About

The "Fifth World" refers to a fictional inter-dimensional plane of existence that contains bizarre life forms, philosophies, physics and other anomalies. On Reddit, several subreddits exist for submissions featuring fifth worth-themed fiction, surreal art and absurdist humor.

Origin

On April 26th, 2011, the /r/fifthworldproblems^[1] subreddit was launched, featuring text posts complaining about frustrations living in alternate dimensions written in the style of first world problems. Within five years, the subreddit gained over 56,600 subscribers.

Spread

On June 20th, 2011, the /r/sixthworthldproblems^[7] subreddit was launched, which features posts containing unintelligible gibberish. On July 9th, the /r/seventhworldproblems^[8] subreddit was created, which prominent highlights a photograph of a tower. On October 7th, the /r/fifthworldpics^[3] subreddit was launched, which typically contains surreal artwork of fantasy creatures and locations. On March 25th, 2012, the /r/Fifthworldgonewild^[5] subreddit was created for surreal artworks depicting nude or sexualized creatures (shown below, right), describing itself as "a place for open or closed minded beings to exchange their nude and naked bodies or gravity fields for karma."

On March 30th, the /r/fifthworldpoetry subreddit was launched for submissions of avant-garde poetry. On June 4th, the /r/fifthworldvideos^[2] subreddit was created for disturbing, strange or confusing videos often created using experimental editing techniques (shown below). On November 14th, 2013, Business Insider^[6] ranked /r/fifthworldproblems second in a listicle titled "Where to Find the Weirdest Stuff on the Internet."

Search Interest

External References