“They Were Being Serious”: 79 Times People Laughed Something Off And Got A Reality Check

When I lived in the US, I had a co-worker ask me to speak my native language (I'm Canadian) so I used a little bit of French assuming she wanted to hear the other official language. She spent 3 days telling me to stop joking around and speak my native language. I finally asked what she thought my native language was, fully expecting her to name a First Nation dialect. She confidently informed me that the true language of Canada is Latin. I laughed thinking it was a joke, but no, she was somehow 100% certain Latin is what ppl spoke in Canada.

A girl told me she didn't believe in adoption.

Not didn't agree with.

Believe in. I'm adopted, proof in the convo! What's not to believe in?!

I helped with AV (and therefore frequently low-level tech related to the users in those rooms) at a large office in the city.
I was called to a training style room with tiered rows and iMac's built into each station. There was a mid-40's or 50's professionally dressed lady who called me over in the middle of the presentation, pointed to her screen and said she wanted to "move that, to that".... I was confused so said "Are you talking about the file on the screen? You want to move that file into that folder?" and she said NO, "the thing, move that thing to there."
There was a long pause as I tried to compute what she was asking, solid 20 seconds and I realized.... "Are you..... wanting to move the mouse pointer to click on and open that file?"
There was a long pause, and I reached across her and picked up the mouse that was by her right hand, and patiently said "Well if you hold this mouse with your hand, you can move it to control the curser and..." and she said "I KNOW HOW TO USE A MOUSE" and then adjusted her body language away from me, clearly communicating I'd been 'dismissed'.
This was in 2017.

When I was as working at a library someone asked if we still carried books. I thought they were joking, particularly because they had to pass multiple tables full of books to reach the desk and you could literally see almost all of our shelves from the front desk with the building's lay out, but they were serious. They thought everything were just blank display pieces and that we didn't actually carry books anymore.

I was working at a small powersports dealership and found out like half of the staff genuinely believed in flat earth.

A coworker flat did not believe in the existence of atoms or molecules.

Was waiting at a plumbing supply store when a man walked in and started talking to me. He began telling me that him and his wife went to a funeral over the weekend of a 28 years old mother who just up and [passed away] from super cancer because she took the covid Vaccine.

I assumed it was joke only because who starts a conversation like that? I was wrong in my assumptions unfortunately. Maybe introduce yourself or talk about the weather?

A while back I was talking to this guy I barely knew and out of nowhere, he said he's saving up to buy a small island, so he can live there with my pet tiger. I literally laughed. I thought he was messing with me, like some kind of weird flex. He even pulled out his phone to show me a spreadsheet of tiger adoption costs and island listings.

My ex said "I'm so smart I think I'm a god walking among men" I laughed because it was so ridiculous and random but he just stared at me. I asked if he was being serious and he confirmed it and continued an entire rant about how his IQ is so high it's impossible for him to be a regular man.. And unfortunately this wasn't a one time conversation.

A woman once told me hospitals were full of fake doctors but she wasn’t worried because she has magic crystals that will heal her dad’s cancer.

Was walking home with someone I got along with in *college* but didn't really know.

He looks down the train tracks and laughs. "See, no curve."

He was a flat earther.

My friends bf asked me during a trivia game, "If humans are mammals, why aren't we whales?" When I was explaining what a porpoise was. I was explaining that porpoise are mammals like humans and whales, elephants. I did feel bad after I said what? then started laughing but he.did.not.join.in. though an awkward attempt was made.

Where do I start...

1. When I was in college, a guy who lived on my floor was convinced that the USSR was going to invade the US and therefore, to help, he learned Russian and joined the NRA to learn how to shoot guns. He was seriously disappointed when USSR fell apart.
2. Same college, I knew a girl named Agatha who was called "Saint Agatha" by everyone because she was not only not intimate with anyone, she felt that anything beyond shaking hands was going to send her to hell. After she graduated from college and moved to Florida, she [slept] with hundreds of men and women in course of a year.
3. A few years back, a colleague kept telling me how Obama had crashed the US stock market. When I showed him the numbers from Yahoo finance app on my phone, he claimed that Yahoo was run by liberals and they were manipulating the data to show Obama in positive light.

"Vaccines cause autism"

I stared for so long, waiting for some sort of punchline.

But no, she genuinely believed it and I had to tell her off for that lol 😭 girl I love working with you but what the hell haha.

A couple months ago, I was sitting at the bar enjoying my shift drink, and this real cop-lookin dude walks in and sits next to me. Over the course of our very bizarre conversation, he said that all world governments are secretly controlled by a cabal of 7 families, and also that he was in a militia.

That the moon was conscious. I ended the conversation.

“I’m running for president.”

Back in the day, I saw a guy open in a local punk show. His whole shtick was rapping over a boombox tape mix about how much he hated Gene Hackman. "Gene Hackman's a hack, man. I'm gonna Hack that Man to pieces, etc." At the after party, I quickly realized that it wasn't a genius bit of performance art, but just a mentally unstable guy.

"I'm done letting you intimidate me with your college education." She's MAGA and didn't like that I used facts to argue. I used many a fact to dispute her in the past and she finally reached a breaking point. Also, my degree is math related...

"Just because you know how to articulate your argument doesn't mean you get to win". Someone on the internet didn't like that I knew how to refute their points, and this was many points were refuted.

I don't believe in space.