
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay |
I have always wondered what it must be like to be a driver. You hear all the good gossip. That's why when I'm in a cab or an Uber I talk quietly, just in case. You know someone is always listening. So beware when you are spilling your tea. You know working "behind the wheel" is a fascinating place.
Redditor u/Cicallis wanted to get the scolding hot tea from drivers out there by asking... Chauffeurs who drive around rich people, what are some of the weird/shocking conversations you have overheard?When I do an an Uber share I am always amazed by what people are willing to let people overhear. Like, do you not know you're still in public when in a car with strangers? I keep it jovial and not personal. Let's see what else our driver's witness...
Oh Billy...
Billy Bob Thornton was doing radio press for a movie about to come out, meaning he had to stop by 6-7 radio stations for interviews.
He wanted to have a cigarette in the vehicle on the way to the next interview but I had to let him know our company has a no smoking policy in our vehicles.
He asked me to call the owner to make an exception but the owner said no and its a $250 cleaning fee if he smoked in the vehicle.
He asked to stop by a bank, Came out and handed me $5,000 cash and said "here's for the whole Goddam pack."
He smoked in the car the rest of the trip. Later I got up the nerve to ask him if that's the most expensive pack of cigarettes he's ever smoked? All he said was "not even close" (never explained it further)
I think about him often...
In the 80's!
Picked up a wedding party: bride, bridesmaid, and bride's boyfriend who was paying for the wedding. They had a magnum of champagne and we drove around for quite some doing drugs in the back. They were using rolled up $50s and $20s, then tossing them to me in the front seat as tip money.
I dutifully brushed off each bill and added them to my wallet, pretending not to know what was going on.
The "couple" argued off and on about showing up to the wedding, apparently she felt weird about getting married and he was trying to convince her it was a good idea.
Finally dropped them off at the church and he slipped me a matchbook with his name and number written on it.
Yeah, it was the late 80s and I was a young woman, one of the only female limo drivers at the time in that city. Scored a sweet leather jacket with the tips from that night.
So many weird stories.
Reddit Users Share Their Best 'It's A Small World After All' Experience
The Caddy
When we were in high school, my friend used to caddy at a local country club. One guy really liked him and asked if he would be willing to drive him around while he went out partying (this was like 2003 and in a pretty rural area), my friend agreed.
He picked the guy up at like 8pm. Right off the bat, the guy handed him $200. He went to a bar for a little bit, my friend sat in the car.
The guy came out, handed him another $200 and told him he had to visit his "friend" real quick. He went and got a bunch of drugs.
They went to another bar, he handed my friend another hundred dollars and told him to look out the window and turn up the radio.
He came out a couple hours later with a girl (he was married with kids). He handed my friend another $200 and they went back to her house. After they screwed around, he came out and asked to be taken to the beach.
At this point it was like 2-3am. My friend said that the guy slowly walked around the beach, went into the water up to his ankles (in his shoes), threw a bunch of rocks into the water and then sat in the sand for about 45 minutes.
He came back to the car and asked to be driven home. When they got out of the car he hugged my friend and gave him $500 and asked him to never tell anyone what happened.
Have you seen Marie Osmond?
Friend of mine worked for an upscale concierge chauffeur service. His most memorable moment came when he lost Marie Osmond. Fairly simple gig, go to airport and pick up Marie Osmond, who was to be the featured entertainer at a private event.
Plane comes in, he meets her, she has carryon bag but her checked suitcase, containing her stage dresses and makeup, is missing.
She is unflappable, though... asks to be taken to the nearest upscale mall. He does as instructed, she goes into a large upscale department store, selects two long sequined cocktail dresses and goes to the fitting room to try them on (without him, of course).
Unfortunately, there are two entrances and exits to the fitting room, and Marie Osmond exits out through the other side and cannot find my chauffeur buddy, who is waiting patiently on the side she'd entered... 20 minutes passes. He thinks something has gone wrong, so he grabs a female manager and asks her to go into the fitting rooms and ask for Marie Osmond. The manager thinks she is being pranked and declines.
Chauffeur buddy is in mini-panic mode now, running wildly around the store asking random customers "Have you seen Marie Osmond? Have you seen Marie Osmond?" Store security is summoned and he is asked to leave the premises right NOW, He calls his employer and tells them he has lost Marie Osmond. The employer doesn't have her cell phone number but has her agent's number and he is not accepting calls.
She has in the meantime taken a cab to the gig, thinking she has been forgotten. Lots of apologies eventually ensued and there were no repercussions.
The Big Guy
I used to know a Chauffeur, he ended up driving around some big stars. He was big dude, like 6'8" and super muscular.
His best story was when he was driving around a few WWE (WWF back then) stars, and they awkwardly asked him to not get out and open the door for them because he'd make them look smaller.
Lord... that is a handful of mess. People need to get it together. And I knew Marie Osmond would always be a problem. LOL. Who else has some tales?
Happy Endings...
Buddy of mine ended up picking up a Netflix producer while doing Uber. He said they had a great conversation as he brought him to his hotel. The producer invited him up for a drink and since my friend was a film student he thought it'd be a good idea to go and try to get some good networking in. They hung out for about an hour when he asked my friend if he knew of any massage places with "happy endings".
He didn't but the guy paid him $500 to bring him to the closest massage place which was only a few miles out. Upon dropping him off he gave my buddy a card and said "there's a big party/festival I'm hosting. That's your ticket in. I'll let you know then if I get that happy ending haha!"
In the Car
I've have multiple people pay me handsomely to let them smoke. Heard a French guy yelling at his wife that $10,000 was too much to pay for 2 bracelets that she bought. Also over heard a lot business deals with absurd amount of money referenced. Like 10's of millions.
OH MY
He thought I couldn't speak French, heard him telling his wife on the telephone where she should order a strapon.
Get a Benz
Not a chauffeur but this happened because of a lack of one. Basically, a guy I used to know back when we were teenagers (17yrs old) had a lot of money. We just never knew how much until I was invited to go on holiday with him and some other friends, all expenses paid of course.
Anyway, we took a taxi to an area where this guy wanted to buy an apartment and wanted to show us so we went with him and ended up spending the whole day walking around the area. We got tired and eventually wanted to go back to the house but we were so far away that walking was not an option unless we wanted to walk for about 3 hours.
Neither of us had enough cash to pay for a taxi, and back then taxis didn't accept cards (this was around 2000 or 2001 btw) so this guy rings his dad and asks if he could send a chauffeur to pick us up, but the chauffeur turns out was busy doing some deliveries for the dad, so instead the dad says "there's a Mercedes Benz dealer shop near were you are, I know the manager there as I've bought several cars from them, just go there and buy a car with the credit card.
You can leave it in the house and we'll figure out how to bring it home later." So we went to this dealer shop and somehow in about 30 min the manager did all the paperwork and we ended up driving back to the house in a brand new Mercedes C class, which we used for the rest of the holiday.
In Fur
My sister was in a limo once and asked the driver about his most interesting ride. The driver said that he picked up some models who were going to a PETA demonstration, "I'd rather be bare than in fur" or whatever it was. He got to the location, they stripped naked in the back of limo, and he waited until they were done with the photo op.
The Story of John
Not a chauffeur, but seemed like a good chance to remind people of the story of John Boehner (At the time, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, 3rd in line for the US Presidency) not knowing how to use Uber.
As the story goes, one of his aides downloaded the app onto his phone and showed him how to use it. Unknown to him, he'd been stuck on the carpooling option, uber-pool.
That's what he used for years. There are all sorts of tales of commuters hopping into their carpool and bam, there's John Boehner stuck in a middle seat asking to get dropped off at the Capitol Building.
However you feel about his politics, I think that's pretty funny.
Elmo
I had a college friend whose parents were friends of Elmo Zumwalt, who told them a story about himself. Shortly after he was appointed Chief of Naval Operations, he went out for a jog on a foggy morning when he was new to the DC area, got lost, and had to hail a cab to get a ride home. The cab driver was friendly and struck up a conversation that went something like this—
Driver: So you got lost, what do you do for a living?
Zumwalt: I'm in the Navy.
Driver: I was in the Navy too! What do you do in the Navy?
Zumwalt: I . . . er . . . run it.
Driver: [shakes head].
Where to Begin?
One of my best friends used to drive Uber in a wealthy area of LA. He told me so many stories about drunk celebs and tiktokers in his car.
Some highlights:
- Quentin Tarantino and Trisha Paytas were making out in his back seat when they were secretly dating lol
- Mike Tyson is apparently very nice in person and also a giant pothead
- Somebody on Gossip Girl and her friend were arguing about chicken nuggets and tried to get him to go through a Wendy's drive through during the lunch rush when there were 10 cars already in line
- Addison Rae or one of her friends took their shoes off and left them in the car
- Leo dicaprio took more than 5 minutes to find the car. He seemed out of it and was quietly bobbing his head listening to music on his headphones b**chyfuxkjngbltch34
"Ohhh right"
Wasn't exactly a chauffeur but I did have the distinguished privilege of working with a multimillionaire one time for a couple days and I was just astounded at how out of touch he was with people.
One conversation he was talking about how he hated all the new homes they were building and he liked old castles so he was having a castle in Scotland disassembled and reassembled here in the US piece by piece.
On another occasion he asked me why I wasn't in college yet (the job was after high school and I was working as a plumber) and gave me an "Ohhh right" when I told him I couldn't afford to go yet and had to save up.
A Tip
A small part of my family was Chicago Mafia.
Grandpa told me a story of a family wedding in Chicago they went to in the late 60's.
In the van
About 25 years ago I had a summer job at a very tony country club. Six figure joining fee, five figure continuing membership dues, and that got you nothing but the privilege of paying top dollar for rounds, food, etc.
I was a porter some of the time, as we had cottages on club grounds for members to stay and make a weekend of it. One of my duties was driving members to and from airports - usually private airports for private jets.
One time I'm driving two guys to the airport, and one of them starts complaining.
Seems he and his wife are always fighting over who gets the jet every weekend, and where they want to go.
Well, the other one replied, my third jet is actually just gathering dust right now, since my son went to college. Wanna take it off my hands?
They shook on it right there in the van.
Flying Drivers
Not a chauffeur but worked as a caterer for private jets and the insane folks who owned them. Had a huge order from what I knew to be a smaller jet so I really wondered about it. When one of the owner's handlers was training a new flight crew, he ordered $12k of meals for a flight that didn't exist just so the new flight attendants could practice the fine points of checking in a catering order.
I listened outside after the food drop as the handler started explaining what to do to six of the most beautiful humans I have ever seen. We provided food for a lesson! The food was wasted. I found it in the dumpster outside one of the hangars the next day.
Front Seat
I'll answer for my grandparents.
They owned a limousine business, I believe in the early 2000s, and my grandmother drove Mel Gibson around. She said he was nice and that he had requested to sit in the front passenger seat due to car sickness.
I'm torn... I feel like I want to be a driver just for the writing material but I also fear for my life. How to weigh the options. The crazy is all comedy gold. I do know that for my next taxi ride... I'm gonna be mute.
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Who hasn't looked at a scarf someone knitted for a loved one, a flawless homemade birthday cake, or an immaculately planted garden and thought, "I wish I could do that"?
But you'd never dare try to attempt it yourself, knowing that it's well beyond your personal skill set.
But is it?
Intimidating as they may seem, some skills might be deceptively easier than they appear to be, or might come more naturally to you than to many others.
Redditor halfmoon599 was curious to hear what skills people believed to be much easier than they seem, leading them to ask:
"What skill is actually easier to learn than what other people think?"
Everyone can be ambidextrous!
"I'm left handed and and I wanted to learn to write with my right hand."
"it was much easier than I thought and now I can write with it making it look somewhat decent."- JE3V4N_
"Using your off hand skillfully."
"I worked on this when I owned a woodworking business and it has helped so many times over the years."- karg_the_fergus
Should you ever forget your keys...
"Picking a lock."
"It only takes about 1 or 2 hours to learn, contrary to popular belief." - DifficultAd5113
Can't get to the genius stand? No problem!
"Fixing computers."
"It's just a lot of googling and YouTubing."- theassassintherapist
"Basic IT troubleshooting."- usmarine7041
You'll have a blanket done in no time!
"Crocheting!"
"It looked really difficult to me but I was really pleased how easy it was to pick up."
"Especially with YouTube tutorials."- geeltulpen
But do get a license first...
"Flying a small airplane is actually very simple."
"It's everything else like weather and flight planning, emergency mindfulness, airspace and traffic, and confidence in yourself that gets tricky, but any person with eyeballs and a pulse could fly a plane."- Clyde-MacTavish
With practice, of course
"Parallel parking."- Feels2old
Give your arms a rest!
"Unicycling."
"It takes just 10-20 minutes a day for 3-10 days.'
"Find a railing you can lean on to start."
"At some point, you'll be able to let go and ride!'- Vegan_BTW_VR
... Is it though?...
"Driving a stick shift."- fantazja1
Next time you think, "aw, I wish I could do that," rather than keep wishing, why not just give it a try?
Very often, a movie can be defined by one unforgettable scene.
These include the heartbreaking image of the girl in the red coat in Schindler's List, or Meg Ryan faking an orgasm in When Harry Met Sally, leading to the iconic line "I'll have what she's having".
And then there are the scenes that scared us silly!
Many people might actually not have seen these scenes, as they were burying their heads in their popcorn, or under the sofa cushions out of fear.
While those who were brave enough to watch them might still sleep with the lights on, if they can get any sleep at all.
Redditor MindlessMemory2294 was curious to learn which scenes still send shivers down people's spines even when thinking of them, leading them to ask:
"What is the most terrifying movie scene that still haunts you to this day?"
Stay out of the basement.
"The 'not a lot of people have basements in California' scene in Zodiac."- haloarh
An image no one needs to see
"A movie called ‘Threads’ about nuclear war in Britain, where there’s a scene when the nukes first hit Sheffield."
"Genuinely one of the scariest scenes I’ve ever seen."
"You can see a f*cking cat literally melting in it."- Manchman67
Why I'm terrified of clowns
"The very beginning of the original IT."
"The clown is hiding behind the clothes flapping in the wind on the clothesline."
"The clothes are blown apart and you see the evil f*cking clown."
"And then the little girl on her trike is gone."- Fit_Tumbleweed_5904
Never underestimate the unpopular kids...
"The end of Carrie (1976) where Sue is laying the flowers on Carrie's grave and the hand grabs her wrist."
"A friend of mine was an usher at the theater and at just that moment the rat bastard grabbed my neck."
"He had snuck up behind me and waited for just the right moment."-
It's not healthy to hold a "Grudge".
"The Grudge (2004)-Most scenes but the one that always scares me is the scene where an office woman is heading home and the vengeful spirit of Kayako begins following her."
"The woman manages to escape her office and get home but is shaken by her encounter with Kayako and hides in her bed."
"The sheets begin to rise up and down and when the woman peaks under, Kayako greets her with that scary death rattle noise she makes and pulls the woman under the covers where the woman disappears."- Soggy_Willingness_65
I'll never go on the highway again.
"The log truck scene from Final Destination."- smokyporkbelly
Doesn't need to be a horror movie to be terrifying...
"Large Marge from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."- SimonFerocious76
Bunny carnage!
"That scene in Watership Down."- ciderlout
No one can stop my dancing... except that.
"Basically the start of Ghost Ship where the wire cuts everyone dancing in half."
There is life out there.
"Signs."
"The scene where the kid hears the aliens chittering over the walkie talkie."
"Don't know why, but as a child I was horrified."- BillF*kngMurray
It's truly amazing how one scene can so define a movie.
And has the power to keep us up all night for the rest of our lives.
911 Dispatchers Describe The Times They Actually Had To Contain Their Laughter On A Call
911 dispatchers have fast-paced and hectic jobs. Emergencies can pop up at any time, so the job can become very tense and stressful on very short notice. In many cases, the lives of the people on the other end of the line depend on the dispatcher's quick thinking and actions.
But there are also silly and pointless calls to break up that stress. Many of these are hilarious, even ridiculous, because people call 911 for the weirdest reasons.
Dispatchers shared their stories with us after Redditor HOW_TO asked the online community,
"911 dispatchers, what was a time you had to contain your laughter?"
"Got a call..."
"Got a call from one of the managers at a bowling alley complaining that their ice machine was broken and it’s a really busy night and how if someone doesn’t come out to fix it, there will be no cold drinks."
blue_13
When do you draw the line of giving them a citation and how much would it cost? I would crack myself up so hard if I got this call.
"A woman called 911..."
"A woman called 911 demanding that a man sitting on her favorite park bench be removed by the police. She was told misuse of 911 is a crime, but she called back two more times. Not sure whatever became of her, but I would imagine she got a big fine."
drygnfyre
We would hope so. People who misuse 911 are something else...
"When I was dispatching for the police..."
"When I was dispatching for the police, there was this one time where this guy called in and said that he was being chased by a chicken. I tried my best to keep a straight face, but I was laughing so hard on the inside."
Beginningtheinfluence55
Did all those Family Guy episodes about the rooster just spring out into the real world?
"Teenager..."
"Teenager attempted to get police because there was a 'monster chicken' walking around behind a gate at someone's house. Turns out he didn't know what turkeys looked like."
moosesanddave
Okay, this is hilarious. You'd think he would have figured this out if he'd ever celebrated Thanksgiving...
"I once again said..."
"Some lady called me asking if we could have a unit "house-sit" for her while she went on vacation for a week. I told her we don't do that, she'd need to hire someone or ask family to help out."
"She got all angry and huffed and puffed at me saying I don't understand anything. She simply wanted them to stay in her house, watch the dogs, and make sure no one tried to break in as an off-duty job."
"I once again said we don't do off-duty work in civilian homes and she angrily hung up on me."
"I still think back to it and laugh. People are weird."
NoCalligrapher
Wow. Imagine being that entitled. I can't.
"Woman called 911..."
"Woman called 911 requesting an ambulance because she had taken two of her son's weed gummies on an empty stomach and "felt like she was floating in slow motion.""
"Also requested that I send the police to arrest her. My favorite part was her son in the background going "Mom, you didn't seriously call 911. For the love of god, hang up the phone. You are fine.""
[deleted[
Okay, this is hilarious. Poor woman, though. We are sure it felt like a very odd experience.
"Man called in on a pay phone to advise us that he was taking a s*it in said pay phone. Was in hysterics for a long while after that one."
Zouct
At least he warned you, not to mention the clean-up crew...
"All the time..."
"All the time, however it’s not so hard because there is a highly utilized mute button."
Aloeplant9
Ah, yes, the mute button! How could we forget?
"I had a 911 open line..."
"I had a 911 open line where I could absolutely hear a young man and his lady friend having some vigorous, um, fun. But because I couldn’t get either of them to actually pick up the phone… I had to send a pair of officers to their RapidSOS location."
Gaudy_Tripod
Well, that's definitely one way to kill the mood.
911 dispatchers' jobs can be stressful, but it's good to know that they also have plenty of time to enjoy a laugh on the job!
But seriously, people: Don't call 911 for silly stuff. That's a good way to get yourself into trouble.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
We are inundated with so much "entertainment" content these days.
The list of what I refuse to waste time on long outweighs the stuff I can't wait to see.
Some of these shows look like a mess.
RedditorRepairOdd2957wanted to hear about what we're avoiding in film and television and why? They asked:
"What's one show/movie that you just refuse to watch, no matter how popular it is and why?"
I avoid most tv. Especially if it's a reality thing. And I'm at peace in that life choice.
Minus 50
"50 shades of grey (cause it’s terrible)."
LiquidSoapie
"I read the first book knowing it was terrible but I just had to 'experience"'it. However, I HIGHLY recommend this blog, it's so funny and I'm not ashamed to say I read every single post : http://redlemonade.blogspot.com/p/fifty-shades-of-tedious-f*ckery.html"
moudine
Gross...
"The Bachelor."
Nubianfromthenine
"And the Bachelorette. It all feels gross."
ConnieLingus24
"It is gross. I still can’t believe someone pitched that idea and everyone in the room was like 'that sounds awesome!' Then they aired it and waaaaaaay too many people said 'this is awesome!' Meanwhile I’m feeling like the crazy one for thinking it’s gross."
oldgeek123
No K!
"Keeping up with the Kardashians. There's no reason to watch it."
The_Young_Trader
"I'm proud of having never seen as much as ten consecutive seconds of anything K*rdashian. That was everywhere a few years ago, but I got to be very fast at closing browser tabs or changing the channel quickly whenever it showed up."
GozerDestructor
Decades Later
"Grey's Anatomy. I don't need to see 18 seasons of people in a hospital."
EveryVehicle1325
I do love Grey's. So rethink avoiding this one.
No Carole
"Tiger King. I don't care."
ArtistWhoStarves
"I sat down to watch it at the height of its popularity. Five minutes in, the power went out and so I took it as a sign from the universe to just not continue."
Accomplished-Fox7532
13 No's
"Thirteen Reasons Why. I work in mental health, and this show should never have been created."
Spartanhalforc
"I didn't watch all of it. I remember a scene in which Clay says 'I cost a girl her life because I was afraid to love her.' That disturbed me. As if the suicide was partially his fault because they didn't become a couple on her schedule. Nobody is required to date someone at the time that the other person wants it."
"The idea of blaming someone for your suicide-- and taking such extra measures to make sure that they know it's their fault-- is so toxic. It never sat right with me, both while reading the book and watching."
EveryVehicle1325
Too Cruel
"90 day fiancé. It just sounds like a really cruel premise and I feel bad for the people who come from another country to marry someone just to end up hating them or realizing they’re not compatible."
carissadraws
"Season one was really interesting and felt way more like a good look at the process of the fiancé visa. Then it got more focused on the drama then by season… 4 it just started fully exploiting people and got too uncomfortable to watch."
somechild
Be Quiet!
"The Masked Singer. Just… no."
Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
"The kid I nanny used to watch it and she would tel me about it and bee like 'guess who the bee was?!?! DONNY OSMOMD!' And have absolutely no ducking clue who Donny Osmomd was because she was 8. It was hilarious honestly."
somechild
"When I saw that Rudy Giuliani was one of the singers I wondered who did the singing for him because I can't imagine him having a good singing voice."
Duluthian2
I'm going slow...
"The Fast and the Furious. I just don't care about cars going vroom vroom."
Beginning-Bed9364
"The first few are pretty decent heist movies but they get ridiculous, the latest one they strap a car to an icbm and go to space in diving gear. That’s not even the dumbest scene."
BikerScowt
Bored Now
"The Walking Dead, I’m just really tired of zombie stuff, there was a while where everything had zombies in it and it was just super overused and talking to the fans of the show it’s basically, find base, get locked in, have fight with people or zombies and have to find more home."
JoeMaMa_2000
Well I have successfully avoided most of this mess. Good on me.
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