Random People On The Dumbest Solution To A Problem That Actually Worked (16 items)

• (#1) How To Outsmart Your Doctor

  From Redditor /u/Stellapotamus:

  I went to cancel a doctor's appointment and they said it was a $200 charge without a week's notice. I asked how much it was to reschedule, they said it was free.

  "Okay, so I need to reschedule for two weeks out."

  "Is three weeks okay?"

  "Yep."

  "Alright, you're all set for three weeks from now. Anything else I can do for you?"

  "Yes, I need to cancel my appointment."

  "We need a week's notice."

  "My appointment is three weeks away."

  "Oh. Okay. Sure."

  "Thank you."

  Couldn't believe it worked.
• (#2) The Bus Stop To Nowhere

  From Redditor /u/Kasper-X-Hauser:

  There was a [nursing] home in Germany and the patients with dementia kept wandering off.

  They installed a fake bus stop in front of the nursing home so when [dementia] patients got out of the building, they would go sit at the fake bus stop and wait for the (non-existent) bus. The bus stop was clearly visible from the main offices, so whenever staff saw someone out there, they would just go and retrieve them.

  Solved the problem completely.
• (#3) Like A Tripping Moth To The Flame

  From Redditor /u/PaintsWithSmegma:

  I was working as a paramedic at a music festival when we got called to a kid tripping on acid. The guy had climbed to the top of a portable generator stadium light. So he's 20 feet in the air, on a light pole staring into this blazing midnight sun screaming, "I'm a moth go into the flame". We had several cops, firefighters and myself standing at the base for 30 minutes discussing how to get him down... Do we get a ladder truck and try to coax him down? What if he won't go. Do we [spray] mace up there? What if he falls?

  All of a sudden this greasy looking janitor walks up, turns off power to the generator, turns on his flashlight and aims it at the mothman. Dude looks at the flashlight on the ground, [scrambles] down and follows it to the medical [tent] like a puppy about to get a snack. I'm [embarrassed] that none of us thought about that.
• (#4) Take Two Yellow M&M'S And Call Me In The Morning

  From Redditor /u/CptHammer:

  My great grandmother was a nurse during the WWII. She was tending injured soldiers as they were returning home. She told me this story.

  "The poor boys were in such great pain and they had all the pain medication they were allowed to have. It was really strong stuff... We couldn't even give them aspirin most times. I got a clever idea to use a new candy. The boy's thought I was giving them pills. Time for a blue one, time for two yellows, those boys would be calm for an hour or two and sometimes rest. I was their favorite nurse because I told them I wasn't supposed to give them the E pills because they were experimental. I always had a pocket full of M&Ms."
• (#5) Way To MacGyver A Broken Fuel Pump

  From Redditor /u/Nevermind04:

  My first vehicle was a 1985 dodge ram that had around 300k miles on it. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly reliable.

  Anyway, my friend and I had tickets to go see a concert in a city that was about 3 hours away. We made it there just fine and had a blast at the concert. We couldn't afford to stay overnight so we started on the long journey home. If all went well, we would get home around 3AM.

  There was one stretch of highway where there was 60 ish miles between towns. It's pretty much the worst place to break down on that journey. There were big signs warning travelers to fill up with gas before leaving town, but I had half a tank. My truck sputtered out... halfway between the two towns. It sure sounded like I ran out of gas but the gauge still showed half a tank. All had not gone well.

  So there we were - 1:45 AM, stuck on the side of the highway in Texas, 30 miles from the nearest towns, no moonlight, and this was before teenagers had cell phones. We were screwed. After a bit of poking around with a flashlight, we discovered that we did have fuel but the fuel pump had died. We decided to sleep in the truck and mess with it in the morning.

  On those old dodge trucks, the fuel pump was inside the engine instead of in the fuel tank like a modern vehicle. It was powered by the engine instead of an electric motor. Essentially, the fuel pump would constantly pump gasoline when the engine was running and gas would always be available for the carburetor float valve. The extra pumped gas would just go back into the gas tank.

  I was just drifting off to sleep when I got an idea. I worked for almost an hour in the pitch dark. I used some extra hose from an agricultural fertilizer, a drink straw, screw clamps, and duck tape to rig the windshield fluid pump to pump fuel from the fuel line into the carburetor float line.

  I got in my truck, hit the windshield fluid lever, and the truck started right up. It took a bit of trial and error but I was able to get the timing down where I knew how often to hit the lever to keep the truck running.

  We made it back home just after 4:30AM. My dad wasn't immediately amused with my handy work, but he told all of his friends how clever his son was so I guess it passed the dad test.
• (#6) Muddy Lights Will Travel

  From Redditor /u/SSmtb:

  Drove to a neighboring town 80 miles away with one burned out headlight, remaining headlight went out while in said town. I had no money, and shops were closed regardless. These were dual beam, so although I had lost both headlights, the high beams worked. I didn't make it out of town [without] getting honked at and flashed repeatedly by angry passing motorists, and understandably so. What was I to do?

  I continued down the highway and made it about 15 miles before I'm pulled over by the first officer to see me. I explain the situation, officer has no suggestions (this was before cell phones), tells me I can go but that I won't make it home without getting stopped again. I pull over at the next exit, get a free water, dump it in the dirt, make a thin mud, and smeared it over my lights. Worked like a charm, no more honks or flashes, passed multiple officers.
• (#7) Catnip To The Rescue

  From Redditor /u/MissNickels:

  Our family cat hated our family dog. Rubbed the dog all over with fresh catnip. New best friends.
• (#8) Take Your Problems With You

  From Redditor /u/pastelroyalty:

  My psych professor told us about this patient. She was a woman in her late 40's, suffering from OCD and paranoia. Everyday while she drove to work, she would panic that she left her curling iron on, and it was going to burn her house down. So she would turn around, drive home, make sure it was unplugged, and then leave again.

  But as time went on she started making multiple trips home, sometimes in the middle of the day, and she was about to lose her job over this. No therapy was working, her medications weren't working, coping techniques weren't working. Nothing could calm this woman.

  Then she saw my professor. And my professor told her to bring her curling iron in the car with her. So if she got nervous that it was still plugged in, she could look over and see that it was next to her.
• (#9) Ticks Hate Google

  From Redditor /u/moak0:

  A tick crawled into the headphone jack of my phone.

  The next two searches on my phone were:

  • What eats ticks?
  • Guinea hen mating noises

  After about fifteen seconds of female guinea hen sounds, the tick crawled out of my phone.
• (#10) It's Not An Accident If You Do It On Purpose

  From Redditor /u/mylesfrost335:

  My stepdad was taking a sat nav back to the shop as it was acting strange but the bloke serving him refused to take it as the warranty only covers physical damage (not accidental damage) So he just drop kicked it lightly and the bloke just casually said "that'll do sir" and went out back to get a replacement.
• (#11) Will Work For Concerned Citizens Only

  From Redditor /u/SmokeyMcDabs:

  I called about a pothole at the entrance of my store. They said since it was in my entrance, I'd have to pay for it.

  I called back as a concerned citizen and it'll be fixed in 72 hrs.
• (#12) A Database Too Far

  From Redditor /u/Everyone_is_taken:

  This was before high speed internet. We had to transfer a database between two cities 500Km [apart] and we had only one night to do it. People started searching how to compress the files and rent several expensive digital lines (I think ISDN) to spread the copy.

  Then someone said "why don't we remove the hard drive out of the server and move it there by car?" So I drove 500Km during the night to deliver the disk and mount the new database.
• (#13) Always Make A Reservation For An Empty Restaurant

  From Redditor /u/Atsur:

  My folks were in town, and my wife and I wanted to take them to dinner.

  We head to a nearby mediocre steakhouse at the request of my parents, and it's around 6:00pm.

  The hostesses tell us there's a minimum 45 minute wait. I get suspicious, as their parking lot had barely any cars, so I peek around into their dining area. There are several open tables that would fit a party of 4. Mildly annoyed, I ask the hostesses why we can't be seated at any of these tables. They reply that they're being held for future reservations.

  I get on my smartphone, open the OpenTable app, make a reservation for 6:15pm for a party of 4, and we're seated immediately.
• (#14) Will Pee At Target

  From Redditor /u/thudly:

  Dudes [peeing] absolutely everywhere in the bathroom where I once worked. So the janitor put a little red sticker in each toilet and suddenly the problem stopped. Apparently men will aim at a target 100% of the time, if a target is presented.
• (#15) If You're Walking, You're Not Waiting

  From Redditor /u/PhilUpTheCup:

  An airport was having complaints that luggage was taking too long to get to baggage claim. The [airport's] solution was to move baggage claim even farther away from the gates. The complaints stopped because a lot of the time spent waiting was now spent just walking there. The actual time it took to get your luggage wasn't any faster
• (#16) A Little Duct Tape Fixes Everything

  From Redditor /u/Portarossa:

  Duct Tape Occlusion Therapy.

  If you've got a wart or a verruca, stick a piece of duct tape over it and replace the tape every time it falls off for two weeks or so. It sounds like it's bullsh*t -- like the Windex from My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- and I have no idea how or why it works, but it's cheap, painless, and has worked for me and everyone I've recommended it to (including once on a verruca that I'd had for almost a decade, so it seems unlikely to me that it's just a coincidence).

  Of course, if you admit it in public you sound like the crazy lady at the end of the street who thinks tin foil hats will keep the government mind rays out.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking