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Show HN: I build one absurd web project every month
I’ve been building absurd, mostly useless web projects for fun — and I publish one every month at absurd.website.
These are deliberately non-functional, weird, sometimes funny, sometimes philosophical — and usually totally unnecessary.
Some examples:
Sexy Math — solve math problems to reveal erotic images.
Trip to Mars — a real-time simulation that takes 7 months to finish.
Add Luck to Your e-Store — add a waving cat widget to boost your conversion via superstition.
Microtasks for Meatbags — the future: AI gives prompts, humans execute.
Invisible Lingerie — it’s sexy. And invisible.
Artist Death Tracker — art prices spike when artists die. We track that.
Open Celebrity — one open-source face, shared by all. Together we make her famous.
I just enjoy exploring what the web can be when it doesn’t try to be “useful”.
Would love to hear what you think — and absurd ideas are always welcome.
- absurdwebsite 1y agoYou can check all my 27 absurd web projects at absurd.website
- nathan_douglas 1y agoI almost read this in the ZOMBO.COM voice.
- moritzwarhier 1y agoThe lucky cat seems very useful. Perfect chatbot widget!
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThanks ;)
- MattSayar 1y agoLove it. Bringing back the "fun" part of the web
- absurdwebsite 1y agoYeah, exactly — thanks! ;)
- OrvalWintermute 1y agoAwesome sites! :D
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThank you. You can subscribe to my absurd mailing list. I make one project every month. Subscribe here: http://eepurl.com/hft-U9 http://eepurl.com/hft-U9
- nathan_douglas 1y agoI thought you were going to say that you make one absurd mailing list every month and I thought, "somebody's really gotta stop this guy."
- absurdwebsite 1y agoHaha, that’s a great idea — I should totally make it!
- hu3 1y agoi'm curious, did you use AI help to build it? Any hints and favorite AI tools?
- absurdwebsite 1y agoI don’t use AI for ideas — I love coming up with the creative part myself. It’s how I express who I am. It’s my art. I write all the texts, and then I polish them with a little help from AI. Some images and videos are AI-generated, but the core concept always comes from me.
- codethief 1y agoGreat project! ChillyParent reminds me of this classic from Silicon Valley (the show): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=216s https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGy5SGTuAGI&t=216s
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThanks! Oh yes, I remember that episode!
- lowercased 1y agoHe disrupted fatherhood!
- nathan_douglas 1y agoThese are delightful. I think I like LingoPrio the best, since I'm (re)learning French. My kid and I went to a pediatrician appointment and my kid asked, "How do you say 'constipation' in French?" And I didn't have to look it up, since it ended in "ation". > I just enjoy exploring what the web can be when it doesn’t try to be “useful”. I have a project that's arguably strange but deeply serious. I'm building a Pi Bramble [1] and adding services with the goal of making a homelab that is continuously collapsing under the weight of its own complexity. Y'know, for education! But it's also really fun, when I have time to spend on it. [1] https://clog.goldentooth.net/ https://clog.goldentooth.net/
- bios444 1y agoThanks — happy to see LingoPrio didn’t go unnoticed. Yes, experimenting for fun is what I love. I will check your project.
- Cogito 1y agoHey bios444 if you see this your comments are not showing as you seem to have been hit by HN's shadowban hammer. It seems like you might also be absurdwebsite which doesn't seem to be banned (but does have a hidden post from a month ago). If you plan to use this account it's worth dropping an email to the admins, they are very responsive :)
- busymom0 1y agoYou are replying to the wrong person. Or is that because you can't reply to bios444?
- Cogito 1y agobios444's comment is a sibling, and yes I can't reply to them.
- bryanrasmussen 1y agoI can reply to them now, also checked in browser where not logged in and comment was seen
- 90s_dev 1y agoUseles fun projects are useless but fun. I made https://tellconanobrienyourfavoritepizzatoppings.com https://tellconanobrienyourfavoritepizzatoppings.com the other day. It was fun. But useless.
- 90s_dev 1y agoSome fun entries so far toppings=pineapple+ toppings=pineapple toppings=I+don%27t+know+wh+conan+o+brien+is%2C+but+I+want+him+to+know+that+I+can%27t+eat+pizza+at+all. toppings=mushrooms toppings=Brie toppings=Cheeze toppings=Wat toppings= toppings=peppers+and+onions toppings=cat+..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd toppings=pepperoni+is+pretty+good+usually toppings=More+tiny+pizzas+ fooabar 0x%5B%5D=DTAB toppings=rendang toppings=salami toppings=spinach toppings=Peppers toppings=Ham+and+Pineapple+ toppings=french+fries toppings=egg toppings=usually+plain+but+i+dont+mind+putting+some+stuff+on+there.+onions+or+pepperoni+or+hawaiian+every+now+and+then.+i+dont+get+why+some+people+are+so+upset+about+pineapple%2C+it%27s+definitely+a+different+taste+but+i+think+it+works%21+although+i+will+say+sometimes+i+think+the+pineapple+slices+are+too+thick+and+so+you+just+get+pineapple+for+a+bite%2C+i+dont+like+that.+love+your+stuff+conan
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- bradly 1y agoGreat job. I'm into mortality so the Artist's Death Effect was fun. I tell my kids all my ideas are terrible because if it wasn't a terrible idea someone else would have done it already.
- davidblue 1y agoOperation D-Day: One Second of War truly delighted me more than any other video game I've ever played. I hope you like my Let's Play: https://youtu.be/iUnbD8xp0f0 https://youtu.be/iUnbD8xp0f0
- absurdwebsite 1y agoI like it :)
- AnnaPali 1y ago> Microtasks for Meatbags — the future: AI gives prompts, humans execute That's close to how many companies, plans etc. work today. We manage big groups of people and systems, as syncretic holes. Sometimes a human, sometimes a computer is better at one task.
- avandekleut 1y agoYou may be interested in reading Manna, a short story about AI that operates exactly this way.
- nine_k 1y agoThat's great. The One Second of War and the Dark Mandala are not even absurd, but merely surface the reality, of sorts.
- keyle 1y agoIt's good to see that, sometimes, the old internet still peeks through. All the best!
- absurdwebsite 1y agoTnx.
- filoleg 1y agoThis is my favorite type of HN posts by far. Seeing just some out there single-minded proof of concept projects, which are both ridiculous but, also, not really, is awesome.
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThank you! Some are real, some are MVPs, and some are pure fake-it-’til-you-make-it. You never know — that’s how the internet works these days. :)
- Lerc 1y agoI feel like LingoPrio needs pineapple.
- hinkley 1y agoThis reminds me a little of Simone Giertz, a YouTube DIY person who started out long ago making shitty robots and has settled into fringe mainstream - usable items but not quite the way you would expect, like folding coat hooks, a gaming table with a roll top, a chair from a satellite dish, and a prosthetic leg for her three legged dog.
- fibbery_ 1y agoThis is awesome. I like to make similar projects - is there a community where you like to share work and collaborate with others? I put a few of mine on /r/baduibattles but not everything fits well in that bucket. Part fun, part absurdist art, part technological and political critique (examples: a login system that requires the user to sing the same song to log in, or a captcha that asks people to prove they're not robots by taking pictures of others in live surveillance video from unsecured CCTV cameras).
- melagonster 1y agomaybe r/internetisneautiful
- imhoguy 1y ago"neautiful" made me curious, that is absurd :)
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThey banned my post :) r/internetisbeautiful is not beautiful.
- vovavili 1y agoNonsense like this is why I hate reddit.
- curtisszmania 1y ago[dead]
- conception 1y agoBrush your teeth is mis-linked. :)
- r0b05 1y agoIt's hilarious! Well done :)
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThank you.
- ketedrum 1y agothe moment i realized what this is i burst out into laughter. congratulations. its so absurd!
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThank you.
- cess11 1y agoI like this game mechanic: Your score: <span style='color:red'>1."+Math.floor(Math.random() * 39)+"</span> seconds. I've done similar sometimes in my own microprojects.
- XetiNA 1y agoLoving this. One second of war and offsetting co2 emissions by buying you a Tesla are my favorites. I wonder what a good UI is for a website like this. I was thinking maybe infinite scroll would work well for a more museum-like experience.
- bios444 1y agoThank you. Good idea about infinite scroll. I am also thinking about UI.
- mateioprea 1y agoThe "Add luck to your e-store" last description line should say "That’s marketing meow" :)
- hrrjei 1y ago[flagged]
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- hrrjei 1y ago[flagged]
- pingou 1y agoAs someone who had his dog stolen when waiting for me in front of the supermarket, I love the easy Pet Drop Box idea.
- Percnopterus 1y agoThis already exists in Norway and Sweden. It's illegal to leave your dog in front of a shop tied to anything. So there is boxes that are climatised and are operated with any debit or credit card. (They are not very popular however)
- bios444 1y agoIdea that you can drop them here for ever.
- eightturn 1y agojust added waving cat to my website
- absurdwebsite 1y agoCan you post a link?
- BiraIgnacio 1y agoThings like this give me hope for human creativity. Made my day, thanks
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThanks ;)
- cldwalker 1y agoFun stuff. Got a good laugh out of https://absurd.website/dday/game.php https://absurd.website/dday/game.php and https://absurd.website/microtasks-for-meatbags/ https://absurd.website/microtasks-for-meatbags/ . Thanks!
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThank you.
- westondeboer 1y agoI think the Artist's Death Effect Data Base is hilarious. We talk about this in my circle about which artist isn't doing well and we all secretly buy up some work. Sort of like a dead pool.
- BOOKHOUSEUK 1y agoAll these things are relevant to my interests. Thank you for sharing.
- absurdwebsite 1y agoThanks.
- jfil 1y agoGreat stuff!
- landgenoot 1y agohttps://theuselessweb.com/ https://theuselessweb.com/
- kxter 1y agoOk the lucky cat got me! I just had to install and see it for myself. So cute. Made me smile. :)
- skapi_api 1y agoLove your maneki neko project so much!
- absurdwebsite 1y agoI launched new absurd project: https://absurd.website/sync2kill/ https://absurd.website/sync2kill/