Whether we like it or not, fleeting moments of stupidity happen. Being dummies now and then—it’s all part of human nature. No news in that department. But the funny part about it is how people we think we know just suddenly turn out to be on a whole new level of stupidity.
So when Reddit user u/bost724 posted the question “What was your 'This person is on another level of stupid' moment?” on r/AskReddit, it instantly got 67.9k upvotes. It turns out, people on Reddit have been through a whole bunch of intolerable stupidities.
From believing that a nuclear power plant is literally a plant, to asking “How many Alaskan dollars is a US dollar worth?” with a full-on straight face, these are some of the most hilarious "seriously?!" moments you couldn't even think of.
#1
Anyone who wears a mask but doesn’t pull it up over their nose
481points
#2
I locked my purse with my keys and cell phone in my apartment. I went to the office to ask maintenance to let me in. The woman at the desk said she would call maintenance and asked for a phone number they could reach me at. I said there wasn’t one because my cell phone was locked in my apartment. She insisted she needed a number. I said I could give her the number but that I wouldn’t be able to answer if they called. She suggested I get my phone out of my apartment so that I could answer when they called. I rolled my eyes at her and said if I could get in my apartment to get my cell phone I wouldn’t need maintenance to let me in. She never did understand me. But maintenance did show up ten minutes later.
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415points
#3
This was my first experience in retail where I learned what many customers would be like.
Seasons were changing, so we put a lot of shirts we had to get rid of in the front and made them 50% off. I was working the register when a woman came up to buy her things. I rang her up and could see a look on her face like something was wrong. That’s when the following happened.
Lady: “Why is this so much.”
Me: “Pardon me?”
Lady: “This should only be $10 not $20.”
I thought that maybe her item was on sale, so I asked if she could point out the sign because I wasn’t aware of it. It was a small store and we didn't have to walk anywhere.
Lady: “This sign here.”
Me: “This sign says that all shirts are 50% off.”
Lady: “Yes, so why is this full price.”
Me: “This is a hat.”
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398points
Whether it’s a line someone said that sounded utterly stupid, or a thing somebody did that looked just plain foolish, these moments do indeed make us wonder whether people around us are not the smartest ones. At the same time, you start wondering if you are better than them. From common sense to plain talent, what if you just come to have more of it?
Some people secretly (and others, not so much) feel as if they are superior to others. This phenomenon is known as the self-enhancement effect and involves taking a tendentiously positive view of oneself. This research has shown that just like eating, it’s a fundamental part of human nature.
#4
I’m an identical twin, and have been asked all manner of utterly ridiculous questions about it throughout my life. But I think the stupidest was when a girl once asked me “do you ever get yourselves mixed up with each other?” I responded “are you asking me if I ever sometimes think I’m my brother?” she replied, “yeah.”
No. I don’t.
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392points
#5
The time a friend told me how much he hates potatoes....while eating French fries and I literally blew his mind by telling him French fries are potatoes..
355points
#6
Coworker bought a low-flow shower head. He filled the BATHTUB using the new low-flow shower head BECAUSE IT WOULD USE LESS WATER!
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338points
This type of thinking, however, is not to be confused with a superiority complex, which, in psychological terms, is viewed as a defense mechanism to what's really going on with the person.
According to professional counselor Nickia Lowery, “When a person acts superior to another, they really feel that the other is a perceived threat. In some way, they believe others will find out that they really are 'inadequate' and therefore behave in ways that make them feel like they are 'better' than the rest."
These people tend to compare themselves with others, and they continually search for proof that they indeed are better. This becomes a stressful vicious circle, and one may even need professional advice to free themselves from anxiety and mood swings.
#7
I once worked in a midwestern grocery store deli and I was trying to explain to a woman that the name brand and generic brand of the macaroni salad that we carried were in fact identical. The woman yelled at me saying she could only have the generic brand because “one is made with mayo and the other is made with mayonnaise and I don’t like mayo”. When I tried to explain that mayo is an abbreviation of mayonnaise, she just said “I’m from the south, I know my food” and tutted away.
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326points
#8
I was once asked how it felt to come to the US as a refugee (I'm from Germany). She then looked rather surprised when I told her that Hitler has been dead for 75 years and that Germany is one of the more liberal countries in the world these days. She full on thought I fled Nazi Germany.
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323points
#9
My wife's cousin and her husband/not-baby-daddy-of her-unborn-child fell on self induced hard times and needed a place to stay for a bit. We setup a queen sized air mattress in the living room for them. For 3 weeks I woke up to go to work and every morning saw them sleeping on it sideways with their legs hanging off the edge. Then one day she asked me to buy her a bigger air mattress because this one was hard on their backs. I told her to turn her body (the f**king thing even has a built in pillow on one end). Her response was that then they couldn't see the TV. THEN F**KING TURN THE AIR MATTRESS TO FACE THE TV! That's the story of how I became an asshole to the trailer trash side of the family.
The bad part is that its only one of many stories. The husband was a cook at Applebee's. The baby daddy was a cook at Applebee's, and her new husband was......another cook from the same f**king Applebee's. All working together.
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321points
#10
Rescued a coworker on the side of the road with a flat tire, waiting for the tow truck, I pointed out the nail at the top of their tire. They scoffed and looked at me like I was the stupidest person in the world and exclaimed
that’s not true bc it’s flat at the bottom
I just walked away and never brought it up again
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306points
#11
Back when the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster happened we were discussing how the reactor had failed in a science class. 5 minutes into the conversation a girl piped up and said "I don't see what the big deal is. Why can't we just regrow it?"
She dead ass thought a nuclear power plant was... A plant
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277points
#12
Dated a guy~ we watched TITANIC.... he thought the movie was stupid because the boat sank. It wasn’t believable. You can’t recover from that. Ever
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275points
#13
I met a guy who got hit by a train. Not that bad, but a year later he went to show his daughter where and how he got hit by the train and he got hit again.
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270points
#14
I got a concussion a while back. A friend of mine told me not to come close because it might be contagious. They weren't kidding.
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266points
#15
I worked at a restaurant and we had a dish that was just a whole grilled chicken, chopped into pieces. A woman who ordered for delivery called us, absolutely scathing, complaining that her order of one whole chicken only contained TWO chicken breasts. Had to explain to grown ass woman that chicken only have two breasts.
264points
#16
My boss asked me to file the spam mail. This man was one of those people who think they are the smartest person in the room. So spam folder Okay... weird, but okay. I couldn’t find any spam mail that wasn’t already in the spam folder. Afternoon comes and he stomps over to my desk area and wants to know why the spam isn’t in the spam folder as he throws a Manila folder on my desk. The folder was labeled spam. He prints spam mail out and files it. And with any sign of skepticism on my face, he’d insist the IT guy told him that’s where spam goes so he got himself a folder and that was it. I had to get the f**k out.
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257points
#17
There was a girl in my high school who forced the teacher to pause a documentary about people living in mud huts in Africa because she was upset that they were showing us fictional movies in a history class. It took everyone else in the room to convince her that people actually live like that in some places. Wealthy area living for ya.
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251points
#18
When I read yesterday that people think ocean water and sand are giving them coronavirus, rather than realizing its because they are spending time on a crowded beach with strangers. Smh
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249points
#19
Summer camp counselor made all the kids on a school bus keep the windows up on a hot day because "they could feel the Air Conditoning" coming from the front of the bus.
It was so hot and I (maybe 10 years old at the time) had to explain to the 40 year old counselor that the "air conditioning" they were feeling was the wind coming in through the bus drivers open window. She still didn't believe me.
I begged her to ask the bus driver to confirm the bus did not have air conditioning but she didn't want to bother him while he was driving. It was like a 1 hour bus trip.
She finally got hot enough and asked the bus driver if the bus had air conditioning. And he jokingly said "The bus only has air conditioning when the windows are down and the wheels are turning." She then looked back at me and said" See? I told you the bus had air conditioning" and proceeded to force us to keep the windows up.
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237points
#20
My sister asked if the Eiffel Tower was in Paris or France and couldn't understand how it could be in both...
Edit: Woah. My top rated comment is me announcing one of my sister's airhead moments haha. I feel like I need to defend her now.
This happened when she was like 14. She's 26 now. She went on to graduate from college and graduated top of her class.
She later clarified that she meant to ask if the Eiffel Tower was in Paris or elsewhere in France but she clearly didn't say it like that.
She's gonna kill me when I tell her how much attention this got.
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237points