/r/Hmmm

Submission 48,153

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About

Hmmm refers to a subsection of Reddit focused on bizarre photographs purposely taken out of context. In addition to posting photos, all of the threads are named "hmmm," and commenters frequently leave "hmmm" as a comment. Unlike other subreddits, /r/hmmm does not use thumbnails in the thread listing, and therefore, requires users to open a thread to see the picture.

History

On December 19th, 2008, the subreddit /r/hmmm launched with the subtitle "Pics that make you go hmmm…"^[1]

The subreddit remained relatively dormant until February 16th, 2017, when Redditor GeorgeDykel^[2] submitted a photo of man with a pack of pitbulls wearing sunglasses (shown below). Within its first two months, the post received more than 8,100 points (96% upvoted) and 70 comments. That day, /r/hmmm became "the fastest growing non-default reddit of the day."^[7]

A week later, on February 23rd, another photo on /r/hmmm, this one posted by Macbit^[3], received more than 3,100 points (98% upvoted). That day, Redditor posted that the /r/hmmm was trending.^[4]

On March 3rd, Pajiba^[5] published an article that highlighted the subreddit, entitled "Enter At Your Own Peril, If You Will: Reddit's 'hmmm' Subreddit." On March 27th, /r/hmmm had amassed more than 100,000 subscribers.^[7]

Later that month, it entered the top 500 subreddits, following a massive growth spike the weekend of April 14th, which saw more than 19,000 new subscribers. This was due in part to three major posts:

The first^[8] of which posted by Redditor chaosgodloki, featuring a crab and umbrella (shown below, left), which received more than 7,900 points (94% upvoted) within two weeks;
The second,^[9] posted by Redditor Sucks_, featuring a life-sized toy assembly kit of a boat (shown below, center), received more than 14,500 points (95% upvoted) and 170 comments;
The final,^[10] posted on April 16th by Redditor CosmicKeys, which featured a paintbrush seemingly similar to a woman's hair (shown below, right), garnered more than 15,800 points (93% upvoted) and 110 comments.