Phew. This was a hell of a year. There have been many days that felt like the apocalypse—maybe Mercury was in retrograde for all of 2016? Here are the weirdest, coolest, and grossest stories we published this year.
Alright, let’s get this one out of the way. The Trump Tower bar is a dark, dark place.
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In more uplifting news, there’s a coffee shop in Portland that accepts everyone—we’re talking swingers, polygamists, fem-doms, and the BDSM community. Cream and sugar on the side, you naughty slave?
Dining alone is one of those things: it’s not weird unless you make it weird. And this ramen shop in Osaka makes it really fucking weird. Instead of enjoying the company of a book, your phone, or, god forbid, your own thoughts, this café gives you a choice of virtual girl “idols” to eat with.
Not gimmicky enough for ya? Try this dim sum spot in Hong Kong, where oatcakes are shaped like cartoonish turds and kawaii buns with faces are made to be poked and prodded with chopsticks until they puke their filling.
While that’s all fine and dandy in HK, China pushed to strip citizens this year of a basic human right—the right to eat bananas seductively on camera. Come on!
But hey, sometimes life just isn’t fair. And, in times like these, we’ll take any stress relief we can get—like these sped-up videos of ants teaming up to devour junk food.
Keep watching the ants. Don’t look away. The world is falling apart around you—people are deep-frying water. The ants will get us through this.
Deep breaths, people. Pray for a less-fucking-weird 2017.
