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A guy revealed the 12 simple things that make men happy and it's 100% accurate

If it's not a dog, a buddy, a beer, and a cool stick, we don't want it.

Nolan Reid / TikTok
A guy definitively listed the 12 things that make men happy and it's 100% accurate

Minimalism is on the rise, not just in design and architecture, but in the way people live their lives. Having fewer things, sporting simpler styles, and enjoying the fundamental good things in life is cool now. Regular people who aren't influencers post fewer updates to social media. The world is just so loud and chaotic, more people are getting satisfaction out of just... chilling out and existing.

There's an old joke/meme that goes something like this: "Guys literally only want one thing and it's disgusting." Its used to imply, obviously, that men are shallow and crude creatures. TikTok creator and simple-life advocate Nolan Reid, however, has a different idea of what men really want.

Nolan recently made a video about "Little things in life that make men happy."

The hilarious list includes:

  • A fridge full of beer.
  • Drinking said beer in the garage. With your dog. And a good buddy.
  • Finding a cool stick.
  • Kicking a rock.
  • Staring at water.
  • Dropping rocks into said water.

As a fellow man, I would say: Yeah. That pretty much covers it.

It really doesn't take much! Watch Nolan's full video to see the rest, and just appreciate how much joy and satisfaction he gets from these simple things.


@nolanreid7

It’s that simple #beer #mustache #muzzymade



People loved Nolan's list—so much so that they began adding their own ideas of "simple things men love." The video racked up hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok and Instagram.

One commenter wrote, "He just described my whole personality." Another added, "This guy gets it."

Others chimed in with their own additions to the list, like staring at a fire for hours or just peace and quiet.

But most of the nearly 200 comments were just people chiming in to say one thing:

"Hell yeah."

Finally, someone who understands us! The video was such a hit that Reid put out two sequels where he added things like skipping rocks, throwing a thumbs up in a photo, or making something from scratch. "A dog" seems to make an appearance in every single video, and for good reason: Dogs make guys happy!

Nolan's ultra-relaxed vision of "masculinity" is honestly so refreshing.

@nolanreid7

And many more #littlethings #muzzymade

Men on social media are usually bombarded with the Andrew Tates and Jordan Petersons of the world—influencers who constantly berate us to make more money, lose weight and add muscle, sleep with more women, take charge, and relentlessly self-improve.

I like Nolan's much chiller idea of masculinity. It reminds me of being a kid: taking pleasure in the simple things, not racing to be anywhere, not trying to impress anyone or prove anything. And I love that all the things listed are timeless. They were enjoyed by men, and all people, in the 50s, in the 90s, and they'll be enjoyed by people 50 years from now, too.

Nolan's entire account is a breath of fresh air, an antidote to hustle culture. His videos find joy in:

  • Breaking down cardboard boxes
  • Driving at sunset
  • Going fishing
  • Throwing a frisbee
  • Wearing t-shirts

A daily visit to his page is almost like a meditation. I highly recommend giving him a follow to add a little counterprogramming to your social media feed.

Nolan says in another recent video that he started making TikToks and Instagram reels just for fun, but discovered along the way that he was really passionate about the message.

@nolanreid7

And many more #littlethings #men #happy #muzzymade

"I never thought that my simple living and love for little things would resonate with so many of you."

He said he hopes to inspire people to "take a step back and enjoy the good simple things in life." And now, I suddenly have the urge to go chuck a rock into a river, so I would say: Mission Accomplished!

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

If airports could talk…

Anyone who's ever traveled through a large international airport knows that it can be a daunting, confusing, and unpleasantly adventurous experience. Some airports are massive, sprawling mazes of ever-changing gates that are hard to navigate, and, if you travel a lot, you learn that each airport has its unique quirks and pain points that make you dread having a layover or landing at them.

A creator named Chris Olsen has frequent and infrequent travelers alike rolling over his take on airport woes as he shares what he imagines 13 different major airports would say if they could talk. Let's just say he nails each and every one.

@notolsennchris

I do love LHR and LAX tho

First, London's Heathrow (LHR) airport is notoriously large. My family landed there once and it took us nearly an hour of walking just to get from our gate to the car pickup area. But taking off from there is wild as well, as they frequently don't inform you of what gate you're leaving from until the last minute.

"You want to know what gate you're flying from?" Olsen says as LHR. "Haha, I'm not telling you. I'll tell you in an hour. But by then it'll be too late. By the way, it's on the other side of the airport, you better start running now."

Those who have flown into Los Angeles' LAX airport and needed a ride will feel this one:

"Oh, you wanna leave? You wanna call a lil' Uber? Well, you better start moving now because you know you're gonna have to get on a bus that will take you to a train, that will take you under a bridge where a troll will stop the train, make everyone solve three riddles, before you have to swim across a river before even thinking about calling that Uber. And then it's gonna take you two hours to get home."

uber, air travel, LAX, los angeles, transportation Good luck Ubering from LAX. Giphy

(Pro tip: Fly in to Burbank if you're flying to the L.A. area. A much less overwhelming experience.)

Next up, New York City's John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport:

"Why are you here? You know I'm under construction, babe. I know I said it was gonna be done soon. By 'soon' I meant 20 more years. Goooo, get out of here—no not that way, that road is closed. It's been closed for construction. The new one is too, oh my god."

La Guardia (LGA), on the other hand, just shows off its remodel while still managing to have lots of flights not actually happen:

"I look good, right? Yeah? You like my new look? Your flight's canceled, by the way."

airports, air travel, canceled flights, flying, travel Sorry, flight's canceled. Giphy

In his first video, Olsen also tackled Washington D.C.'s Dulles Airport (with its overcrowded everything) and Paris' Charles De Gaulle (CDG) Airport (with its indifference to helping people who are lost), and people backed up his takes in the comments.

"Heathrow wants us all to join a marathon."

"The uber experience at LAX is traumatizing."

"CDG is so real. I HATE that airport with the passion of a thousand fiery suns 🤣🤣."

"Dulles was way too accurate hahahaha."

In his follow-up video, Olsen "impersonates" Newark's EWR, London City (LCY), Denver (DEN), Atlanta (ATL), Chicago's O'Hare (ORD), Sydney (SYD), Washington's Reagan (DCA) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) airports. And according to the comments, he nails pretty much all of them. (The one exception might be Atlanta, which many people said was accurate but needed more YELLING.)

@notolsennchris

Which ones next


"Overheard at EWR 'there is no hope for you' to a little old lady hustling to make it to the new gate 😭"

"DFW is the realest thing I’ve seen."

"Dallas is the most accurate one ever."

"ORD is my home airport so I fully never realized that other places generally don’t make you wait on the plane for like an hour after landing but damn that’s true isn’t it lol."

"Chicago is soo accurate... why are we always sitting on the tarmac for an extended amount of time."

airport, airplane, air travel, tarmac, o'hare You're never getting off the tarmac once you land at O'Hare. Giphy

"DCA is wayyyy to accurate 😅😩"

"I’ve only been to Reagan once on a layover and trust i was stuck there for hours because every flight was cancelled!"

"As a flight attendant… yes."

"I'm a flight attendant so i’ve been to all these airports and this is so insanely accurate. 😭"

Of course, there are many, many more airports to impersonate and people are making specific requests. From what I gather, Charlotte (CLT), Orlando (MCO), and Frankfurt (FRA) appear to be high on people's lists.

Olsen has more air travel humor where these came from. Check out his hilariously accurate "If airlines could talk" bit:

@notolsennchris

Spirit might not be gorg but it’ll get u there

You can follow Chris Olsen on TikTok for more.

Humor

Comedian nails the differences in how each generation arrives at someone's home

"Millennials will arrive late, but they will text you to let you know they're on their way, just as they're about to get into the shower."

Boomers will knock. Loudly. At all hours.

There's no doubt that there are contrasts between the generations, as baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z see and experience the world quite differently. While generation gaps have always existed, the tech age has widened those gaps in big ways, which sometimes creates challenges but often results in hilarity.

For instance, watching a Gen Zer try to figure out how to use a rotary phone is pure entertainment. The way emojis are used and interpreted varies vastly by age, making for some chuckle-worthy communication mishaps. Slang terms can be hard to keep up with the older you get, but they can also be manipulated by savvy elders to great comedic effect.

gen z slang, w rizz, generations, generation gap, generational differences Riz W Sign GIF Giphy

And now, comedian Jake Lambert is comparing how the different generations arrive at someone's house in a viral video that's been viewed more than 12 million times.

"You've basically got boomers who will turn up completely unannounced any time from about 7:00 in the morning and they will knock on your door just slightly louder than the police using a battering ram carrying out a house raid," Lambert begins.

"And then you've got Gen X. They would have made the plans well in advance, and they would've also checked in a couple of days before just to make sure the plans are definitely still happening," he goes on. "You see, Gen X is the forgotten generation and they're so scarred by this title they would've assumed that you'd forgotten not only about the plans but about their very existence."

"Millennials will have hoped that the plans would've been canceled. There's no reason that a millennial will ever actually want to come to your house," he continues. "They will arrive late, but they will text you to let you know they're on their way, just as they're about to get into the shower. And a millennial will never knock on your door. You'll just get a text either saying 'here' or 'outside,' and that's your cue to go and let them in."

"Similarly, Gen Z will never actually knock," he concludes. "But the chances are they won't have to, as they would have been documenting the entire journey from their house to yours, maybe even on Facetime using this angle [camera facing directly up at the chin] as they go along for some reason. Either that or they'll just send a picture of your front door or a selfie of them outside it. And again, just like the millennial, that's your cue to go and rescue them from the outside world."

gen z, selfie, generation gap, generational differences, generations Gen Z will send a selfie from outside your house as an indicator that they've arrived. Photo credit: Canva

People feel alternately seen, attacked and validated by Lambert's assessments, with the most common response being "accurate."

"I‘m a millennial, my husband GenX. Scarily accurate! 😂"

"Described this millennial to a T."

"This is surprisingly accurate 😂 I laughed slightly louder than the police using a battering ram…"

"Sooo accurate…guilty of the lateness and ‘here’ text 🙃"

"I must admit I'm a millennial. But knocking on the door feels so aggressive, uknow? 😅😇"

"Millennial texting to say almost there but just started getting dressed to go out. Why do we do this? It's not intentional, at least not for me."

millennial, ok boomer, generation gap, generational differences, generations Giphy

"Honestly your observations are just brilliant! GenX-er here!"

"The Gen Z angle omg. 😂😂"

Naturally there are some people who don't resonate with their generation's description, but there are exceptions to every rule and some people will never fit a stereotype. However, judging by the wave of affirmative responses, Lambert has nailed the generational generalities across the board—and done so in a way that allows us all to laugh at ourselves.

You can follow Jake Lambert on Instagram.

This article originally appeared last year.

Humor

Millennials didn't invent the meme. The Silent Generation did...in 1921.

Honestly, the 'first meme ever' is still pretty funny.

The Wisconsin Octopus/Public Domain

People think they've found the "first meme ever" in a cartoon from 1921.

There was once a guy affectionately known on the Internet as "Bad Lucky Brian." He was a scrawny, geeky kid caught posing awkwardly for his school photo. And shortly after his unfortunate picture first appeared on Reddit in 2012, he became the face of one of social media's earliest memes.

All millennials and Gen Xers remembers this golden era of simple memes, when every joke on Facebook and a very young Instagram looked like this:

memes, humor, funny, internet, internet culture, cartoons, generations, generational differences, silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, millennials Bad Luck Brian was one of the earliest Internet meme formats.Ranker

Bad Luck Brian was joined around the same time by Scumbag Steve, Overly Attached Girlfriend, the "Ermagherd!" girl, and the fist-pumping baby. These characters gave a face and a repeatable format for people to create an endless variety of new jokes. The humor was straightforward and predictable, simple, but still funny enough to bring a smile to your face.

At the time, it was relatable and didn't usually require any special knowledge of current events or other memes.

To me, as a 38-year-old millennial, this is about where memes began—with Bad Luck Brian and the rest of the gang. But the truth is that they started earlier—far, far earlier than I ever could have imagined.

In 2018, savvy social media sleuths uncovered an old comic from a July 1921 issue of the satirical magazine Judge. The comic is further attributed to a cartoonist named Hubert F. Townsend for The Wisconsin Octopus earlier that same year.

It reads: "How you think you look when a flashlight is taken." (A 'flashlight' being an archaic way of referring to a flash photograph.) The caption goes along with a drawing of a very dapper man, hair neatly combed, chiseled features, and a meticulous tuxedo.

To the right, it reads: "How you really look," which goes along with a sillier, dumbed-down version of the same character.

If you can look past the drawing style and some of the outdated vernacular, this little cartoon will seem extremely familiar to you.

memes, humor, funny, internet, internet culture, cartoons, generations, generational differences, silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, millennials "Expectation vs reality" meme from 1921.The Wisconsin Octopus/Public Domain

This cartoon from 1921 is a textbook example of the popular "expectation vs reality" joke format. Apparently, millennials did not invent it! The evidence actually points to the Silent Generation coming up with the template.

It seems that worrying how you look in pictures is not only a modern problem. People have been frustrated with it for over a century now, which is what makes this cartoon so resonant.

One commenter on Instagram wrote, "It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out."

"So this would be the predecessor to the 'accidentally switch the phone camera to selfie' meme," said another.

And, in fact, this piece from Townsend isn't the only example of a meme from the era.

BBC uncovered another comic from The Wisconsin Octopus which also makes use of the same joke template—though you have to look past a little outdated, sexist humor.


memes, humor, funny, internet, internet culture, cartoons, generations, generational differences, silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, millennials "arranging a date" meme from 1921The Wisconsin Octopus/Public Domain

It's a lot of fun to imagine our grandparents or even great-grandparents cracking up while reading comic strips like these, laughing at more or less the same stuff we're still making jokes about to this day.

In a sense, memes go back even further than that.

But we have to think beyond just "Internet memes" to really see the history.

Author Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme" in 1972, calling it a "unit of cultural transmission." The New York Times defined it as, "a piece of media that is repurposed to deliver a cultural, social or political expression, mainly through humor."

Imitation is the key element of a meme. Memes reproduce and spread when people take hold of them, adapt or tweak them, and share them. That's what makes them so powerful and sticky.

PBS argues that a mosaic from the year 3 B.C. could be considered one of the earliest memes. Of course, it became a lot easier for memes to be copied and transformed and imitated once the printing press came around. In fact, every generation since the days of Hubert F. Townsend has had their own memes, or repeatable media formats that allow for easy imitation.

Baby boomers lived in the heyday of jokey bumper stickers and physical chain letters. They also had the little character featured in "Kilroy Was Here" who would show up in graffiti all over major cities during World War II.

memes, humor, funny, internet, internet culture, cartoons, generations, generational differences, silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, millennials "Kilroy was here," is considered a popular meme from World War II.By Luis Rubio from Alexandria, VA, USA - Kilroy was here, CC BY 2.0

Gen X had email forwards and the Dancing Baby meme of the early Internet. If you weren't old enough to live through email forwards, a humorous version of the antiquated chain letter, well...you seriously missed out on some of the best comedy writing of the last few decades. Or maybe I just remember it that way.

(On second thought, they were pretty corny.)

memes, humor, funny, internet, internet culture, cartoons, generations, generational differences, silent generation, baby boomers, gen x, millennials Believe it or not, this simple gif once ruled the Internet. Giphy

Millennials had tons of memes to choose from, from the Chuck Norris jokes to Bad Luck Brian. Gen Z and Gen Alpha have their own specific brand of memes, usually one that requires a deep knowledge of brainrot slang and up-to-the-minute Internet lore to understand.

There's a lot of focus on the differences between the generations these days. How boomers and millennials clash, and how Gen X can't understand the Gen Alpha kids, and how Gen Z doesn't approve of their parents' fashion choices. It goes on and on and on. But the long history of memes show that we have more in common than we might think. Though the specifics have changed, we all find humor in life's little frustrations (like not looking good in a picture), and we all respond to the way memes make us feel like we're not alone in how we feel about the world.

I guess what I'm saying is, don't leave out your grandpa next time you're sending a funny meme around to all your friends. He might relate to it more than you'd think.