I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time browsing the weird corners of the internet looking for unusual products. Not because I need them—mostly just because I find it fascinating what people come up with.
After years of this odd hobby, I’ve developed some thoughts about why weird products exist, why we’re drawn to them, and what they say about us as consumers.
The Appeal of the Absurd
There’s something delightful about discovering a product that makes you ask “why does this exist?” A banana slicer. A motorized ice cream cone that rotates so you don’t have to. A pillow shaped like a boyfriend’s arm.
Part of the appeal is the humor. These products are funny because they solve problems that don’t really need solving, or solve them in ways that seem unnecessarily complicated.
But there’s something deeper too. Weird products remind us that someone, somewhere, had an idea so specific and strange that they decided to actually make it. In a world of mass production and generic everything, there’s something charming about a product that could only have come from one particular person’s brain.
The “Who Is This For?” Question
Every weird product makes you wonder about its target audience. Who buys a toilet paper holder shaped like a giraffe? Who needs a device that automatically stirs their pot so they don’t have to?
The answer, usually, is more people than you’d think. Products don’t get manufactured unless someone’s buying them. That automatic stirrer might seem ridiculous until you meet someone with arthritis who can’t stand over a stove. The giraffe toilet paper holder might just be perfect for a kid’s bathroom.
I’ve learned to be less judgmental about what other people find useful. My needs aren’t universal. A product that seems pointless to me might be solving a real problem for someone else.
The Problem With “Solutions”
That said, a lot of weird products fall into the category of solutions looking for problems. They’re designed not because someone had a genuine need, but because someone figured out how to manufacture and market something novel.
The “As Seen on TV” genre is full of these. Products that make simple tasks look impossibly difficult in the infomercial, then offer a gadget that “solves” the manufactured struggle.
You don’t actually need an avocado slicer. A knife works fine. You don’t need a special tool to separate egg whites. The shell does that perfectly well.
But these products sell because they tap into our desire for optimization. We want to believe there’s a better way, a more efficient tool, a secret that productive people know about.
Novelty vs. Utility
The best weird products are the ones that combine novelty with genuine utility. They’re unusual, but they actually work better than the alternative.
A good example is those weird-looking ergonomic mice that look like nothing you’ve seen before. They seem gimmicky until you try one and realize your wrist doesn’t hurt anymore.
Or those tilted pillow wedges that look strange but actually help with acid reflux and breathing issues.
The form follows function, even if the function creates a form that seems bizarre at first glance.
The Gag Gift Industrial Complex
A huge segment of weird products exists primarily as gag gifts. They’re designed to be funny, to get a reaction at a birthday party or white elephant exchange.
These products know exactly what they are. They’re not trying to be useful. They’re trying to be memorable, shareable, worthy of an Instagram story.
There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as we’re honest about it. The problem is when gag gifts masquerade as real products, or when we buy things because they’re funny without thinking about the fact that they’ll eventually end up in a landfill.
The Amazon Rabbit Hole
Online shopping has created a weird product renaissance. With low barriers to entry and global distribution, anyone can manufacture and sell almost anything.
The Amazon recommendation algorithm is particularly wild. It creates these rabbit holes where one unusual product leads to another, and suddenly you’ve spent an hour looking at increasingly niche items you never knew existed.
I’ve found products that seem to exist in their own micro-universes. There’s an entire ecosystem of cat-themed kitchen gadgets. A whole category of products designed to make food look like other food. Endless variations on the concept of “a pillow, but weird.”
What We Can Learn
Browsing weird products has actually taught me a few things about consumer culture:
There’s a product for everything. Any problem you can imagine, someone has tried to solve with a purchasable object. This is both amazing and slightly dystopian.
Specificity sells. Generic products are boring. Products that speak to a very specific need or interest create connection with buyers.
Humor is a valid product feature. Sometimes the entire point of a product is to make people smile. That’s not nothing.
We’re easily convinced we need things. The line between “I never knew I needed this” and “I’ve been fine without this for 30 years” is mostly marketing.
My Current Favorites
I keep a mental list of weird products that genuinely impressed me—not because I bought them, but because they represent peak creativity or absurdity.
A colander that looks like a giant strawberry. Completely unnecessary, but it makes me smile.
A toilet night light that changes colors. Solves a real problem (navigating to the bathroom at night) in the most extra way possible.
A pizza scissors. It’s scissors, but for pizza. Why does this work? I don’t know, but apparently it does.
None of these are things I need. But they’re things that make me glad humans are creative and weird and willing to put their strange ideas out into the world.
Sometimes that’s worth celebrating, even if we don’t buy anything.