Imagine that you have a birthday party, and the mood of the guests is somehow not festive, so you urgently need to liven the party up. What will it be? Some kind of fun board game, a non-standard and funny contest, perhaps an amusing trivia quiz... No, the birthday dude in the story we're about to tell you now chose a truly alternative path!
In fact, the hero of the story is not the birthday boy himself, but his best friend, the user u/Broad-Specific4900, who scored over 7.6K upvotes and around 350 comments in the Malicious Compliance community on Reddit with their post. Perhaps a perfect example of malicious compliance at its finest...
The author of the post recently attended their best friend's birthday and the guy at one moment decided to 'liven up' the party
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko (not the actual photo)
The best idea for it, according to the birthday boy himself, was to start narrating 'dramatic stories'
Image credits: u/Broad-Specific4900
The author had a very traumatizing childhood and their friend knew about it so he asked them to be the first to tell a story
Image credits: Matheus Bertelli (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/Broad-Specific4900
The author wasn't actually happy with such an idea but everyone around them was incredibly persistent
Image credits: Alesandr Kadykov (not the actual photo)
Image credits: u/Broad-Specific4900
So the author told them several stories, not omitting even the pettiest and ugliest details, and bringing everyone to tears
So, the Original Poster (OP) went to their best friend's birthday party (that is, the dude who they considered their best friend), and at some point it turned out that the party had taken a completely wrong turn, and it was necessary to somehow raise the guests' mood. Probably the simplest way - alcohol - did not occur to the birthday boy, so he suggested continuing the celebration with a storytelling evening.
Yes, exactly. All the guests gathered in the living room, moved their chairs, and the original poster's friend said that he wanted to start with a "dramatic story", for which he passed the floor... just to the author of the post. The thing is that, as the original poster admits, their childhood was really awful, full of childhood trauma, and the best friend knew about it. However, what he did not know was all the details...
The author of the post, of course, did not consider it appropriate to share their childhood experiences with many other people, but both the birthday guy and all the guests were extremely persistent. Persistent - to say the least. In general, the OP eventually gave up - and began their story, which everyone had been waiting for and eager to hear for so long.
This was definitely not the best continuation of the party, because the OP talked about their trauma and experiences, not missing a single, even the most ugly little thing, literally savoring the most negative emotions that they were going through then... One story after another - the author saw how the faces of the guests changed, smiles gradually disappeared from them, and tears begin to appear in their eyes.
At some point, the birthday boy asked them to stop and leave the party altogether, because the birthday was completely ruined. The author of the post, however, left the building in a pretty nice mood - in the end, they most likely already managed to work out their childhood trauma with a psychoanalyst, but the guests still had to comprehend everything they heard at this party. By the way, the OP claims that the best friend promised to call back later, but they never heard back from him. At least until now. If he will call back at all, that is.
Image credits: Jon Tyson (not the actual photo)
Before we move on to people's comments on this story, I want to immediately make a small disclaimer. Asking people about their traumatic experiences from childhood is, according to many experts, quite a sensitive aspect even for psychoanalysts, to say nothing of ordinary people. And even more so, demanding 'a dramatic story' as entertainment at a party is generally beyond good and evil. So the birthday boy and his guests actually tasted the medicine they wanted so much.
"Questioning people about the abuse and trauma they may have suffered is a difficult and extremely sensitive aspect of mental health care. Any enquiries about specific episodes of abuse should take place within the context of a general psychosocial history and should never be asked 'out of the blue'," says the Department of Health of Victoria, Australia. And this applies specifically to advice for doctors! So the idea of "livening up the party with scary stories" in principle looks flawed.
By the way, when one of the commenters wrote something similar, the original poster honestly admitted that they 'probably enjoyed it more than they should'. On the other hand, people in the comments are genuinely amazed at how such a person can even be considered a best friend. "He forced you to revive painful memories for his own entertainment. And this was after you repeatedly told him that you did not want to," commenters pondered.
Some folks in the comments still believe that the author of the post should not have followed the lead of either their friend or guests, thus ruining the whole evening for everybody. But be that as it may, "the malicious compliance here is *exquisite.* They wanted a dramatic story - they sure as hell got one," one of the commenters concluded sarcastically. Meanwhile, we would also like to ask your opinion about the behavior of the characters in this tale, so please feel free to express your own thoughts in the comments.
People in the comments were literally shocked by this kind of behavior from a friend, wondering how he could actually be a friend at all
