The Anatomy of a Viral Reddit Comment: Dissecting the Platform‘s Most Upvoted Remarks

With over 50 million daily active users in 2022, Reddit operates an immense scale. Over 7 billion upvotes are registered per month, alongside some 1.7 billion comments generated from 300 million submissions.

Amidst this torrent of discussion, only a tiny fraction of comments manage to rise to runaway virality. This article dissects Reddit‘s all-time most upvoted remarks to decode the ingredients for successfully striking a collective chord.

The Ephemeral Nature of Reddit‘s Top Comments

The highest upvoted comment on Reddit changes periodically as new contenders emerge and past sensations fade from view. However, the current record holder enjoys an impressive reign:

^*As ^of ^March ^2023

StickleyMan has held the belt since June 2022 after accumulating over 300,000 upvotes. But past title holders demonstrate Reddit comment virality can be remarkably fleeting:

Timing plays a huge role. Being early to comment on a post that blows up grants visibility. Wit and luck allow remarks to snowball. But fresh contenders continually surface to dethrone erstwhile champions.

Next we‘ll analyze the fickle dynamics of Reddit popularity before breaking down historically top comments.

Reddit‘s Illusory Voting System

To conceptualize virality on Reddit, one must first understand its scoring system. Members can upvote or downvote both posts and comments to influence their position on the page. More total upvotes minus downvotes equals a higher score…in theory.

In reality, Reddit deliberately obscures precise vote counts as an anti-spam measure. The scores displayed are just the net upvotes, not the total. This allows some creative license in Reddit‘s rankings.

Specifically, the site admittedly engages in "vote fuzzing," or showing fuzzy vote totals that change over refreshes. This prevents bots from assessing if their votes are counting. The exact upvote/downvote ratios remain unknown.

Nonetheless, posts and comments with high net upvotes still reasonably reflect collective appreciation, even if the underlying figures are massaged. Now let‘s explore what drives these viral scores.

Key Ingredients for Comment Virality

On a platform premised on crowdsourced voting, comments that strike a public nerve stand the best chance of coming out on top. But what qualities entrance the crowd?

Topical Opinions: Commenting early on popular r/AskReddit threads allows remarkably prescient opinions to gain steam. If you sum up what many feel, you‘ll be upvoted accordingly.

Humor and Wordplay: Short, humorous quips flourish on Reddit, fitting its irreverent nature. Puns, one-liners, and witty comebacks all tend to spread.

Emotional Resonance: Raw vulnerability and cathartic connections around universal experiences perform well, especially on serious topics.

Meme Potential: Comments that inspire recurring jokes and references get interwoven into Reddit‘s culture. Riffing on themes helps cement inside commentary.

Controversy: Being argumentative, snarky, or contrary drives outrage sharing and attention through squabbling child comments.

Now let‘s analyze examples of top comments embodying these attributes over time.

All-Time Most Upvoted Comment Breakdowns

Here we will dissect major past record holders representing a range of viral genres:

The Infamous Rickroll (656k+ Upvotes)

Context: In 2020‘s early pandemic days, Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian hosted an AMA. User u/theMalleableDuck posed an innocent question, and Ohanian clicked the bait link to get memorably rickrolled.

Key Ingredients:

• Novelty of pranking a Reddit cofounder
• Flawless timing during a high-profile AMA
• Mythmaking via screenshot cementing the moment in Reddit lore

Selected Child Comments:

• "We got him good!" (+5.2k)
• "OMG Alexis‘ smile at the end" (+3.4k)
• "Imagine getting rick rolled by the CEO of Reddit" (+2.1k)

Takeaway: Capitalizing on celebrity moments with humor can pay off big.

A Poem for Pandemic Grief (466k+ Upvotes)

Context: In April 2020, u/throwwwwndbrhrbebdeb shared losing their grandfather alone to COVID in hospital. u/schnoodledoodledo replied earnestly:

"He‘s with the nurses there who care / Not laid in some cot alone…"

Key Ingredients:

• Catharsis around COVID grief
• Vulnerability and intimacy
• Poignant rhyming poem structure

Selected Child Comments:

• "Who is cutting onions here?" (+5.7k)
• "I wish this wasn‘t so relatable right now" (+3.9k)
• "This brought tears to my eyes" (+2.3k)

Takeaway: Connecting emotionally with painful collective experiences can resonate widely.

Anti-Vaxxer Smackdown (823k+ Upvotes)

Context: In 2017, this r/MurderedByWords post mocked anti-vaxxers. u/TrappinOutTheZoo piled on:

"You‘re an idiot"

Key Ingredients:

• Bluntly articulating majority opinion
• Sarcastic and snarky tone
• Succinct sick burn

Selected Child Comments:

• "Fucking savage." (+2.3k)
• "Short, sweet, and utterly devastating." (+1.8k)
• "Absolutely murdered."(+1.4k)

Takeaway: Cutting mockery of widely-scorned targets tends to be celebrated.

This small sample illustrates diverse appeals packing viral potential, from surprise humor to empathy and schadenfreude.

Now let‘s explore the secondary effects of these comment phenomena.

Lasting Impacts of Virality

Beyond ephemeral popularity, standout comments impart lasting influence upon Reddit itself and internet culture more broadly:

• Memetic Spread: Successful comment formulas and jokes spawn recurring references across subreddits.

• Public Opinion Proxies: Record-setting endorsement implies majority beliefs on issues better than polls can.

• Community Best Practices: Analyzing extraordinarily shared comments informs better behaviors for engaging.

• Legend and Lore Building: As the site evolves, viral comments become part of Reddit history, referenced as cultural touchstones.

In essence, wildly shared remarks tangibly shape site behavior norms, reflect assumed public perspectives, launch meme genres, and weave themselves into the platform‘s identity over time.

They enjoy an extended half-life and afterglow, continuing to be invoked, imitated, and discussed for years after initially taking off.

Now let‘s conclude with some key takeaways.

Key Lessons on Crafting Viral Comments

While impossible to guarantee Reddit virality given its serendipitous nature, the following guidelines boost your odds:

• Time it right: Sort by rising/new and engage promising threads early.

• Tap the zeitgeist: Comment on timely topics collectively on redditors‘ minds.

• Employ proven formulas: Use humor, catharsis, controversy etc. judiciously.

• Keep it bite-sized: Favor short, punchy phrasing over dense walls of text.

• Have perspective: Scores only reflect net upvotes so don‘t stress exact numbers.

• Provide value: Share worthy insights, emotions, or cleverness to enrich fellow redditors.

Synthesizing these lessons, thoughtfully participating in the conversations of the day, calibrating your contributions to resonate, and not overthinking responses position you well to potentially author the next viral sensation or legend.

May your odds be ever in your favor!