Oddly Satisfying

About

Oddly Satisfying is a subsection of Reddit in which people share photographs of things that give them an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

Origin

“Oddly satisfying” and similar phrases had been used online as early as June 4th, 2011, when a post was published on Jezebel^[3] titled “An Oddly Satisfying Montage Of “You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?” Moments.” The phrase also appeared in the title of a Reddit thread, “This zipper gif is oddly satisfying,” posted in the /r/GIF^[12] subreddit by redditor bfgsndave on April 23rd, 2013.

On May 14th, 2013, Redditor Willo444^[2] created the subreddit /r/oddlysatisfying^[1], which is described as a place where:

“you can post things that make you feel, well, oddly satisfied. This can be physical (like popping bubble wrap), visual (a perfectly looped GIF), or even aural (the crunching of leaves).”

As of July 2014, the subreddit has attracted more than 160,000 subscribers.

Precursor

Reddit’s /r/oddlysatisfying was inspired by /r/mildlyinteresting, a subreddit community that was born out of a discussion in /r/WTF about the need of a clearer categorical distinction between images that are evocative of WTF and those that would be more aptly described as “mildly interesting." On February 4th, 2012, Redditor doginabathtub launched the proposed /r/mildlyinteresting as a place to share images that are “pleasant, the slightly amusing, and the somewhat intriguing, sometimes.”

Spread

On November 5th, 2013, CollegeHumor^[13] published a list titled “23 Oddly Satisfying GIFs You Could Probably Watch Forever.” On March 17th, 2014, Buzzfeed^[14] published a list titled “21 Oddly Satisfying GIFs You Won’t Be Able To Stop Watching.” On April 29th, 2014, Pleated Jeans^[15] published a list titled “16 Oddly Satisfying Animated GIFs.” On June 15th, 2014, the Twitter account @OddlySatisfying^[16] was created, within a month it had gained over 3,000 followers.

Notable Examples

Derivatives

As of July 2014, there are 16 derivative subreddits in Reddit’s Oddly Satisfying Network, including /r/asmr,^[9] a subreddit community for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,^[12]/r/mildlyinteresting, /r/ThisBlewMyMind^[21] a community where users share incrediable facts and /r/showerthoughts^[18] a community where users share the deep or shallow things they think of while in the shower. In addition, there is a Tumblr tag^[4] for other images deemed oddly satisfying.

The Oddly Satisfying Network

Search Interest

External References