From yard sales to the attics of our parent’s homes, we have all probably come across weird objects that don’t seem to have any discernible purpose. Like anthropologists studying the site of an ancient city, we had to try and piece together contextual clues. But these days, through the magic of the internet, we can simply ask hundreds of thousands of people to help.
The “What is it?” online community is dedicated to helping people understand what obscure object they are looking at. So get comfortable, make your best guesses in the comments, and be sure to upvote your favorite posts.
#1 Got Really Drunk At A Fancy Club And Found This In My Purse Today, What Is It?
Answer: Toilet paper holder
Image credits: Sensitive_Volume_592
#2 This Was Put Up In The Laundry Room
Answer: It’s a trail camera. Takes pictures when it detects motion
Image credits: Zerriphan
#3 My Neighbor Has This In His Lawn, High Frequency Sound Comes Out Of It When I Pass It
Answer: It’s an animal repellent
Image credits: prettylovers
Bored Panda got in touch with the moderators of the subreddit, and they were kind enough to answer some of our questions. “Firstly, we were curious to hear how the page even came into being. The subreddit was made 14 years ago by a different user that I have no contact with. He had abandoned it, and the sub had been dead for a while.”
“About 5 years ago, I took over the subreddit using r/redditrequest, because I was interested in seeing what it was like moderating a subreddit. The sub was pretty small for a long time, until the beginning of this year when it began getting large amounts of new members,” they shared with Bored Panda.
#4 My Mom Found This By Her Pool Gate
Answer: It’s a holder for a cigarette. Theres usually a ring at the bottom. I own one. The flower opens and the beads slide up to keep the cigarette in place
Image credits: bacontacos420
#5 Found While Hiking, What Is This Thing?
Answer: MCH (3-methlcyclohex-2-en1) bubble, MCH is a pheromone given off by female Douglas-fir bark beetles after laying their eggs that affects the behavior of other beetles by communicating to them that eggs have already been laid on this tree and signals to the other beetles to leave that tree alone. Basically they’re placed there by the Forestry Service to prevent infestations of bark beetles, if you see them, leave them alone
Image credits: 14SierraMist14
#6 Found In Parents Bathroom Closet
Answer: I believe is a contact lens cleaner
Image credits: Bwhit1019
Naturally, we also wanted to hear their take on why the page suddenly grew in size. “I’m almost certain that the big boost in members is due to the Reddit API protests that happened earlier this year. During the protest, a lot of big subreddits went private, and I guess that caused the algorithm to start recommending small subreddits like mine.”
#7 Saw This At A Yard Sale Yesterday. Daughter Wanted It For Some Reason. We Don’t Have A Clue What It Could Be
Answer: Looks like a saloon door spice rack
Image credits: meangreene_
#8 Found This At A Garage Sale…
Answer: For opening a soft boiled egg
Image credits: ThatguyGaming42
#9 Found At A Thrift Store Nobody Knows What It Is
Answer: It’s a toothpaste tube roller for convenience/efficiency
Image credits: Sad-Cartoonist-7959
“During the days that the protest happened, the sub started getting crazy amounts of members, like more than 10k per day for a little while, which was crazy since the sub had less than 10k members for years, and then suddenly it was getting more than that in a day. It has slowed down again now though,” they shared.
#10 Does Anyone Know What The Heck These Things Are Attached To These Dead Trees?
Answer: It’s a moisture indicator. I’m assuming, some mix of goodies that gets darker as it dries out
Image credits: Aliveguy2021
#11 What Is This At My New Desk
Answer: That is a panic button
Image credits: sleepyandsad
#12 Been Trying To Figure Out The Purpose Of This Thing Ever Since My Buddy Moved Into His New House
Answer: It’s a jig for bending metal wire and thin metal bars
Image credits: Sulpfiction
We wanted to know what the mods thought was the main draw of the group. “I think that people are drawn to the subreddit because, for a lot of people, it’s interesting to look at weird and unusual-looking objects and learn what they are. I have learned about a lot of things I would have never known about if it wasn’t for this subreddit. As for me, I have never personally used the subreddit to identify an object.”
#13 I Found This Many Many Many Years Ago…
Answer: Antique circa 1920 sterling silver lady’s coin purse with a mirror
Image credits: navesurazal
#14 Found This In The Road Near My Car? Any Clue?
Answer: Bottle capper
Image credits: Outrageous_Ad6384
#15 Dog Found This In My Backyard. I’m In A Largely Residential Neighborhood. Its Hard Plastic Not Soft Like A Shotgun Shell. Bottom Only Has That Small Piece Of Metal Not The Whole End. About 2.5inch Long
Answer: Looks like percussion cap for a hole puncher tool
Image credits: waf_67
“It’s been fun watching the subreddit grow over the years, and seeing all kinds of interesting items be identified by the community.” Lastly, we were also curious if there were some items that simply went unidentified. “We have a whole flair dedicated to items that haven’t been identified, but the majority of items do get identified eventually. There are lots of people who see the posts, so there’s a pretty high chance that someone knows what the item is.”
#16 What Is This Thing In My New Apartment? Staff Have No Idea Either
Answer: Kinda looks like a doorbell chime
Image credits: k9bound
#17 What Is The Purpose For This Bottle Opener To Have A Pointy End And A Flat End?
Answer: The pointy end is to pierce a hole in a 1/2 gallon can of juice (need two holes, one at 12 o’clock and one at 6 o’clock to allow juice to flow out and air to flow in) while the flat end is to open a bottle cap
Image credits: intrepid604
#18 What Are These Dots On My 2018 Atoyot For?
Answer: This is a marking by the manufacturer to indicate internal information about the window
Image credits: roro999999999
It’s not hard to list the benefits of a group dedicated to identifying objects quickly. Before the internet, we would have been doomed to live in a world full of mystery, now oceans of information are available at the tips of our fingers, as long as we have the energy to read. It’s also a nice jolt of positivity, that there are literally thousands of netizens out there willing to take the time to help you with a mysterious object.
#19 A Friend Found This At A Lake In Glacier National Park, Any Ideas What It Is?
Answer: Looks like an ancient mastadon tooth
Image credits: Puzzleheaded-Sea-616
#20 What Is This? Uncle Had This Since Decades And Never Found Out What It This?
Answer: It must be the mineral Marcasite
Image credits: Secret_Ad_7878
#21 Is This A Bullet Hole?
Answer: Looks like a high-speed impact punched through, so yeah it might be a bullet. If you can fit your INDEX finger in the hole, you are talking about a large caliber bullet. Look around in the trunk and see if you can find it or fragments of it
Image credits: colinfox0
There is a somewhat hidden benefit as well. Uncertainty does often leave us feeling stressed. Some psychologists believe it’s even the root of much suffering, albeit often buried behind multiple other stressors. So being able to resolve these little mysteries, one at a time, might be doing us all some good.
#22 These Wires Are In Every Room Of The Place I’m Moving To, What Are They For?
Answer: coax cable
Image credits: HovaPrime
#23 Does My Work Know When I’m [Pooping]?
It’s a wireless reed switch or sensor. Will tell you when the door is opened or closed.
The bad me wonders why the hell they want to know how long each [poop] takes and why they are measuring this. The perhaps more naive me wonders if they change cleaning schedules depending on the number of “stall cycles”.
Still kind of a weird thing on a [toilet] door.
Image credits: Scotttyy
#24 Saw This From Our Plane
Answer: Utah’s Potash ponds are used in the separation of potassium from various mined and manufactured salts. The resulting potassium is used for fertilizer, animal feed and water softening
Image credits: AnglophileHistoryNut
Indeed, some research suggests that the old cliche of preferring the “devil you know versus the devil you don’t” has some basis in reality. Resolving a stressful situation, even if the resolution is negative, has been found to reduce stress levels relative to the stress the situation would cause in the first place.
#25 Why Is The Retaining Wall Like This?
Answer: Those are tieback anchors with their pointy end covered. They go long past the back of the wall and likely into some rock somewhere behind the retaining wall. They are there as reinforcement to prevent movement of the wall over time
Image credits: Minimum_Zucchini1572
#26 Over Orlando Florida
Answer: Spacex falcon 9 booster re-entering the atmosphere
Image credits: TheBrine05
#27 Hanging On The Wall At My Parents House
Answer: Definitely egg cups and egg timer
Image credits: Intelligent_Tub
#28 Found On Hotel Room Floor, What The Heck Is It?
Answer: Looks like a blackhead removal tool
Image credits: jayboy120
#29 Found Outside A Restaurant Approximately 25 Years Ago. The Pieces Don’t Move
Answer: Eyelet for a fishing pole
Image credits: flatearthnunchuck
#30 What The Heck Is This? Heavy, Made Of Glass, Found In A Freight Train Dump Yard
Answer: it’s from a modern LCD projector. white light goes in, gets split into three, each color goes through a different LCD, then directed into this which recombines them into a coherent single “beam” which is what gets thrown into the screen
Image credits: Additional_Camel_837
#31 I Inhereted This Decades Ago. What Is It?
Answer: Coal scuttle/portable heater
Image credits: space_jumper
#32 My Home Was Built In 1986. This Is On The Side Of The Upper Kitchen Cabinet. The Lid Comes Off. What Is It?
Answer: a paper cup holder
Image credits: Mission-College-7784
#33 Seen In A Boathouse In The Pacific Northwest
Answer: makeshift urinal
Image credits: B-Cerre-us
#34 Any Idea What This Is?
Answer: it’s a dreidel. A 4-sided toy marked with Hebrew letters and spun like a top in a game of chance
Image credits: Automatic-Happy
#35 Help! What Is This?
Answer: that is the pin that holds nail clippers together
Image credits: kairi8991
#36 What Is This Out On Lake Michigan?
Answer: It is called a “crib”. They collect water and then water flows via gravity below the lake to the city’s water filtration plants
Image credits: marglebubble
#37 Found At A Garage Sale. No One Knows What It Is
Answer: Indian brass bud vase
Image credits: MistakePitiful7105
#38 Found In My Yard In Central Massachusetts. Metal, Pretty Heavy
Answer: horse drawn carriage leaf sprngs
Image credits: vewyembawassin
#39 What Is This Symbol On A Passing Car’s Rear Window? Seen In Georgia, Near Atlanta
Answer: Aegishjalmur, it’s an Icelandic magical stave. Used to protect warriors and instill fear in enemies
Image credits: EquivalentAnt2088
#40 What Is The Purpose Of These Flaps On The Back Of A Semi?
Answer: It’s called a ‘trailer tail’. The angle of the panels is supposed to ease the flow of air behind the trailer reducing aerodynamic drag and turbulence and increasing fuel mileage
Image credits: Mother_Bumblebee4949
#41 Found On Beach After Storm In Outer Banks, North Carolina
Answer: Jaw bone of a whale (blue whale, grey whale..?)
Image credits: neleh1989
#42 Saw This While Disc Golfing. What Is It?
Answer: It’s a slimemould
Image credits: LeeAmazon
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