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popping

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Pictures, videos, and stories about cysts and pimples.

Hint: Turn the volume down while watching some of the videos. A lot of screaming and puke noises.

Eating (especially yoghurt) is not recommended.

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all 31 comments

[–]Lastert 27 points28 points ago

Totally a cat tail. We used to do this all in one quick motion as a type of projectile onto an unsuspecting friend. The roots can be eaten too.

[–]iamacannibal 3 points4 points ago

It is quite fun. There is a lake me and a few friends go to that maybe gets 50 visitors a year and one of it's banks in covered in there. we always have some fun. We've never eaten the roots though. I guess ill try that next time im there

[–]MissApril 2 points3 points ago

I wanna try!

[–]Hockeybear8 9 points10 points ago

no.

[–]Li5y 1 point2 points ago

So how do you do this exactly? I'm assuming that all that puffy fiber is compressed in the cattail stem and expands while exploding out, somehow.

[–]stephimatt99 12 points13 points ago

[–]ixplodestuff 2 points3 points ago

That was absolutely glorious.

[–]Raped_Your_Grandma -3 points-2 points ago

I'm sure that's not the first thing she has had explode in her hand.

[–]Lastert 0 points1 point ago

If you can find a dry one, just place your thumb and the side of your index finger at the base of the fibers and push forward. On a windy day, the seeds will almost explode off the stalk and into the air.

[–]big_ol_boners 15 points16 points ago

As /u/m_s_m said :

"This is Typha Latifolia, commonly known as Cattail. Cattails are used in Latin America in both cooking and traditional medicin.

Rubbing the stem, causes the potassium and nitrogen to oxygenate within stored mitochondria chambers, leading to rapid expulsion of collagenous spaces between the xylem and the phloem.

The same effect occurs when the plant is subject to high levels of heat. This led to a disaster in Le Paz, Bolivia, 1981. Tens of thousands of Cattail stems were being kept in a massive warehouse when a heatwave caused rapid expansion. Over a hundred workers suffocated when the warehouse was suddenly filled by expanding cattails seeds.

Each year, a day of remembrance is held called Día de la Espadaña where adults dress up in traditional factory clothing and children dress up as cattails. The children are then encouraged to attack the adults and beat them with rubber sticks, the adults then runaway and cover themselves with goose fat and anyone not hit by a child is set on fire and sacraficed to their God Urak Misfakunhai. "

[–]TheAmishSpaceCadet[S] 3 points4 points ago

May god have mercy on your soul

[–]hmistry 4 points5 points ago

Not only an explanation, but a story about so many people dying from such a weird fucked up scenario.. Death by Cattail.. I mean like WTF DUDE!

[–]rob2uk 0 points1 point ago

O.o You realise that it's not true, right?

[–]hmistry 0 points1 point ago

You do realise that you are going to get a comment downvote for saying that.

[–]rob2uk 3 points4 points ago

[–]hmistry 2 points3 points ago

That .Gif, just redeemed your Karma.

[–]creative1985 24 points25 points ago

Most seem to believe that it's a cattail

[–]spannermagnet 26 points27 points ago

you pump it until stuff shoots out the end... sounds familiar?

[–]magnetard 8 points9 points ago

Well, that's not exactly what's going on here. They're actually removing the exterior which is made up of millions of little fibers that grow so close together they become "packed" in a way due to the pressure of all of them simply being so close together. You relieve that pressure and they seem to just explode off of the stalk.

[–]tawke 1 point2 points ago

Sounds exactly the same to me, sorta.

[–]psmerling 9 points10 points ago

Cattail fibers being collected or removed from the stem; I heard they have quite a bit of nutritional properties, but I have never tried it before.

[–]HappyStance 4 points5 points ago

I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE. That looks like so much fun!

[–]rakista 0 points1 point ago

My grandpa used to make pancakes with them on fishing trips to freak us kids out. He worked for the NFS. Can't find a recipe though.

He used apple sauce I think? Just put the cattails in the jar, shook it and poured out dollar pancakes.

[–]tawke 1 point2 points ago

Bulrush is how I know them. Only learnt they did this a few years back. Someone got bored in work and did this with a bunch of them. Had stuff flying around for weeks. Like dandelion seeds sorta.

[–]Reddevil313 0 points1 point ago

It's a Typha or more commonly know as a cattail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha

It's basically a tightly packed shoot of seeds which kind of explode when you apply pressure. This video just looks really weird. It took me a few moments to understand what I was looking at.

[–]Luxelle 1 point2 points ago

I'm a florist, so when these come in, I love making them "explode" by the touch of my hand!

[–]sudo_free_cake 2 points3 points ago

I bet you do.

[–]sudo_free_cake 0 points1 point ago

You could sell these like hot cakes to this subreddit

[–]Fuck_Off_Cancer 0 points1 point ago

On another note, if you can get your hands on these when they are extremely dry you will never find a better source to start a fire.

[–]msmonroebot 0 points1 point ago

I just came. It didn't resemble that though.

[–]Mack488 0 points1 point ago

I don't think that's popping, I'm pretty sure that's something else.