+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
Joy

10 things that made us smile this week

Upworthy's weekly roundup of joy and delight from around the internet.

elyse myers, dancing
@elysemyers/TikTok, @ceceredqueen01/TikTok

Hilarious humans, cute doggos, delightful dancing and more to bring some joy to your day.

Ah, June. The month of graduations, weddings and summer break. Definitely one of the top three months of the year for joy.

It's also a month to celebrate liberation, as Juneteenth and Pride remind us that all humans deserve to be free from oppression and that the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness belong to each and every one of us.

June means outdoor fun as well. Barbecues. Picnics. The weather in June is usually delightful as the days get longer and stretch well into the evening. By summer solstice, we'll still see the sun's rays at 9:30 p.m. where I live. All of that light makes bedtime a little tricky for the kids, but who cares. Long summer evenings are the stuff childhood memories are made of.

Yes, June is good.

This week's roundup reflects a bit of June's joy. We have heartwarming graduation stories, some delightful dancing, some cute doggos (of course) and some humans being hilarious. So whether you're heading out for a weekend of fun or holed up in COVID isolation (yes, we're still spreading that stuff around), take a few minutes and enjoy these snippets of delight.

1. High school grads showed up at their kindergarten teacher's house to surprise her.

@kimhamilton15

#kindergartentograduation

They were the last class she taught before she retired. She was so proud. We don't deserve teachers. Read the story here.

2. Speaking of pride, check out this sweet mama doggo and her new pups.

That wink, though.

3. And speaking of PRIDE … and doggos … introducing Riley the accidental ally.

"This is Riley. He fell asleep on some chalk and woke up an LGBTQ+ icon. Not washing it off all month. 14/10.”

We Rate Dogs is nothing but joy, BTW. And speaking of joy…

4. These gentlemen each doing their own two-step can just be played on repeat all day long.

@ceceredqueen01

Everyone don’t 2 Step the same ya dig 👑 #gala #mendance🕺😁🤣 #2022 #footwork #fyp

The suits. The hats. The smooth, expressive enjoyment of it all. All day, all day.

5. And in a whole other dance genre, these text tone dance moves are just tight.

Clever and well-executed. (Popcorn and Anticipate are my faves.)

6. Apparently, it's possible to use Instagram only as an ice cream flavor checker.

While we all struggle to not constantly get sucked into social media, Rachel's husband is out here living a whole life, only checking ice cream flavors on Instagram once a month.

How, Rachel's husband? How???

7. Try not to smile while watching babies smile at Borzah's smile.

"White Smile Borzah" making babies smile

​Nah, don't try. Just go with it. No sense in resisting. He even got one kid to go from crying to smiling in 10 seconds! (Read the full story here.)

8. Master storyteller Elyse Myers shares a hilarious tale about "edible" wedding plates.

@elysemyers

Turns out, it was as weird as I thought it was. 🍮 #coffeetalk #ecofriendly

No one tells a story like Elyse Myers, but this one is particularly hilarious. How did she not just die? Read more about her here.

9. Dad drove halfway across the country to surprise his son for his fifth grade graduation.

Oof. This one's a doozy. So much love.

10. Let's all pocket a bit of whatever this tee-baller's got.

Is that hisjam or what? I love that they basically had to turn it off to get him to pick up the bat. And then he went straight back to ballin.' Total icon.

Hope that brought some happiness to your heart. Come back next Friday for another roundup of smileworthy finds from around the internet!

From Your Site Articles
uplifting
Pop Culture

Guy who sounds remarkably like Michael Jackson gets 27 million views on first TikTok video

Holy moly that voice.

Constru-centro/Wikimedia Commons

Brandon Conway sounds remarkably like Michael Jackson when he sings.

When Michael Jackson died 13 years ago, the pop music world lost a legend. However markedly mysterious and controversial his personal life was, his contributions to music will go down in history as some of the most influential of all time.

Part of what made him such a beloved singer was the uniqueness of his voice. From the time he was a young child singing lead for The Jackson 5, his high-pitched vocals stood out. Hearing him sing live was impressive, his pitch-perfect performances always entertaining.

No one could ever really be compared to MJ, or so we thought. Out of the blue, a guy showed up on TikTok recently with a casual performance that sounds so much like the King of Pop it's blowing people away.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

5 things that will make you smile this week

If you're looking for a little sunshine, we've got you covered.

Canva

Things to make you smile.

Are you looking for something to make you smile? Well, you've come to the right place. Starting off on a positive note can set the tone for the rest of the week. For those who enjoy our weekly 10 things that made you smile this week article, here's an extra dose coming at the start of each week. Now you can find some bright spots to look forward with each passing day!

Keep ReadingShow less
things to make you smile
Internet

Viral video of high schoolers in 1989 triggers a deluge of Gen X memories

With a hair band power ballad to boot.

@asliceofhistory/Twitter

1989 video brings back strong memories for Gen Xers who came of age in the '80s.

It was the year we saw violence in Tiananmen Square and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The year we got Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" and Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's "Batman." The year "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons" debuted on TV, with no clue as to how successful they would become. The year that gave us New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul while Madonna and Janet Jackson were enjoying their heyday.

The jeans were pegged, the shoulders were padded and the hair was feathered and huge. It was 1989—the peak of Gen X youth coming of age.

A viral video of a group of high school students sitting at their desks in 1989—undoubtedly filmed by some geeky kid in the AV club who probably went on to found an internet startup—has gone viral across social media, tapping straight into Gen X's memory banks. For those of us who were in high school at the time, it's like hopping into a time machine.

The show "Stranger Things" has given young folks of today a pretty good glimpse of that era, but if you want to see exactly what the late '80s looked like for real, here it is:

Oh so many mullets. And the Skid Row soundtrack is just the icing on this nostalgia cake. (Hair band power ballads were ubiquitous, kids.)

I swear I went to high school with every person in this video. Like, I couldn't have scripted a more perfect representation of my classmates (which is funny considering that this video came from Paramus High School in New Jersey and I went to high school on the opposite side of the country).

Comments have poured in on Reddit from both Gen Xers who lived through this era and those who have questions.

First, the confirmations:

"Can confirm. I was a freshman that year, and not only did everyone look exactly like this (Metallica shirt included), I also looked like this. 😱😅"

"I graduated in ‘89, and while I didn’t go to this school, I know every person in this room."

"It's like I can virtually smell the AquaNet and WhiteRain hairspray from here...."

"I remember every time you went to the bathroom you were hit with a wall of hairspray and when the wind blew you looked like you had wings."

Then the observations about how differently we responded to cameras back then.

"Also look how uncomfortable our generation was in front of the camera! I mean I still am! To see kids now immediately pose as soon as a phone is pointed at them is insanity to me 🤣"

"Born in 84 and growing up in the late 80’s and 90’s, it’s hard to explain to younger people that video cameras weren’t everywhere and you didn’t count on seeing yourself in what was being filmed. You just smiled and went on with your life."

Which, of course, led to some inevitable "ah the good old days" laments:

"Life was better before the Internet. There, I said it."

"Not a single cell phone to be seen. Oh the freedom."

"It's so nice to be reminded what life was like before cell phones absorbed and isolated social gatherings."

But perhaps the most common response was how old those teens looked.

"Why do they all look like they're in their 30's?"

"Everyone in this video is simultaneously 17 and 49 years old."

"Now we know why they always use 30 y/o actors in high school movies."

As some people pointed out, there is an explanation for why they look old to us. It has more to do with how we interpret the fashion than how old they actually look.

Ah, what a fun little trip down memory lane for those of us who lived it. (Let's just all agree to never bring back those hairstyles, though, k?)

From Your Site Articles
gen x
Trending Stories