REBEL-READY WALL RIGS

Fun Fact: In the mid-2010s, a small but intense subculture of "mount enthusiasts" on forums like AVS Forum and Reddit’s r/hometheater started a bizarre ritual: "mount parties" — gatherings where guys would drink beer, install wall mounts for each other’s TVs, and then spend hours fine-tuning the tilt/swivel while arguing about VESA standards and stud spacing.

One infamous 2016 thread on AVS Forum documented a guy who threw a full "mount party" for his new 85-inch OLED, complete with custom laser-leveling, torque wrenches, and a playlist of construction ASMR. The post got over 1,200 replies, and several commenters admitted they’d cried tears of joy when their mount was perfectly level.

Psychologists later linked this to "control-seeking behavior" — after years of dealing with wobbly stands and crooked TVs, mounting the screen gave men a rare sense of mastery over their environment. Sales of high-end articulating mounts spiked ~65% from 2014–2018 (per NPD Group), partly because guys were treating them like status symbols: "My TV floats on the wall. Yours is still on a stand like a peasant." Mounting a TV became the ultimate 'I control my space' flex. Some still do it. Level matters more than the spouse.