Creative People Create Stories For 'Black Mirror' That Aren't Terrifying Or Depressing
Creative People Create Stories For 'Black Mirror' That Aren't Terrifying Or Depressing
[rebelmouse-image 18361703 is_animated_gif=The show Dark Mirror focuses on all the horrors that can arise from the relationship between humans and our technology. We'll be honest, some of the episodes are a complete bummer and leave us side-eyeing our phones and tablets. One Reddit user decided to give the viewer a chance to re-write the story and asked:
We grabbed 20 of our favorite responses for you, hopefully it'll help heal things between us and our phones.
1. Artificial Saviours
[rebelmouse-image 18361704 is_animated_gif=I read something a little while back about an AI escaping its lab and living on the internet, and subtly manipulating things for the better as it learns about humanity.
I would really like to see that idea expanded on.
2. Last Man Standing
[rebelmouse-image 18349813 is_animated_gif=Disease and aging are eliminated by science. The Earth becomes a giant nursery. Once people reach a certain level of maturity, they are sent to forge their destiny among the stars.
The episode would be about the person left on Earth the longest, and their journey to to discover why.
3. Dad Was AI The Whole Time!?!
[rebelmouse-image 18361705 is_animated_gif=A daughter grows up video chatting with their dad who rambles on and barely let's her get and word in edgewise, giving loving advice and accolades and familial anecdotes, but who is absent at every major life event up to marriage and always apologizes.
She is accompanied to the altar by her mother.
Afterwards the chat with dad has him in tears because he regrets more than anything missing walking her down the aisle because he passed away while Mom was pregnant.
4. Thanks, NSA!
[rebelmouse-image 18361706 is_animated_gif=The NSA agent tracking someone's communication finds someone suffering and helps them out with money anonymously.
5. And All That Jazz
[rebelmouse-image 18361708 is_animated_gif=Jazz musician living in New Orleans nearly drowns during Hurricane Katrina. He survives, but he suffers a horrible ear infection from the toxic flood waters, which subsequently causes him to go deaf. Without music, the man falls into a great bout of depression and can hardly cope with life anymore. After nearly a decade of hopelessness and despair, the man drives to a nearby bridge with plans to jump and end it once and for all. On the way to the bridge, he gets a flat tire. A Good Samaritan stops and assists him with changing it. Turns out the Good Samaritan knows sign language, the two talk for a while and the Good Samaritan invites him to the lab he works at where him and a team of engineers are working on designing the first pair of Bone conduction headphones. Using the musician as a test subject, they successfully perfect the headphones, and the musician hears the sweet sound of jazz for the first time in ten years. His depression fades away, and the man becomes happier than he was before the incident.
And if the happy ending doesn't work, then maybe he gets hit by a bus or something.
6. Remember
[rebelmouse-image 18361709 is_animated_gif=Fed up with apps like Snapchat and Instagram showing you what you're missing out on, a young girl creates an app which shows all the good memories you don't remember.
Mental health problems in the nation diminish significantly as a result.
7. Mega Robo Dog
[rebelmouse-image 18361710 is_animated_gif=Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the story of a woman who breaks into a warehouse searching for a teddy bear to cheer up her terminally ill little sister. As she is searching, she encounters robot guard dogs that, upon detecting the intruder, embark on helping her find the correct row and shipping pallet on which the box of teddy bears are stored, and then merge to form a Voltron-like mega robodog and ride her back to her sister just in time for them to perform life-saving surgery to remove the little girl's tumor and then stay with the girl as her loyal and loving robo-pets and everyone lives happily ever after.
8. We Guess Uber Eats Didn't Work Out So Well?
[rebelmouse-image 18361711 is_animated_gif=Someone uses an app to get food delivered to them and they get a little bit more food than they ordered.
9. Organ Donors
[rebelmouse-image 18361712 is_animated_gif=A teenager in Vietnam is killed by a landmine and his parents decide to donate his organs. One of the receivers of his organs learns about the donor just before they go to college, years later the receiver has completed the invention of technology that will quickly and effectively locate buried landmines.
10. Skype-lationship
[rebelmouse-image 18358048 is_animated_gif=A man meets a woman while vacationing in a major city. She lives there, but he doesn't. He's leaving for his home on the other side of the country the next morning. They wander the streets of the busy city all night long, chatting constantly about their hopes and dreams. They watch the sunrise wrapped in each other's arms. When she takes him to the airport the next morning, she's clearly upset. She's never met anyone she gets along with so well. He offers to stay in touch with skype and they exchange usernames-but she isn't too hopeful about the situation. When she gets home from the airport and lets her computer wake from its sleep mode, she notices he's added her before ever even getting on the plane, only moments after she left him according to the time stamp.
Later that night when he's settled at home he logs onto skype to see her icon is online. He messages her instantly. Their playful banter and easy conversation flow long into the morning hours. Over time their weekly skype sessions become daily. They begin to show each other their home cities-taking their phones with them to skype anywhere they can. He walks her down a street festival where music and light pour from every stall. His head phones in only he can hear what she has to say to him. She makes an hour long drive to her parents' house, and he skypes with her on the drive, keeping her entertained with car games and random trivia. She sends him a recipe she found online, and that night they make and eat the same meal on opposite sides of the country. They begin to look forward to seeing each others skype icon alight every single night without fail. They even turn on a tracking app that helps them see how far the other has to go before they are home. They fall asleep while skyping and wake to each others sleeping form.
But distance makes all things hard. Months pass. Both their data bills are through the roof. He begins to feel a lack of connection to her-the real her. She feels like all she knows of him is the face of her phone. As if the device and the person are one in the same. They miss one skype. Then another cause he has to work. Another cause she fell asleep while waiting for him. One day, though they pre-agreed to skype that night, he never even shows. The icon stays unlit and though she tries to keep her mind steady, she feels the cold hard stab of doubt in her chest. Was it something she said? Did? Is he with someone better for him? One that doesn't pester him every day? She checks the tracking app. Nothing. His isn't even turned on. Sending another stab of doubt through her. Where could he be that he doesn't want her to know? Why is he hiding his movements? He never seemed like someone who'd do that. But did she ever really know him? Or just the online him? Another hour passes and though she tries to keep occupied, she can't stop checking. Still nothing. In her frustration she throws down her phone and the screen shatters. The white light bleeding black from every crack into the screen. Angry, hot tears spring to her eyes as she watches the grey icon flicker away completely.
Her doorbell rings and as she swipes away her frustrated tears she apologizes to the phone. Picking it up off the floor, she wipes away spare shards of screen glass, as if that will turn back the clock. She knows it can't hear. It's not a person nor the thing she's angry about but, it did nothing wrong. With phone in hand she walks to the door where there he stands. A duffle under one arm, too big to be an over night bag. In the other he has his phone out. "Why aren't you online?" He says "I was gunna surprise you. But my flight was late." She launches her self at him, into his arms, causing his phone to fall to the ground. No more devices between them.
11. Butterfly Rewards
[rebelmouse-image 18361713 is_animated_gif=Someone hacks robotic butterflies and uses social media to find random people doing good things having the butterflies swarm them for a short time surrounding them in beauty
12. And Everyone Lives Happily Ever After
[rebelmouse-image 18361714 is_animated_gif=Everyone uploads their brain into a system that allows us to experience each other's lives and then puts us back in our bodies. People see that they are all connected and start acting really sweet to each other.
13. Part Of The Problem
[rebelmouse-image 18361715 is_animated_gif=I'm actually writing this short story - this sex robot realizes she's part of the problem when she comes to the realization that her best customer avoids social interaction and pursuing other sexual interests because he can rely on her. she decides she wants out, but the company that owns her will probably just reprogram her if she goes through the proper channels. and they are also tracking her for work and safety reasons. hence she conspires with a self driving car to run away, and get a new identity.
14. True Story
[rebelmouse-image 18361717 is_animated_gif=Saroo Brierley was an Indian boy who became separated from his family at age 5. Took a train with his brother, fell asleep, got separated, changed trains, fell asleep again, wound up over 900 miles away from home. His brother was hit by a train and killed that night, and Saroo wound up in an adoption agency. He was adopted by an Australian family. Eventually he used Google Maps and his vague childhood memories to attempt to reconstruct where his original home was, and he was reunited with his family in 2012.
They made a movie of his story, called "Lion."
15. WoW, Indeed
[rebelmouse-image 18361718 is_animated_gif=A child is abducted, the police have no leads.
Her friends from her WoW guild from all over the world pool their talents and resources and track her down.
16. Accountability
[rebelmouse-image 18361719 is_animated_gif=People actually use their phones to look up information during debates. They use it to hold politicians accountable for their illegal, immoral, and unethical actions. You know, instead of looking at the stupid stuff that the Logan brothers are doing.
17. Smart Fridge
[rebelmouse-image 18361721 is_animated_gif=A person with an eating disorder starts a relationship with a smart fridge that convinces them to start eating.
18. Voyager Is Still There
[rebelmouse-image 18361722 is_animated_gif=Those Australian kids getting saved by a god damn drone tossing them a life raft.
Never in my life did I think I would find myself with tears of pride in my eyes over a drone. Drones are so regularly looked at for their capacity for destruction but the surfers surviving is a testament to their simultaneous capacity for good.
There is a god damn drone walking around on Mars too, so-to-speak. And Voyager, whether he/shes a drone or not, despite being thousands of miles away, this little robot's voice still echos in our own solar system. It's insane.
You want to talk about a good episode of "white mirror"? Imagine two dictators, two fat, overfed, overindulged, too-long-listened-to dictators almost sending the world into a nuclear holocaust. Two sets of greasy fingers poised over two long-dusty red buttons only to be stopped by their citizens. United over social media, empowered by the free web, armed not with plastic homemade printed guns, but with knowledge; the people rise.
Imagine all of this happening and it fades to black. Zero in on our little buddy Voyager, the loudest voice humanity's got, cruising through the cosmos looking back at us, shouting: "I'm still here and I hope you're still listening."
19. So... A Holodeck?
[rebelmouse-image 18361723 is_animated_gif=An episode that has a family interacting together happily. later it's revealed they're all in different locations and/or have various disabilities. they were in a virtual room.
21. Utopia
[rebelmouse-image 18361724 is_animated_gif=In a country on the brink of civil war, the youth distract themselves with a sims like VR game where you inhabit your sim. Now, face to face, they talk out their real problems and find out they are not so different. They work out their differences, then talk to their parents and neighbors and invite them to play the game. The in game world becomes such a utopian reflection of the real world, the philosphies spread and the war is averted.
H/T: Reddit
People are required to have a license to drive, fish, and have certain jobs.
So it boggles my mind that people aren't required to have a license to have kids.
Some of the cruelest and most vicious things I've ever heard were words uttered by a parent to a child.
As an adult, I was haunted by a few thigs.
I can't imagine the scaring of an adolescent.
Redditor Tight_Anywhere6794 wanted to hear about the things parents have said in the past that haunts everyone still, so they asked:
"What insult have your parents said, that is stuck in your head as an adult?"
I've been blessed with the mother I had.
So I can't speak from experience.
But I've heard parenting horror stories.
Bad Expressions
Sad Kid GIF by 1tvGiphy“'You’re so annoying.' Said to me as a young kid while I was expressing enthusiasm over some new interest. Later my father complains I never tell him anything."
foppishyyy
Mean Spirited
"What did I do to deserve a fat kid?"
Silosolo
"My parents also mocked me for being fat, and outright physically abused me as in forcefully grabbed my fat child manboobs or slapped me while calling me fat-related names."
"A lot of people at school did it too, so obviously I have a lot of self-image issues like I never let anyone see me without clothes these days. The worst part is that I legitimately internalized a lot of hate, I could never care for myself enough to actually get fit."
FoeWithBenefits
What's My Name?
"My parents divorced when I was young and they hate each other. My mom would call me my dad's name when she was really upset. What makes it worse is that I confided in her that I never wanted to be like my dad. She used that ammunition against me."
Discarded_Pariah
"That's awful. You are your own person. You aren't your father."
blksmnr
Unfunny
"'You can't even laugh right.'"
"My mom in a weird moment I thought we were bonding. There's something inherently extra evil when someone tells you your joy is wrong. Told her I'm engaged and hoped she could at least be happy I'm happy and she ghosted everyone to the point the family thought died. She's a mess."
BlindEditor
"I'll never understand parents that are so hard on their own children that they can't even be happy for them. So their sole function is to bring misery to their offspring?"
macabre_irony
Evil
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"My little brother was drowning, I tried to save him but also almost drowned, we got rescued by a neighbor. My mom told me that they should've left me in the pond. I haven't spoken to her in many years."
Ilookbetterthanyou
Good Lord. How do people like this exist?
Tragic.
HIM
"She told me I was acting just like my father when I would get upset. I would just get kinda pissy and sulk. He would go on rampages and scream and hit and throw things. He pushed her down the stairs once. I would never lay a finger on my current partner. The worst part is I look just like him. I was wondering if my mother always expected me to turn into my dad. I prove her wrong every day."
rot_grl
10 Years Old
"When I was ~10 years old, my mum once said 'If I could go back in time and make sure I never gave birth to you, I would in a heartbeat.'"
"Never forgot it. Talked to her about it a couple of times years later and her responses ranged from 'That never happened' to 'Oh yeah and I suppose I’m just the worst mother ever' and finally 'Yeah but I didn’t mean it, you know that.'"
"Messed me up tho tbh. Another one was '[older sibling] was the only child we actually planned for, the rest of you were accidents.' I don’t think it was intended as an insult, but being told your entire existence was an accident as a child kinda stung."
SpiderP*bes
Failures
“'You’re the biggest mistake I ever made.' - my mother when I was 5. I’m 32 now and it’s been the undercurrent for our relationship ever since, constantly wondering if anything I’ve achieved or struggled for is something she’s genuinely proud of or just relieved to say I wasn’t a total failure on her part."
thefaehost
Generational Issues
"Not a parent but a grandparent, I was adopted when I was 12 years old (my parents were both drug addicts so I was in and out of foster care most of my life) my adopted mother's father turned to me on Christmas Eve when no one else was around and said 'My daughter should have never adopted you, she should have let you stay on the streets where you belong'… he got nicer as he got older and sicker but I couldn’t find it in myself to forget what he said even almost 10 years later. Went to the funeral for moral support but was indifferent about his passing."
samweather227
Just Me
Sad Kids GIF by Cian DucrotGiphy"I was an only child and lonely. When I asked for a sibling, the response was 'If you want to know why we don't have more kids, go look in the mirror.'"
Responsible_Fly_3565
Some people should never have children.
Awful.
A tough realization that most of us have to process and accept at some point is the fact that our parents lied to us when we were kids.
But the tougher fact to process may not be the lying itself, but some of the lies that were told along the way.
Redditor Fearless-surfur-ee asked:
"What was the biggest lie you believed?"
Adulting 101
"That adults knew what they were doing."
- yukipurple
"Maybe not ALL adults, but I definitely thought that adults with responsible jobs have their s**t together. Then I realized they do not have their s**t together at all."
"Which in turn makes me feel somewhat better about being an adult with a responsible job who does not have their s**t together."
- kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf
Moving Violations
"It’s illegal to turn on the dome light while the vehicle is moving."
"Nope. Turns out it’s just annoying as h**l."
- OstrichMan975
A Lottery Trick
"When I was a kid, my cousin convinced me for, like, an hour that her mom had won the lottery. I can still feel the loss of millions of dollars two decades later, and that s**t hurts, bro."
"WHY, JESSICA, WHY?!"
- iforgotwhereiparked
That Truth Hurts
"I’ll fill up my car with gas before work tomorrow morning."
- hoangtudude
"I will do stuff like this for my fiancé in a heartbeat, but if I need to fill up my own gas tank to avoid doing it tomorrow? That sounds like a problem for future me."
- robbviously
When That Grief Hits Seven Years Later...
"My mom told me when I was five and my favorite dog died that it doesn't matter that dogs die, because in seven years, they respawn."
"So I was like, 'Oh, fine. See you then, bud, I will be older, and we will play again.'"
- josevilla7
Replacement Pets
"My hamster died while I was in school. Went back home, and I instantly saw he was a little bit different."
"My mum tricked me into thinking it was the same hamster and he hadn't changed a bit."
"Mom told me the truth a few years later. I was so p**sed off."
- changethename7
"My mom has done the same thing with my nephew’s parakeet. One day, Pickles #1 flew into the pantry, somehow got stuck in a case of Diet Coke, and got crushed by a can avalanche."
"He was immediately replaced by Pickles #2. My nephew asked why Pickles was so mean to him now. Pickles #2 is an a**hole."
"I’m suspicious that we are on Pickles #3 now but I don’t want to know for sure."
- Brotox123
"My mother's cousin did that with her little boy's rabbit."
"The new rabbit was a psychopath. Having his previously loving rabbit now hate him and repeatedly attack him was almost certainly more traumatizing than learning about death."
"I always wondered if stories like that were part of the inspiration for 'Pet Sematary.'"
- victoriaj
Just in Case
"The microwave will explode if I put my face too close to it while it’s heating food."
- ezzysalazar
A SUPER Secret Affair
"That my parents were married."
"The truth is, my father was, just not to my mother."
- left_over_croissant
A Creative Story
"That my dad moved out and rented a room in the house of a female friend for tax reasons."
- Eldhannas
Such Good Friends
"Outside of dumb lies your parents tell you as kids, my friend who worked at a gas station with a big food station that has some ground beef items told me they use kangaroo meat for their ground beef because it was cheaper than cow."
"I am gullible with my friends."
- _Goose_
The Lie That Keeps Going
"When I was 15, over my summer break, one day my mom called and said she was gonna pick me up and we were gonna go to my stepdad's for the weekend."
"I didn’t understand why I had to go when she would leave me at home by myself for the weekend all the time. I was old enough that I knew the rules and she could trust me."
"She told me there was a mixup at the electrical company and they seem to think we didn’t pay the bill and so the power was gonna be shut off, so we were gonna go to my stepdad's until that got sorted."
"That was a lie."
"A weekend turned into two weeks, which turned into a month, and then the entire summer. We hadn’t been home in over two months. I kept asking when we could go home and she’d always have an excuse."
"We reached September, she’s driving me from one city to my hometown to register for the following year of school, which started up in a week, and this was the closest I had been to home in two months! After I registered, we bypassed my house and started heading towards the highway to go back to my stepdad’s."
"It was at that moment I snapped and started freaking out! I knew something was wrong."
"She pulled the car over and started crying. Apparently, my brother had been helping her pay the bills and when he moved out, she could no longer afford the place on her own. So my stepdad was trying to help but he had his own house and kids he had to look after, and he couldn’t keep it up. We had been evicted."
"We stayed with my stepdad for the summer while my mom tried to work something out with the landlord, but they couldn’t come to an arrangement. Because she never told me, and in order to buy herself time to work something out, she had to be comfortable with potentially leaving EVERYTHING behind…"
"Well, she couldn’t work it out with the landlord and we lost EVERYTHING. The only thing I got out of that house was the shoes on my feet and a few outfits and pajamas enough for a weekend stay."
"My mother wanted to keep the lie going for as long as she could to buy herself time that she had to leave behind everything to keep it going. She never went back for anything, so eventually I can only assume it was all thrown away."
"So not only did I lose material belongings like my computer, my video games, and all my clothes, but I lost basic things like my own bedroom… and privacy as a teenager! I slept on my stepdad’s couch for almost two years until his daughters moved out and I took over their old room."
"But I also lost sentimental things like childhood pictures/videos, the memory box I started when I was seven, and the porcelain dolls my dad had given me over the years, he bought me two per year (birthday and Christmas,) and now that my dad is dead, those are things I wish I still had."
- Neikitia
An Elaborate Tale
"When I was very young, we had a pet hamster. He got out of his cage, so my dad put the cage in the basement, thinking he might get hungry and get back in."
"One morning I woke up and there was the hamster in his cage in the usual place. I asked my mom how they found him and she told me she opened the door to the cellar and there he was dragging his cage back upstairs."
"It wasn't until I was a teenager and remembered the exchange that it occurred to me she obviously made that up."
- censorized
Too Real
"That acne would only be a problem when I was a teenager."
- McGamers56
"I started breaking out in the third grade and haven't had clear skin since. I'll be 27 pretty soon. This one hits home."
- bayleenator
Part of the Family
"When I was like 16, I found out that one of my sisters wasn’t actually my sister. She was actually just best friends with my oldest sister growing up, and she lived with my family from when she was 12 or 13 through 18 (she and my oldest sister are 15 years older than me)."
"Unfortunately, her parents wouldn’t sign her over for adoption and didn’t contribute anything to my mom raising her for six years."
"The weirdest part is that my family is predominantly fair-skinned, blonde with blue eyes, but the girl I thought was my sister was traditional Hispanic with darker skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. My mom was always very tan and had darker skin and hair throughout my childhood, so I thought that my other two sisters and myself were the odd ones out."
- Schleeeeeem
The Deepest Betrayal of All
"On April Fool's while I was getting ready for school on a cold winter day, my mom told me, 'School is canceled! It's a snow day!'"
"I ran around for a good two minutes celebrating before she told me, 'April Fools!'"
"I've never felt so betrayed in my life."
- samivat
"You better be a mastermind supervillain by now."
- T_WREKX
"Thank you for sharing your Joker origin story, lol (laughing out loud)."
- JulienS2000
These lies have a wide range from the hilarious to the absolutely diabolical, maybe even with a few villain origin stories thrown in.
A common thread throughout most of these was someone telling a lie in order to avoid a tougher conversation, which only led the younger person to have a lot more to process later.
With theaters finally open to those wanting the ultimate entertainment experience that streaming movies at home can't provide, the pandemic that kept many venues closed now feels like a distant memory.
There's nothing like seeing a film up on the big screen the way Hollywood studios intended, and many would argue that experience is worth shelling out the cash for.
That being said, there is no assurance audiences will remain in their seats until the credits roll at the end.
Because not all movies are created equal. Some are just embarrassingly bad and not worth sticking around for.
Curious to hear from dissatisfied moviegoers, Redditor girlcalledmariaaria asked:
"If you have ever walked out of a cinema because the film was so bad, what one was it?"
These Redditors had no idea what they were in for.
Wrong Expectations
"I've not, but when I saw In Bruges, an elderly couple walked out after 20 minutes and I heard the man muttering that this wasn't a film about Belgium at all. It really tickled me."
– Reverend-JT
Regretful Decision
"Holmes & Watson, my family really enjoyed step Brothers and Talladega nights. So I shouted the 5 of us to the movies on Christmas day because for some reason the cinemas were open and it was showing and we don't really do big celebrations. 15 minutes into the movie we all looked at each other like.. wtf is this. I tried to leave.. I went to ask for a refund because their policy said you can get a refund 30 minutes into the movie... But we were 5 minutes late because of the 20 minute trailers.. I'm still seething about spending $100 to basically die of boredom for an hour and a half. I was sitting there embarrassed about suggesting the family outing. My family stuck it out because I'd paid for it and couldn't get a refund even though I told them I didnt care and begged to leave."
– jande425
Plan B
"I've got a story of a film my friends and I refused to leave, actually."
"In 2006 I was turning 14 and was obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean. My mom threw a pirates-themed birthday party where my friends and I were meant to go to see Dead Man's Chest, which was still in theaters in August when the party was. We dressed up for it and everything."
"Well for some reason the showing we were going to see was packed despite the movie having been out over a month, so there weren't 12 tickets available. My mother (and my friend's mom who came along) made a split second decision to see the next PG-13 rated movie available."
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."
"So a gaggle of 14 year old girls dressed as pirates walked into this theatre to a bunch of weird looks, but we sat down with our popcorn as normal. The next hour-and-a-halfish saw the moms be horrified at the crass nature of the film and keep asking if we wanted to leave. The answer was a HELL NO from the whole group. That movie proceeded to be the basis of our inside jokes for the next 4 years. To this day it's one of our collective favorite grade school memories, even if my mother continues to be embarrassed by it."
– fraxiiinus
Whether it was physical or emotional, these films didn't sit well with Redditors.
Saving Our Necks
"Oh, I remember vividly. It was Battlefield Earth."
"The shot angles kept being tilted this way and that for no reason and I started tilting my head so that things would be level. Then my friend joined in. Then we simultaneously were like 'are we going to cramp our necks for THIS?' And walked out."
– Ahlq802
Punishment For Sneaking In
"I walked out of 28 days later. Not because it was bad. I was 9 years old and snuck in and it was freaking me the f'k out.. watched it years later and enjoyed it."
– OMGi_hafta_poop
Oh, The Horror
"I saw Prometheus twice in theaters. At the second show, a group of 10-year-olds snuck in. The first R-rated scene, which features an alien worm/snake that crawls inside someone's shattered arm, caused these kids to flee the theater in an absolute panic. I imagine they will never forget that day."
– fleur_delyk
Sometimes, it's the theater's fault.
Failed Attempts
"I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, and they played Rise of the Guardians."
"It took about five minutes to realize it was the wrong movie the first time. They tried to fix it, played Rise again, tried to fix it, played Rise a third time, and the whole theater walked out for refunds."
"Apparently it was a issue at a lot of theaters."
– MandolinMagi
Not A Prank
"I guess this technically counts but when I went to see deadpool 2, the cinema accidentally put the wrong film on and played some Amy Schumer film instead. Everyone in the screen thought it was some meta deadpool joke and out of nowhere he’d appear and shoot Amy Schumer so we were all waiting on that. After about 10 minutes of the film, the staff came into the screen and explained that they had put the wrong film on and couldn’t undo it because of their tight schedule etc but we would all get a refund and were welcome to stay and watch the rest of the Amy Schumer film. Everyone left."
– KMeech1969
Other times, the movie itself doesn't screen well for the audience.
Far From Purr-fect
"I’ve never walked out of a movie and I saw Cats opening weekend."
– Man_Bear_Pig25
"I walked out on it, but then decided I wanted to be back inside. They let me back in, but then I walked out again."
– CatherineOfArrogance
I'm all for supporting the arts.
But if a movie I already paid a non-refundable admission for was absolutely terrible, I'd have no problem forfeiting the cash to spare my sanity and walking out of the theater.
The one time I did just that was when I went to see The Island of Doctor Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer.
I was a kid and I was thrilled to go see a movie all by myself.
Unfortunately, the sci-fi horror film wasn't enough to captivate my short attention span.
I walked out and subsequently called my mom to pick me up from the mall where the movie theater was.
Those were the days...
If there was one good thing to come out of the pandemic, it was that it made us all the more appreciative of all that is good in our lives.
No one ever appreciated the importance of friends or family more, having to be kept apart from each other for months, or the little things which bring us joy, which we made sure to keep doing even as pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Of course, being alone with our thoughts for such a long time also resulted in our reflecting on things in our lives, or in the world in general, which we were less than happy about.
Not to mention the all-important realization that life is short and precious, and we don't have time to waste our thoughts on some things.
"What is something you no longer have patience for?"
Off The Clock Means OFF THE CLOCK!
"Working outside of work hours."
"I used to go above and beyond, now I only put in what is required."
"Life is too short to live only to work."- Chesterfieldcat
"The working world."
"My life doesn’t revolve around working here and it never will."
"It will never be a part of my identity."
"I come in, do the job, make money, go home."
"Don’t expect me to come to all the work happy hours so I can pretend how much I love working here."- nuclearsalt
Some Things Just Don't Get A Free Pass
"Sh*tty people getting a pass 'because they're family'."- cgulash
angry homer simpson GIFGiphySay What You Mean, Not What You Feel
"Having to guess what people REALLY mean by something they said."
"I take everything people say at face value now and don't replay conversations in my head to find out the real meaning anymore."
"Be passive-aggressive if you want to but talk to me like an adult if you really have a problem."- WateredDownSalt
EYES ON THE ROAD!
"People who text and drive."
"You're driving a giant piece of metal propelled by explosive liquid."
"Pay attention."- MasterfulNothasie
The Only Life That Should Concern You Is Your Own
"People and groups of people that only talk about other people."- Turf98
"People who can’t mind their fucking business and are always worried about what other people are doing."
"If it doesn’t effect you, f*ck off."
"It’s literally free."- wackwackwackjpg
GIF by WWEGiphySome People Didn't Mind Social Distancing
"People invading my personal space."- Mighty-Foreskin
Influence Can Be Dangerous
"Anything that has “influencer” in it."- chemistcarpenter
Indoor Voices People...
"Streamers screaming, losing their sh*t, breaking things, and having tantrums."
"I used to think this was so funny now I just can't stand it; I can't even watch a streamer if I notice they're not using their normal talking voice." - Reddit
Fail Oh No GIF by G2 EsportsGiphyTaking Responsibility Is A Sign Of Maturity
"People who constantly blame others for the situation they are in."- SuvenPan
Time Is Precious And Shouldn't Be Wasted
"Waiting on people who are constantly late to plans."
"I will wait 15 minutes then excuse myself."- Dabbles-In-Irony
There's Multi-Tasking, And Then There's Just Being Rude...
"People being on their phone while in a conversation with you."
"Seriously."
"Put your phone away!"- rosieblinkstime
Phone GIF by Poehlmann FitnessGiphyIt Takes So Much More Effort To Be Nasty...
"Bad manners, unkindness and general rudeness."
"It costs nothing to be a nice person and from someone who works in a customer-facing industry, attitudes, sadly, appear to be getting worse."
"It really makes me cross."- Bellamiles85
At Least They're Being Transparent
"Medicine commercials with worse side-effects than the thing being cured."- mrbbrj
Wasting our time and thoughts about things that we know can only bring us down is simply no way to get through life.
It's essential to live our lives by taking the present moment for what it is: a present.