this post was submitted on
430 points (58% like it)
1,536 up votes 1,106 down votes

WTF

subscribe1,814,362 readers

New Rules:

  • No screenshots (e.g. Facebook, Youtube)
  • No memes
  • No rage comics
  • No politics / posts with political implications - Includes Activism, Call for public outcry etc.
  • No re-hosted web comics
  • No begging for upvotes
  • No links to reddit
  • Personal information is not allowed and will be removed, repeat offenders banned
  • Links to facebook are not allowed
  • NSFW posts must be tagged or will be removed.
  • Gore and Porn are not by default WTF, consider posting the more extreme stuff to /r/spacedicks

All (& only) things that make you say WTF. The moderators of /r/WTF reserve the right to moderate posts for not being WTF and would be more appropriate in more relevant subreddits.


Thanks to licenseplate for the excellent logo & thanks to humansmartbomb for the previous logo


Please DO NOT post personal information

Such posts or comments will be removed and offenders may be banned. This includes anything hosted on Facebook's servers, as they can be traced to the original account holder.


Shout Outs:

/r/weird

/r/creepy

/r/creepy_gif

/r/offbeat

/r/WTFart

/r/NSFW_WTF

/r/sfw_wtf

/r/BugWars

/r/awesome

/r/toosoon

New: /r/mildlyinteresting

New: /r/FanTheories

New: /r/tifu


Exceptions to the rules can be granted by the moderators; The moderators of /r/WTF reserve the right to moderate posts and comments at their discretion, with regard to their perception of the suitability of said posts and comments for this subreddit. Thank you for your understanding.

a community for

reddit is a source for what's new and popular online. vote on links that you like or dislike and help decide what's popular, or submit your own! learn more ›

all 98 comments

[–]bos2bows 20 points21 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I've taught my classes that the most visible part of the lightning strike is the up-stroke rather than the down-stroke, but they never believe me. Now I can prove it!

[–]eclypse 21 points22 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Hey kids, teacher is gonna show you the downstroke today!....

[–]Geoqueen85 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Oh my.

[–][deleted] 58 points59 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Why is this in WTF?

[–]kinslayer72 96 points97 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Because it was the only popular subreddit that this isn't a repost in.

[–]SweetNeo85 -2 points-1 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Irrelevant. It's an imgur link, OP could simply re-upload it for a fresh link.

[–]kinslayer72 5 points6 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Shh these people think I'm funny.

[–]romes8907 7 points8 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Because its a RErepost

[–]IchooseYou 4 points5 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I'm pretty sure this gets posted daily

[–]romes8907 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

very true

[–]wwakerfan 4 points5 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Only on reddit does lightning strike more than once in the same place.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

If lightning never struck more than once in the same place lightning rods wouldn't work.

[–]Saivo 10 points11 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

First time I saw it, and been a lurker for 5 years.

[–]Khalexus -1 points0 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Who's complaining though? It's fantastic.

[–]Dwarfio 13 points14 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I like it when people repost pictures but don't even reupload it, so it still has the same imgur link and I just see some random purple link that I swear I haven't clicked on yet.

[–]cheeseburgerpizza 34 points35 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

This has to be the most disappointing comments page yet

[–]Michaelllllll 19 points20 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I was hoping for science :(

[–]smittyline 1 point2 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

There's some science here and here (see the top rated comments). Now do us a favor and downvote this OP for reposting (a 5th repost, actually).

[–]Michaelllllll 1 point2 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

No can do, sir. I never followed that "downvote repost" craze. Maybe you've seen it before because it was posted. That's great, I'm happy for you. I haven't, though, and I enjoyed seeing it. Further - Just 'cause it's floating off there in cyber-space-reddit doesn't mean I'm gonna see it. I won't search for something I never knew existed, but now that I know it existed I'm glad I saw it.

TL;DR - I appreciate the OP's repost, and will upvote accordingly. Feel free to downvote on your own.

[–]smittyline 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I'll feel free to downvote yours.

[–]Michaelllllll 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

That's a-okay!

[–]Hepcat10 -2 points-1 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

i've never seen it...upvote for OP

[–]thumbsdown 2 points3 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I think this must mark the moment that the ennui of modern life reached critical mass.

[–]HenryEarl 1 point2 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I think it's about time to de-frontpage r/WTF. they're dropping like flies these days.

[–]Necrophagist- 4 points5 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

It's so interesting how it's going off in every direction to begin with, not looking like there is any particular destination, and the main burst of energy is only released when one of the lightning sprouts hits the ground. I'm not too knowledgeable bout how it all works, but is that how lightning and electricity find the path of least resistance? by winging it in every direction, and flowing through the first electric tentacle to contact something?

[–]gerusz 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

[–]Necrophagist- 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

This is pretty interesting, thank you! I feel stupid for not wiki'ing it myself when the question arose, as is the usual protocol. You sir and/or ma'am are a good man and/or woman

[–]OmNamahShivaya 3 points4 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Fractal Universe.

[–]CottageMcMurphy 6 points7 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

That camera is going at some not-really-believable-at-all speed. I'm too lazy to google, but its damn impressive.

[–]Wilcows -2 points-1 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Dude, I think this isn't even slowed down...

[–]stufff 6 points7 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Right, We just found really slow lightning.

[–]Wilcows 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Have you ever seen lightning in real life?

This is slowed down 5 -10 times AT MAX

[–]CottageMcMurphy 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

You're blownin my mind maaaan!

[–]Sunk 1 point2 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

[–]TruNembra 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Not exactly sure about the facts (was a while ago at Boy Scout camp), but I remember being told that lightning actually strikes in a straight line, but the actual branching of lightning comes from when it starts to disapate.

On alien blue so a little hard to look up anything for backup...but watching this makes me think the same thing when I was told that a couple years ago...how the fuck is this a straight line!!!

[–]Tokeli 2 points3 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Nothing in nature is a straight line.

[–]anniedesu 2 points3 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

crystals?

[–]catuela 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

This should have been a picture of lightning destroying my enemies.

[–]shootinputin 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Anyone got a high res video of this?

[–]Ais3 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Looks like an path-finding algorithm.

[–]richd506 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

They should really consider making a video game out of that.

[–]thomchristmas 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Last time I encountered an upstroke that powerful, the splash nearly put my eye out.

[–]Relish11 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

I've seen this .gif so many times, yet each time I am left in awe at how amazing it is.

[–]Radico87 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Yep, too bad I saw this everywhere else already.

[–]cool_playa 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

And then harry potter begins :]

[–]Johndoe9990 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Fractalicious

[–]b3d0u1n 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Nature is just playing a game of Missile Commander.

[–]toomuchhippo 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Like a crack in the glass sky...

[–]SANAFABICH 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

This shit is as old as the internet itself

[–]tlid 0 points1 point ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

This is even better than clown porn. I really, really mean that.

[–]FeindishDRWoo -1 points0 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

It looks like the veins on my penis

[–]sunbeam60 2 points3 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Charming.

[–]FeindishDRWoo -1 points0 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Heart-warming in fact.

[–]KOWguy -3 points-2 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

[–]YouDontGnomeMe -1 points0 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Lightning like I have seen it about five times now.

[–]klsi832 -4 points-3 points ago

sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on

Electric Sperm vs. Earth