The 10 Highest Rated Reddit Posts Of All Time

Hundreds of posts make it onto the front page of Reddit every day, but few will ever rise high enough to sit amongst Reddit’s all-time highest-rated posts. Only the best of the best of /r/all can have that honor.
In light of Reddit’s recent community outrage, these all-time highest-rated posts give us insight into what the community as a whole actually cherishes, reminding us that all this drama is mostly a product of a vocal minority.

Naturally, some subreddits are more popular than others, so we’re limiting this list to one post per subreddit. Without further ado, let’s have a look at what Redditors really enjoy.

1. Barack Obama’s AMA (/r/IAmA)

Given Reddit’s overall liberal preference, it makes sense that the userbase would absolutely fawn over the President’s appearance in /r/IAmA and turn it into one of the best Reddit AMAs of all time with over 14,700 upvotes.

Hi, I’m Barack Obama, President of the United States. Ask me anything. I’ll be taking your questions for half an hour starting at about 4:30 ET.

Proof it’s me:

Thousands of users threw their questions into the mix and the President did quite well answering as many of them as he could given his tight schedule. And while many expected the President to do nothing but dodge questions and promote self, it was surprising to see Obama actually engage with some of the harder questions.
Park Ranger (/r/UnexpectedThugLife)

UnexpectedThugLife is a humorous subreddit that highlights “thug behavior” as it occurs by unexpected folks in unexpected places at unexpected times. Thug behavior has a wide definition, encompassing everything from witty comebacks to “badass-ness”.

At the end of the day, you won’t really get it until you witness a few videos for yourself. Here’s the highest rated one of all time:

One thing to note is that most UnexpectedThugLife videos end with a rap or hip hop beat that completes the comedic effect, but this particular video doesn’t. Here’s how a more typical video would play out (NSFW language):

1. Amazing Journalism (/r/videos)

The Videos subreddit is a catch-all place for high-quality videos. These clips can be funny, serious, heartbreaking, or absolutely frightening — the only criterion is that the content has to be interesting, thought-provoking, or gut-bustingly hilarious in some way.

The highest rated submission in this subreddit is actually a poignant demonstration of what real journalism looks like, and though it seems lighthearted on its surface, the content is quite serious and moving:

It’s easy to see how this could be one of Reddit’s all-time best posts.

1. Drunk Me IRL (/r/me_irl)

Me IRL (i.e. “me in real life”) is a joke subreddit where users submit GIFs, images, and videos that describe the user’s actual personality or behavior. The hilarity comes from the out-of-context application.

It’s not a place for people to post actual photos of themselves. As the subreddit’s tagline explains, Me IRL is not a place for selfies; it’s a place for selfies of the soul.

reddit-top-posts-meirl

Far be it from me to explain a joke, but here we see an amusing illustration of someone who will find any excuse to get drunk. The subject matter is pretty dark if you think too much into it, but some might argue that that’s what makes it so funny.

1. Comcast Is Hitler (/r/circlejerk)
   A lot of people despise Reddit because it tends to promote “hivemind behavior” and “echo chambers” rather than productive online conversations, and users are aware of this. That’s why the Circlejerk subreddit exists: to mock this kind of behavior through parody.
   Over the past few years, Reddit as a whole has loved stomping all over Comcast due to its propensity for shady business practices and unethical treatment of customers. A Circlejerk member rode this wave of opinion by likening Comcast to Hitler – and subsequently raked in a lot of upvotes for it.Of all the things Reddit hates, Comcast will always be in the Top 3.

2. Genuine Tearjerker (/r/GetMotivated)

Early in 2015, a user named /u/mylasttie touched thousands of lives with a heartbreaking-yet-encouraging essay that was submitted prior to losing a battle against cancer

Soon I will be gone forever, but that’s okay as long as someone reads this.

The essay included words of wisdom like “Don’t waste your time on work that you don’t enjoy” and “It’s stupid to be afraid of others’ opinions”, but the heart of the essay was a plea for people to truly live life because death is always just around the corner.

funny observations by people who happen to be black.

It says a lot about Reddit that several all-time highest-rated posts belong to this subreddit, but what it says about Reddit isn’t exactly clear.

1. Waterboarding (/r/ShowerThoughts)

ShowerThoughts is a place for those weird thoughts, ideas, and philosophical questions that seem to find their way into your head whenever you’re in the shower. Most of these thoughts are played for humor, but many of them are even quite thought-provoking.

Waterboarding at Guantanamo Bay sounds super rad if you don’t know what either of those things are.

I’m not sure why this particular showerthought is so highly upvoted, but if there’s one thing Reddit loves with near unanimity, it’s the ShowerThoughts concept.

1. Eaten With Rice (/r/AskReddit)

Reddit would be nothing without inside jokes, and when an inside joke emerges organically from an otherwise strange situation, it has the potential to take off and spread like wildfire. That’s exactly what happened with one simple AskReddit thread:

What tasty food would be disgusting if eaten over rice?

Throughout the thread, commenters offered all kinds of tasty foods (e.g. Mentos, pumpkin pie, orange juice, maple syrup). In response, the thread starter went through and rated said foods with and without rice, and hilarity ensued.

reddit-top-posts-withrice

In retrospect, it’s definitely one of those events where “you just had to be there”, but even to this day Redditors will occasionally inject this meme into otherwise innocent conversations (and it will always be amusing).

1. The Hitmarker (/r/montageparodies)

The #1 highest-rated post on Reddit is a real headscratcher. The thread isn’t noteworthy in any way and the subreddit itself is nowhere near the top of the “most popular subreddits” list. Yet, this thread has over 56,000 upvotes. What the heck?

To put that in perspective, the second highest-rated post on Reddit – the “Eaten With Rice” thread – sits at just over 34,000 upvotes. That’s a huge difference!

reddit-top-posts-montage

But as user /u/AndThatIsWhyIDrink cleverly noticed, the extraordinary number of upvotes is easily explained:

The post got so many upvotes because people in /r/all wanted to test it, they don’t want to visit the rest of the subreddit so inevitably they just upvoted this post.

Thus the highest upvoted post of all time is born.

And there you have it. An anticlimactic end to the most upvoted posts throughout Reddit’s history.

If you’re interested in using Reddit, get started with our guide to using Reddit like a pro. One thing to be wary of is the fact that Reddit is addictive and can kill your productivity, so be sure to read up on how to use Reddit productively. Otherwise, have fun!