Cars? Check. DIYs? Check. Funny fails and bizarre happenings? Check and check. All of these and so much more can be found on the internet, for those interested in one or the other. As a matter of fact, there’s a place you can find all of the above, and that’s the ‘If Ya Squint, It’s Mint’ group on Facebook. Brimming with all sorts of entertaining material, the group is a treasure trove of fails, especially if you’re a fan of DIYs gone wrong or ideas that you simply know are not going to end well. Scroll down to find some examples of both, in addition to other unexpected snapshots, and enjoy! Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with one of the founders of the group, Jacob, and the Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology at University of Waterloo and an expert in boredom, Dr. James Danckert, who were kind enough to answer a few of our questions. Discussing how it all started, Jacob shared that he came up with the concept of the name because of his old F-150 truck. “I’ve had it for years; my dad is the original owner and grew up with it since the age of 5. It was very rusty and had a bunch of scratches and bed liner covering up bad attempts at bondoing rust spots. My dad was joking around with me one night saying the truck only looks good past 20 feet and I quipped back the line—If ya squint it’s mint—and the idea took off. “Over the years, that truck saved my life from an active shooter to being my place to sleep when I was homeless living across the country,” the founder of the group shared, adding that even with numerous “sketchy upgrades and modifications” that he did, the vehicle still looks mint past 20 feet. “I have a policy to block and remove anyone speaking about politics on either side of the aisle. It’s getting difficult to moderate it all the time because of the sheer size of the membership. Off the top of my head, I can say between bot accounts, inappropriate comments, and politics, I’ve banned over 40,000 accounts. Approving posts is done by me, my wife—the other admin—and a few friends of mine who moderate when they feel inclined to help. I enjoy seeing all the weird things people take pictures of on roads.” “The group is basically a place for people to post all the weird and funny stuff they encounter either in real life or a shared post somewhere else. It’s kinda morphed into a meme or ‘what’s wrong with this picture’ type of group,” he added. When asked what is likely to be the reason why we find fails funny, Dr. Danckert said: “I can only think of schadenfreude. “Maybe it also pulls us out of a low arousal slump – again, if we’re bored, watching ‘fails’ might seem exciting,” he added. While it sounds cruel presented like that, it doesn’t mean that everyone who has experienced it is some sort of a sociopath. Schadenfreude can also be experienced when a friend you love and care for dearly trips on a sidewalk and you—after making sure they still have all their teeth—can’t help but laugh at their clumsiness. If you ask me, schadenfreude can be perceived as an ability to see the beauty in fails, be it your own or those of others. So, the fact that people love browsing fails online, too, comes as no surprise. If you’re a fan of such instances yourself, chances are you’ve already giggled at some of the failures shared on this list. But if you want more, continue to browse the funniest Halloween fails, the biggest tattoo fails, or wife fails that had the internet in stitches next. Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
