A single pair of earbuds managed to unite millions in collective disgust.
Earbuds caked in a thick, yellowish crust of earwax. That’s what Redditor u/ClavasClub found after borrowing a friend’s pair for a day trip. They later admitted they’d forgotten the friend was a “degenerate” who “uses those buds every day.”
As expected, the 16-million-member subreddit did not pity the borrower.
Within 24 hours, the post featuring three photos of the earbuds pulled almost 7,000 upvotes and more than a thousand comments. But the OP never once responded to the one-sided roast.
This is genuinely revolting. It’s also the same scene the internet replays every six months, right on schedule.
The Greatest Hits of Gross Earbuds
In 2019, OneZero journalist Angela Lashbrook asked readers to photograph their earbuds. She received at least 50 images of gunked-up buds within a week.
By 2021, a doctor’s TikTok about ear fungus from AirPod overuse went viral, with the memorable detail that treatment required “plucking the mushrooms.” And in 2024, a 31-second YouTube simulation called “Why Your Earbuds Are GROSS” collected over 15 million views.
The r/WTF crowd, naturally, took a different approach.
One commenter cut through the noise but the discussion became even worse.
Same horror. Same jokes. Same pledges to finally clean those earbuds. The pledges never stick. The bacteria do.
What’s Growing in There
Wearing earbuds for just one hour can increase ear bacteria by an estimated 700%. Share them, and it gets worse.
According to University of Arizona germ researcher Kelly Reynolds, you’re doubling the microbial flora in your ears and introducing foreign bacteria. That flora already includes pseudomonas and staphylococcus, and sharing means more of both.
So yes. Your ear canals are petri dishes, and you keep sealing the lids.
See You in Six Months
Somewhere right now, you’re eyeing your own earbuds with fresh suspicion. Give it a week. That feeling fades.
Give it six months. Another photo will drop, another comment section will lose its mind, and we’ll all discover this for the first time again.
Most buds have removable silicone plugs that fit in the ear canal. If your buds are gunky you just remove the plugs, wash them with detergent and/or wipe them with alcohol and you are good to go. Just how lazy and stupid does one have to be to not take this precaution?