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The internet is awash with content designed to provoke a harsh reaction. Whether it’s spite for celebrities and their drama, anger from sensationalist reporting, or one of the latest cringe compilations, consuming all this can leave you with a bad taste in the mouth.

That’s why we’ve decided to help you with a little palate cleanser. It’s time to put on your slippers, grab a glass of room-temperature tap water and make yourself comfortable. When you’re ready, enjoy a few of Bored Panda’s latest entrées of ‘Mildly Interesting’ morsels.

The name of the Reddit page that collects these photos is a bit of a misnomer. Although /r/MildlyInteresting doesn’t post jaw-dropping content, there’s always something fascinating and it injects a little wonder into the everyday. We love the page here at Bored Panda, that’s why we’ve written on it once, twice, thrice and uh… four times before. So, be sure to check them out after this one!

Discover more in ‘Mildly Interesting’: An Online Group Exploring The Weird And Wonderful Side Of Everyday Life (50 New Pics)

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#1 My Hotel Phone In Iceland Has A Special Button That Will Wake You Up If There Are Northern Lights In The Sky

/r/MildlyInteresting has captured the intrigue of over 19M people, so it goes to show that the content is more than just a little bit interesting.

Bored Panda spoke with one of the moderators, RedSquaree, on the continuing success of the page. They said, “I think we’ve done an amazing job of curating a subreddit that is still niche despite being hugely popular.”

“The content is roughly the same today as it was almost a decade ago. Most subs change (for the worse) as they grow, but we’ve kept things mild—just the way people want it,” they explained.

#2 My Dining Room Table Houses A Secret Spiral Staircase

#3 My Apartment Complex Rented Out 200 Goats To Eat Away At The Overgrown Path And Riverbed Behind Our Buildings!

#4 Missing Cat Owner Posted A Follow Up Where The Previous Missing Posters Were

#5 I Came In My Kitchen To Find A Lizard Using A Sponge As A Raft In The Sink. (I Live In New Mexico)

#6 I Gave My Wife LEGO Flowers For Her Birthday

It’s hard to define what makes something ‘mildly interesting’ but in my opinion, there’s a certain theme running throughout. The images shared usually go against the grain of what we consider as “normal”. Or, they highlight some bizarre coincidence that we would never have expected.

However, everyone sees it differently. Since RedSquaree has been moderating the page for some time, I asked for their views on the secret formula behind the photos posted and how they would define them. They said, “Everyone probably has a slightly different interpretation or idea of what is mildly interesting.” But they believe that the concept of relatability is most important—it has to be “nothing spectacular but something novel”.

But this can also make it difficult to moderate the content being posted on the page. They explained further, “Sometimes we see users post to /r/mildlyinteresting first (because if they didn’t, it would break rule 3 of our page). Then, they go on to crosspost to /r/damnthatsinteresting. And we’re thinking to ourselves, ‘/r/HolUp, it can’t be both’.”

#7 This Incredibly Detailed Picture I Took Of A Bonfire

#8 When I Went To Switzerland And Happened To Look Exactly Like This Random Wood Statue

#9 Miniature Traffic Playground In Copenhagen Where Kids Learn To Bike In Traffic

So, should the content be strictly regulated before posting? RedSquaree doesn’t think so, at least for now. They said, “Many people have recommended we make a Rule 7, so content must be mild or it gets removed. But it would be so problematic to enforce that we haven’t gone that far… yet.”

They also told us about their personal favorites handpicked by the moderator team. RedSquaree said, “We have a ‘Quality Post’ link flair which we use (sparingly) to tag on submissions we find particularly mildly interesting. Everything we’ve marked ‘Quality Post’ can be considered officially mildly interesting.”

#10 A Supplier Of Ours Now Fills His Packages With Air-Cushions Made Out Of Paper Instad Of Plastic

#11 How Well Our Movers Tetris’d Our Stuff

#12 Last Night My Wife’s Uber Had A Duck In It

When we’re so accustomed to seeing something in one way, our thoughts are suddenly shaken up when it suddenly appears differently or juxtaposed with something else. It’s a great reminder to rethink what we know and open ourselves up to new possibilities. But there’s a reason why we build these cognitive biases in our minds.

#13 I Was Trying To Take A Picture Of The Guy In The Costume And A Person With With Opposite Colors Walked Into The Frame

#14 My Local Library Has Cake Pans Available To Check Out!

#15 Found An Arrowhead In A Dried Up Stream!

A research paper called the Theory of Cognitive Pattern Recognition seeks to find out how and why we build these links in our minds. The paper defines pattern recognition as “a process of inputting stimulating (pattern) information and matching it with the information in long-term memory, then recognizing the category that the stimulation belongs to. Therefore, pattern recognition depends on people’s knowledge and experience.”

#16 The Banisters At My Hotel Were Held Up By Little Metal Men

#17 Townhouse In Dc Has A Cute Little Model Townhouse In Its Front Yard (And The Model Has Its Own Model!)

#18 My Fiancé Capped The End Of A Cut Banana With Banana Skin

#19 Before It Was Sprouted, This Tree Went To The Moon

#20 The Tailgate Of This Truck Is Painted To Look Like There’s A Bulldog In The Bed Of The Truck

#21 This Group We Came Across In A Forest Casually Hiking In Medieval Outfits

#22 A Cast Iron Cauldron I Found Buried In My Forest

#23 There Was A Massive Pirate Ship Driving Around My Neighborhood

#24 This Shopping Cart Has A Spot For Kids To Stand On While The Parent Pushes

#25 The Way My Wife Eats Cheetos Without Messing Up Her Mouse

#26 One Of Our Local Libraries Moved Into An Old Marsh Supermarket

#27 My Cat Fell Asleep Looking Like He’s Standing Up

#28 Saw A Knight In The Park The Other Day

#29 The Gap In My Bedroom Window Became A Pinhole Camera

#30 Color Coordinated Wristbands For Back To Work Post Covid

#31 Bought 2 Different Sizes Of Shoes, But The Boxes Align Perfectly With One Another

#32 A Century Old Suit

#33 Found An E Than Survived The Recycling Process On The Cardboard We Use At Work

#34 This Jeep’s Break Lights Are Jeeps

#35 60 Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine Ready To Go

#36 The Crack In The Door Splits My Grow Light Into Different Colors

#37 My Wife And I Had Plane Snacks That Matched Our Books On Our Way To Our Honeymoon

#38 Lowercase Stopsign

#39 The Air Filter I Just Took Out Of My Lawnmower vs. The One I Replaced It With

#40 This Pressure Washer Looks Like Mike Wazowski

#41 The Hallway To My Dentist Office Looks Like A Stanley Kubrick Scene

#42 The Door Into My Work Casts A Solid Rainbow For A Few Minutes In The Mornings

#43 My Peas & Lentils Look Like An Ishihara Test

#44 The Inside Of My Inflatable Air Mattress

#45 This Is A Truck Carrying The Signs You See On The Interstate

#46 This Egg Has No Yolk

#47 A 130 Year Old Crypt Found While Renovating A Church In Sc, They Put A Glass Window On It So You Could See The Face

#48 My Mom Still Has Napkins From The Original Space Jam

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