Everyone has seen bad things happen to good people without any opportunity to set things right. That’s why finally watching wrongdoers get their comeuppance can feel as satiating as, well, porn.
r/justiceporn is a subreddit that showcases videos of swift, often physical, instances of justice being done to people who unmistakably deserve it.
Its constant theme—the weak triumphing over the strong—seems to scratch an itch for Reddit’s underdog loving userbase, which just this week raised $3,500 for a man who lost his home.
“i just discovered this subreddit… it gives me more satisfaction than porn,” contextsdontmatter wrote.
On Tuesday, the nine-month-old r/justiceporn was Reddit’s fastest growing subreddit after a video of a bully getting his comeuppance was featured on the front page Monday. The video shows a Turkish teen with a belt threatening a stuttering street cleaner, until the cleaner gets his revenge:
Overnight, the subreddit went from fewer than 1,000 subscribers to more than 17,000.
The subreddit’s founder and only moderator, PimpMogul, wrote in a thread about the traffic spike that he orginally created r/justiceporn to share a video he thought people were downvoting unreasonably.
“I’m not sure if you can go back to the first videos that were posted, but in r/videos I found a video of a man getting kicked by a horse he was whipping,” he wrote. “I LOLed and people were downvoting me for it. I said, I guess this isn’t the place for instant justice. Then created the subreddit.”
He said he never expected the subreddit to get as big as it has.
“I posted about 3 videos and didn’t look at the thing for months,” he wrote. “Turned back and had over 500 subscribers, then it started blowing up from there. I honestly created the subreddit somewhat as a joke. But people really enjoy it and I love the videos!”
Subscribers applauded his work:
“If you were smart you wouldn’t have turned this into a subreddit, you would’ve turned it into a business!” RaptorJesusDesu wrote. “An entire website devoted to justified beatdowns and winnings. Nonetheless I commend your good work for humanity.”
A human service. We’re guessing that wasn’t the first thing on PimpMogul’s mind when he first “LOLed” at a guy getting kicked by a horse.
Photo by Dan4th Nicolas
