Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

The Biggest 'Trolls' In All Of History

Nothing gets people riled up more than a troll.

No, not the kind of trolls in fairy tales who live under bridges, or the iconic dolls with neon hair and groovy clothing.

But the kind of trolls who say or do something purely to instigate conflict and rile people up.

Today, trolling is most commonly associated with the internet and social media, where people make a habit of writing rude, sometimes offensive comments purely intending to get a rise out of people.

But trolling has been around long before the days of Facebook or Instagram.


Redditor drbdrbdr was eager to hear who people considered to be the most notorious troll in the history of mankind, leading them to ask:
"Who is the biggest troll in history?"

Amazing What Good Pictures Can Do...

"The guy who opened a fake restaurant in London using Google reviews and his back garden and shed with microwave meals."- dirtyaccomplice

Just... Why?!?

"April fools day 1974 when a man burned 70 rubber tires on a dormant volcano in Alaska!"

"This has to be up there."

"He waited 3 years to get a helicopter to fly the tires to the top to get a picture perfect condition."

"He even got the coast guard called out too."- jgpdvs

Team Salieri?

"Mozart didn’t like this singer so much that he wrote a piece for her with high and low notes constantly because he noticed that when she hit low notes her chin went to her chest and when she hit high notes her head would fling back."

"So it was like she was bobbing like a chicken."- danielokane

Giphy

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs!

"In the 30s-40s BBC did an April fools broadcast where they told people how spaghetti was made, on trees.'

"They literally showed fake spaghetti trees and since not many people in that time knew how spaghetti was made, lots of people believed it."- Voicedtunic

He Made A Mockery Of All Of Them!

"There was a Prussian, I can't remember his name, who managed to make an officer's uniform out of scraps of clothing."

"He used it to convince a few guards on patrol to follow him into a government building, ordered the arrest of the man in charge, confiscated all the money personally, sent the arrested man to Berlin calming it was all on order of the King."

"He then ditched the uniformed, got on a train to Berlin him and managed to beat the guards there."

"He then sat back and watched the absolute confusion happen."

"The guy was eventually arrested but the public turned him into a celebrity and his actions into a play that was performed all over Germany."

"He wasn't incarcerated for long and after his release he lived an easy life from there on."- TheGermanMofo

Outsmarting The Enemy

"Technically this isn't a troll since it was serving a purpose, but Admiral Nelson was escaping a French fleet when a man fell overboard."

"It was Nelson's policy of never leaving anyone behind so he turned his ship around to go pick him up."

"The French saw his ship turn back toward them, assumed he had reinforcements coming beyond the horizon, so they turned and ran."- ScarletCaptain

Episode 18 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy

That's Quite A Grudge...

"I was thinking more like the mortician who patented the automatic telephone switch 3 years after finding out his rival's wife worked as a telephone operator and would reroute calls asking for his funeral parlor to her husbands."

"The guy put a whole worldwide workforce out of work for one person's actions."- ThrowawayKarensBane

By Hook Or By Crook...

"Theodore Hook."

"The perpetrator of the Berners Street hoax in London in 1810 in which Hook sent thousands of letters summoning all manners of various vendors and service people and physicians and dignitaries and others to all come to one random person’s home."

'Literally shutting down a large part of London as they all descended upon the same address throughout the day, all while Hook and a friend sat watching from a house across the street, presumably laughing their a**es off the whole time."- VictorBlimpmuscle

Reverse Psychology

"In China there was the war of the three kingdoms."

"The Wei, Shu, and Wu."

"Two of their armies met in battle and the smaller was out of arrows."

"They were separated by a river."

"One night, the leader of the smaller army stocked the front of their boats/rafts with straw bales and moved toward the opposing army over the river."

"They were immediately hailed with arrows."

"The men ducked behind the straw while the arrows stuck in the straw, undamaged."

"They then sailed away and yelled."

"''We thank you for the arrows, we will return them shortly!"''

"This may just be a tall tale from Romance of the Three Kingdoms but it may be true."- Mr_Caterpillar

You Got It Animation GIF by SWR KindernetzGiphy

Generally speaking, these were deliberate acts of malice, which served no other purpose than to baffle and infuriate the public.

Although, one can't help but wonder if all of these so-called trolls had an ulterior motive.

Deep down, they must have known that these duplicitous pranks would ensure that people would remember their name, or at the very least their actions, for a very long time.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshots from @mike.ali32's TikTok video
@mike.ali32/TikTok

TikToker Goes Viral For Yelling Out Fast Food Slogans After Buying Their Food—And The Reactions Are Priceless

We're supposed to go through life loving the people that we love so loudly that they can never doubt how much we love them. Maybe that's how we should approach the things and companies we love, too.

At least, that seems to be the approach that TikToker @mike.ali32 is taking.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @withethanlap's TikTok video
@withethanlap/TikTok

Guy Turns His Pregnant Wife's Extreme Text Messages Into A Hilariously Perfect Pop Punk Song—And It's A Banger

Anyone who has gone through pregnancy or is close to someone who has knows that the symptoms are truly no joke, and going from one day to the next can feel like an absolute rollercoaster.

Comedian and TikToker Ethan Lapierre's wife shared with him some of her symptoms, sometimes texting him that she was hungry but couldn't eat, and other times feeling like she was dying.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @missyhalleonig's TikTok video
@missyhalleonig/TikTok

A New Parenting Hack For Getting Toddlers To Stop Their Tantrums Has People In Disbelief That It Actually Kinda Works

Parents might not want to admit it, but when their toddlers are tantruming, there's nothing quite like finding a way to hilariously redirect or confuse them to help stop the tears.

In a hilarious parenting hack that's taking over TikTok, videos are appearing that all mysteriously star a woman named "Jessica," though no one can seem to find her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @legallyswifite13's TikTok video
@legallyswifite13/TikTok

Woman Sparks Debate After Accusing Frontier Airlines Of Kicking Her Off Flight For Being Deaf

Let this Frontier Airlines saga be a reminder to all of us that not all disabilities and needs are visible, so when a person requests accommodations, it's better to believe them.

TikToker @legallyswiftie13 posted in 2024 that, though she was in her early twenties, she discovered that she would be rapidly losing her hearing, which was discovered at a routine medical check-up. Though she could still speak and hear, it would become increasingly difficult for her to hear, especially when there were competing noises in the area.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ben Sasse
60 Minutes/CBS News

Former GOP Senator Gets Brutal Wakeup Call After Criticizing People For Playing 'Candy Crush' Instead Of 'Making Babies'

Ben Sasse represented Nebraska in the United States Senate from 2015 to 2023. As a Midwestern moderate, the sometimes controversial Sasse was often critical of MAGA Republican President Donald Trump on social media and on the Senate floor.

At one point, the Nebraska GOP censured him because of his criticism of Trump. But Sasse, like Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, would still vote with the majority of his party when his vote was needed to back Trump's agenda.

Keep ReadingShow less