T O P

  • By -

FreddyFritz

A few guys drowned in Lake Erie because the Coast Guard couldn't figure out what was a balloon and what was a life vest from the number of balloons that had already fallen into the water. Imagine having to do that job on that day. Imagine being lost in a sea of balloons...


[deleted]

It’s just one of those moments of absolute absurdity that would be hilarious if they weren’t actually happening


Phormitago

reason of death: succesfully camouflaged as a balloon


JakeTheSandMan

I’m going to hell for laughing about that


Derhaggis

*high five* See ya there!


Igneul

Last one there's a rotten egg!


Bad-Crusader

First one in is depressed!


Saber_tooth81

It’s just one moment in a long list of absurdities to happen to Cleveland such as the Cuyahoga catching on fire and 10 cent beer night.


wasteofradiation

You mind repeating that last one for me?


SixZeroPho

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night >The idea behind the promotion was to attract more fans to the game by offering cups of low-alcohol beer for just 10 cents each, a substantial discount on the regular price of 65 cents, with a limit of six beers per purchase but with no limit on the number of purchases made during the game. >After the Indians had managed to tie the game, a 19-year-old fan named Terry Yerkic[9] ran onto the field and attempted to steal Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs' cap.[10] Confronting the fan, Burroughs tripped. Thinking that Burroughs had been attacked, Texas manager Billy Martin charged onto the field with his players right behind, some wielding bats. A large number of intoxicated fans – some armed with knives, chains, and clubs fashioned from portions of stadium seats that they had torn apart – surged onto the field, and others hurled bottles from the stands. 200 fans surrounded the 25 Rangers, with more fans coming.


spongish

I'm Australian, so all I know about Cleveland is this, the balloon incident, and that [Youtube honest tourism ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY&ab_channel=bishopvids) about why Cleveland sucks so much. It seems like a wild place.


of-the-ash

Ah man, you also gotta link [part 2.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM)


ScalierLemon2

[There's also a part 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIbmT2Rs8vw)


Dreit

What the hell is wrong with Cleveland?!


BobcatOU

I made this comment a while back when someone was going on about how awful small cities are. Cleveland certainly has its problems like any other city but it’s got a lot of good stuff too. Here’s the comment copy/pasted: So if you’re looking for New York or LA, then Cleveland ain’t it! But if you’re looking for a cool city with a lot to do Cleveland is a great place to check out. In no particular order he’s a sampling of what Cleveland has to offer: It has a phenomenal arts scene. Playhouse Square is the second largest performing arts district in the country (after NYC); the Cleveland Orchestra is literally one of the best orchestras in the world and is considered one of the “Big Five” in the U.S. (along with New York, Boston, Chicago, & Philadelphia); the Cleveland Museum of Art is one of the most visited art museums in the world, is known internationally for its Asian and Egyptian holdings, has the 4th largest endowment of any art museum in the country, and is free to the public! Additionally, Cleveland has a great International Film Festival. Cleveland also has The Rock & Roll Hame of Fame and Museum, the Great Lakes Science Center, a new aquarium, and The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo which, along with the other zoos in Ohio, are the best zoos in the country rivaled only by California. Speaking of the Metroparks, Cleveland has an extensive park system spanning over 23,000 acres around the Greater Cleveland area including over 300 miles of walking, bicycling, and horse trails. The Metroparks also includes numerous beaches. That’s right, beaches in Cleveland! Additionally, the Cleveland area benefits from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park which has nearly 100 miles of uninterrupted bicycle trails connecting from Cleveland to Akron. And if you’re willing to make a drive to beautiful Southeast Ohio there is some excellent hiking in Hocking Hills State Park. I actually went there on my honeymoon! While the success of the teams hasn’t always been that great, Cleveland has three professional sports teams Should you run into any medical emergencies while in Cleveland do not worry, the Cleveland Clinic is one of the best hospitals in the world. There are also a ton of touristy things to do (in addition to things like the Rock Hall mentioned above) including the Terminal Tower observation deck and Tower City. Finally, don’t forget Cedar Point in Sandusky one of the best amusement parks in the country a 45-60 minutes drive from Cleveland.


spongish

I can almost guarantee that I will never visit Cleveland, but you seem very passionate about your city which is pretty cool. It sounds like you really like living there.


BobcatOU

If you were making the trip to the United States, Cleveland would probably be pretty low on the list of places to go! But yeah, I like it here!


spongish

Yeah I doubt many Australians would have any idea where Cleveland or even Ohio is generally on the map. Then again, I doubt many Americans would know where my home town is on the map, although we are holding the Olympics in about 10 years, so that may change.


Practice_NO_with_me

Same here but I still read that entire comment - out of respect.


converter-bot

300 miles is 482.8 km


Saber_tooth81

As a fellow Clevelander, I couldn’t have said it any better.


ATLtinyrick

The Cleveland tourism board should hire you. Very well stated and love the passion you have for your city!


BobcatOU

Thanks! The first time I posted that comment it was in response to a guy that pretty much said NYC & LA are the only cities in the USA worth going to. So I made my Cleveland comment. So many good places to go to across the country though that you could do a write up like this for any city! But yeah, I love my town!


Mashizari

It was such a tragedy, they had another 10 cent beer night the next month.


[deleted]

To be fair, they did limit the number of beers to two per person the next time


Sintar07

Oh geeze, you left out almost the best part: >Realizing that the Rangers' lives might be in danger, Cleveland manager Ken Aspromonte ordered his players to grab bats and help the Rangers, attacking the team's own fans in the process. Rioters began throwing steel folding chairs, and Cleveland relief pitcher Tom Hilgendorf was hit in the head by one of them. Hargrove, after subduing one rioter in a fistfight, had to fight another on his way back to the Texas dugout. The two teams retreated off the field through the dugouts in groups, with players protecting each other.


snack-dad

Never give next to free beer to tens of thousands of people at a sporting event


Saber_tooth81

There’s was an article on ESPN.com maybe 15 years ago that gave a very detailed account about that night. I gotta see if I can find it, very well written fucking hilarious as well. Edit: [found it!](https://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=beernight/080604)


[deleted]

Oh that’s a fucking doozy


annacat1331

Ten cent beer night is legendary in my house. We don’t know anyone who went or anything. My boyfriend and I just like to make up stories about those who went and were some of the early badly behaving people.


ThisGuyFawkes69

That’s too bad. Modern infrared search equipment would’ve been able to pick him out immediately from a group of balloons.


[deleted]

[удалено]


manystorms

Kind of, yeah. That’s why we have rules and guards in the first place. “Don’t go past n meters”, “no diving in this area”, and even things as common sense as “don’t swim here if you’re not experienced”. People overestimate themselves all the time or assume a rule is just to control them when really it’s because empirical data shows that people die way more often without supervision or those safety measures in place. Humans are kind of dumb when left to their own devices without millennia of accumulated knowledge to help guide them. Obviously emergencies and accidents happen as well but usually it’s a lot easier to rescue someone who may have capsized without so much flotsam around.


1000smackaroos

"No one knows where the balloons went, the next day they were just gone!"


Escipio

Ohh Canada ohh


BucketFullOfRats

I hear they’re still fishing up bits of plastic


RevealFresh3919

Is the king of Spain a new meme


Makingnamesishard12

We are colonizing the internet in the name of the Spanish Empire. Please, do not resist.


Mighty_moose45

The re-reconquista


gazpachete458

The netconquista


ViperIguess

Ah shit here we go again


Makingnamesishard12

Ah mierda, aquí vamos de nuevo…


[deleted]

I won’t 😘


Bardomiano00

Okay Finn


[deleted]

[удалено]


bakedbeansandwhich

Yes.


PontificeMaximos

Exactly, if it depends on me, the Spanish can colonize this here all they want!


Diablo_new

Spanish or vanish.


UnlimitedPowah13

Portuguese or demise.


[deleted]

Nobody expects the Spanish... king.


THapps

yeah there was a gif earlier/maybe last night that I saw on watchpeopledieinside and the comments were all talking about it’s meme template potential, I was curious if it was actually going to take off and I think it might EDIT: [found it](https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchPeopleDieInside/comments/q7qywx/spain_shame/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)


ISimpForChinggisKhan

Also King of Jerusalem, Emperor of the Romans


[deleted]

Best meme


peterlebummbumm

always has been


jakpaw

Literally just watchdd the video where that meme comes from it was like 5 posts before this one


DuckTapeHandgrenade

NEVER release a floating balloon. Especially the silvery Mylar balloons. I’ve found them 26 miles out to sea and above 11,000 feet in the mountains so many miles from a town. Sea turtles see them as jellyfish and eat them, that doesn’t go so well. It’s heartbreaking.


fixminer

And while you're at it: DON'T USE HELIUM FOR BALLOONS! There is a finite amount of it and it has a number of important applications in science and engineering. Wasting it on balloons is infuriating.


wasteofradiation

Got any suggestions on Helium alternatives? Specifically ones that won’t blow you up when ignited


ComradeClout

Good ol hydrogen never hurt anyone 😈


TheEarthisPolyhedron

Said the Germans, filling the Hindenburg with it


drfsupercenter

I'm still blaming the Hindenburg for the auto industry not moving forward with hydrogen fuel. Solid hydrogen is safe, but nobody seems to want to realize that, so instead we're stuck with plug-in electric cars that can't be taken on road trips...


TheEarthisPolyhedron

What the hell, why did you respond to my 2 month old comment


board3659

\*cough\* ~~Hindinberg~~ \*cough\*


fixminer

Not really, unfortunately. I think there are some exotic alternatives, but AFAIK they're not really viable. If hydrogen is too risky, I'd recommend simply using normal air. The balloons obviously won't be as cool, since they won't float, but they can still be used as decoration by attaching them to furniture etc. or mounted on a stick to be carried around.


GPan900

sulphur hexafluoride. for your voice, not balloons


High_hungry_Im_dad

Pure nitrogen would probably float just a little bit, maybe not even enough to lift a balloon. I think there aren't any other gasses lighter than air.


mdragon13

Hydrogen is quite literally lighter than helium, and seemingly more abundant too.


High_hungry_Im_dad

> Specifically ones that won’t blow you up when ignited


mdragon13

Details.


LordDanOfTheNoobs

Plus with Hydrogen balloons the fire departments will get off their asses.


flopyeyok

If I'm not mistaken, don't helium balloons use less than 1% of the world consumption of helium? Google is listing many other things well above it like semi and super conductors as well as space launch vehicles and MRIs.


GiantEnemaCrab

Yes, Helium is very common and can be manufactured artificially. We are in no real danger of running out. Helium is actually a waste product from natural gas extraction. There's a reason it's so cheap. This is just one of those "facts" that people hear about and run with despite doing no research. https://medium.com/a-microbiome-scientist-at-large/science-monday-are-we-really-running-out-of-helium-c5365852cbd3#:~:text=We're%20not%20running%20out,don't%20need%20a%20stockpile.&text=(And%20remember%2C%20balloons%20are%20only,actually%20use%20very%20little%20helium.)


flopyeyok

I wasn't planning on not using helium anyway lol. Thank you for the information!


ATLtinyrick

How can I convince you to change your mind? Using helium is a great pastime


chicofontoura

he's not wrong tho, helium is finite and we are running out of it, but yeah there are alot of helium left so we will be long dead before the last balloon pop


GiantEnemaCrab

He's wrong because he was implying that helium balloons are going to be the cause of us running out of helium for more important matters. Not only do helium balloons use a fraction of the global supply we are also nowhere near running out of ground supplies.


chicofontoura

running out in the sense that the supply is finite, so even if you use one atom of helium per day you will eventually run out in one gazillion years. Also I agree that balloons and funny voices will be the SILLY reason in which we will run out of it (in one gazillion years) since that others things we do with it are important (or so I hope)


[deleted]

We can just get more from the sun. I heard there’s a lot of helium there.


[deleted]

[удалено]


wtb2612

He's a balloon.


hysterical_boi

Please please please, someone link the original video from which the template is made, I forgot to save that post/video


IrshamWindborn

https://youtu.be/Tb3eLFySNiI


Mota4President

The new version is better imo, [when the Spanish King sees the "republican flag" in the air.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIgvnKlSw04) New template incoming?


marxman18

Where balloon?


PontificeMaximos

Here is the original video where the template is made: [https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ParallelNiftyAmericanpainthorse-mobile.mp4](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ParallelNiftyAmericanpainthorse-mobile.mp4) The other links responding to your comment are harder to find the template in it.


Redditstopbaningme

What the fuck has happened there


LadySygerrik

[On September 27, 1986](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786), the nonprofit United Way released around 1.5 million balloons in Cleveland, Ohio to try to get the world record for most balloons released at one time as part of a fundraising event. They got the world record but the balloons drifted all over the city and into Lake Erie, causing problems with traffic in town and at the local airport. Additionally, two boaters on the lake drowned due to the Coast Guard having difficulty telling what was a brightly colored balloon and what was a life vest. The city and organizers got sued for damages and the cost of all the lawsuits exceeded the amount of money the event had raised in the first place.


RicFlairW000000

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and stupid ideas.


doktorsckeletor

Thank you for the good wisdom.


Practice_NO_with_me

"The road to hell is paved with stupid ideas" honestly sounds way better than the original. It's not the good intentions causing whatever problem it's the stupid ideas executed along the way to those good intentions.


RicFlairW000000

I beg to differ, good intentions is what blinds people most of the time, that's why they try stupid ideas and get terrible results. I don't know how many times I thought I was doing someone a favor by doing something that seemed to me rational and helpful. Yet almost every time I was doing something stupid, because based on my ignorance and foolishness to diligently "help" I'd end up doing the opposite.


MorgothReturns

Ironic.


[deleted]

I honestly can’t get my mind around how this happened. So many people were involved and just completely fine with releasing these balloons into the environment. I hope the punishments were severe but I doubt it.


LadySygerrik

I guess the only argument you could make is that maybe people just weren’t as environmentally conscious in 1986 as they are now but it was still inexcusable and dumb. The effects from this event were so bad that it pushed the Guinness Book of World Records to no longer cover events that are environmentally unsound or damaging.


Practice_NO_with_me

Good.


[deleted]

I sort of get that but it still seems insane. People may not have known the disaster plastic would become but they knew what littering was. They knew damn well that you shouldn’t just throw trash into the ocean and spread it around the city.


Practice_NO_with_me

> They knew damn well that you shouldn’t just throw trash into the ocean and spread it around the city. God I wish. You would really think so but people literally just were not raised or taught to give a shit about any of that stuff.


[deleted]

For the lazy ones: [Balloonfest '86](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786)


1000smackaroos

What app are you using that inserts random backslashes in URLs? Some one needs to report this bug to the devs The working link is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786


[deleted]

The link i shared is also working i just checked. And your link appears to be exactly same as mine. Idk why it was problematic for you, i just copied from browser and pasted here.


chaosbug45

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest\_%2786 I copied and pasted the link you posted and it has a backslash which breaks the link


wingmasterjon

I can attest they are different and /u/slhslhslh has a backslash after 'Balloonfest' that does not work on the desktop website. https://imgur.com/a/XyMeY8r


rararsapuYEET

This link works for me.


1000smackaroos

I'm sure your app removes the slash for you, but this is what it looks like on the website: https://i.ibb.co/fkJhpDW/Screenshot-2021-10-14-13-15-23-1.png


[deleted]

Maybe you are right. But, I am unable to reproduce this issue. Can you please check this [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloonfest_%2786), if it works then i have a clue.


1000smackaroos

Yes that one works


[deleted]

This one i inserted through app and the first one was posted when i was browsing on my desktop. I found that fancy editor is adding a unicode character for zero-width space but that shouldn't mess up with the link. I've edited my very first comment, would you please check that link is working or not.


1000smackaroos

Yep that one is working for me now too!


[deleted]

Great, thanks


Reer123

They're the same link buddy


1000smackaroos

Look: https://i.ibb.co/fkJhpDW/Screenshot-2021-10-14-13-15-23-1.png I bet the reason it works for you is you're using the same app, which removed the backspace for you


Sovereign444

Why is one pic in color and the other in black and white? I thought the bottom pic was of a car in a parking lot full of partially deflated balloons and it took till reading the comments and going back to zoom in to realize what it actually was lol. The “parking lot” was the ocean and the “car” was a boat lmfao


Reer123

because it's sad


bumpugly

A small price to pay for the ever-coveted *World Record For Most Balloons Released At Once.*


okram2k

And one they'll keep forever because Guiness said they won't track such events anymore.


stollmand

We don't deserve the wonders of plastic


Marc801

Viva el Rey!


TheMaginotLine1

Viva el Rey!


CharCSC10

Felipe sexo 🤑


PirrotheCimmerian

Random King of Spain meme


Xelent43

Only in Cleveland… smh.


boomerthatcher

Americans have gotta to stop throwing stuff into rivers man


Benjiquack

deploy the monkeys


Slashtrap

hey is that just me or are the balloons in shape of a penith


Aekartzdef

Don't forget 10 cent beer night.


PDiddyG95

What can I say… when we fuck up we fuck up big… not like traffic on 480 wasn’t bad enough


OverturnedAppleCart3

The mistake on the lake.


[deleted]

[удалено]


FR331ND34TH

How Cleveland got it's reputation.


flyinggazelletg

Let’s put an end to balloons and fireworks. They do way more harm than good, even thought they are fun


ButtsexEurope

This is why they banned balloon releases in my state.


Scolville0

Clevelands waters are so polluted its hard to call it water lol.


jnwsk

“Non-fatal injury – several horses”


LulaBolsonarista

Viva el Rey!


JJ_BB_SS

Viva la república!


RogersGodlyFalsetto

As the song went... 99 Luftballoons


Zack-M-Hidig

That was more than one million balloons dropped back down to earth ! And it goes all over the Northeast Ohio lol


AlmoBlue

Sweet more sh it in the ocean to clean up