Life is unpredictable, and things are not always what they seem. Sometimes, you’re reading a seemingly innocent post on social media, and suddenly you encounter a shocking twist that has you saying, “Hold up… What?” If you live for those surprising moments, we’ve got the perfect list for you, pandas. 

Below, we’ve gathered some of our favorite posts from the “Hol’Up, wait a min” subreddit that might make you do a double take. Prepare to be saying, “I did not see that coming”, and be sure to upvote all of your favorite posts. Otherwise, Bored Panda might spontaneously combust… Hold up!

#1 Something’s Wrong Here

Image credits: Thedepressionoftrees

#2 Mans Been Legit This Whole Time?!

Image credits: ItsJaaaaake

#3 Yup

Image credits: reddit.com

When I was in university, I had an acting teacher who drilled into us the importance of “Dukes of Hazzard Turns”. I know all of you pandas out there might not get the reference (don’t worry, I didn’t either at first), so I’ll explain what he meant by that. In the 80s sitcom The Dukes of Hazzard, there were many reckless driving scenes where the characters would take abrupt, sharp turns, so anyone watching could have never anticipated where the driver was heading. What my acting teacher wanted to see from us with “Dukes of Hazzard Turns” was sharp contrasts in our characters.

It’s exciting to watch people quickly change their tactics in pursuing their objectives; audiences eat it right up. So I can’t help but think of that acting professor when viewing the photos from the “Hol’up” subreddit. All of these posts definitely have “Dukes of Hazzard Turns” within them. Some of them are surprisingly wholesome, while others get dark very fast. But as readers, we love these sudden plot twists, and we can’t get enough of them.   

#4 Poor Guy

Image credits: ZachSvobodny

#5 Florida

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#6 True Story

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It’s no secret that audiences love plot twists. We see them in films like Get Out, Gone Girl, Parasite, Scream and countless other classics. But what is it about these sudden turns that we can’t get enough of? According to Vera Tobin, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, movies “exploit our natural tendency to anticipate what’s coming next.” So it can be extremely exciting when our expectations are proven wrong by a shocking plot twist and extremely disappointing when we somehow stumble upon a spoiler.

Tobin explains that we all want to have some idea of what we’re getting ourselves into when we read a book or watch a film, so we’re interested in knowing the genre. But the “curse of knowledge” comes into play when we’re worried about something being spoiled. “You only have one opportunity to learn something for the first time,” Tobin writes. “Once you’ve learned it, that knowledge affects what you notice, what you anticipate – and even the limits of your imagination.”

#7 Real Questions

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#8 You Had Me In The First Half

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#9 Hol’ Up

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Tobin goes on to explain that plot twists can also do a great job of pulling everything together in a story. “A major part of the pleasure of plot twists, too, comes not from the shock of surprise, but from looking back at the early bits of the narrative in light of the twist,” she notes. “The most satisfying surprises get their power from giving us a fresh, better way of making sense of the material that came before. This is another opportunity for stories to turn the curse of knowledge to their advantage. Once we know the answer to a puzzle, its clues can seem more transparent than they really were. When we revisit early parts of the story in light of that knowledge, well-constructed clues take on new, satisfying significance.”

#10 Wait..what

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#11 What Predates On Tigers?!

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#12 Koalas And Humans Has Almost Similar Fingerprints

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But the joy of being surprised doesn’t only come from plot twists in films and books. As this list makes very clear, we can have “Hol’up” moments in our daily lives at any moment, and our brains still love them, even when they’re not scripted. “It’s a strong neuro alert that tells us that something is important about this moment and we have to pay attention,” Tania Luna, the co-author of Surprise: Embrace the Unpredictable and Engineer the Unexpected, told The Takeaway, explaining the “surprise sequence”. “Our cognitive resources are basically hijacked and pulled into the moment. That’s one of the things that’s really uncomfortable for some people, but also exciting for some people because your attention is completely in the moment.”

#13 Uno Reverse Card

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#14 ?

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#15 Easy Ways To Kill A Husband?

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And if you’re a person who considers a surprise party to be your worst nightmare, Luna says that it’s possible to become more open to the idea over time. “I think about surprise in two perspectives: Embracing it and engineering it,” she told The Takeaway. “You have to train your brain to be more comfortable accepting surprise, and by that I also mean surprise readiness—being comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity and change. Especially these days, that’s an incredibly important skill.”

#16 Bruh

Image credits: Lucinda16023

#17 This Guy Is In Daniel

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#18 Oops

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Even though she’s an expert on surprise now, Luna admits that she wasn’t always a fan. “I hated being surprised—I loved surprising others, but I hated being surprised myself,” she told The Takeaway. “[I hated] the feeling of loss of control and the feeling of vulnerability. As a kid, I had experienced a lot of change and my coping mechanism was to say, ‘I’m in charge. I control everything. Nobody controls me and I can control the world around me.’ I was protecting myself from negative surprises. But what I’ve learned is that I was also keeping out joy, wonder, and emotional intensity.”

#19 Modern Problems Require Mordern Solution

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#20 Wait

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#21 I Love Duolingo

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The element of surprise is a very important ingredient in comedy, and many of the people who were part of these conversations shared on Reddit had excellent comedic timing. From coming up with perfect comebacks to wording things in just the right way, these surprising posts went from mundane to hilarious in the blink of an eye. As comedian Dean Lewis explains in his article ‘The Anatomy of a Joke’, “A comedic surprise is a twist without serious repercussions.”

#22 Taliban

Image credits: ElVaNoS7

#23 Uh

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#24 I Don’t Like Where This Is Going…

Image credits: Jeremy_Melton

We all love a great “didn’t see that coming” moment, whether it happens in real life, is accidentally caught on camera or is found in a screenshot from social media. Surprise is the spice of life, right? (Or something like that.) So if you’re interested in adding a little bit more excitement to your daily life, be sure to mix up your routine or do something (harmless) to surprise someone else. Whether you believe we’re all plugged into the Matrix or not, your brain might appreciate being caught off guard every now and then. Plus, if you manage to get a picture of it, you can always share it on the “Hol’up” subreddit.

#25 Indeed

Image credits: reddit.com

#26 I-

Image credits: Ayo_its_linda

#27 Hol Up

Image credits: reddit.com

Hold up—How are you feeling about this list, pandas? Are you having whiplash from all of the shocking twists and turns that these posts take? We hope you’re having some fun being surprised and caught off guard. Remember to keep upvoting the posts that went in a completely different direction than what you expected, and let us know in the comments if you’ve had any “Hol’up” moments recently. Then, if you can handle being shocked by even more of these types of posts, you can find Bored Panda’s previous article featuring the “Hol’up” subreddit right here!

#28 ‘murica

Image credits: BlackJim1929

#29 Strange Trilogy

Image credits: Orbylgjuofn

#30 One Person Who Is 7x More Likely To Kill You Than Everyone Else

Image credits: yUtrippinBallz

#31 Sick Beat

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#32 Oops

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#33 The Coffee Is Free

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#34 Don’t Expose Him Like That

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#35 Oh ?

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#36 The Moment She Knew She

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#37 Holup

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#38 I’ve Fallen And I Can’t Get Up!

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#39 Domesticated

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#40 It Will Be Like That Though

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#41 My First Roller Coaster Ride Since This Pandemic Started

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#42 Feels Bad Man

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#43 I Mean… He’s Not Wrong Tho?

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#44 Just Don’t Snap

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#45 Oh Happy Birthday

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#46 Fuck Cartoons

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#47 Boom!

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#48 Well. I Guess This Was Rigged From The Start

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#49 Hol’ Up

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#50 Tyson Is So Sexy

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#51 Neil Was Very Opinionated

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#52 Oh

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#53 I Dont Need Sleep I Need Answers!

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#54 This Is The Way

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#55 *sed Noises

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#56 Man Of Culture

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#57 Sorry Bruh

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#58 Bro Tried To Save Himself

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#59 I Dun Wun It

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#60 Just Curious

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#61 The Curiosity Begins

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#62 Ummmmm

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#63 It Just Gets Weirder And Weirder

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#64 Those Men Were Awf- Wait What?

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#65 Wait What

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#66 Makes Sense

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#67 Happy Birthday

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#68 Kind Kidney Donators

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#69 That’s One Intelligent Baby

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#70 How Did They Know?

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#71 Mans Had A Real Holup Moment

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#72 I, Too, Am Like The Eagle

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#73 I Love Cheating

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#74 Astrology In A Nutshell

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#75 Holup… You Mean To Tell Me You Don’t?

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#76 A Bed Is A Bed

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#77 No Love

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#78 Anytime Bro

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#79 Well We All Screwed

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#80 Rock His Shit Guys

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#81 26 Years Of Experience

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#82 Holup

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#83 Selfie!

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Source: boredpanda.com