People's Brilliant Ideas That Were Dumb In Retrospect

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Dec 1, 2021 6:00 PM EST

It's happened to us all. You wake up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea. "This is going to change the world" you say to yourself, imagining the praise and riches you'll get for your wonderful, brilliant idea. "They'll likely make me president for this one" you think to yourself, spilling genius onto scratch paper. The next morning you look at your magnum opus. "Hamster Bacon" it reads. "Oh," you say,  realizing that this was another one of those genius ideas that were dumb upon review.

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  • 01
    Rectangle - CoolioDaggett · 5d a Periscopes for windows, so you could look over your neighbors house.
    via AskReddit
  • 02
    Font - Brandt_without_rem - 5d I wrote “Melon is crispy water" in the middle of the night. Never too sure whether it is funny or not.
    via AskReddit
  • 03
    Font - _MaddAddam - 5d I was drunk and went to eat a bowl of cereal. Then started thinking about how great it would be if we invented deeper bowls with a handle, to make eating stuff while drunk and sitting on the couch easier. Got so excited about my idea and was genuinely baffled how nobody had seemingly thought of this genius idea before. Woke up the next morning and realized I had, in fact, invented the mug.
    via AskReddit
  • 04
    Smile - sfish27 OP · 5d 2 My husband wrote his 'amazing idea for creative writing' down in the middle of the night. He checked the next morning to find it said: 'tropical seagull in a knitted waistcoat'.
    via AskReddit
  • 05
    Mammal - High_Stream 5d S I used to think that I would get these amazing ideas before I would fall asleep and then I forget them in the morning. So I started keeping a journal next to my bed to write down these ideas. The only one I ever wrote down was "pogo stick with a shovelhead on the end."
    via AskReddit
  • 06
    Font - jellypeanutbutter 5d "Pourable wood"
    via AskReddit
  • 07
    Font - Itrade - 5d I once woke up in the middle of the night with an idea that I desperately needed to jot down. Managed to key it into my phone before dozing off again. Went to check it the next morning to find a note that simply read "Better a pizza cake than none."
    via AskReddit
  • 08
    Facial expression - Harvard-23 - 5d S I wrote a best selling novel in my sleep. " Wrote" some ideas down on a pad next to the bed. Woke up excited about it and then realized I never clicked the pen to expose the tip. No book this year.
    via AskReddit
  • 09
    Human body - oosikconnisseur · 5d I was tripping on shrooms and urgently needed to find paper in order to write "Monkey with a GOPRO"
    via AskReddit
  • 10
    Font - crap_whats_not_taken - 5d They should make a "low carb" pasta salad, that just has vegetables in it. I looked at it later and realized that's just a salad.
    via AskReddit
  • 11
    Font - BirdGuy64 - 5d I wrote down some jokes that were funny and thought I should do stand-up. they were so funny that I couldn't stop laughing sober, they weren't even jokes. just some thoughts written down that made little to no sense.
    via AskReddit
  • 12
    Font - Latic32 · 5d · edited 4d While drunk I came up with an idea to make a TV channel where all shows start 5 minutes out. (E.g 11:55 or 14:05) so while all other channels are on a commercial break. Viewers can flick to this channel and watch our shows for a few minutes instead of ads.
    via AskReddit
  • 13
    Font - casspant · 5d - edited 5d 3 A few years back I woke up in the middle of the night with, what seamed like, the best idea and I simply had to write it down. When I woke up I remembered writing something down so I grabbed my phone to check, one note was open with the words church ducks That's it. Just church ducks.
    via AskReddit
  • 14
    Font - Bobbinapplesto0 - 5d "Yetris" Yeti Tetris. I don't know.
    via AskReddit
  • 15
    Font - idontclickgifs - 5d I spent the day making sugar cookies with my 4 kids. In order for each kid to have a meaning amount of dough to roll, cut out and decorate I had to make A LOT of dough. It was fairly expensive and we ended up with way more cookies than I wanted them to eat. Later that night I was (drinking and) lamenting that I wished there was a fake dough that we could use. Woke up the next day and discovered that I invented play dough.
    via AskReddit
  • 16
    Human body - -Dillad- - 5d I wrote lyrics to a song about fighting raccoon while I was half asleep.
    via AskReddit
  • 17
    Font - Turnstilet · 5d - edited 4d S I once dreamed that I was in a song contest and came up with a rap song with the chorus "White boy, black boy, gay boy, gameboy", and when I woke up I thought it was the most wholesome thing ever. Black people, white people and even gay people can come together and be friends if they just put their differences aside and play Gameboy together. (???) To be fair, I was a kid. but still. I remember being excited about it FOR DAYS.
    via AskReddit
  • 18
    Font - CantaloupeTesticles - 5d S "machine that makes dogs laugh"|
    via AskReddit
  • 19
    Font - TogarSucks · 5d - edited 5d My friend thew a party that had a white elephant gift exchange at the beginning. Only about 10 of us participated and when the party was in full swing there were about 40-50 people there. We tossed the gifts in another room for the duration. One of my friends had gotten a Snuggie as their gift and was really excited about it. During the party someone got in an stole the Snuggie. We found the empty box in the front yard, so we're guessing they just put it on and
    via AskReddit
  • 20
    Font - Diddyfire · 5d After waking up from a dream I came up with these that made perfect sense at the time: - "Virtual reality D&D and the sun from Teletubbies except it was shining like 100x more" - "An acronym for when you're having surgery, of people you want to be present. A favorite, loves, best friend, etc"
    via AskReddit
  • 21
    Font - Loose_Acanthaceae201 · 5d - edited 5d When absolutely out of my head on prescribed opiates during pneumonia, I invented Olympic Fringe so that at the Olympics there would also be fringe events where the general public get to watch and try out lesser known sports. I still think that would be cool, but I understand why it would never ever happen. edit to add: when I say "lesser known sports" I don't mean "only just not Olympic" I mean like London 2012 should have had bog snorkeling and a ch
    via AskReddit
  • 22
    Human body - millionthcassandra - 5d To upcycle dried-out corncobs as a silent windchime. At least I got a good laugh out of it later.
    via AskReddit
  • 23
    Font - chowderpouch - 5d · edited 5d I wanted to start a business that would increase efficiency of ceiling fans. I would travel to people's homes and sharpen their ceiling fan blades until they were razor sharp. The decreased resistance would make the blades faster and use less energy. Since literally no one has ever sharpened their ceiling fan blades, everyone was a potential customer.
    via AskReddit
  • 24
    Font - Galloping_Scallop · 5d Similar to the conveyor belts in Sushi restaurants but for chicken wings. Mini ones for groups of people/individuals where the wings do a small circuit and take a sauce bath every lap. Think I was pretty drunk for that one. Get some really whacky ideas - selling virtual tickets to sporting events (especially relevant these days of COVID) - VR goggles, camera at the stadium you could then also sell sound effects as extras- press a button for a cheer, chant etc.
    via AskReddit
  • 25
    Font - Large-Travel-3352 - 5d Mashed potato shake. Drive through food where Mashed potatoes are served in a cup with a dome, extra wide straw, and a spoon. Pick your gravy and toppings such as bacon or fried chicken skins.
    via AskReddit

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ideas bad idea absurd lol dumb genius brilliant stupid
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