40 Hilarious Hacks That Will Make You Wonder Just What Went On Inside The Inventor’s Head

Everything around you – from your home to your clothes to the device on which you’re reading this – is an invention. They all stand as prime examples of how important such ingenuity is to our society. But not all inventors’ efforts end with a sleek, functional product that proves useful to humankind. No, some are dangerous, silly or just downright shocking. So even if you think these creators’ hearts were in the right place, please don’t try most of the following at home!

40. Padded pedals

It’s a niche problem – you’re a pre-teen, and you want to hop on your bike with no shoes, but it hurts. But one 12-year-old came up with a solution to said issue. They stuck some carpet squares onto their bike, thus making it comfortable to ride, shoes or not. Yet as one reddit user reflected, “It’s all comfort and games until his toe slips into the chain and gear and has chunks torn off. Happened to my sister.”

39. A fan of this

Do you only have one fan for two hot faces? Well, you’re in luck – just follow the blueprint designed by this crazy engineer. All you need to do is grab a spare pair of pants and wrap the waist around your air supplier. Then, point the pant legs toward people in need of cooling and voila. Or not.

38. Hot wheels

If you don’t feel like walking, take a clue from this guy. According to the Twitter user who spotted him, “Dude just cruised past me riding a lawn chair taped to an electric skateboard while vaping and blasting Jack Johnson. Now I’m questioning all my life choices.” We are, too, don’t worry.

37. Makeshift shelf

Let’s say you have your wall ripped down to the studs. Then, you envision adding a small, built-in shelf to it, a place to hold the control box for your fan. There’s only one problem – you don’t have any supplies to build the said nook. So grab an old phone box and stick that into the wall, encircling it with drywall. No one will know – until the next person renovates, as is what happened to the couple who shared this picture.

36. Not too hot, not too cold

Some bathrooms have two separate taps: one to dispense hot water, and another for cold. If that sounds uncomfortable for hand-washing, well, it is. And that’s probably why a handy hacker linked both spouts together to create a single faucet, a source of pleasantly tepid water. Not sure about the longevity or safety of that sticky tape over the tap, though...

35. Pecking pest control

It costs money to have an exterminator come to the house. If you have a pet chicken on hand, though, you don’t need to hire anyone. Just stick your hen on top of some sort of apparatus – in this case, we have a squeegee. Then, lift the bird to the bugs in the unreachable corners of your property and let the poultry do all the work – for free. My word, some people are lazy!

34. It’s a hammock, but hotter

This is definitely a don’t-try-this-at-home hack – but it’s worth admiring from afar. First, the engineer strung up a tub on posts strong enough to hold their weight. Then they filled the vessel with water and started a fire beneath it to, you know, keep the bath warm. Finally, they hopped in and started swinging. Clearly a health and safety conscious guy...

33. Hands-off training camp

Kids have boundless energy – and no one knows that better than their parents. Perhaps you have a few rugrats of your own, and you want to keep them entertained while maintaining your relaxed state. Attach a baseball to the end of a fishing line and let your brood take a few swings. Just remember there’s a chance it might swing back into your face. Ouch!

32. It’s like an oven in here

What do you do when your landlord lowers the heating? One Redditor had this somewhat odd, and hardly energy efficient solution. They turned their stove on to its highest setting, then sat their fan next to it. They then turned the fan on to distribute the heat throughout the home. Maybe a friendly chat with the landlord would have just been easier all round?

31. Multi-functional kitchen

We want food that tastes good, and we want to know it has been made in a sanitary environment. But in this kitchen you’d get only one out of those two must-have qualities for your grub. That’s because, hidden beneath the counter in this culinary zone, is a toilet. Why? We wish we knew.

30. A pendant for pennies

Pendant lights dangling overhead can add a decorative touch to any room in your home. That sentence seems to be a universally true one… until you see this set of bulbs, attached to the ceiling with a hanger. According to the Redditor who shared it, the person who hung the temporary light fixture said, “That’ll do for now.” But then they left the contraption in place for four years.

29. Click it closed, please

Whether you have kids playing or pets roaming, you have your reasons for keeping your backyard gate closed. Over the years, though, these entryways – and their latches – can get loose. So you might bring in a locksmith or install a new lock yourself – like professionally. Or you could just grab a discarded seatbelt, attach one end to the gate and another to the door, and click it all into place.

28. Hose goes

What are kitchen staff to do when their sink’s hose breaks, but they need to fill a trash can with water? They create a hilarious engineering hack, of course. In this case, they wrapped the facet in a tube-shaped stand-in and laid a tray beneath that to guide the stream into a bin below. We would’ve loved to have seen the moment the manager walked in...

27. DIY on a dime – er, a penny

Helming a home improvement project on your own saves you in contractor’s fees, but you still have to purchase supplies. Yet in this case someone has transformed their one-cent coins into washers. Talk about pinching pennies! They appeared to have drilled holes in the center and used them as necessary.

26. Touchless hand-washing

We all need to keep our hands as clean as possible these days. But washing them in public means touching a soap dispenser, a faucet and a paper towel holder, as well as a bathroom door. Wouldn’t it be nice if all businesses could build one of these touchless antibacterial gel dispensers made of tubing? We’re assuming you just push the bottom like a pedal with your foot for it to work. We assume!

25. Watch the waterline

You can’t build a structure properly unless it has an even base. Without a level on hand, though, you won’t be able to ensure that everything is aligned. We presume that’s why this enterprising engineer had to improvise without a full toolbox. They used a wood plank and a bottle half-full of water. When the liquid line was straight, so was their build.

24. Weld done

Anything can become a hammer if you hit it hard enough – at least, according to the Redditor who shared this contraption. They wrote, “I’m bad for using whatever tool is handy as a hammer, usually a crescent wrench.” So, they said, their husband welded together both tools so they could always have the right equipment around, no matter what.

23. We’re gonna need a bigger battery

The person who shared this hack via Reddit didn’t come up with it on their own.They had “bought a used toy for [their] kids at a garage sale.” The item took C batteries, but the previous owner clearly didn’t have any. So they popped a double-A battery into a wooden dowel and, miraculously, that worked just fine.

22. Learn to drive stick

For most of us, a broken steering wheel on the lawnmower is a get-out-of-jail-free card – no need to do any more yardwork ‘til it’s repaired. But one hacker might’ve ruined it for the rest of us by repairing the machinery with a wooden plank. They quipped via Reddit, “Thankfully I know how to drive a stick.” What about the splinters, though buddy?

21. Fire pool party

No one wants to jump into an ice-cold pool unless, you know, it’s burning hot outside. In any other circumstance, swimmers tend to prefer warm waters – and some have gone to extreme lengths to get the right temperature. We don’t suggest starting a fire beneath the pipes leading into your backyard pool, but someone has done something that extreme for a tepid dip.

20. Clothes rack? Nailed it.

Not everyone can affix a clothes rack to the wall, but just about anyone can hammer nails into it. And no one knows that better than the friend of the Redditor who shared this photo. They wrote that their pal found this “fix” after their apartment maintenance man came to sort out the closet. Wow, that’s craftsmanship...

19. Cement it? Yes, we can.

Concrete hardens into a steadfast foundation. But before it sets, some supports have to be in place to keep everything sturdy. Usually, though, these supports are made of more high-tech material than, say, a Coke can. So this hacker gets a few points for creativity but, in terms of stability? They could have done a lot better.

18. Pre-typhoon prep

People who live in areas prone to flooding know how to prepare for rising waters. With a typhoon on the horizon, a car owner in the Philippines got to work to keep their vehicle out of harm’s way. They somehow managed to stack their car on some cinder blocks, which sat atop four benches. We’re sure that’ll work...

17. Hot-wired hot tub

Sometimes, a regular, old bath just won’t cut it. If you have an extra-large container, some hot water and a boat motor, though, you can DIY a backyard hot tub. Obviously, this plan is incredibly dangerous, so don’t try it. But it’s fun to daydream about building a jacuzzi in a matter of minutes.

16. Spooning your dog

As much as little dogs like to be outside, their tiny frames make their outdoor independence a bit daunting. They can slip through fences as they explore the terrain. Now, though, you can deploy this hilarious hack if your pooch wants to go out – but you don’t want them escaping the backyard. Simply slide a spoon through their collar horizontally, a setup that will stop them from sneaking through any gaps.

15. A sticky situation

A refrigerator door provides ample storage space for condiments, salad dressings and beverages. But if the guardrail on the shelf breaks, the contents will come flying out of the appliance. That doesn’t mean you should follow this chap – who’s headed outside, gathered sticks and popped them into the gaps left by the shelf barriers. Oh my!

14. Sleigh-ing your yard work

If you just so happen to have six push lawn mowers in your shed – and a riding one, too – then you might want to try this insane hack. A pioneering landscaper tied all of their grass-taming equipment together. Then they rode around in the contraption, which looked an awful lot like Santa’s sleigh as it barreled through the greenery. One thought: it’s possibly the worst idea ever concerning health and safety, given he can’t even see what’s happening behind him!

13. Buzz me in

Nowadays we always have our phones on us. So when we arrive at our friends’ houses, we can just text to be let in. This saves us from unsafe doorbell conditions, such as this one. Rather than replacing a defunct chime, they decided to expose the device’s wires and ask visitors to bring them together. We’d probably just go home instead.

12. Board with disaster prep

Store owners might cover their windows with plywood ahead of bad weather or bustling outdoor events. Most of us would take such an installation at face value – no need to get up close and confirm that the boards were, indeed, made of wood. Just for giggles, though, you should take a more discerning look to see if you’re looking at the real stuff or paper printed with a woodgrain pattern, as we see here.

11. Pressing start forever

According to the Redditor who shared this photo, their dryer function started to deteriorate. Eventually, it’d only work if they pressed and held the start button throughout the cycle. So they came up with this temporary fix until they could call in a repairperson or replace the appliance. Hardly energy efficient though, right?

10. Count your catch

Fishermen the world over will know the excitement that comes with pulling up a giant at the end of their line. This guy took that joy to the next level, though. He tattooed a ruler on his leg so he could know the measurements of his catch(es) of the day. We just hope that’s a temporary tattoo for his sake.

9. Make-your-own mallet

The person who created this stunning contraption shared via Reddit that they “needed to disassemble a shelf in an office.” There was a problem, though – the job required that they have a rubber mallet, which they didn’t have on hand. So they looped a few rubber bands around the head of a regular hammer and got to deconstructing. We wonder if the shelf survived...

8. A wrench in a tailgater’s plans

The person who shared this bumper-based contraption described the wrench they welded onto their car as an “anti-tailgater device.” It won’t cause damage to vehicles that get too close, though. It’ll just instill fear in drivers who ride near the rear. As they pull up, they’ll think the tool is loose and might fly off, so they’ll slow down – and back off.

7. The last place you want to see duct tape

On the one hand, this photo is a testament to the power that duct tape possesses. But who wants to look out of the plane window while suspended thousands of miles in the air to see the sticky stuff holding their vessel together? This is a hilarious hack, but a terrifying one, too.

6. A forking tablet stand

You could spend a good chunk of cash on a tablet stand. Or, you could head to your kitchen, grab a spare fork and get your muscles moving. A few bends into the utensil’s tines and you’ve got a strong holder for your device. Better yet, you can reach for it mid-Netflix binge if you need it to eat your snacks. Yes, we’re joking.

5. Logging a solid workout

You don’t need a gym to get a workout in – just ask the runners who pound the pavement every single day. Of course, there’s more room for creativity in fitness than simply jogging around town. You might also try creating a gym in the middle of a forest, using mother nature’s bounty as your building supplies.

4. Get the job drilled

We all wish we could speed up the job of washing the dishes. But perhaps this fellow has taken things too far – using a power tool. They appear to have stuck a sponge to the end of the electric drill and let it spin inside their cups. Another person has used a power tool on a sun shade. Rather than twisting it in and out, they’ve attached the drill to the end and let the tool do the work.

3. Seal it sanitarily

Even with a good lick, your envelope won’t always stay shut. Without any stickers or tape or hot wax on hand, you’ve got to be clever in how you close it. You could try this strange hack, slapping a bandaid onto the back of your letter and sending it through the mail. But that might not be the right vibe for professional correspondence – in which case you should probably wait to find some tape. Duh!

2. A terrifying translation

“Not aus.” These two words take this photo to the next level, as far as shocking hacks go. Because the translation to English of this phrase is “emergency stop” – are you stunned now? Yes, you have to be, because this dangling set of cable cutters is all that can stop the device behind it. Terrifying.

1. A one-of-a-kind paint job

Who doesn’t want their car to stand out on the road? A unique paint job can help make that dream a reality. Perhaps that’s what this vehicle’s owner had in mind when they cleverly redesigned their ride. We’re going to assume they were going for eye-catching and weren’t just feeling too lazy to actually repaint it properly.