddoc asked:

“Etymologists of Reddit, what is the coolest origin of a word?”

Dashboard

“The dashboard is a board on the front of a horse carriage meant to keep mud from kicking up on the passengers when the horse dashes.”

“And over time it came to mean the front part of anything, even a computer interface is sometimes called a dashboard.” -Catsh*t-Dogfart

Ampersand

“Ampersand (&) used to be a letter in the English alphabet. It came after Z in the in alphabet.”

“In the alphabet song, after you finished with Z, kids would sing: ‘and per se and’ which is where the name ampersand comes from. ‘And per se and’ basically means ‘also and as itself’.” -ZES_4

“When I was little we had a blackboard that had the alphabet listed across the top, followed by an ampersand. So when we sang the alphabet song we ended with ‘z and ampersand.’ This would have been in the very late 50’s.” -marsglow

“Also the character itself is the Latin word “et” squished together into a ligature.” -eg_taco

“Similarly, the exclamation mark likely started as the word ‘io’, latin for joy, written at the end of sentences. It eventually shrank to i over o and the o became a dot. The question mark started as the latin ‘questio’ shortened to ‘qo’, then stacked, and the o shrinks to a dot.” -fade_is_timothy_holt

Barbarian

“The word ‘barbarian’ comes from an Ancient Greek word referring to all non-Greek speakers (including Egyptians, Phoenicians, etc.) This was because to the Greeks, all other languages sounded like people saying ‘bar bar bar’. This became the root for the word βάρβαρος (bárbaros), which roughly means ‘babble’ or ‘gibberish’.”

“It was later adopted by the Romans to refer to any culture that did not practice Greek or Roman traditions (even though Latin-speakers were technically classified as barbarians because they didn’t speak Greek). Due to good old xenophobia, it eventually came to mean ‘uncivilized’, and from there it made its way through the centuries into Middle English.” -Redditor

Our Ancestors Were All Scared Of Bears

“The word ‘bear’ in many languages in Europe (including English) just means ‘brown thing’. There used to be a proper name for bear, but it was taboo because saying it was believed to summon a bear, who would then kill everyone. It was so taboo it was eventually forgotten and the euphemism (brown thing) became the name.”

“Ancient people were scared pissless of bears.”

“The Arctic draws its root from arctus, greek for bear. So its the ‘land of bears’.”

“The Antarctic is thus, ‘the land without bears’.” -SolarDubstep

“In eastern slavic languages they were so scared that even the ‘brown thing’ became taboo. The world is still used as a part of ‘bear’s lair’ name, but the animal itself is named as ‘the-one-who-knows-where-is-honey’.” -ofedorov

“Man I’m from slovakia and my initial reaction was ‘what? Nah’ and then I realized it.”

“To clarify, Slovak word for bear is medved’. Med = honey, veď = know/to know”

“You blew my goddamn mind good sir” -heythatsmyarmyounut

Roger That

“Roger is just the modern English equivalent of the Old English and Old Norse name Hrothgar.”

“Additionally, Hrothgar means ‘famous spear’, and is the name of the Danish King in the medieval epic poem Beowulf.” -Redditor

Magnificent Melons

“Melon—not particularly interesting in itself, it came from Ancient Greek, through Latin, to Old French, before finding its way to English. All along the way it referred to various gourds. However, and this is the interesting bit, melons was slang for boobs in Greek, and it retained this slang definition as well as its ‘real’ definition all the way to English. Usually in etymology you keep one definition or the other, and never both, which makes it really interesting. Also boobies.” -KaiF1SCH

Five Elements

“The word ‘quintessential’ has one of my favorite etymologies.”

You can break it down into ‘quint and ‘essential.’ Quint as in ‘five.’ ‘Essential’ as in ‘essence,’ or ‘element.’ To be quintessential is to be the fifth element of something. To be the thing’s spirit.” -Sedu

“Multipass!” -GozerDGozerian

“So ‘The Fifth Element’ is a quintessential movie no matter what anybody says” -Fight_Milk92

“In Aristotelian cosmology ‘The fifth element’, after air, earth, water and fire, was believed to be the essence of everything. It was speculated that when things change they change into this fifth element and then change back to one of the other four elements or a combination of them. This way change becomes possible and the logical inconsistency of creating something out of nothing or vice versa becomes impossible (Parmenides).”

“The fifth element was also believed to be the essence of existence and the place of identity. As a result, essence of things remains unchanged when things undergo changes (Heraclitus). The concept was in fact a metaphysical ploy used by Aristotle to refute both Parmenides and Heraclitus at the same time!”

“Also the original Greek word was Pemptousia (pempto (fifth) + ousies (essence)). The word ‘quintessence’ is only a literal latinate form of the word. Also the word ‘aether’ was an adoption that came about around the sixteenth century and before that time was never used to refer to the Aristotelian fifth element.” -sepantaminu

Tawdry Origins

“The etymology of ‘tawdry’ is a real ride.”

“There was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon saint named Æthelthryth. Now, nobody, not even 7th century Anglo-Saxons, wants to go around trying to pronounce that dense forest of th’s, so she was commonly known as St. Etheldreda, and later, linguistically lazier people called her St. Audrey.”

“St. Audrey was the patron saint of a town called Ely, and the folks of Ely held a fair every year in her name. One of the primary products on offer at these fairs was lace. ‘St. Audrey’s lace’ was said a few too many times, and got slurred down to ‘tawdry lace.’”

“Over time, the lace fell out of favor. It was mainly made by peasant women, and thus viewed as cheap, and the Puritans looked down on lace garments of any kind as ostentatious. ‘Tawdry’ then began to be used to describe other things that were cheap and ostentatious, and the modern definition of the word was born.”

“tl;dr: ‘Tawdry’ comes from the fact that Æthelthryth is really hard to pronounce.” -Rromagar

Truly Terrifying

“Nightmare. The ‘mare’ part of the word ‘nightmare’ comes from Germanic folklore, in which a ‘mare’ is an evil female spirit or goblin that sits upon a sleeper’s chest, suffocating them and/or giving them bad dreams. So basically the word comes from a description of sleep paralysis.” -theonlydidymus

“In German ‘Albtraum’ reflects this folklore as well. ‘Alb’ being an older word for elf, so ‘elf-dream.’ The elf in this case being more like the goblin that sits on your chest rather than what we think of today as elves.” -Zganamne

Misunderstood Sarcasm Can Change Words

“Nimrod was originally a compliment referring to one’s hunting skills (Nimrod being a biblical figure known for his ability to hunt), but the definition changed because people didn’t understand Bugs Bunny was calling Elmer Fudd a Nimrod sarcastically.” -Seevian

“As far as I know that only happened in North America. Apparently ‘Nimrod’ is an insult there or something; to me it’s still a Biblical character.”

“Also the X-men had a very capable and dangerous adversary called ‘Nimrod’ in the 90s no doubt not referencing any incompetence but the biblical character.” -dat_heet_een_vulva

“It is stated Sarcastically, the opposite of the truth. ‘No sh*t, Sherlock’, is another one, when insulting someone’s deductive capabilities. Or ‘Great going, Einstein’ when insulting someone’s intelligence.” -Alis451

“I’d say only a small fraction of people use Nimrod in the same sarcastic way that Bugs Bunny did. For majority of kids who grew up hearing Bigs call Elmer Nimrod, and didn’t understand the reference, nimrod became synonymous with idiot.” -kermi42

English is often jokingly referred to as 3 languages stacked on top of each other in a trench coat, and it’s easy to see why when looking at the origins of its words.

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People Break Down The Best Pre-2000 Video Games

There have been some truly magnificent video games made over the past 20 years, but there are still definitely some true classics from before 2000.

Redditor carlstanza asked:

“What pre-2000 video game will always be a banger?”

Build Those Coasters

“Rollercoaster Tycoon 🎢“ -matuzo

“O how the theme park manager that wanted to kill and or trap guests till death came came out in all of us!” -Gomer428

“I made drinks free but toilets $100” -Brad_Breath

“The key was to make umbrellas cheap until is started raining. Then jack the price up to 15-20 bucks. Capitalism at its finest!” -chronoboy1985

“If I had guests who were angry I would drop them into a pit with entertainers and security guards. They could only leave if they were smiling. I didn’t want them to spread ill feelings about the park after all.” -Innercepter

“if you’re doing a mission that required a certain happiness rating, your best bet was to round up as many unhappy people as you can near the end and drop them in the lake. the trick was to kill them close to the end, so you didn’t get the safety violations dragging you down until after the mission cleared.” -skivian

“Zoo Tycoon, the original game was older than me and It genuinely was my childhood. It’s such a genuine shame you literally can’t access really anymore like Rollercoaster Tycoon. Microsoft just literally rerelease the game to be accessible everywhere and you’d make a killing.” -PyroTech11

Silos Needed!

“Command and Conquer Red Alert.”

“Granted it’s a slightly modded version I play still, but damn does it hold up nicely with a tight little community.” -schofield101

“Best. Soundtrack. Ever.” -DrainageSpanial

“I’m a mechanical, I’m a mechanical, I’m a mechanical man… that was the one my best mate use to run around and sing 🥰“

“Age of Empires was another favourite x” -pikachu_cat

Absolutely Diabolical

“Diablo. I remember being like 5-6 years old and absolutely terrified of the butcher. ‘Ahh fresh meat!’” -AFerretWithAHuge

“And the caves had a sick metal soundtrack.” -DrunkPole

“My brother and I would watch my dad play. We were too young to be “brave enough” to play past the opening church levels, so the Butcher and Leoric were about as far as we would ever go on our own.”

“My dad used us to farm too. I managed to get the timing down on the duplication glitch, so I would just get him stacks of gold, potions, and scrolls while he was at work.” -Jester04

“I miss that! Actually having strong emotional reactions to video games. They are so much more immersive when you’re a child.” -ElbowStrike

“Diablo 2 is alive and well (if you ignore the awful servers lol). I’m playing it right now haha”

“They just remade it in more modern graphics and added QoL upgrades. Player base is extremely active right now” -ExileOnBroadStreet

“This was the greatest game of its time. I remember buying it when it said it needed a P60 but I was sure it would run on my DX4 100 that I’d recently built…it didn’t.”

“But when I was able to run it it was the best multiplayer experience I’ve ever had. Me and my mate spent weeks finishing it. Good old coaxial and IPX/SPX.” -blue_nowhere

“I was 8 when I started playing with my brother, and he said ‘go to hell’ and our mother gave him the meanest look.”

“‘No really I’m going to hell to defeat Diablo the lord of terror’” -Wyvern69

Classic Strategy, Still Going Strong

“Age of empires 2” -AdventurousExternal9

“The intro to the first game with the short clip of a guy running head first into a horse ass is still the most random shit of an intro to any game.” -Thehunterforce

“It’s got a robust community even in 2021. I will binge-watch matches on Youtube. It’s crazy how skilled the really good players are to be able to plan and execute so quickly.” -scrambled_cable

“I’ve never had much interest in the game, with maybe a total of a few hours played way back when it was new. I have watched almost all of Hidden Cup.”

“I think it’s mostly that I enjoy T-90’s enthusiasm and knowledge, but it’s also just a really good fair game for competition.” -onioning

“Very close to a perfect game imo” -aBitofRnRplease

“Definitive Edition fixes AI problems, which was one of the few issues in the original and HD Edition.” -pazza89

“Ranked multi is where it’s at. Incredibly well balanced game with how many race options?!” -Slateclean

StarCraft Lives On

“StarCraft” -Bartos565

“I often find myself thinking of cool features I’d love to see added to modern strategy games… only to remember that Brood War was already doing that 20+ years ago. Far and away one of the greatest games of all time.”

“If the pro players weren’t bored from 10,000s of hours played (and hadn’t moved on to MOBAs), I feel like it would still be one of the most-watched eSports.” -LeigusZ

“It still is one of the most watched esports and more illegal money moves through sc betting than any other esport.” -joedude

Reticulating Splines

“SimCity 2000. The music and sound effects still pop up in my head sometimes.” –Codfish_Joe

“‘YOU CAN’T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!’ Take it easy, Reggie, they’re just roads- oh I see…” -campex

“I loved building a city, and then exporting it to Streets of Sim City so I could drive around in said city.” -Jetshadow

“There are times that I make comments about towns that would only make sense to either civil engineers or sim city players.” -MikelGazillion

“The first game I lost several days to my life to.”

“I accidentally played all through the night without getting sleep 3 times in a row. Forced myself not to “just one more minute” the game and just go to bed.” -golgol12

Wahoo! Wahaa!

“Super Mario 64.” -PrxnceZuko

“(throws penguin off the cliff)” -UnsolvedParadox

“I’ve put a lot of hours into that since I got it Xmas’98. Helluva lot of fun.” -Randyfox86

“Even when you’ve done absolutely everything there is to do in the game, it’s still a blast to just run and jump around in.”

“You can speedrun it, you can make your own challenges, you can swoop through the moat with the wing cap at maximum velocity. It’s just a crazy fun world.” -DeathbyChiasmus

Heroes

“Heroes of Might and Magic III” -joltsiboltsi

“Fell down a rabbit hole on HOMM on Friday, actually. It was so well done, used to play multiplayer with my friends and family. Brilliantly done, great story, great expansions, etc…”

“Reading up the wiki on the history, the changes with 3DO (before they went bankrupt), and so on was pretty wild.” -cavscout43

“I still play to this day.” -Jahzen6

“Same, I only play it every few years but every time I do I spend 8-10 hours straight playing. Been doing this for over 20 years.” -MrMooMooDandy

“Same. And for anyone looking to get back into it…”

“Don’t buy the HD edition on steam, buy the complete edition on GoG. And then if you want to go the distance. Go type in ‘heroes 3 HotA’ and download and install that.”

“It’s a player made expansion and balance patch. Also allows things like simultaneous turns in multi-player so you aren’t always waiting on your friends moves!”

“r/heroes3 is also a good reference!” –ApexIsGangster

It’s Truly Unreal

“Unreal Tournament is the best game nobody talks about anymore. It’s a goddamn crime that Epic just abandoned it.” -TheRealGrifter

“M-M-M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL” -redx1105

“I used to play UT every day for years. Just one of the best gaming experiences for me.”

“It is a shame that Epic abandoned it.” -Teleneki

“I was spending hours jumping between buildings (morpheus map) with my rocket launcher. Loved this game. (*Similarly loved Quake 3 at the time).”

“To refresh memories, a sample of someone’s gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IP909D0mlE“ -MACARLOS

I Serve The Flaming Fist!

“Baldur’s Gate.”

“Can’t count the number of times I’ve started, cheated, and stopped playing the first 4 hours of that game.”

“Edit: Just wanted to say, I actually recently(i.e.: about two years ago) bought the Enhanced Edition(and BG2EE, and Planescape, and NWN1EE and 2, and Icewind Dale….) and played through it and BG2, as well as the little bridge campaign they built (Siege at Dragonbridge?).”

“Had a fantastic time and will definitely be doing it without cheating one of these days. 😀 (I used big boy cheats to give my character like 200 9th level spell slots and just steamrolled from one side of the game to the other just to get the story)” -Alouitious

“My mother who never ever played videogames actually played through a few baldurs gates. It has to be on the list.” -BaronVonBadAsh

Hero Of Time

“Zelda OOT [Ocarina of Time]” -evilblizzardemployee

“It was that long ago? You mean I’ve been hating the Water Temple since last century?” -Kamikaze_Bacon

“Since last millennium too.” -Fission_Mailed_2

“Came here to say this. Ocarina is infinitely replayable.” -tlermalik

“Maybe I’m just a freak, but I’ve always enjoyed Majora’s Mask more than OOT. MM just feels like a more complete and vibrant world.”

“OOT is relatively unpopulated and lonely when I’ve replayed it recently.”

“Both are fantastic though.” -Piano_Fingerbanger

The graphics in older games might not be great, but some of the gameplay mechanics and stories are amazing.

They’re definitely worth giving a try if you didn’t play them when they first came out.

Posted on

People Break Down The Best Pre-2000 Video Games

There have been some truly magnificent video games made over the past 20 years, but there are still definitely some true classics from before 2000.

Redditor carlstanza asked:

“What pre-2000 video game will always be a banger?”

Build Those Coasters

“Rollercoaster Tycoon 🎢“ -matuzo

“O how the theme park manager that wanted to kill and or trap guests till death came came out in all of us!” -Gomer428

“I made drinks free but toilets $100” -Brad_Breath

“The key was to make umbrellas cheap until is started raining. Then jack the price up to 15-20 bucks. Capitalism at its finest!” -chronoboy1985

“If I had guests who were angry I would drop them into a pit with entertainers and security guards. They could only leave if they were smiling. I didn’t want them to spread ill feelings about the park after all.” -Innercepter

“if you’re doing a mission that required a certain happiness rating, your best bet was to round up as many unhappy people as you can near the end and drop them in the lake. the trick was to kill them close to the end, so you didn’t get the safety violations dragging you down until after the mission cleared.” -skivian

“Zoo Tycoon, the original game was older than me and It genuinely was my childhood. It’s such a genuine shame you literally can’t access really anymore like Rollercoaster Tycoon. Microsoft just literally rerelease the game to be accessible everywhere and you’d make a killing.” -PyroTech11

Silos Needed!

“Command and Conquer Red Alert.”

“Granted it’s a slightly modded version I play still, but damn does it hold up nicely with a tight little community.” -schofield101

“Best. Soundtrack. Ever.” -DrainageSpanial

“I’m a mechanical, I’m a mechanical, I’m a mechanical man… that was the one my best mate use to run around and sing 🥰“

“Age of Empires was another favourite x” -pikachu_cat

Absolutely Diabolical

“Diablo. I remember being like 5-6 years old and absolutely terrified of the butcher. ‘Ahh fresh meat!’” -AFerretWithAHuge

“And the caves had a sick metal soundtrack.” -DrunkPole

“My brother and I would watch my dad play. We were too young to be “brave enough” to play past the opening church levels, so the Butcher and Leoric were about as far as we would ever go on our own.”

“My dad used us to farm too. I managed to get the timing down on the duplication glitch, so I would just get him stacks of gold, potions, and scrolls while he was at work.” -Jester04

“I miss that! Actually having strong emotional reactions to video games. They are so much more immersive when you’re a child.” -ElbowStrike

“Diablo 2 is alive and well (if you ignore the awful servers lol). I’m playing it right now haha”

“They just remade it in more modern graphics and added QoL upgrades. Player base is extremely active right now” -ExileOnBroadStreet

“This was the greatest game of its time. I remember buying it when it said it needed a P60 but I was sure it would run on my DX4 100 that I’d recently built…it didn’t.”

“But when I was able to run it it was the best multiplayer experience I’ve ever had. Me and my mate spent weeks finishing it. Good old coaxial and IPX/SPX.” -blue_nowhere

“I was 8 when I started playing with my brother, and he said ‘go to hell’ and our mother gave him the meanest look.”

“‘No really I’m going to hell to defeat Diablo the lord of terror’” -Wyvern69

Classic Strategy, Still Going Strong

“Age of empires 2” -AdventurousExternal9

“The intro to the first game with the short clip of a guy running head first into a horse ass is still the most random shit of an intro to any game.” -Thehunterforce

“It’s got a robust community even in 2021. I will binge-watch matches on Youtube. It’s crazy how skilled the really good players are to be able to plan and execute so quickly.” -scrambled_cable

“I’ve never had much interest in the game, with maybe a total of a few hours played way back when it was new. I have watched almost all of Hidden Cup.”

“I think it’s mostly that I enjoy T-90’s enthusiasm and knowledge, but it’s also just a really good fair game for competition.” -onioning

“Very close to a perfect game imo” -aBitofRnRplease

“Definitive Edition fixes AI problems, which was one of the few issues in the original and HD Edition.” -pazza89

“Ranked multi is where it’s at. Incredibly well balanced game with how many race options?!” -Slateclean

StarCraft Lives On

“StarCraft” -Bartos565

“I often find myself thinking of cool features I’d love to see added to modern strategy games… only to remember that Brood War was already doing that 20+ years ago. Far and away one of the greatest games of all time.”

“If the pro players weren’t bored from 10,000s of hours played (and hadn’t moved on to MOBAs), I feel like it would still be one of the most-watched eSports.” -LeigusZ

“It still is one of the most watched esports and more illegal money moves through sc betting than any other esport.” -joedude

Reticulating Splines

“SimCity 2000. The music and sound effects still pop up in my head sometimes.” –Codfish_Joe

“‘YOU CAN’T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!’ Take it easy, Reggie, they’re just roads- oh I see…” -campex

“I loved building a city, and then exporting it to Streets of Sim City so I could drive around in said city.” -Jetshadow

“There are times that I make comments about towns that would only make sense to either civil engineers or sim city players.” -MikelGazillion

“The first game I lost several days to my life to.”

“I accidentally played all through the night without getting sleep 3 times in a row. Forced myself not to “just one more minute” the game and just go to bed.” -golgol12

Wahoo! Wahaa!

“Super Mario 64.” -PrxnceZuko

“(throws penguin off the cliff)” -UnsolvedParadox

“I’ve put a lot of hours into that since I got it Xmas’98. Helluva lot of fun.” -Randyfox86

“Even when you’ve done absolutely everything there is to do in the game, it’s still a blast to just run and jump around in.”

“You can speedrun it, you can make your own challenges, you can swoop through the moat with the wing cap at maximum velocity. It’s just a crazy fun world.” -DeathbyChiasmus

Heroes

“Heroes of Might and Magic III” -joltsiboltsi

“Fell down a rabbit hole on HOMM on Friday, actually. It was so well done, used to play multiplayer with my friends and family. Brilliantly done, great story, great expansions, etc…”

“Reading up the wiki on the history, the changes with 3DO (before they went bankrupt), and so on was pretty wild.” -cavscout43

“I still play to this day.” -Jahzen6

“Same, I only play it every few years but every time I do I spend 8-10 hours straight playing. Been doing this for over 20 years.” -MrMooMooDandy

“Same. And for anyone looking to get back into it…”

“Don’t buy the HD edition on steam, buy the complete edition on GoG. And then if you want to go the distance. Go type in ‘heroes 3 HotA’ and download and install that.”

“It’s a player made expansion and balance patch. Also allows things like simultaneous turns in multi-player so you aren’t always waiting on your friends moves!”

“r/heroes3 is also a good reference!” –ApexIsGangster

It’s Truly Unreal

“Unreal Tournament is the best game nobody talks about anymore. It’s a goddamn crime that Epic just abandoned it.” -TheRealGrifter

“M-M-M-M-M-M-MONSTER KILL” -redx1105

“I used to play UT every day for years. Just one of the best gaming experiences for me.”

“It is a shame that Epic abandoned it.” -Teleneki

“I was spending hours jumping between buildings (morpheus map) with my rocket launcher. Loved this game. (*Similarly loved Quake 3 at the time).”

“To refresh memories, a sample of someone’s gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IP909D0mlE“ -MACARLOS

I Serve The Flaming Fist!

“Baldur’s Gate.”

“Can’t count the number of times I’ve started, cheated, and stopped playing the first 4 hours of that game.”

“Edit: Just wanted to say, I actually recently(i.e.: about two years ago) bought the Enhanced Edition(and BG2EE, and Planescape, and NWN1EE and 2, and Icewind Dale….) and played through it and BG2, as well as the little bridge campaign they built (Siege at Dragonbridge?).”

“Had a fantastic time and will definitely be doing it without cheating one of these days. 😀 (I used big boy cheats to give my character like 200 9th level spell slots and just steamrolled from one side of the game to the other just to get the story)” -Alouitious

“My mother who never ever played videogames actually played through a few baldurs gates. It has to be on the list.” -BaronVonBadAsh

Hero Of Time

“Zelda OOT [Ocarina of Time]” -evilblizzardemployee

“It was that long ago? You mean I’ve been hating the Water Temple since last century?” -Kamikaze_Bacon

“Since last millennium too.” -Fission_Mailed_2

“Came here to say this. Ocarina is infinitely replayable.” -tlermalik

“Maybe I’m just a freak, but I’ve always enjoyed Majora’s Mask more than OOT. MM just feels like a more complete and vibrant world.”

“OOT is relatively unpopulated and lonely when I’ve replayed it recently.”

“Both are fantastic though.” -Piano_Fingerbanger

The graphics in older games might not be great, but some of the gameplay mechanics and stories are amazing.

They’re definitely worth giving a try if you didn’t play them when they first came out.

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People Describe The Most Corrupt Thing They’ve Ever Seen Their Employer Do

Workplaces can be a bit rough around the edges and, especially if you’re new to the workforce, it can sometimes be hard to determine if everything that’s going on is above board.

Sometimes, though, employers do things that are so obviously corrupt it can be hard to believe they get away with it.

Redditor Chillay_ asked:

“What’s the most corrupt thing you’ve witnessed your employer do?”

No Overtime, Even If You Work Over Time

“Worked in a restaurant that didn’t allow employees to work over 40 hours as they did not want to pay any overtime. Instead of you wanted to work extra or if they asked you to work extra they would delete hours off of your time card to keep it under 40. They always asked you when they did that in a kind of hush hushed way so it wasn’t exactly without permission but I think it was bullshit all the same.” -cloudstrife1191

“Permission or not they’re breaking the law. It’s not suddenly legal because you agreed to it” -Hugebluestr*pon

“My class action lawsuit alarm bells are going off right now. If your employer does this, I would recommend filing a complaint with the US Department of Labor and also contacting an attorney who deals with wage/hour violations who can review the case. These are serious violations that should be stopped.” -UKnowDaxoAndDancer

You Just Can’t Cancel

“Had a job out of college selling yellow pages advertising. A big part of the job was just renewing the old ads in the book and we had to call each business to have them renew their ad. But as the yellow pages book became more and more obsolete more customers would cancel their ads. So the company changed the policy of having us call each business and instead put in a policy that any customer who didn’t specifically call to cancel would be auto renewed.”

“Then they would purposefully send out the renewal notices late enough that the customers couldn’t cancel in time to avoid the following years charges. If one of us did actually get a call from a customer looking to cancel and with time to legitimately do so and we actually cancelled them….fired.” -totspur1982

“Literally Fraud. A lawyer could tear this yellowpage company to pieces.” -Redditor

“And I believe a lawyer did for this and a multitude of other reasons. We also go charge backs on our check for cancellations, even if it wasn’t your original account. A few employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company and won. I got a nice check out of that.” -totspur1982

“I worked for a company like that, the “Customer Service Reps” (people who would field the customer calls asking for returns) were graded and given bonuses for how many sales they ‘saved.’ ‘Saved’ meaning how many people who called to return our products they tricked into holding on to it past the full refund window.” -HamsterIV

Check Your Pay Stubs!

“Growing up my father always told me to save my pay stubs and time receipts. I ended up working a job in my early 20 ‘s at an airport moving cars. I get my paycheck one day and i realize that it’s not right. So i do a little digging, and a lot of math, and i figure out that the company was taking hours from me.”

“I ask around and it turns out that they were taking hours from literally everyone at the job site. After doing more math we figured out that over the six months we all worked together, the company had stolen a combined 400 hours from eight people.” -42spuuns

“Wage theft is more money than all other forms of theft.”

“Robbery, fraud, burglary, etc – none of it accounts for more value/dollars than companies stealing money from their employees through under or non payment of wages.” -inthrees

“Would you like to know why?”

“It’s because if you steal from your boss, you go to prison. If your boss steals from you, it usually doesn’t get reported. If it does get reported there’s no jail time, but you have the option to sue. Suing takes years and the judgment doesn’t usually amount to all that was stolen, and your lawyer takes their cut out of the judgment. The ruling class made theft profitable when they do it, and unprofitable when we do it, and that is why they’re the country’s biggest thieves.” -reverendsteveii

“Also suing an employer will black list you from an industry so f*cking fast. ETA: and whether or not it was fully justified doesn’t matter.” -Kai_Emery

Tip Theft Is Rampant

“I was working at a small brewery / bar, and caught the owner dipping into the tip jar at the end of big nights.”

“It was a new place that just opened and was kind of struggling during the off season. We literally had a staff of two bartenders and the owners (husband and wife), so the bar staff would pool and split that days tips.”

“Come to find out that he was taking a cut of the tips because “he worked there too”. When I confronted him, I explained that its actually a violation of the FLSA. In fact it’s even an exact example listed as illegal things to do with tips. He argued that it was his right as owner and fired me, so I reported him to Dept. of Labor.” -Rustee_nail

“My girlfriend used to work at a deli where the owner was taking half the tips. She’s never worked food, so she suspected it was wrong, but didn’t know for sure. She asked me like “hey is this normal?” as I was a chef for a couple years, and I explained how taking tips as the owner is probably the most frowned upon thing you can do in the food service industry.” -Mirraco323

Why Bother With A Warranty?

“I was a mechanic that found out that the company was not letting me fix customers cars that had oil leaks when the customers had paid for a 200k mile warranty. The manager would tell the service writer to say that the warranty company declined it and eventually started making me take a photo to him so that he could tell me that the leak wasn’t bad enough to fix.”

“The customer paid for a warranty and the company wasn’t holding up their end of the deal because it was costing them money. They are one of the most profitable car dealerships in my town and now have 3 dealerships and are expanding.” -Idontgetitbrah

So Many Kinds Of Tip Theft

“When I used to housekeep at a hotel, our head housekeeper would go into all of our checkouts and steal our tips before we could get to them. I remember a few times seeing tips in my rooms and foolishly not thinking to pick them up before they disappeared. A few of my other coworkers witnessed similar instances.”

“At one point, a guest came up to me and said she’d leave a big tip in her room for me bc it was a mess. I found out later that the head housekeeper cleaned the room herself.”

“She walked out like a year later bc our GM demoted her to regular housekeeper bc everyone had complaints about her. She was a very awful person in general.” -Redditor

“When I was a housekeeper you’d get your room list at the beginning of the shift, so if we couldn’t finish that day the girls would go in all their rooms and take the tips, that way if they were off the next day or the room was someone else’s, they’d get nothing. The head housekeeper though worked salary so wasn’t allowed to keep tips even if they were handed to her.” -Tinycatgirl

“When She Felt We Deserved Them”

“A few years ago I was working/living at a McDonald’s in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The area manager decided to “save” the store so she became very… involved… in its day to day micromanagement. One payday morning she made an announcement that, because everyone kept coming in asking for their checks and bothering her, she would be giving them to us when she felt we deserved them.”

“I called the local Department of Labor, who referred me to the state, who referred me back to local, who then told me they just didn’t care and weren’t looking into it. It eventually resolved itself anyway when she handed checks out the next day.” -twistedlemon732

“See there’s your mistake. You should’ve called McDonalds corporate threatening to call the DoL. Much more effective!” -zvug

“Actually, just call McDonalds corporate. Don’t even need to threaten to call. McDonalds doesn’t screw around when it comes to paying workers anymore. That kind of stuff has led to several million in lawsuit settlements in just the past ten years.” -betterthanamaster

We’ve Known Asbestos Was Dangerous For Decades

“I work underground in the mines. One place started having, what the workers found out later, was asbestos type rock in the ore. The company took samples of it and then said it’s kind of like asbestos, but it’s not old enough to harm you. Later after a bit of more concern from the workers, it was found out that the sample they took came back as inconclusive due to something else. They lied and allowed their workforce exposure to asbestos. I quit after that and found work elsewhere.” -Chillay_90

That’s Not How Overtime Works

“One time when I was a chef in college, I worked 14 days straight, with half of those days being 12 hour days. This all fell in one pay period too. It was rough but it was summer and I was gushing over the amount over overtime I was about to get. It came out to like over 70 hours overtime. I was supposed get almost an additional $1000 dollars on my paycheck. I calculated the math with tax and everything and couldn’t wait to pick up my paycheck the next week for that pay period.”

“I pick it up, and the paycheck is quite larger than I’m used to given I normally only worked 25 hours a week, but there is ZERO overtime on it. It was short almost a a thousand bucks. I got to the HR office the next day (it was located at a different casino) and ask, and they go ‘yeah so in Nevada, you only qualify for overtime if you average 40 hours a week normally.’”

“That sounded like bullshit to me, but I asked my mom who used to run finances for our family business, and she says that IS in fact 100% bullshit. She pulled up the statute online and it clearly said if you exceed 8 hours in a day, you get overtime. It said nothing about a weekly average.”

“So printed that bitch out and drove right back down to the HR office, and showed it to them. The lady at the desk who just told me that lie calls out the head of HR. She would frequent the different locations to check in with people and was always nice, but you could always tell she was shady as fuck. They both seem to get very nervous and in a stuttering voice ‘okay we will reevaluate’”

“I never heard anything or got any apology, but when the next paycheck came, the exact amount of overtime I calculated was put on that paycheck down to the penny.”

“I tell some of the other guys in the kitchen what happened, and apparently the family who owned the casino our restaurant was located in was known for pulling shit like this. Making ‘accounting errors’ knowing a lot of people who do direct deposit don’t even look at their paystubs. Funny how these accounting ‘errors’ always ended up in saving the company money, and never gave the employee extra cash lol. A server no more than a few months later had the same exact shit happen to him. Rat b*stards.” -Mirraco323

Gaming The System

“At the first company I worked at the general manager had all his personal expenses paid by the company. His wife also had a company credit card and was paid a salary but she didn’t work. The company paid for things like their groceries, house mortgage, car payments and family vacations. The kicker is he wasn’t the owner of the company.”

“He had a creative accountant that hid these expenses but the owners became suspicious and they hired an auditor. It took them about 4 years to figure it out. He was fired and his family fled the country so I am not sure what happened to him.” -optoph

If your employer is doing something that seems shady, there’s a way for you to report it if it’s safe for you to do so.

You’re probably not the only one who is affected, and people doing shady things don’t usually stop unless they’re made to.

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Film Buffs Break Down Which Movie Sequels Are Actually Better Than The Original

Movie sequels are often an incredibly contentious topic among movie lovers. Some love them, some hate them, and some sequels are just objectively terrible and everyone dislikes them.

Some, though, aren’t that bad. Even rarer are the sequels that are actually better than the films they follow, but those are few and far between.

Redditor Tall-Elderberry asked:

“What movie sequel is actually better than the original?”

Khaaaaaaan!

“Star Trek II, but I do love the first film, and I’m excited for the 4k release.” -HulkBlarg

“This also applies to the reboot series, where the first one may as well be called ‘James Kirk fails upwards’” -crowwreak

“You mean Navies don’t promote ensigns to Captain for disobeying orders in a plucky way?”-brocht

“I swear they must not have been planning for a Trilogy until that one sold well, and just decided “hey he has to be captain by the final act otherwise fans will be mad.” so… Gives Spock a mental breakdown and gets rewarded for it? (I think, anyway. It’s been like 7 years since I’ve seen that film)”

“Like, I like the film, but I felt like they could have held off on finishing his rise to the top until the second film. He gets kicked back down the ladder at the start for something stupid anyway.”

“It’s kinda the antithesis of Michael in the Discovery premiere playing a stupid game and winning a stupid prize for it.” -crowwreck

Rescue Aid Society

“Rescuers Down Under” -zachfive87

“So much more superior, though I wonder if that’s more due to just the swamp vibe of one.” -Jetsam_Marquis

“The first one always gave me bad vibes as a kid. Down Under rules though” -cats_suck

“Omg, I saw that so much on VHS.” -Makarov762

I Am Vengeance! I Am The Night!

“The Dark Knight” -Chief_Odin

“In every single way. The action is far better, story was much more interesting, better performances, script and direction.” -insane__knight

“Batman Begins gives an origin and really establishes Nolan’s version of Batman, and the Dark Knight already has that established universe to play around in. Dark Knight Rises (still something I enjoy) has its issues, but it really is kind of the result of events of the first two movies.” -TheGentlemanLoser

“Ledger’s Joker might not only be the best Joker performance, but also one of the greatest villains of cinema.” -Vicous

Mad Max

“[Mad Max 2:] The Road Warrior” -CoopedUp1313

“As much as I love the original it’s hard to disagree. Road Warrior ups the ante in every way while keeping the charm and feel of the original.” -Megamoss

“And then Fury Road is my pick for greatest action movie of all time and the best film of the 2010’s.” -lastcallface

“I have to agree, Fury Road is an unbridled masterpiece. You could slap that story and action on any backdrop and have it still be utterly perfect.” -HaydenScramble

“Are They Made From Real Girl Scouts?”

“Addams Family Values” -Born2dodishes

“Wednesday is such an amazing protagonist in that movie.” -MokitTheOmniscient

“‘You sent us to camp. They made us sing.’” -ParanoidAgnostic

“I came here to say this. The first one wasn’t bad, actually, but the sequel has all that social commentary Paul Rudnick added to the script, like the Thanksgiving dinner scene…” -SniffleBot

“Find someone who looks at you the way Wednesday looks at the girl she’s about to burn at the stake.” -obscurereferences

“I’m Not Freaking Out, I’m Freaking In”

“Kung Fu Panda 2” -Zeliv

“I love everything about Shen” -RadiantHC

“The one thing that disappointed me a little about the movie was Shen. Don’t get me wrong: from a visual and auditory design perspective, Shen is incredible. He’s stunningly intimidating, and his VA knocked the performance out of the park. When he was on screen, he radiated the menacing aura befitting someone that commissioned the genocide of an entire race.”

“That said, compared to the first movie, I feel like Shen fell short as a villain from a character perspective. Shen was evil as hell, but his motivations as a character felt shallow. He was obsessed with weaponizing gunpowder, but why? Where did that obsession come from? Why is it that his first reaction after hearing the prophecy was to slaughter all pandas? It really felt like he was evil for the sake of being evil.”

“Compare that to Tai Lung’s backstory, which had a lot more nuance. Tai Lung grew up under Shifu and was indoctrinated into believing that he would become the Dragon Warrior (hell, Tai Lung literally means Great Dragon!). But then Oogway basically shattered all of his life’s ambitions by rejecting him with no hesitation, seeing darkness in Tai Lung’s heart.”

“Which, when you think about it, is kinda f*cked up. Shifu was Oogway’s student, which means that Oogway probably had the opportunity to observe Tai Lung many times throughout his life — yet he seemingly never tried to guide Tai Lung away from the darkness.”

“The movie was fantastic, but I kinda wish they made Shen as complex as Tai Lung. It would have been interesting if he had been given stronger motives.” -RiceAlicorn

“I totally understand where you’re coming from, but in my opinion, sometimes a villain doesn’t need complexity to serve their role in the narrative.”

“That being said, Shen was obsessed with his ‘right’ to rule China which was threatened by the fortune teller when she predicted him to be defeated by a warrior of black and white (Po) this leads to him fighting against this destiny with the genocide of the pandas and the violent takeover of China. Only for that very genocide to be what sets Po on his own journey to stop him. A callback to Oogway saying, ‘One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it’”

“What really puts this movie over the top for me is not the villain though, it’s the themes of inner peace, dealing with your grief, and not letting your past haunt your present and sabotage your future. Shen, while not as complex a character as Tai Lung served as the perfect antagonist to showcase those themes. Po reaching inner peace and dealing with his repressed trauma really won me over, plus the art direction in that movie is amazing.” -Zeliv

“He’s A Friend From Work!”

“Thor Ragnarok” -DF_Symbiote

“Thanks to Taika Waititi” -Wishart2016

“It’s sort of become popular to hate on Ragnarok because it’s so ‘quippy’, but I totally disagree – the movie was so damn FUN when it came out. I had a big smile on my face the whole way through.” -ExperimentalSorbet

“What Are You Doing In My Swamp?”

“Shrek 2. Obviously because of the Holding Out For a Hero scene.” -pandyabee

“It’s basically a perfect sequel. Takes everything great about the first film, steps it up, and improves the pacing, the heart and the depth. All the while it feels like the natural progression to the first film, expanding on themes from the first film. Really couldn’t ask for much more from a sequel tbh.” -SolVracken

“NOT THE GUMDROP BUTTONS” -schofield101

Bucky Is Best Boy

“The Winter Soldier” -Zealousideal-Rich-67

“That’s probably the only superhero movie I liked watching where I didn’t really care for the main superhero as in I don’t really care for captain America but the movie was still good anyway” -Jack1715

“Agreed. The first movie seemed a bit lackluster and I wasn’t fussed about watching the sequel, but I was on a 27 hour flight and I’d seen everything else I was interested in. Winter Soldier came as a pleasant surprise.” -I_throw_socks_at_cat

Toothless!

“How to train your dragon. The first one is really really good, which is why I didn’t expect the second and third one to be better but it was.” -theassassintherapist

“The second one was the best one IMO. It had great world building, character building, heart, and a f*cking awesome soundtrack.” MotorwaveMedia

“I cannot watch HTTYD 2 without crying, they did that movie so well!” -JulzCrafter

Opinions can get pretty heated when it comes to movies, especially sequels, but at least these ones are pretty enjoyable.