Why Common Items Are Specific Colors
We often don’t give a second thought to the color of everyday items. Of course a pencil is yellow! Well, yes, a candy cane should be red and white. But these things didn’t always have these telltale colors. Some were changed – to be easier marketed, or for safety reasons. Sometimes the iconic color was an accident during the creation process, or simply the easiest thing people had on hand.
So if you’ve ever wondered why barns are red or tennis balls are yellow (or green?), this video is for you!
To see more items from this list, go here:
https://www.ranker.com/list/how-everyday-items-got-colors/emily-mast?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=weirdhistory&utm_campaign=wh_active&utm_content=20230604&lctg=6116f908812a730741149cdb
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#colors #everydayobjects #weirdhistory
@ESHess-gp4wi
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I had a stroke last year and red is hard for me to spot easily. Especially stop lights. those barns messed with me.
@Pfisiar22
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
fun fact: until the french revolution, France's flag was the flag of the Bourbons which was a plain white flag. XD
@jahnataylor3466
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Why is corned beef hash called corned beef hash if it don't even have corn in it?
@hebneh
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
As an old person, it does not surprise me in the least that tennis balls were not always yellow, because in my youth they were only white, which naturally got dirty quickly and turned to greyish.
@derekborow4121
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I heard that barns are red because plain old white paint was cheapest, and they needed paint to protect the wood from the elements. The red part came into the picture when the farmers slaughtered their animals, and they mixed the blood with the white paint, n voile, red barns
@kristinmaguireDeadhead65
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I remember white tennis balls, and when they changed color. They talked about it during a match that Chris Evert played in.
@michaelabercrombie7698
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The General Lee was originally green. It was painted orange because that's what color of paint they had in the barn.
@sydhenderson6753
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I've seen a similar explanation for the color of little red schoolhouses.
@nedhunter4444
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Another detail I have heard related to gender color coding was that, supposedly, pink was considered to be a diluted form of red, which already had masculine associations.
@jessshay-dr1dj
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I love WH. The narrator is awesome an I enjoy the humor❤
@joelc9785
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Grellow, Yeen. – Weird History Guy, 2023.
@phillygreekfeet
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Being color blind Ive ran countless stop signs that had trees in the background…. red does not stick out. They need to be neon pink or something.
@BoGy1980
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Unlike in the USA and a lot of other countries; in my country blue is for girls, and pink for boys, and yes, I live in a Western country… (Belgium)… My own birth blanket is a pink one, and i'm a boy 🙂
It's always been like this over here, only in other countries they do it differently. The reason behind this: pink stands for Firm and Strong, while blue stands for delicate which is more for girls. I believe in France they also use this color coding for babies/kids…
@zyxw2000
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Denimisn't always blue anymore. Jeans come in black, brown and several other colors.
@GNML6836
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Toronto Blue Jays 😳
👍🏻🇨🇦👍🏻
@kimberlyyyyy44
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The line of trains flying sent me😂
@cashbyrd781
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Pink and blue still didn't make sense for the twins they still could have still kept the color blue for girls and pink for boys i atill don't get it not a good explanation it literally made no sense why did she switch was never explained
@aridddle
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The hulk was original grey when first created by Stan Lee, but they had troubles printing the grey as grey and it would have a greenish hue, so they decided to leave him green
@LoriVanAuwelaer-fe4fw
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Hey y'all 😅
@de_cre_vi
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
US cash actually does not have to be all green or all the same size notes. Look at the currencies from other countries and they have standardized notes and coins, but they don't use the same colours on every one nor the same size "paper". It's much easier to tell the notes apart this way so you don't accidentally hand someone $20 instead of $5. People who are blind or visually impaired benefit from different sizes of notes. I find it absurd and old fashioned for the US to have their all the same colour and size.
@Obleo575
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
You are totally wrong
@Obleo575
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Red is a short wavelength, green much longer
@tonycoghill6129
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Thanks for not throwing my beloved town of Landrum into the mix ! We love it just the way it is and SO hope it stays that way ! We would prefer that your chosen few of great places to live stays that way…. without us ! Good video and maybe we'll see you in the country as we drive past the cow and horse pastures that really don't exist much any more in the towns mentioned.
@sunflowerscythe
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Did he say that the color reversal of blue for boy and pink for girls happened because of that book??
Please allow me to enlighten you. That happened because In the 1940s a funny lil bastard named Hilter started putting pink triangles on gay men. And in our homophobic society, gay men are effeminate there for pink is. There in lies your swap.
Jesus christ. Learn some queer history too.
@FamiliaRivera505
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Loosing a few hundred bottles of Liq is less expensive than hiring a security guard I guess
@maggit6431
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I call b.s. on the red barn paint story told here. Everyone knows barns were historically red because they were painted with animal blood.
@sc3ku
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
6:18 I’ve heard electric guitars went through a similar color change as tennis balls due to television. IIRC, Gibson guitars could be had in TV Yellow, still available today, because white guitars supposedly washed out on black and white TV.
@ThePoopsmith-12345
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Isn’t the color of a tennis ball chartreuse? Like half green half yellow?
@CaliberKragan
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Professor impossible
@ingridfong-daley5899
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Stoplights are Red
Denim is Blue
But balls will change color
So they're easier to view.
@comradeinternet467
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Y'all should do a dive into retro computers.
@Dueling101able
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
I feel like this is one of those videos that could have a part 2
@andrehinds4804
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Nothing was … Really. Orange. But .. basket ball.
@kadesmom100
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Lime not the fruit… Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca(OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder and is produced when quicklime (calcium oxide) is mixed with water.
@choppergirl
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Go to other countries around the world, and the color choices will be different… as different colors mean different things to different cultures.
@antivanti
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The red barns can probably also be influenced by Swedes who used to paint their houses red due mostly to the copper mine in Falun that spun off several paint manufacturers that used the leftovers from the mining. At first it was a sign of wealth and class (trying to mimic red brick houses in mainland Europe) but quickly became the default color for every house. And especially with the white corners. Even back in the 80s when I was a kid you'd be hard pressed to find many houses here that weren't red with white corners
@James-zg2nl
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
You started out rather poorly and discredited your research right out the gate: white flags do NOT mean surrender, because that is NOT their only use. They actually mean “truce”. This is why the famous Red Cross is a red cross on a white field: the white field of truce. Thus, white flags are more commonly used for reasons unrelated to surrender.
@Quasihamster
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
So barns are red for quite similar reasons why ships are red below the water line: Anti fowling.
@regentvoo
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Jeans are comfortable?? What the hell were they wearing then?? Pants made of sand paper??
@pocoapoco2
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Wrigley's gum wasn't pink.
@BatCaveOz
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Wait… circa 8:30 you state that black & white cameras can't photograph green?
I don't believe you.
@eeengineer8851
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
RE: the segment on barn color… The graphic for "lime" is a hoot as it was not the citrus fruit, but the "lime" is ground/powdered limestone. Said lime also used in cleaning the barn and deodorizing it so the farmers would have it around.
@brendakrieger7000
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Thanks
@yeehaw64
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Iron is actually pronounced "ion." That's what makes English the toughest language.
@Paul_Wetor
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Life jackets and life rings on boats used to be white, but after Terry Jo Duperrault's family was murdered on a sailboat in 1961 (she miraculously survived on a white life ring) the color was changed to orange to be more visible. It's hard to spot a white life raft among whitecaps.
@argusfleibeit1165
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
Did you REALLY have to spread misinformation by showing a "lime" fruit when talking about how paint was made? It's the mineral lime that was used.
@allangibson8494
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The national flag of France was white for centuries… and so was the French military uniforms. Because it was cheap.
@ShawnRavenfire
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The story I heard, and I don't remember where I heard it, was that there was a queen who was expecting to have a son, so she ordered her servants to decorate the nursery in pink, but to her surprise, she had a baby girl, and that's how pink became a girl's color, and specifically, a princess color.
@NoName-ik2du
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
7:46 – "America has been using green printed cash for some time now," he says as the stock footage shows someone leafing through a stack of pink $5 bills and yellow $10 bills.
@fiskurtjorn
November 20, 2025 at 7:50 am
The most surprising to me was; "Pencils are yellow". Pencils as I know are mainly red. When I meet a yellow pencil, it usually is in a set of coloring pencils.
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