25+ Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (November 12, 2026)

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Nov 12, 2026 4:30 PM EST

Why do we love things that go wrong? Is it something in us?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines schadenfreude as "enjoyment obtained from seeing or hearing about the troubles of others." This is an incredibly useful word to describe that feeling that we get when something goes wrong. It's when you're taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune. It might make you feel like a bad person when you do this, but it couldn't be more natural. It's part of what it means to be human, and there is no way around it. We can fight our worst instincts if we'd like to, but that doesn't mean we will outrun them. It's better to blow off steam in small ways when you can; that way it doesn't come up at inappropriate times. This is true about schadenfreude. It's part of our natural desires as humans, but we can't lean too far into it, or else we will get ourselves stuck in hairy situations. You don't want to laugh when your friend falls down and scrapes their knee as they were trying to sashay away at a party. So you do laugh when you see it happen on the internet. It doesn't hurt anyone, and you get to release the valve a little bit. There is nothing wrong with doing this so you can spare the feelings of your friends in real life.

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That's exactly what we're here to do today. We're here to laugh at stuff that is going wrong, and to feel no remorse about doing so. Because the internet provides us with that level of remove that we need to feel safe. There are no faces or names attached to this stuff, so we can chuckle at it from a safe distance. They've been vetted by meme experts like me, so you know that the juice is worth the squeeze. And you know you can return to them when you need to get that schadenfreude release when you'd like to. It's what the internet is good for. Because what is the internet without some amount of failure? The World Wide Web is built around things going wrong. From the start, we gathered here because we wanted to laugh at things together. And the quickest route to laughter sometimes is watching something go wrong. These design fails are exactly that, and we've gathered the best ones of this week for your viewing pleasure. Scroll on.
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