r/Whatisthisthing | why does it exist?? 

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE DO MORE OF THIS SUBREDDIT. I *LOVE* seeing things like this that are either dangerous or completely bizarre, it's super interesting! Love it!

Robin is finally getting non-infuriating subreddits!

I love the lizard one because as neat as learning about it was, it means that thig guy got bit by the lizard and his reaction was to pick it up and get a picture.

I think the termite indcator works because the balls are held up by a matchstick so if termites eat the stick the green ball rolls away and the indicator goes blank

The side brushes on an escalator are to get your attention by brushing your ankle to warn you that you are too close to the edge of the escalator. This helps keep people and other objects from getting stuck in the sides of the escalator. I learned this fact YEARS AGO, but I just wanted to clear all of the rumors out there!

My mom's homestead has goats, and 8:16 is genuinely accurate. I even thought of a comic idea about it: A goat has his head stuck through a fence, though in the art direction, by design, you can't see the pasture behind him, only the wasteland ahead, with a wilted flower right in front of him, that he's trying to reach and eat. Another goat walks up, asks "Yo, what you doing?" "This flower looks yummy, but I can't reach it." "Here, lemme try!" the other goat sticks its head through the fence too, getting stuck as well. "I can't reach it either!" "What about you, Billy?" *They look over at a skeleton of a goat also stuck in the fence next to them. Cut to zooming out, and their own pasture behind them is lush and green and filled with flowers just like that one.

The car part one reminds me how Reddit identified a specific car that killed a woman biking on the side of the road in a hit and run by a palm sized piece found at the scene. Police found him with his car missing the exact piece and the guy admitted to it when they questioned him

Jack seems like the person to do the funny subreddits like anti memes and steam reviews Lexi seems to be good at the chaotic ones like the bad mobile game ads And Robin seems to be an all rounder I think.

2:20 well, thats most american thing i've ever heard about czechia

6:27 Had me in TEARS, just the dead tone and how f a s t and accurate the find for model of car was. Love Car Enthusiasts and Automotive lovers just laying on some random fact or being scarily accurate to a car or vehicle to situations like these LOL

1:26 This one was eventually solved after several posts on reddit, contacting the creator, and a whole lot more! Its one of the monkeys from Rio, as part of the promotional set

I was excited for the Czechia mention and bro just goes "somewhere, Europe" 💀

6:20 I think I've heard this story before. They caught the guy that did it all because someone managed to identify the car bumper.

For the metal kiss its actually a quality control piece, they'll throw them in at random on the line to make sure that the automated system is calibrated correctly

02:12 ROBIN ROBIN CZECHIA IS A COUNTRY IN EUROPE omg, its pronounced checkia, its a slavic country that borders poland and germany

1:20 thats clearly a bear riding a squirrel

8:21 they just discovered their relative is a soviet spy oh my god i love reddit 😂

I remember this subreddit helped solve a hit and run I believe. Got the perp arrested because some guy happened to an expert at something to do with car mirrors or bumpers or something at the front of a pickup truck. (I’ve completely forgotten what piece of the car was broken off but I know it was near the front.) Edit: 6:23 Since I posted this before finishing the video it seems there was a picture from a very similar story to the one above that made it into this video. But the story I mentioned involved a black pickup truck and woman who got hit sadly passed away.

My first thought with the 3D maze was “I don’t know what it is but I want to climb it.” Yes, I’m a native Floridian.

This is such a good subreddit! Please do more of this!

2:01 Czechia is the official name of the Czech Republic!

I always thought those things were like a shoe brush to clean your shoe as you go up or down

With the giant wrench the forces required to use it gets lessened the further out from the center you go. I imagine you are supposed to hold it at the hole at the end and readjust the wrench constantly to use it.

0:40 As a Floridian I can confirm that the lizard is a night anole, you don't see those often. More common anoles are brown, and the size of a thumb.

This is one of my favorite subreddits because I'm always so baffled at how all of the commenters can just turn into detectives

7:32 I was giggling like a small child everytime Robin said peen

3:39 That is straight-up the garden of someone who has played Animal Crossing every day of their life from birth.

I wouldn't mind getting videos about this subreddit, it really is nice and informative.

9:10 I THOUGHT SOMEONE PUT A LUMP OF FRIED CHICKEN ON THE POWERLINE

1:11 nah I know what that is. That's a spirit box

This is such a glorious subreddit, I'm gonna need to post a piece of chicken that ice been wondering about for the past 9 years

0:52 Me, who plays phasmaphobia: _SPIRIT BOX!_

7:40 I hate the word "peen", but only because of all those goddamn reddit videos with the stupid synthetic voice that has a British accent and mispronounces "burger" as "burjer". There are at least 3 different guys who make videos like that, and they all replace "penis" with "peen". I especially hate the guy who replaces "rape" with "physical shaming".

4:00 banana for scale 😂

Day 19 of commenting using chatgpt until Robin notices. "Watching this video from r/Whatisthisthing had me scratching my head in utter confusion! It's mind-boggling how some objects or items defy explanation and leave us wondering why they even exist in the first place. Thanks for sharing these perplexing posts - they certainly sparked my curiosity and left me eagerly awaiting the answers. The mystery behind these peculiar things is part of what makes this subreddit so intriguing. Keep the enigma going!"

@3:09: Can confirm, that's two earthworms making baby earthworms.

01:30 - The feather ball may be the remnants of a raptor's meal prep. That's raptor as in hawk or eagle or falcon, not velociraptor. The raptor will peel the skin off a bird, feathers and all. The skin will tend to contract as it decays, forming the mass into just such a ball. Skin and possibly flesh may be at the center, possibly with fly larvae as described having sourced it for protein. The thump they heard may have been the raptor making its kill. That ball is what's left after prep...

Strangest thing I found the purpose for recently was a Capacity Magnifier from 1927. Its this large wooden box with a giant iron core in it and a bunch of brass knobs on the top and sides, and two open top cylinders with a vacuum tube in each. There were three manufacturer names on it; H.Tinsley & co, Elliot brothers ltd, and Muirhead and co. It was that last name that lead me to an article on a similarly named device which was used to magnify or amplify small electrical currents in undersea cables for telegraph and telephone lines, I’d never seen anything like it before.

09:00 Looks like he's a supervillain and that's his power inhibitor.

5:17 YO THAT’S A HALO INSTALLATION-

6:17 EOD means 'Explosieven Opruimings Dienst' in Dutch. 6:53 But it is very difficult to pee in it if you have to stay in bed after your operation. I've had to use one of these myself during a number of hospitalizations. And what I'm about to tell you might sound really weird, but when my late maternal grandfather was in the hospital, I had to entertain myself and play with that thing like it was a truck. Luckily it was an empty pee bottle. 13:44 This way the police can see where such a w*d plantation is located.

3:51 This rang a bell for me for some reason, this looks like some kind of real-life recreation of the dog shrine in undertale that you find when you walk into the sink-door in Sans and Papyrus’s house?

That last roof image could also be an attic that is only partially insulated and the snow is melting because all the heat from the floors below is leaking through the roof in the uninsulated area...This can happen if you have work done to the room's ceiling in that area and the workers need access to the joists to run wires or find a hidden junction etc. so they moved the insulation away and didn't put it back... Looking at your roof after it snows is a good way to check on how well your attic is insulated...if the snow melts, you need more insulation (and are wasting a LOT of money in heating bills that are higher than they should be)...if it doesn't, you're properly insulated...

6:56 my aunt bought a pot once. Turned out to be a chamber pot. We still make fun of her

10:19 OH HALF LIFE HEADCRABS ARE REAL

5:50 potato cellar, we have one of those near our house. Just an old way to keep your jars and veggies cold

at 1:25 i think it's a pterodactyl because if you turn it to the right a bit the weird skinnier part could look like it's head and the rest could follow suit, idk though i'm not a silly band expert

11:05 This family probably thought they had dug up some forgotten biohazard processing system. They were right.

0:11 I am so glad I'm not alone in rubbing my feet on these partially to clean my shoes and partially because I enjoyed the vibrations.

11:56 this isn't uncommon! In the warm months if you don't have a cooler, most folk put their alcohol or other drinks between rocks in the rivers to keep them cool

I always thought those brush things on an escalator were to help blind people space themselves from the side

6:26 I'm in r/whatisthiscar. They once identified a car from a break in based on blurry black and white security footage, and then later identified a car as the same one based on the spoiler.

8:35 a Russian spy?

3:59 Reminds me of that whole running theme they had in _Dexter’s Laboratory_ where Dexter’s wrenches were almost always bigger than his entire body, even doubling as a melee weapon for him. Just needs to be a double-sided wrench, and there you go! (Also, gotta love how people still use bananas for scale)

I'm like 90% sure that silly band is a water pump like you see at campsites just upside down, a lot of them have an extra spicket lower down to wash mud and dirt off of shoes and a little knob up top to control pressure. I see how it looks like legs and the handle looks like a tail.

0:03 I use it to tickle to toes sometimes if I'm wearing a sandal but if I'm wearing a shoe it's free cleaning service

Im sorry, but that made me cackle when you didn't intend on pronouncing "Czechia" xD - One murderous cat from Czechia

Depending on where that flying squirrel was, removing him from the house might be a problem. I knew someone in CT, and the region they're in? Those little buggers are a protected species; they found that out because they got Little Brown bats roosting in an exterior wall, but when the pest guy popped a camera in, he also found a flying squirrel nest. No exterminator or animal control crews would go anywhere near the bats after that, so...yeah. Whole lot of unwanted but now permanent fuzzy tenants.

5:05 casually breaking Geneva conventions lol

Chain viewing EmKay videos is always fun

Regarding the giant wrench: my university's engineering student society had a bunch that they used them during frosh week, and carried around at student events and parades as a symbol of the engineering students. Whoever it was inherited from could have been part of a similar engineering student society or fraternity.

CAN HE NOT PRONOUNCE CZECHIA????

Czechia is the Czech name for the Czech Republic. I'm guessing NE is usually northeast. If it says "the NE" it is usually used to talk about like Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, possibly New York (but that's the general idea). As a state NE is Nebraska (but it wouldn't be called the NE).

0:37 *Did you mean:* Golden Experience Requiem

the escalator brush thing is also used for making sure your shoelaces won't jam the moving parts

First few and I'm already learning quite a bit. Some educational subreddits can be fun at times.

"Somewhere" when it's Czechia? It's a whole ass country Robin, you can't NOT prounounce it ... 😂

5:11 those are kind of similar to what my factory uses to indicate break times. Though it usually only emits a bwaa sound for like 10 seconds. I imagine they're programmable for longer durations and to sound at specific times. 10:02 Yep, flying squirrel. Specifically Aeromys tephromelas, most often found in far south east Asia and Indonesian Islands.

I really liked this new subreddit, would love to see more of it!

3:17 great now I'm never gonna eat spaghetti again.

Heh, last night, I found a lizard. He bit me twice, and it turned out to be an adult five lined skink! (they are cute and used for nipping earrings here) you can hold one up to your ear and it becomes an earring mysteriously. (and yes, the lizard is fine)

4:14 it's funny to me that they have a banana for scale.

i visited the subreddit about that silly band myself the most i could find was people suggesting it was either a dragon or a monkey swinging from a tree branch someone else said that it might be a misprint from the western/cowboy silly bands pack another person said something about it being a scrat but nobody seems to know multiple people in the subreddit have also claimed to contact the original creator of silly bands to try and see if they knew but nothing came of it also all of the posts in that subreddit are around 5/7 year’s old

12:45 yeah! f***youinparticulare, John!

Czechia, Europe. IDK we had 3D mazes! Looks cool AF.

1:28 Squirrel on a branch, I'm almost certain. You got the typical squirrels tail top left, pair of ears top right, and a branch underneath. Not sure why they decided to put it on a branch since it just makes it so much harder to read though.

6:05 this reminds me of all the places around me that were once military. My primary school was used to train soldiers in WWI, and you can still find .22 shells after it rains.

7:06 I used to live in Germany, but I do not recall those being bought - instead a parent or both make one with the help of the kindergarten teacher and then you take it with you for the first day of 1st grade :) My mom said I picked the most difficult one to make hahaha

That Hershey Kiss QA gauge ... I'd totally make a mold out of it to make my own Hershey Kisses. 😂

2:19 That's the Czech Republic, just the shortened form of the name (like how we refer to the French Republic as France). Over the last few years they've been making the push for more places to refer to them by the shortened form.

8:50 I have a grinder in that design but with holes in one side to let weed fall down on to a screen that then drops kief below it. Top is same design with teeth and magnetic center. Aluminum with gold anodized exterior.

I'm convinced all of these are SCPs

We need more of this subreddit. This shit is amazing. It’s genuinely educational. While still being able to make comedic moments.

IIRC, that first one is also there to alert people when they're getting too close to the edge of the escalator, probably so they don't fall off it.

I was highly unaware and am now in massive awe, that a Schultüte is a German only thing and it's not used around the world. Honestly, I'm shocked. What did you guys get sent to your very first day of school with? Just your backpack?

4:40 my man actually read 10 in binary, what a chad

The brush on the escalator is to try to prevent people from rubbing their shoes along the side walls. I had worked as a fitter on the SRA and did a rotation at Central station escalator & lifts maintenance depot. While servicing an escalator at Edgecliff, I witness a 4 year old getting dragged into the escalator because he was dragging his shoe along the side wall, the side walls are thin stainless on plywood, it will give if forced. I was lucky to be standing at the stop button at the bottom, as we was just about to shut it down to change a broken comb plate at the bottom, as soon as I heard the little guy scream, I slammed that stop button before he received any serious injuries. so those brushes are designed to force people from dragging along the side plates.....

These sorts of subs are always legitimately fascinating.

Finnaly a subreddit that isn't a political circlejerk

Can we please get more of this subreddit? Please? It's super interesting and you can actually learn something!

as an assistant for a mechanic on big diesel machines, i can confirm about the wrench, sometimes we make our own wrenches if its bigger than 2", sometimes it gets up to 10" and we smack em with a sledge to loosen or tight em up

I am from Sweden and I can say that I have never seen that weird thing on a tree ever

12:58 my new pfp now

I REALLY like this subreddit, keep it up, please!!!!

The Honest John srbm is a literal nuke, so probably should have called the EOD squad from the nearest military base

6:24 I can not express how happy this post makes me. This feels like what the internet was invented for

0:25 its the top of a victorian mesh coin purse

Snipers out of the question Except on military bases. Went to an airshow recently, there were several buildings with sniper nest teams on them, one building had 3 teams, each team had 2 people one with a bolt action, one with AR pattern(couldnt tell with my 600mm lens, but either AR15 pattern or AR10 There wer over 34k people at that airshow, it was packed.

If I had to guess, the "Miracle Eye" is probably meant to be some kind of "night mode" that detects low light levels, and quiets the clock so it doesn't scare people in the middle of the night

0:32 The ONLY reason I knew exactly what that was is because an old coworker friend of mine from a previous work place owned a coin purse with that kind of closure on it. I always thought it was the coolest looking bag, something straight out of New York Renn Faire! 💜