You’ve probably been there—you’re talking to your friends and then you say something that makes everyone go quiet. You thought you were being incredibly smart, but it later turns out that what you said was so ridiculously wrong that you’ll be facepalming and cringing for weeks when you remember your mistake.
The good news is that you’re not alone: practically everyone’s embarrassed themselves with their knowledge gaps. Even better, the odds are that what you said was nowhere near as wrong as the stuff that the people in this viral r/AskReddit thread heard from their friends and acquaintances. If you want to feel better about yourself, scroll down to check out the dumbest things people have heard, and upvote the worst of the bunch.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the viral thread, redditor u/PagalScientist, and they were kind enough to shed some light on the inspiration behind the question, and shared their thoughts on how to react when someone says something that is massively incorrect. You’ll find our full interview with the OP as you scroll down below.
#1
“Why don’t you go back to where you came from” – racist guy at the grocery store checkout
“I’m Native American, this is literally where I came from.” – me
Image source: anon, Tara Clark
#2
That we don’t need farmers because we have grocery stores.(i live in a rural area)
Image source: ApplicationFar655, Raul Gonzalez Escobar
#3
I’m American of Mexican descent. Someone asked me where I’m from. I said California. He then asked where my parents were from. I said Michigan and Texas. Looking at me rather upset he said no where are your people from. I said dude I can trace my family back to within the United States to 1817. Where the hell are you from? He just walked away after that.
Image source: Brucef310
#4
“You shouldn’t drink carbonated water, it’s full of carbs!”
I’m rarely at a loss for words but I almost lost brain cells when I heard that
#5
Used to work in Yellowstone. The amount of stupid coming through the park is unimaginable. Had a bison come and lay down close to the boardwalk at old faithful. A woman holding a toddler started running up to it. Luckily I had grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her down.
She kept screaming she was going to sue me and the lodge for ruining her perfect vacation photo.
Then watching a 20 something walking out of the lodge in a swimming suit to go soak in the pots.
Telling another tourist that he could not walk off the boardwalk. He became angry and demanded to be allowed to do this. When this happens we are on higher alert.
We always had to watch tourists, like they had IQs of 10.
Image source: realisticby
#6
My husbands mom is very ignorant and known to say really stupid things. Most recently we were in Italy and she asked why they don’t just tear down the colosseum because it looked so old…
Edit to clarify: She wasn’t physically there just seeing it on social media. She doesn’t believe in leaving the US because she thinks it is the best place, so she doesn’t need to see any other places. Honestly probably better she stays where she is at!
Image source: M-Y-GirlieGirl, Davi Pimentel
#7
From a family member, years ago, “My husband and I are having problems, so we’re trying for another baby,. That should make things better. ”
I smiled inanely and walked away, stunned.
Image source: Krissy_ok, Bonnie Kittle
#8
That the Golden Gate Bridge connects North-America and Europe.
Yeh.. don’t even ask
Image source: diesereineda, Joonyeop Baek
#9
Elementary school, we were learning about local Native American cultures and legends.
One legend had all the men go off to war except one boy or something, and it was left to him to continue the tribe’s existance, or something like that.
Got in a debate with a girl who loudly asked why didnt he just go and die too, the women can keep the tribe alive.
Me, being worldly and having had The Talk already, tried to explain that there would be no more tribe without at least one guy present.
She yelled back ‘Thats not true! We know how to fish!’
I had to be told to sit outside because I couldnt stop laughing.
Image source: ShiningRayde
#10
“Wait you’re Asian? I thought you said you were Vietnamese”
Image source: anon, Eirik Skarstein
#11
I’m a skydiver. I once had a woman ask me if the plane stops for us to get out.
Yeah, it parallel parks next to the 747.
Image source: Taneva_Baker_Artist, Tom Fisk
#12
A friend of mine asked me why we didn’t see stars when we flew over them. She truly believed that when you were flying on an airplane , you flew over the stars. I was speechless.
Image source: Outrageous-Crow-5359, Ali Abdul Rahman
#13
Someone once said that they couldn’t wait for Halloween to fall on Friday the 13th.
Image source: burningmurphys, Monstera
#14
Some guy on a discord server insisted Pakistan is in Africa, i told him that Pakistan is in Asia and he called me racist and had a little rant.
Image source: slimebor, ELLA DON
#15
My old roommate pointed an laser thermometer at a pencil on a table, inside our house.
The laser thermometer read “68F”
He exclaimed “this thing is broken!”
I asked why he thought it was broken?
“This is a pencil. It doesn’t produce any heat. This thermometer should say 0”
I stared at him for a few seconds, unable to collect my jaw off the floor…
“Well 0F would mean it is frozen, or well beyond frozen, so I think 68 is the temperature of the air in the room”
This man was 26… his two adult brothers were sitting in this room. I was the only one who understood why the thermometer was correct.
Image source: rogan1990
#16
“Tigers are girl lions!” Said by my 40 year old ex boyfriend who is a nuclear engineer.
Image source: doctaliz, Rishabh Pandoh
#17
“Idk if an egg is a fruit or a vegetable”
Image source: cannedbenkt, Monserrat Soldú
#18
My mom, to me one time, “you son-of-a-b***h!”
We both laughed quite heartily about it later :)
Image source: akRonkIVXX
#19
Last month a coworker asked if I’ll run out of blood eventually because donate very couple months. He’s 34 years old.
Image source: murray22161, Nguyễn Hiệp
#20
“Isn’t it amazing how dogs just come out knowing commands like sit and lay down?”
The man was *stone cold serious*.
#21
When I was in 5th grade in Mississippi, a girl asked me if I saw everything “flat” because because of the shape of my eyes (I am Asian).
Image source: Kingofkong88, Sane Sodbayar
#22
Apparently what was causing my mother’s computer problems was “Mercury in retrograde”.
Image source: MomentOfHesitation, NASA
#23
A supervisor told me “You can only get sick, if you want to be sick”.
Image source: Donut106, Sora Shimazaki
#24
I’m from New Mexico and was once told that my English is excellent. Have also been asked for my green card once.
Image source: anon, Mehrpouya H
#25
*my boss after I had to leave work to save my suicidal mother-in-law*:
“When you leave like that, it’s not fair to us because you just leave us hanging”
EDIT: Thank you all for sharing your experiences and kind words. My MIL is okay and has recovered greatly. I promptly quit that job and have been living the freelance life.
Image source: EazyCheezy95
#26
I have a “friend” who doesn’t believe many things if he hasn’t experienced them himself.
Ex: He told me he doesn’t believe allergies are real. I asked why not? He replied, “Well *I’ve* never had them. It’s all in people’s minds.”
Image source: JabberJaahs, Adrian Swancar
#27
“I don’t mean to stereotype, but you look too white to speak Spanish” after I told my college suitemate that I was taking Spanish courses. Coming from a girl that always denounces stereotyping.
Image source: anon, Mimi Thian
#28
Not me, but my brother, his wife is a pharmacist. A friend introduced him to his fiancé and upon hearing my brothers wife was a pharmacist, she went with “Oh cool I’ve never known anyone who worked on a farm before” he tried to correct her but she doubled down with “I think I know what someone who works on a farm is called”
Image source: KingThermos
#29
IT work a few years back. Had a director blow up after day two of trying to resolve a complex firewall issue that was affecting the finance department receiving invoices.
And I quote: “STOP trying to figure out what the problem is and JUST FIX IT !!!”
Image source: Wispirer
#30
“I’m never going to quit smoking [cigarettes]. My aunt was healthy until she quit. Then she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer.”
This was said to me by my manager at a Domino’s Pizza (Pennsylvania, USA). I didn’t have the time or energy to explain to a man 3 decades my senior that she probably had cancer for a long time, but didn’t go to the doctor until she was feeling withdrawal from the nicotine.
So we finished our cigs and went back to slingin’ pizzas.
I quit smoking and delivering pizza not long after.
Image source: Stable_Destroyer
#31
That 100lbs of metal weighs more than 100lb of feathers
I’m sure this has happened to a few people.
Edit: I should have just used metric…
Image source: Saintsfan019, Piret Ilver
#32
When I was doing tech support:
“How do I type the upside down i?”
“Ma’am, that’s an exclamation mark.”
Image source: slappy_mcslapenstein
#33
Was talking to the cashier at a 24 hour Tesco’s at about 1 in the morning and he said
“I don’t mind working nights because I’m a necrophile”
Me “do you mean nocturnal?”
Image source: chayay123
#34
“I thought windmills cool down the earth to stop global warming”.
Image source: missions**tpost, Waldemar
#35
“You can only get AIDs from butt stuff.”
This is from a guy who thinks pulling out is a good method of contraception and never uses condoms.
Image source: suspicious_niffler
#36
Had a guy I was working construction with say “I hope the sun comes up on that side today” pointing west “because yesterday it came up on this side and it was so hot” with us being on the east side of the building, ya bud that’s not how the sun works lol
Image source: I_reddit_rong, Ivan Levchenko
#37
Duck is seafood because it swims.
Image source: neoncatt
#38
I was told that if I did some breathing exercises for six months and then checked my blood sugar my T1 diabetes would just disappear.
Image source: Frobun11, PhotoMIX Company
#39
Not me, but a friend of mine travelled to the US with her family when she was younger. Upon hearing her family’s accent, an American asked “where are you guys from?” the answer was Australia, and that person confidently responded with “ah, which state is that?”
Image source: jjayus, Greg Rosenke
#40
“Was it difficult for your husband to learn English? Is there a language barrier for you guys?”
My husband is Scottish, born and raised.
ETA: Wow this really blew up. So I’m going to add some additional info, especially for those saying this is totally valid. The people asking me this question were supposed to be well educated teachers. They had never met my husband so they didn’t even have the excuse of hearing his accent. But had they met him they would have been more surprised at how diluted his accent was due to having left Scotland at 18 to live in London for 7 years and by the time I met him he had been in the states for 14 years. He had an accent but was very easy to understand and had adopted a more American style of speaking so people could understand him (so he said things like pants instead of trousers).
Image source: Zoo_In_The_Bathtub
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