+
upworthy
Top Splash

10 things that made us smile this week

10 things that made us smile this week

Welcome to Upworthy's weekly roundup of joy and delight.

Um, how is it February already? Despite January feeling like it had 172 days, February feels like it arrived all of a sudden. Pandemic time is so trippy. (Is the pandemic still happening? The data certainly says so, but a whole lot of people have decided "no," which is probably why we've all become obsessed with a simple word game. Weeeee!)

It's also Friday, which means it's time for another roundup of delights from around ye ol' interwebs. Woohoo! Each week, we pull together a list of things that we all can enjoy no matter who we are, where we live, what we ate for breakfast or how we feel about people sharing their Wordle results. Just tiny packages of pure, happy things to boost our endorphins.

This week we have epic dance moves, hilarious kids, heartwarming reunions and awesome animals to lift our spirits. Isn't it funny how reliable arts and kids and animals are for bringing us joy?


So if you've got the winter doldrums, are stuck in COVID quarantine or could just use a little pick-me-up, we've got you covered. Buckle up and enjoy!

Watch this dance troupe get funky to James Brown on Lunar New Year.

@danceon

We’re feeling good and ready to have a funky time 🎶💃🕺 #Moga_almeri

We kicked off the week celebrating Lunar New Year with this awesome video. The formation, the outfits, the moves—it's all here. Year of the tiger, bring it on.

Speaking of dance moves, this little girl has 'em—and the spunk to match.

Oh my goodness, that face and those moves. This little girl at a Chinese dance competition seems to have the spirit of Latin dance flowing right through her veins. She's feeling it and it shows.

Speaking of feeling it in competition, this doggo was just supposed to come over and sit.

Puppers had one job, but decided that job needed some flair. Give this doggo all the prizes, please.

A dad filmed his daughter every week for two decades to create a 5-minute time lapse.

This sounds like such a simple idea on paper, but to actually carry it out is an incredible feat. It's also incredibly moving to watch for any parent. A wonderful gift from Dutch filmmaker Frans Hofmeester to his daughter, Lotte. Read the full story here.

An 8-year-old snuck his handmade book onto the library shelf and now it has a huge waiting list.

Dillon Helbig wanted his book in the library, so he just made it happen.

KTVB/Upworthy

Dillon Helbig had wanted to have a book in the library since he was 5, so he left his homemade graphic novel on the shelf. The librarians found it and put it into circulation, and now it has a years-long waiting list. Such a great example of adults supporting kids in their creativity. Read the full story here.

Mom films daughter asking if she lived in colonial times, and every parent has been there.

Kids don't have a good grasp of time when they're young, which can make for some hilarious inquiries and assumptions. The innocence of this kid's questions is just classic.

Jimmy Kimmel made Quinta Brunson cry by surprising her with her beloved sixth-grade teacher.

The teachers who make an impact in our lives are never forgotten. This exchange between "Abbott Elementary" creator Quinta Brunson and the teacher she named the show after is just pure love. Read the full story here.

Speaking of love, these guys offered people $5 to call someone and tell them they love them.

@toachieveyou

Why do you guys think they turned down the money? | idea from @areyoukiddingtv ❤️ | @ledariusjoshua @brandnrode @kye_man

The challenge was sweet, but the responses afterward were even better. Read the full story here.

Watch Hector the hummingbird land on a man's finger to eat. 

Hector the hummingbird. That's just too much. There's something so magical about hummingbirds, and we don't often get to see them this close to a human. (Side note: Have you ever had a hummingbird fly right by your ear? It's so loud. That wing flapping is no joke.)

Penguin groups meet up and one of them gets confused. But don't worry—his friend's got his back. 

What a muppet, indeed. You can practically narrate this entire video in your head as you're watching it, can't you? "Um, Chuck? We're going this way, pal." So hilarious.

Hope you enjoyed this week's roundup of happy things! Come back next week to share more snippets of goodness and joy. :)

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

A teacher lists his class rules.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
Keep ReadingShow less

Movie critic Roger Ebert speaking his mind at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s been ten years since the world lost Roger Ebert to cancer, and his voice is sorely missed. Ebert had a pure love of cinema, and even though he was a film critic in a sweater with a Pulitzer Prize, he wrote and spoke in a way accessible to every man.

He didn’t care if a film was a Hollywood blockbuster or art-house fare; what mattered was whether it deserved his highly-coveted “thumbs up.”

Ebert was an extremely gifted communicator whose interests went far beyond film. In his later years, he often mused about music, politics, and American cultural events with the same eloquence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Keep ReadingShow less
@over40slbmom/TikTok

Feeling nostalgic yet?

It seems like so many iterations of unfettered joy from our childhood haven’t made it to the modern age, and playgrounds are no exception.

Gone are the days of metal slides that scorched the derriere in the summertime, seesaws that doubled as human catapults and the notorious merry-go-rounds that separated the weak from the strong. Good old fashioned character building—safety be damned!

As it turns out, a few of these old relics are still standing. And footage of kids playing at one of these bygone parks is filling adults—particularly Gen Xers—with sweet nostalgia.
Keep ReadingShow less

A couple shares why they decided to leave the United States.

Although it is difficult to tell if there is a trend of Americans moving out of the country, rough estimates show that around 8 million currently live in other countries—double the 4.1 million living abroad in 1999.

The most popular countries for Americans to move to are Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom, in that order.

A big reason why some are leaving the U.S. is that an increasing number of employers allow people to work abroad. Others are choosing to leave because of cost of living increases and “golden visa” programs. Golden visas offer the chance to get a foreign residency permit by purchasing a house or making a significant investment or donation.

Keep ReadingShow less