We all know very well that things in this world tend to backfire. Call it a law of nature, a frequent twist of fate, or destiny. “Look who’s laughing now” is a phenomenon that has happened to virtually every one of us, and no matter what you do, it repeats again and again, and again.
The Reddit community “There Was An Attempt” is dedicated to precisely the comic absurdity of all the attempts in life that went against the plan, or turned in the wrong direction. Created in August 2015, the subreddit now has 1.9m members that are not immune to the funny attempts that “were there.”
“People enjoy the slapstick comedy of it. At the end of the day, everyone is laughing,” the subreddit’s moderator told Bored Panda in the interview that you can read in full below. And now we leave the stage to the ensued hilarity.
#1 To Make The Special Olympics Look Bad
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#2 To Complain About A Child Selling Hot Dogs
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#3 To Clean Up After Himself
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Bored Panda spoke to redditor u/F4T4-M0RG4N4, the moderator of the r/ThereWasAnAttempt subreddit, who said that the community has evolved a lot since it was created 5 years ago.
“When I first joined the team, it was mostly a screenshot sub. A few months back, there was some drama about how there were only three mods who ran the subreddit (which at the time had around a million members).” As a result, they invited more people to join the moderator team and removed the screenshot posts.
#4 To Get Drinks
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#5 To Make Speaking 2 Languages Sophisticated
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#6 To Sound Literate
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For those who’re wondering what, precisely, “there was an attempt” refers to, u/F4T4-M0RG4N4 explained that it’s basically about “someone attempting something but ultimately failing.”
Conceptually, it’s similar to “if someone tried jumping off a trampoline into a pool but when they tried to jump, the trampoline tore. In that case, you could say, ‘Well… there was an attempt, at least’ and that’s where our subreddit comes into play.”
The posts are mainly about “some people having a dumb idea, trying out that idea, and failing.” This misery is what makes it so funny.
#7 To Start Cat Racing
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#8 To Prevent The Homeless From Sleeping Here
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#9 …to Photograph Birds
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Today, the moderator team only allows video submissions and cross-posts, “which are posts that were in one subreddit but were reposted to another (kind of like retweeting.” This format works better for r/ThereWasAnAttempt, since screenshots can more easily become reposts, for one.
Especially when there’s one similar subreddit that’s specifically for social media clapbacks and comebacks, but its content mainly features screenshots.When it comes to their 1.9 million member count, the moderator said that “I don’t think we have the exact same post frequency as, say, a meme subreddit.”
Partly, it’s because it isn’t easy to repost something from r/ThereWasAnAttempt. “I could probably look at the new section for r/memes and see quite a few frequent reposts.”
#10 To Be Responsible And Uber Home
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#11 To Scare Your Boyfriend
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#12 At Going Outside
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#13 To Prove That Patton Oswalt Is A Failed Comedian
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#14 To Be An Animal Activist
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#15 To Shame Atheists And Take Away Their Holidays
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#16 I Mean… You Tried..?
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#17 To Arrest A “Drug Dealer
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#18 To Make Fun Of A Bird
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#19 To Shame Men
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#20 To Sound Intellectual
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#21 To Convince People To Be Pro-Life
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#22 To Take A Cute Picture
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#23 To Defend God
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#24 …. To Find Buried Treasure
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#25 To Be Racist
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#26 There Was An Attempt To Run For Mayor
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#27 To Eat A Mozzarella Stick
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#28 To Suggest A New Idea
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#29 To Motivate
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#30 To Glorify The President
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#31 To Replace I’m Sorry With Thank You
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#32 To Betray Coca Cola
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#33 To Prove How Unfashionable These Jeans Were
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#34 To Be Neighborly
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#35 To Be Deep
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#36 To Virtue Signal…
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#37 To Display Plus Size Clothes Without Causing Offence
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#38 To Provide Front, Side, And Rear Photos For The Car Insurance Rep
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#39 To Get A Cardi B Tattoo
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#40 To Stand Up For The Joker
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#41 To Fuck The Police
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#42 To Get A Heartwarming Tattoo
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#43 To Befriend A Porcupine
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#44 To Pass Security
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#45 To Keep A Streak Going
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#46 To Sound Tougher
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#47 To Criticize A Garbage Man
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#48 To Be A Professional Company
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#49 To Create 3 Mexican Countries
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#50 To Hide
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