Oddly satisfying refers to any kind of sighting, either picture or video, that’s incredibly satisfying to look at. The concept has gained quite a cult following on the internet thanks to the r/OddlySatisfying subreddit, which has a whopping 5 million members. The group was created back in 2013, and it celebrates all the “little things that are inexplicably satisfying.”
According to Know Your Meme, "oddly satisfying" and similar phrases had been used online even earlier than that. It first occurred as early as June 4th, 2011 when a post was published on Jezebel titled "An Oddly Satisfying Montage Of 'You Just Don’t Get It, Do You?' Moments."
Moreover, r/OddlySatisfying was inspired by another hugely popular subreddit community, r/mildlyinteresting, “which 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.’”
Fast forward to today, when oddly satisfying and mildly interesting videos are ruling the internet like never before. “We don’t need to be able to explain why we like something in order for it to exist,” Kevin Allocca, head of trends and culture at YouTube, told Wired.
The phenomenon of oddly satisfying pictures and videos, according to Kevin, has to do with the fact that we've never had a descriptor for this kind of stuff. “I think we’ve always had a desire to watch these type of things, but we just didn’t have the language for it. Now we do.”
#13 I Was Told On A Couple Of Art Subreddits You All Might Appreciate My Art
#18 A Single Fallen Tree Holding Back The Duckweed In The Wetlands Of Louisiana
#20 I’m An Art Teacher And I Moved To A New School This Past Summer. The Previous Teacher Did Not Share My Love Of Organization. Behold The Before And After Of My Paper Closet!
