As 2023 comes to a close, I can't help but reflect on all the weirdly funny and bizarre moments I've come across thanks to the BuzzFeed Community. Here are the stories that made me laugh out loud, raise my eyebrows, or just made me question life (and humanity) in general:
1. "I was driving down the highway at around midnight when suddenly I saw this dude with a whole, real-life, adult two-humped camel in the back of his pickup truck. I definitely had to do a double-take."
2. "I was driving through town with my husband and saw a woman riding next to our car — naked. Then, another naked person on a bike appeared, and a whole bunch more! They were literally all naked, with their bare butts on the bike seats, peddling away! I guess there's a group called Naked Bike Riders, and I was lucky enough to see them in action. It was absolutely surreal."
3. "One time, I checked my mailbox and found a flyer for a pizza place. I was reading it while walking back to my place, when all of a sudden, a half-eaten piece of pizza fell from the sky and nearly hit me. I looked up, bewildered, and saw nothing but a very sad-looking squirrel on the roof, devastated to have dropped its dinner."
4. "I was at a stoplight a few years back. It was red, and the guy in the car in front of us turned his radio up on full blast, got out of his car, shut the door, put his legs up on the car, and began twerking. I watched — what else was I supposed to do? Once the light turned green, he got back in his car and drove away like nothing happened. Honestly, good for him."
5. "I was at a farmers market, and there was a Black man who had a stall that sold, as advertised, Jamaican jerk chicken. Well, a Black woman next to his stall started screaming at him and everyone nearby, 'This guy is a fraud, and so is his chicken! He's not Jamaican! He's Nigerian!'"
6. "I was riding the Metro in Washington, DC, during rush hour. It was a hectic morning, so the cars were jammed — like, people were pressed against the train doors. I was waiting at the station to board another line when I looked up and saw a man on the train making out with the window. He was full-on French kissing the window pane — it almost felt as if I was intruding on something. I don't know what was happening or where that guy was in his head, but it was the strangest thing I've ever seen."
—Anonymous
7. "I was riding the bus to get to work when a lady and like 12 kids (I'm not exaggerating) came aboard. The kids all appeared to be under 15, and after sitting them all down, she pulled out random living animals from her trench coat pockets. She pulled out maybe two ducks, a few gerbils, some reptilian creatures, and a tiny chick. It was pretty weird."
8. "I was getting a haircut, relaxing in the chair, and letting the barber do his thing. Suddenly, the police stormed into the barbershop and arrested my barber mid-chop! WTF?"
9. "This was just a really weird sequence of events. One time, I was doing a bar crawl. About seven or eight bars in, we got to this really rough-looking one. This guy came in, and I noticed he was wearing a pirate hat and had a parrot on his shoulder. As he ordered his drink, the parrot was repeatedly shouting a string of curse words. Nobody said anything, so I assumed this dude was a regular or something. Well, I bought my drink, went into the beer garden, spotted my friends at the table, and saw there was a Shetland pony standing next to them. So, yeah: A pirate, a profane parrot, and a pony."
10. "I was sitting outside a changing room in a department store, waiting for my wife as she was trying on clothes. There was an old man sitting across from me, and without breaking eye contact, he lip-synced the entirety of Whitney Houston's 'Greatest Love of All' while winking and smiling at me."
11. "One time, I was flying from Indonesia back to the US and was seated next to this guy who had a sandwich bag full of peeled garlic. He ate the entire bag during takeoff. Then a few hours later, he pulled out a big block of Brie, split it in half, put some raisins on it, slapped it back together, and ate it like a sandwich. It was so bizarre. At one point, he caught me looking and asked if I wanted some. Um, no thanks!"
12. "I was on a last-minute flight to Miami, and I got stuck in the middle seat. The gentleman in the aisle seat was asleep before takeoff. Then, about 30 minutes into the flight, he woke up and asked me, 'Hey, man, is my chest bleeding?' He unbuttoned his shirt, and sure enough, he was bleeding. He just chuckled, asked if I didn't mind switching seats with him, then went back to sleep."
—KP, 30, New York
13. "I was working as a cashier in a small Pennsylvania college town, and a dude came in wearing a full-body chicken costume. As I was ringing him up, I asked if he was going to a party or was working as a mascot. He shrugged his wings at me and said, 'Nah. Sometimes I just feel like a chicken.' Then he walked out with his soda and trail mix."
14. "I used to work as a train conductor. One Friday night, I was working one of the last trains, and there was a couple that boarded. While I was walking through the train, I noticed that the couple had locked themselves in one of the tiny bathrooms. I asked them to come out, and when they did, the girl had her hand clamped over her mouth. When I asked what was wrong, her boyfriend said that two of her false front teeth got flushed down the toilet. Mind you, the train had been in service ALL DAY and that toilet was filthy! But she persisted in putting her fingers down the little hole to search for her teeth. The teeth were stuck, so I hit up the emergency tool cupboard and found some bungee clips, thinking they'd work. 30 minutes later, the teeth came flying out of that filthy hole on the end of the bungee clip. What happened next, I was not prepared for. The girl simply ran her teeth under the sink tap...AND PUT THEM BACK IN HER MOUTH."
15. "One Friday night in the mid-'90s, my mom and I were watching The X-Files in the back room. She had a golden retriever, who was hanging out in another part of the house. As we were enjoying the show, three BIG dogs — none of which were my mom's — suddenly burst into the room, happy and excited. They began just milling around; meanwhile, my mother and I were just staring at each other, completely stupefied, for what seemed like several minutes. Finally, I asked, 'Who are all these dogs?!' Eventually, we heard someone calling out from the living room. My mom and I went to investigate, and we found a VERY embarrassed couple who had come to visit a friend (with their three dogs) and ended up at the wrong house. We didn't stop laughing the rest of the night, and we still crack up about it to this day."
16. "One time, I was at a youth group thing for my church. I was with, like, six of my friends, and one of them (who's a girl) was having a serious conversation with one of our other friends (who's a guy) about how she's liked him for years. She started talking about her bad dating life and how she was really sad, and was basically just venting. Then, out of nowhere, the guy she was talking to got down on all fours, crossed his eyes, and said, 'I'm a squirrel!' The girl was just like, "NO! You're NOT a squirrel!'" So weird."
—Turner Reeves
17. "I was on a bus in Chicago back when I was in my twenties when a well-dressed man carrying a briefcase approached. He paid his fare, sat down, and then stood up again a moment later. He looked at the rest of us and announced, 'We're all filth in the great pig pen of humanity.' Before sitting back down, he grunted like a pig. Weirdest thing I've ever seen."
18. "When I first got my driver's license, I was in the car with a friend on the way home. We were at a stoplight, and a man in a motorized wheelchair began crossing the street. He wasn't moving very fast, so when the light turned green, he was still in the crosswalk. Instead of finishing crossing the street, he turned into the traffic lane and just started doing donuts, all while staring me right in the face."
19. "I was a newly-minted pilot when I took off from a busy airport and headed out to practice flight maneuvers away from the traffic. As I turned away from the airport, I saw an object floating in the air ahead of me. As I got closer, I could see it was a giant Donald Duck head, which grew larger as I approached it. I was so confused and slightly scared. I turned to avoid it, and as I was doing so, I saw a relatively tiny basket attached to the head. I then realized it was a hot air balloon that'd blown away from its launching site!"
20. "One time, I was driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu (the PCH, as it's referred to in LA). It was late evening, maybe around 9 p.m. There weren't a lot of cars on the road, and it was a pretty dark night. As I drove down the highway, I saw a person jogging down the side of the road wearing a giant, full-body teddy bear costume, almost like they were a mascot. They were jogging with their cellphone in their hand, letting the light guide them. It was so weird because where had they come from? Why were they jogging down the side of the highway at night? I'll never know."
—Christina, 48, California
21. "I was walking to my car after work one day when a man came traipsing out of the bushes. He pointed directly at me and asked, 'Do I look like Tom Cruise?' I told him no, and he said, 'Well, then who do I look like?' I answered, 'Yourself,' because it was the only thing I could think of. He nodded, said, 'Damn right,' and went right back into the bushes."
22. "A few years ago, I was on break with a coworker. We worked in retail, but it was still early in the morning, so the parking lot was empty. Well, a car pulled up to the curb, and a man got out and took his shirt off. Then a woman got out of the car and sprayed baby powder all over the man's body. She repeatedly squeezed the bottle, and my coworker and I just watched as baby powder got everywhere. After the man was thoroughly bathed in powder, the duo got right back in the car and drove out of sight. My coworker and I, shocked, tried to see if the whole ordeal was caught on camera, but sadly, it wasn't. We still laugh about it to this day."
23. "I sat down on the train, and this guy took one look at me, whipped out a sketchpad, and started scribbling away, glancing in my direction every few seconds. Whenever I looked over at him, he angled his sketchpad away and avoided eye contact. When I looked away, he was back to his drawing. At one stop, he stood to get off the train. By then, I was just staring at him. He stepped onto the platform, turned around, and looked me straight in the eyes with absolute seriousness. Just as the doors were about to close, without breaking eye contact, he raised the sketchpad for me to see. He drew me — stark naked, standing under a palm tree, with an absolutely massive, larger-than-life penis."
24. "I was grocery shopping one day and had my mask on, so it was kind of hard to talk since the sound was a bit muffled. I was at the deli and needed cold cuts, so I said it louder than usual, and the person working there understood. She proceeded to tell me to have a great day, told me to stay safe, and gave me a thumbs-up. I wanted to tell her 'Thank you,' and I told myself that I, too, should give her a thumbs-up. I put my hand up, ready to close out this kind interaction, but accidentally gave her the middle finger! I couldn't believe that I did that."
—Anonymous
25. "One time, I was using the bathroom in this huge mall, and the guy in the stall next to me asked if I could pass him some toilet paper since he ran out. When I passed him the toilet paper, he rolled a cantaloupe back to me. There I was, on the toilet, frozen in shock and confusion. The guy was wearing cowboy boots, and as he was leaving, he yelled, 'Farty!' and let one rip."
26. "One time, I was minding my business and eating lunch in this picnic area at the park. All the other tables around me were full, and I was eating lunch alone. Literally out of nowhere, I got slapped in the face by a foreign object. It didn't hurt, but I was more stunned at the fact that I had just gotten bombarded. I looked around to see who could have thrown something at me, but everyone was just eating and acting normal. I was so confused. I looked down at what hit me and saw that it was a Ziploc bag filled with boneless wings. HUH? To this day, I've no idea where those wings could have come from."
27. And finally: "The strangest thing that ever happened to me was when I was in the Philippines, and a group of excited women kept following me around and asking me if I was Natalie Portman. I said I wasn't (I wish I looked like her), but they didn't believe me. They then asked if I was Jewish, and when I didn't say no (because I am), they kept bouncing up and down, excitedly exclaiming that I was definitely Natalie Portman. They insisted on taking a photo of me, so I ultimately just gave up and let them. Now, somewhere in the Philippines, there's a group of people showing off to their friends and family a picture of a random British Jewish lady who is definitely not Natalie Portman. I don't even know if I spoke for the rest of the day — I was so boggled."
