12 Reddit AMAs Worth Revisiting

Photo courtesy Snoop's Instagram

Snoop Dogg (AKA Snoop Lion) recently claimed in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) that he smokes a lot of marijuana. And I mean, a lot. As in hundreds and hundreds of joints every week.

This somewhat dubious claim reminds us just how amazing the Reddit AMA can be. If you aren’t familiar, AMAs happen on a subpage of Reddit.com, where people from various walks of life (from major stars to ordinary people with extraordinary experiences) invite the site’s readers to ask any question they’d like. The discussions are wildly popular and often produce hilarious/intellectual/sobering/uplifting exchanges.

Here are 12 Reddit AMAs worth revisiting.

(As a note, all grammar and spelling has been left as it appeared in the original post, and some of the AMAs linked below may contain NSFW content.)

1. Louis CK

This writer-director-actor-stand up comedian has seemingly taken over the world the last few years by launching his own critically-acclaimed show, hosting SNL, and implementing his own experimental ways of connecting with his audiences by selling them content directly through his website and refusing to let Ticketmaster have a role in selling tickets to his shows.

Snippet of AMA, discussing a really bad fan:

i was on the subway once and this old lady came up to me. she pointed right in my face and screamed and diarreah started just gushing out of her onto the floor. I'm not sure she was a fan but it was pretty awful. Also it never happened. But it will...

2. Ken Jennings

This 74-time Jeopardy! Champion (that is still amazing to read) won $2,520,700 over his record-setting run, and $3,172,700 in all, once all of the special Tournament of Champions appearances were factored in. Jennings is not only smart, he’s funny (a combination that made him a great contributor to mental_floss magazine). His sense of humor was on display during his Reddit AMA when he lampooned his destruction at the hands of the IBM Super Computer Watson by adopting the internet handle “WatsonsBitch.”

Snippet of AMA, discussing the host of Jeopardy!:

Trebek takes a lot of heat for being sort of smug and starchy on camera, but that's just for TV. In person he is sort of a nut, always doing goofy jokes and accents and little bits of soft-shoe and stuff. He's like your good-natured, slightly-losing-it grandpa.

3. A Columbine Survivor

The author of this AMA was a student at Columbine High School in 1999 when two gunmen opened fire, killing 12 students, a teacher, and themselves. According to the claim, the author is the one individual told to “get out of here” by one of the the killers just before they began their attack.

Snippet of AMA, discussing his “rocky” relationship with one of the killers, Eric Harris:

He chipped my windshield with a chunk of ice, I told im he needed to pay for it, told his mom, he got angry, we had a falling you. We started talking again, then another fight, then I ratted to him mom where he kept his booze (yes, I was an a**hole), so he threatened to murder my family. You know. High school stuff.

4. Bill Nye the Science Guy

William Sanford Nye, better known by his catchy, rhyming stage name, was an edutaining part of the childhood of so many.

Snippet of AMA, in which the Science Guy lists the things that he and Neil deGrasse Tyson chat about when they get together:

Astrophysics, the business of television, baseball, wine, and women.

5. A McDonald’s Employee

It takes a lot of employees to serve Billions and Billions, as McDonald’s signs used to boast about doing. That means there are probably a lot of people out there willing to spill the beans on working in one. This AMA delivers a hot, delicious serving of just that.

Snippet of the AMA, detailing an unpleasant cleaning experience:

Every few months, the restaurant undergoes an inspection from a McOpCo consultant. This is called an FOR. Before the FOR, the owner gets everyone to clean, paint,, brush up on their skills/habits, etc. On one of these occasions, I was tasked with cleaning behind the vats and the grills. The accumulation of grease, dropped, rotting meat and chicken products that were festering underneath was enough to give me nightmares. The grease was pooled on the floor and there were grease stalagmites on the ground. Trapped in the burnt and encrusted filth were hundreds of flies.

6. A Former Religious Cult Member

The subject of this AMA describes herself as having grown up in a “small communal Bible-based cult” where “children were raised to be workers in the church and to give their lives for what the leader wanted.” The answers shared in the post are shocking, eye-opening and thoroughly interesting.

Snippet of AMA, discussing how she left the community:

I had to sneak out. If you told anyone you were leaving they would throw you out on the street with nothing and not allow you to get your things. Also, I knew my family would try really hard to talk me into staying, and because I love them so much, it would be hard to resist their pleas.

7. A Nickelodeon Artist

This subject actually did two different AMAs (Part 1 & Part 2), both times taking drawing requests from readers and delivering awesome sketches. Click on any of the links at the top of the two posts and you’ll see drawings of Freddie Mercury, Bill Cosby’s Reaction to the Mars Landing, Lindsay Lohan Getting Punched By A Monkey, Complicated Fight Scene, and many more.

Snippet of AMA, drawing of Batman and Bane Playing Rock’em Sock’em Robots

8. An Amnesiac

The bio at the start of this AMA explains that Benjamin Kyle woke up outside a Burger King in 2004 with no idea who he is, how he got there or pretty much anything else. The Wikipedia page he links to says he’s “the only American citizen officially listed as missing despite his whereabouts being known.”

Snippet of AMA, answering a question about whether he is a time traveler:

Everyone is a time traveler. They're born, they live, and they die.

9. Ira Glass

The awesome host of the brilliant This American Life talks openly about how they miraculously create radio’s most phenomenal show. Can you tell I’m a huge fan?

Snippet of AMA, discussing what they’re looking for on the show:

A great story is like a great melody: it announces its inevitable greatness and you recognize it the first time you hear it. Most stories aren't that. They do not announce their obvious greatness. 60% are in the limbo region where they might GET great or they might flop, and the only way to figure it out is to start making the story. So you launch in, hoping for that winning combination of great moments, charm, funny, and X factor.

10. “Needle Nose” Ned Ryerson

Actor Stephen Tobolowsky has been in a ton of different movies, but he is perhaps best known as Ned Ryerson from Groundhog Day. Bing!

Snippet of AMA, discussing a scene fit for a movie that unfortunately actually happened to him:

A man saw I had mangos in my shopping cart. He pulled out a .45 and stuck it into my head, and said "I don't know why I picked you today." The only thing I could think of for some reason were scenes from the TV show medical center. I ended up talking to the man about my father, Chad Everett, and eventually I invited him over to my house for dinner. Unfortunately I gave him my real address. Fortunately the swat team intervened and dragged him out kicking and screaming.

11. A Real Life Superhero

Phoenix Jones is a real person that puts on a real superhero outfit and tries to fight real crime in the real city of Seattle. He is a member of the Rain City Superhero Movement.

Snippet of AMA, explaining a time that made him question his crime-fighting career:

AFTER I GOT SHOT THE FIRST TIME AND WOKE UP UNDER A DUMPSTER

12. Two Falsely Imprisoned Men

Clarence Harrison and Robert Clark spent a combined 42 years falsely imprisoned, until the Georgia Innocence Project helped them win their freedom.

Snippet from AMA, Harrison discussing a conversation he had with the man who put him away:

I spoke with the DA but I am still angry with the DA because he is still patting himself on the back for having a "fair trial" and "doing their best." How can they still pat themselves on the back when I was innocent?

See all of our 12 lists here.