Herein, we describe a conceptual shift to access arynes from reagents that rely on pre-functionalization to those that only bear hydrogen substituents at the eventual aryne site (Scheme 1d). The methods we describe in this work uses simple arenes to generate arynes, which substantially expands the breadth of arynes that are accessible. Moreover, we increase the efficiency of this approach so that a simple arene may be converted into a trapped aryne within hours and no isolation of aryl thianthrenium intermedi-ate species is needed. Additionally, we show that tuning the C-H functionalization by installing iodonium leaving groups expands the scope of arenes that participate in these transformations. Finally, mechanistic analysis reveals the complementarity of sulfonium and iodonium leaving groups and this is specifically highlighted in a "user's guide" to employing simple arenes to access arynes.