
Let's talk about people. But, specifically, "other" people. You know the ones. You're out with friends at a restaurant, trying to enjoy a relaxing evening together, then you hear them. Loud. Obnoxious. Everything they say is so important they have to talk with their hands. "Other" people.
Then, without warning, they say something so profoundly silly, so incredibly stupid, it sticks with you for the rest of your life and becomes a blot on your brain.
These are those times.
Reddit user, u/Nothing_here1, wanted to hear the dumber part of dumb & dumber when they asked for:
What's the dumbest thing you've ever heard?
...And Do The Math.
I used to work in a grocery store and this elderly woman said, "Twenty-five cents a pound? I can get them 4 pounds for a dollar at Safeway."
It's All A Government Conspiracy!
My friend thinks that hibernation is a hoax because she's seen pictures of bears in the snow.
The first picture she showed me was of a polar bear.
Mum, Asking The Real Questions Over Here
my mum once asked if they had wind in canada...
Canadian here, can confirm we have wind
Wait?! Tattoos Are Needles?!
When I did tattoos, I had a guy come into the shop that wanted "Mr. 113" on his wrist. Not really all that out of the ordinary. We get it drawn up, my co worker placed it and she starts to do the tattoo. As soon as she starts, the guy screams in pain and jumps up.
"What the hell is in that thing?! Is there a needle in there?! That hurts!"
.... what?! This guy was in his 30s or 40s. How do you not know how tattoos are done?! He said, "I don't know. Just thought it was some permanent ink or something."
The guy went outside for almost an hour to smoke and I guess hype himself up. He got the outline done at least, but couldn't take the pain anymore and didn't get it filled. Still can't believe he didn't know tattoos were done with a needle michonne_impossibleAt Least He Answered Instead Of Laughing
My brother used to be a park ranger.
One time a lady asked him how long it took for a deer to become a moose.
He said about 7 years.
Are THEY Getting Enough Oxygen?
Oxygen doesn't come from trees, it comes from the air!
Did He Have An Opinion On Who Did It Better, Though?
Someone was convinced that Queen stole the bass line to "Under Pressure" from Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby". He wasn't even saying it as a joke.
His thought process was, that "Ice Ice Baby" is older because he heard the song before he had heard "Under Pressure" for the first time.
Causation Does Equal Correlation
My lecturer tried to tell the class that smoking was healthy because "my dad is a heavy smoker, and he's survived every heart attack he's had"
Do You Hear Yourself?
A few things;
"Hey Miss, how many chicken nuggets come in a 50 piece?"
"Ma'am, on my order. Do my sausage-egg McMuffins come with egg?"
"This is ridiculous! Why would I need to show you my ID? I'm just ordering a beer!"
I'm sure I'm missing a few but those three specifically stand out in my mind.
The 32nd Flavor Is Alcohol
My aunt told my mom that my brothers and I were drunk off of our ice cream cake on my birthday.
She was convinced there was enough alcohol in ice cream cake to get drunk.
Even With Maps?
My brother once adamantly told me that he believed New Zealand was right above Canada... as in connected by land.
It took me twenty minutes and MULTIPLE maps to convince him otherwise.
Just Start Saying "Not Old Mexico."
As a white male who lives in New Mexico, I constantly get asked stupid questions when I travel.
Including: Do you speak Spanish? Oh so you don't live in the United States? How was customs?
But You Hear Us Now, Right?
Fifth grade. My friend from Australia [is] visiting in South Africa and while he is sitting in class with me people ask what language is spoken in Aus.
He and myself say English.
We were then marked as liars who are trying to decieve everyone.
What Is It With The Need For Maps?
When I was in eighth grade Spanish class, our teacher decided to do some kind of location-place-landmark activity. We were shown a picture of a landmark and it's name, and the aim was to say which country and city it was from, in English and then in Spanish. A picture of a castle comes up and underneath it said "Edinburgh Castle".
Pretty obvious one right? Well, when the teacher asks which country it's from one girl raises her hand and says "London". The class is laughing now but when the teacher corrects her and tells her it is in fact Scotland, she says what I think is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life.
"Huh? I didn't know the Queen lived in Scotland."
That's Not...No?
One of my best friends fully believed that stretch marks were caused by wearing tight clothes.
It Goes Cold, Then Hot, Then Warm, Right?
My coworker once asked me how to make the water running from the dish washing sink's faucet "warmer". I looked at it, and it was so hot it was steaming. I asked her if she meant she wanted it colder? No, I want it warmer, so it's warm and not hot!
I reached over and turned on the cold water, then walked away.
We are the same age and she's a native English speaker.
A Math Lesson To Remember
A girls in math class didnt understand fractions. We got down to this because the teacher was explaining smething else pretty simple that she didnt understand. So broke it down and figured out she didnt get fractions. Well, thats a little odd but with a minute of explanation she should get it.
Nope. Teacher asked "what is larger, 1/2 or 1/3?" The girl said 3 is more than 2 so 1/3 is larger.
Teacher drew two circles on the board, divided one in two and the other in three parts. "Which is bigger?" Girl gave the same answer.
Teacher erazed both circles, grabbed two pieces of paper, ripped one in half, one in thirds. Held up a piece of both "Which one is larger?" Girl pointed out the 1/3 piece.
"Forget that there are more piece" and he binned the rest, holding up the initial two pieces again. "Just look at the size. Which one is larger?" Girl pointed out the smaller one again.
Defeated, teacher lowered his arms and walked back to his desk. "Please take no offense in this... but are you familiar with the words and concepts of "smaller and larger"?" He asked, as this class turned more sesamestreety by the second.
The girl said she did. Teacher pointed outside. "See those trees? Which is larger, right or left?" "Left", girl said and she was right. The left tree was about 5 metres taller. "Then which piece of paper is larger?" Holding them up again. Girl pointed out the smaller piece and the teacher walked out of the classroom.
*checks math notes
Me: "What weighs more; a pound of bricks or a pound of feathers?"
Coworker: "Bricks!"
It took me about 15 minutes to explain the answer to him, which included me drawing it out on paper and using a kitchen scale with different items for examples.
I drank so much that night.
What's the dumbest thing you've ever heard someone say? Share it with us!
CW: Graphic imagery and accidents.
No one leaves this life without scars.
We witness so many awful things on a daily basis.
How could we not be followed by it all?
Messed up things are just part of the deal of living I guess.
One minute you're walking along on a bright sunny day, then boom, you're a witness to a murder.
Or some such craziness.
That's why I stay home a lot.
Redditor Who_Did_You_Expect1 wanted to hear about the things from our memories that still haunt our nightmares, so they asked:
"What's the most f--ked up thing you saw that still haunts you to this day?"
Living through peril is unimaginable. I've been luckier than most.
Tragic
"I watched cancer kill my baby brother. He was in grade school when I was in college. 25 years, and I still see it in my dreams."
TheDigitalRanger
Ay Dios mio, Dios mio!
"When I was about 8, my sister and I were walking with my mom to a bus stop to see my grandma in Mexico city. There was a lady on a bike crossing the intersection that we had just crossed ourselves but she didn't stop in time to the next one and didn't look both ways, she didn't have time to stop her bike. All I remember is the lady making the beginning of a scream as a white old muscle car ran over her (bike and all) at a high speed."
" remember the sound it made as it broke everywhere. My mother took her sweater off as she screamed and covered both my sister's and my head from looking, but it was too late. I remember looking at my sister with tears in her eyes, and I was too shocked to react or comprehend what I had just seen happened. A lot of people immediately surrounded the place, and the driver came out of his car and held his head with his hands after seeing the lady on the pavement."
"I didn't look at the lady anymore. I remember hearing people screaming in shock. My mother told my dad later as she cried. I remember hearing her wake up screaming for weeks after this saying: ay Dios mio, Dios mio! Still makes my heart race when I think about it."
amahied
I Quit
"I was a news photographer for a while in the 90’s. I got called out to an accident. A high school girl ran into the back of a semi. As I was shooting, I noticed her wallet was on the ground. It had a plastic picture holder and the wind was flipping back and forth. I saw her prom pictures and shots of her with her family."
"I quit being a news photographer shortly after. I never forgot that day, and it still haunts me."
No_Confusion4720
Images
"I saw the aftermath rather than the actual event. A woman was walking home from the grocery store late at night. She crossed the road without using the crosswalks and got hit by an SUV. The two images cemented in my mind are of her, embedded in the windshield, and the driver of the car standing a little ways down the street vomiting. I've never seen someone look so utterly broken as the way the driver looked. I can't imagine what he was going through."
GrowlyBear2
Everyday
"When I was 16 I was in a car wreck with my best friend since 3rd grade. I pulled him from the car with a broken shoulder while he was bloody, lifeless, limp. He died within the hour, not long after the ambulance got us. It’s been 18 years and I still think about it every single day."
oil_can_guster
I couldn't imagine living with that.
I also couldn't move...
"Coming to after getting hit by a vehicle as a pedestrian. Was face down, all I could see was blood soaked road and thought 'f**k, that doesn't look good.' I also couldn't move. The last thing I remember seeing before that was the grill of the vehicle. I still get jumpy when I catch a vehicles grill out of the corner of my eye and I'm not expecting it to be there."
"I'd seen a lot of accidents prior to that, but something about it being my own blood hit different."
"And yes, I had the right of way and was crossing in the proper place, at the proper time. Driver plain a** wasn't paying attention. It was daylight to boot, so no reason they couldn't see me."
Sweet_Force1478
Bad Dreams
"I was volunteering with my k9 working with NYC emergency services and chief Patell during 911 WTC attacks. We were in the middle of where the twin towers used to stand The thick gray dust, horrible smell of burnt things and dead people was all around but when the dogs started to find bodies and body parts it really freaked me out and I will forever live with this reality that seems like a bad dream."
DjCanicus
Missing
"A family of four that had burned in a plane crash. I used to do a woodland search and rescue, and we saw a lot of wild crap, but I still have dreams about what I saw when we went to look for a missing plane."
JalenTargaryen
Goodness life is dark sometimes.
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
Let's just be honest: the dating scene can be rough, especially when you're not sure if that person likes you back or not.
Some people, however, are very comfortable with their dating histories and believe there's a certain "cheat code" to confirming if someone is interested.
But for those of us who have always been bad at flirting and consider ourselves "oblivious" to other people's advances and compliments, maybe there could be some hope for us after all with these tips.
Redditor Independent_Slide932 asked:
"What are signs that there's sexual tension between you and someone?"
Their Undivided Attention
"It's serious eye contact for me, like when they would rather admire you than look anywhere else. It just makes it so obvious."
- GoGoHesHere
Butterflies
"For me, it's not just the eye contact itself, but when the eye contact is made, the two of you are in your own little world. There’s communication happening in that eye contact that you aren’t having with other people."
- la_metisse
The Thrill of the 'Chase'
"To answer the actual question OP asked, it’s finding reasons for eye contact."
"It’s 'accidentally' making physical contact. It’s always ending up sitting next to each other in a group."
"It’s a tingly tight feeling in your guts."
"It’s a beautiful pain to experience. It’s almost more fun than actually 'getting' the other person."
- AllAfterIncinerators
Literal Physical Attraction
"Angling. Always feeling like your center of gravity is shifting towards them."
- thelibrariangirl
Interested or Not?
"There's a regular who comes into my work who makes serious serious 'seductive' eye contact with me and has a smile that looks flirty."
"But he's also hot as f**k. He's just incredibly attractive. So like, just because it's making me turn to jelly doesn't mean it's anything other than just being friendly and having a regular smile to him."
- MangoMambo
It is, Indeed, ...Tense
"It's that awkward, 'I want to f**k this person, and I'm pretty sure this person wants to f**k me, but I'm not sure enough about it to actually make a move.'"
"That's sexual tension."
- Grueaux
Sounds Awkward
"It can manifest in a lot of ways. Usually, sexual tension develops when two people are attracted to somewhat attracted to each other. The funny part is, sometimes they aren't even fully conscious of it, or want to acknowledge it."
"That is where the tension lies. There is a reason why both are not participating in healthily acknowledging attraction for each other. It can look like tense awkwardness, constant fighting, overt flirtatiousness without any progression, and even consciously ignoring/avoiding the other person."
- EimiCiel
Silent Communication
"It's a shared gaze that at once leaves you both relaxed and on edge. It's like being old friends with a stranger."
"It's like an inside joke that isn't funny, it's sexy. I mean, it could be funny or sexy, but you see what I mean, it's a common understanding."
"It's like, 'You've got a secret, and I know it, and I've got a secret, and you know it, and the secret is the same thing, and we both know it, and it's so f**king delicious that we both know that without discussing it. The secret is nothing and everything, it's the knowing and sharing and the edging that is wonderful."
"It is something that is involuntary, but also once you've experienced it (enough), you can put yourself in that mode, make eye contact with a sexy stranger, and they may respond positively. It won't be as good as spontaneous mutual attraction, but you can put the signals out, 'Hey, I dig you, are you interested?'"
"Some people that you have that intense mutual attraction for aren't the right one(s) for you, except that they are the right ones to practice making that connection with. The person who is perfect for you might be someone who grows into the right emotional responses... and that's true of you, for them, as well."
"And lastly, you can choose to ignore both the mutual and asserted versions; the right relationship choices are both an emotional and intellectual decision, don't rely on one exclusively."
- im_dead_sirius
A List of Obvious Signals
"Reading signals is tough, I’m glad I don’t have to date these days."
"But some legit signals I’ve learned, in no particular order:"
"Prolonged or suggestive eye contact."
"Body positioning mirrors yours or stands closer than typical in your culture."
"Playing with hair when you interact."
"Light unconscious brushing up against or touching."
"If seated, leaning forward towards you frequently and/or touching you hand in a friendly way."
"Flushed or light blushing when they interact with you but not others."
"Suggestive teasing."
"Excessive awkwardness that isn’t the case with them around other people. Especially if they straight up start babbling like a loon."
"Awkward silences you could cut with a knife but they still keep seeking you out."
- AndrogynousRain
When Someone Gets It Wrong
"It’s hard to explain. Basically, it’s a nervous, delicious breathless feeling when they are close to you. You both go out of your way to stand just a little bit closer to each other."
"The sad thing is, some people think they 'feel' this with someone just because the other person is being friendly and misread signals. I once had a guy insist that we had sexual tension simply because I twisted my hair."
"He told me that twisting my hair was a 'mating signal.'"
"I told him that I had been twisting my hair has been a nervous habit of mine since I was a toddler, but of course, he wanted to believe I was interested and insisted that I must secretly want him."
- Joygernaut
Obvious to Other People First
"When other people pick up on it."
- The_She_Ghost
Responding to Looks
"When they suddenly look and hold eye contact and then look away. (Low)"
"When they look and notice you're looking then they run their hand through their hair. (Medium)"
"When they notice you looking and suddenly gently bite their lip looking away. (High)"
"When they notice you’re looking and do something to draw attention to their body either stretch and reveal skin or adjust an intimate part of their clothing. (Extreme)"
"Each of the above will make you get butterflies as you know that she knows AND that she knows that you know."
- DragonofDojima_
Trying to Keep the Conversation Going
"When there's a lull in the conversation, and eye contact is maintained while you both are trying to figure out what to say next."
- djpack
Looking But Not Looking
"Catching glances, by either party. The kind where they’re looking at you and don’t think you’ll look up or at them. Then suddenly the ceiling is really interesting to them when you make eye contact."
- HuxEffect
The Classic Note Trick
"When they hand you a piece of paper that says:"
"'Do you think that there is sexual tension between us?'"
"'[ ] Yes or [ ] No'"
- xaradevir
While we'd all love for the dating scene and general flirting to be straight-forward, simple, and stress-free, this thread serves as a reminder that it comes easily for some while being a puzzle for others.
At the end of the day, if you're interested in someone, the easiest thing to do, though it's terrifying, might be to ask them.
Anyone with any amount of dating experience knows at least a few things that they love in a relationship and a few things they find unsavory.
Just like discovering our boundaries and what qualifies as a relationship deal breaker, most of us generally have a few rules that we tend to live by in every relationship, whether it's romantic, platonic, or professional.
Curious to learn some rules to live by, Redditor aytmamatov_musa asked:
"What relationship rule have you memorized forever?"
Actions Speak Louder than Words
"I can't remember the exact wording, but something to the effect of: Pay more attention to how invested your partner is in the relationship, not how much they say they are."
- why_im_single
Know Who Holds the Power
"I remember when I first realized that the person who has the most control in a relationship (especially ending it) is the person that cares about the relationship the least."
"When I thought of all the relationships that I had been in (not just sexual) and how one person decided sometimes months ahead of time that the relationship was over, I remember how oblivious the other person was when it ended."
"By the way, this can also be applied to employment relationships as well."
- Mo_Jack
Don't Fight for Someone's Attention
"If someone does not want to hear you, there is no way you can phrase anything to make them listen."
"This applies to all types of relationships, but I learned it from trying so hard to have a healthy relationship with my mother. Then when I left at 25, she responded by filing a missing person's report, hiring a PI (Personal Investigator), harassing my friends, and hacking my email and bank accounts to monitor my activity."
"This also ties into: abusers see you taking away their ability to abuse you, as an egregious theft of their rightful property."
- CurrentSingleStatus
Be a United Front
"Problems aren’t You vs Me. They’re Us vs The Problem."
- FilecakeAbroad
No Codependent Relationships Here
"You cannot help someone who does not want to be helped."
- Diesel07012012
Be Honest About Your Feelings
"Listen to how you describe your partner to friends, or how you think at the moment how you're describing your partner to them. That will tell you a lot about how you feel about them."
"If you're nervous about introducing them, listen to why. If you're apologizing for their actions, pausing to reframe positive ways to speak about them, or ignoring the red flags, then listen to that instinct. If you're constantly talking about the problems or hiding them, pay attention to why."
"I remember being in one relationship and having those feelings of, 'Should I introduce her to the family, when I talk to others about her, I'm exhausted from some argument, etc.'"
"I remember another relationship, thinking, 'Oh, I would love her to meet the family, she'd get along with everyone's kids, my friends would love her, I just had this great moment with her, and I wanted to tell people about it, I enjoy talking about her.'"
"When you experience that difference (and you have the wisdom and experience to know you're not being deluded by things like abuse or newness or getting caught up in a big fire that's going to burn out fast), it tells you so much."
- ConvenienceStoreDiet
Be Mindful of Reciprocation
"Something a friend of mine once told me was, 'Always ask yourself if this relationship isn't taking more from you than it is giving you.'"
"It saved me a lot of heartbreak."
- Interferonno2fan
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
"If they don’t respect your boundaries while dating, they won’t respect them in marriage."
- Rachel1578
Cheaters Gonna Cheat
"My best mate got with a woman who cheated on her then-boyfriend to be with him. Then my mate and she stayed together for four years, but she ended up cheating on him with another guy that she is now dating."
"I warned him in the beginning and advised him not to get into a relationship with her to start with. If she can do it with one guy, she can do it with another."
"His argument was that her then-boyfriend was not good enough for her which was why she is cheating on him. But what he failed to realize was that no one is the best in the world, and if she decides that he isn’t good enough for her in the future, then she will cheat on him too. And that is exactly what happened."
- dp9116
Acknowledge Red Flags
"Red flags look like normal flags when wearing rose-colored glasses."
- Mezame_Drgn
Common Interests Aren't Everything
"Having a lot in common doesn’t equal a good relationship. It’s just a decent starting foundation."
- ironicallyunstable
Don't Go to Bedroom Angry - Or Do?
"I wouldn't say forever, yet, but since becoming a wife, I have learned that it's okay to sleep off a fight. Don't have to 'resolve' everything right then and there. Give each other space to let steam off and talk in the morning."
- beanedjibe
Be Loved for Who You Are
"Do not change your personality if you don't want to... I didn't realize until the breakup, that my ex did not like me, just the idea of what I could be..."
- Bethedr
Know the Difference
"When an argument comes out of nowhere, ask 'Are you yelling at me, or to me?'"
"It's helped with a lot of arguments. Sometimes we just need a backboard to scream at, and nine out of ten times, that backboard is your significant other."
"A lot of arguments get bad just because they don't know you are releasing anger, which is healthy in the right way."
- spenser1994
Some of these seem pretty simple, but they can make a huge impact in a relationship, if not also to the trajectory and health of a person's life. By understanding our own worth and how it's valued by others, we gave give ourselves a much happier ever after than we might have otherwise settled for.
A breakup can really reveal a person's true colors.
Whoever in the relationship initiated the heartbreaking news that "this isn't working out anymore" or for any other reason the significant other didn't see coming can elicit irrational behavior.
Can they be blamed for going into a blind rage? Well, it depends.
Curious to hear just how someone whose had their heart broken reacted, Redditor No-Feeling865 asked:
"Whats the most f'ked up thing your ex did after a breakup?"
Some people just can't accept the fact that love has died and they resort to revenge.
Fake Pregnancy Alert
"Said she was pregnant and sent me a positive test. I searched positive pregnancy test results on Google Images… it was the first one to pop up."
– SpaceShipET
Public Announcement
"Had an ex make a MySpace page about how I’m a f'king loser. I already knew that, but I just thought it was rude."
– EssEyeOhFour
The Expensive Guilt Trip
"Take out a credit card in my name, go to Greece, and rack up $6K in charges in my name the stick me with it."
– soon_zoo55
Based on these cases, divorce seemed a logical next step.
Expensive Waste Of Time
"Cheated on me, refused to sign the divorce papers, so I had to pay an attorney thousands more to show up to court."
"Showed up to court, judge asked: kids? No. Shared property? No. Bank accounts? No significant money in them."
"Judge literally asked, 'why are you here?' I pointed at her, he sighed, signed the divorce and said 'next case'. Thousands of dollars for literally two minutes of court time."
– Shoddy_Emu_5211
No To Makeup Sex
"I left my wife when she threatened me with a 6' kitchen knife because she was stressed by our 11 year old son's homework. 4 weeks later when I collected the last of my things from our house she looked upstairs and seductively said 'do you want to come upstairs for a f'k?'"
"In the 18 years we had been together she has never said anything like this before."
"That was a definite 'No!'"
– Elegant-Ninja-8166
Actions spoke louder than words verifying these were not the kind of people you'd bring home to meet mom.
Truth Comes Out
"Immediately started dating the girl he swore he wasn’t cheating on me with."
– emshlaf
Animal Cruelty
"Hung my dog off a balcony. He is okay now."
– easygoinggirlie
Sometimes, there's a happy ending.
Blessing In Disguise
"I had an ex who cheated on me multiple times, and just generally manipulated me emotionally. Always lied to me and never actually came clean about the cheating, even when I had evidence, or when her best friend came to me because she thought I should know."
"We finally break up after 8 years, and I get back out there and start hooking up with someone else, ended up getting her pregnant, and it was her choice to keep it."
"My ex heard and called my Mom to tell her before I had decided to tell anyone in my family, totally blindsided me when I started getting calls and texts from my parents."
"Anyway, the other woman ended up being the most amazing mother, friend, and partner you could ask for. We've been married for 4 years this summer, and our son will be 5 in the spring!"
– Cristal_Lizard
The horrific behavior mentioned above just further cements the fact that some people were never meant to be in your life.
That's the thing about a person's true colors–you don't see them until in hindsight when the relationship becomes comfortable.
Love makes jilted people do crazy things, indeed. Like slashing an exe's car tire in a parking lot with surveillance cameras catching all the angry action.
Yeah, that may or may not have happened.