THE TRUTH ABOUT: People power moves | History Defined

Bored Panda reached out to u/RalphiesBoogers, a moderator at the ‘Mad Lads’ community, who claims that they’re the greatest mod that Reddit has ever known. (...Allegedly!) We had a good laugh at how they responded to everything.

Check out their hilarious and in-character (as well as genuinely informative and insightful) responses below about the subreddit and, here’s a small heads-up, they really are kings and queens of banter, no matter what situation they’re in. An absolute mad lad? You betcha (just without the irony)!

Meanwhile, moderator u/steveofftheinternet pointed out that the subreddit was "completely ruined" when PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg, uploaded a video about it. "We got flooded with his meme-spewing preteen fan army who are incapable of understanding that 'madlad' is ironic." Mod u/N8theGr8 explained that "mad-laddery is when you do something incredibly mundane, such as making spaghetti, sweeping the hallway, or being a Bored Panda writer, and then acting like it's the craziest thing ever."

Moderator N8theGr8 said that the subreddit was started in response to an image of "a guy putting a pan or something on his head and everyone else being like whaaaaaaaaat." In their opinion, the world has enough mad lads as it is. "I don't know if I want to encourage too many madlads, since the last time we got too popular some impressionable kid put sugar on their already Frosted Flakes, and it was chaos. They sell this thing called Liquid Confidence at a lot of stores though, I recommend taking a shot every time Elon Musk embarrasses himself Twitter."

Meanwhile, when prodded about where the line between what's 'mad-laddish' and not lies, they decided to jokingly misinterpret the question. "Contrary to popular belief, it's not an actual physical line like the International Date Line or that line you dance on when line dancing. It's also not a picket line, as those individuals are fighting the bourgeois against the exploitation of labor under a system of capital are not to be dismissed as mere mad lads, but compatriots in the fight against our chains of oppression. It's also not rickrolling, since that joke is like 30 years old," they said, alluding to one of the main demands of the subreddit to not mention Rick Roll.

When asked to answer a few questions about their community and what it stands for, one of the r/madlads moderators, RalphiesBoogers (great name and The Simpsons reference, tbh) proved that banter is supreme and that you can’t switch it off before launching into how a lot of folks misinterpret the term ‘mad lad’ in the first place.

The mod, practically beaming with banter energy, agreed to talk to us on the condition that we keep mentioning that they’re the greatest moderator Reddit has ever known. Have we said that u/RalphiesBoogers is the greatest moderator Reddit has ever known? Well, they are!

“For the most part, we just try to manipulate the price of GME,” u/RalphiesBoogers, probably the best mod that Reddit has seen in its entire existence, jokingly told Bored Panda, referring to the GameStop stock rise (and fall). “The main point of this subreddit really is to manipulate the NYSE and various other currency markets. The majority of our posts are code for market movements. We decisively curate and control the information here in order to send clear market signals that our followers use as predictors. I understand your skepticism, but that's how it works.”

Just another piece of proof that you need to have a good sense of humor at all times, never take things written on the internet without a grain of salt, and that tongue-in-cheek sarcasm really can translate well through text, not just speech.

“The other mods will say what they're paid to say. Just to be clear though, everything I said is true,” they quipped.

Moderator RalphiesBoogers said that a lot of people have misconceptions about the term ‘mad lad.’ “It's about people who take something very mild and comment on social media as though it is not. However, most of the users here are like 12 so they think it's all about being actually wacky or being a first-world anarchist or something,” they explained that not everyone can sense the irony in some posts that are shared online.

“Truly, this misconception plagues the subreddit in ways that have cost the dow several hundred points this past week. r/madlads isn't about being mad. It's about taking way too much excitement in mildness or mundane things, and also driving Dogecoin to the moon,” the best, brightest, and most brilliant that Reddit has ever known and will ever see added, hyperbolizing just a tad.

We were curious to find out how some people, who are shy, lack confidence, and are afraid to stand out from the crowd could develop (unironic) mad lad energy and the courage to do things that are out of the ordinary.

However, RalphiesBoogers, the best mod Reddit has ever known, thinks that it’s all the opposite and that the modern world is more skewed towards people yearning for attention. 

“I see everyone, everywhere, screaming for attention and trying to stand out all the time endlessly, and careers being constantly pursued to become the next wacky social media star,” they said.

The best mod on Reddit, u/RalphiesBoogers, said that the term ‘mad lad’ was intended to be used ironically, but “subtlety is lost on the internet, like the value I lost in GME.”

In the mood for something similar, but an entirely different flavor of mad lads? Check out Bored Panda’s post about the ‘Humans Are Metal’ subreddit and people who are mega cool and, well, metal seems to say it all, doesn’t it?

Done with scrolling through this list? Let us know which pictures you loved the most and why! Got any ‘mad lad’ moments of your own to share? Did you enjoy the vibe that the greatest Reddit moderator has been giving off? Drop us a line or two in the comment section, dear Pandas.