40 Hilarious Instances Of People Being Shockingly Unaware Of Common Knowledge

I grew up in Alaska but I went to fifth grade in Las Vegas. My first day they had me introduce myself to the class and to tell them some interesting things about Alaska. I mentioned it was the largest state and everyone started arguing with me. I looked at the map of the US on the wall and instantly understood why they were confused. Alaska was shrunk down in a little box in the corner. I laughed and said, "Did you think it was an island, too?" Crickets. Pretty sure they thought it was an island. I showed them there were 5 longitudinal lines across AK and only 3 across Texas. Also showed them on the map where it said it was attached to Canada.

Our education system sucks.

That women can’t hold their period blood. I’ve seen so many people who were so surprised when they learned that you can’t hold the blood that comes out.

People not knowing that "The Onion" is a satirical news source.

You need to clean out the lint trap in a dryer. I frequently come across people in their 30s that can’t figure out why their clothes take so long to dry...

It makes sense that he doesn't know this, cuz I'm his first serious relationship, he has only brothers/has never lived with a woman before me and just... wouldn't know this. But my boyfriend was doing our laundry recently and he noted "some of your bras are soft, and some of them have this hard outer rim." I said yes, that's called an underwire. And he just repeated it sounding like a baby learning a new word "...underwire." It was extremely cute.

My husband was away working for about 2months... I usually don't stay at ours if he's away, but I happen to this time. I know I'm a big splasher when I wash my face... (I don't use a towel and don't towel dry my face), the counter is usually drenched, as is a third of my shirt after I wash my face. After 3-4days, I notice water stains on the mirror aren't leaving and I was so confused as I'd never seen them before. I left them there a bit longer to see if they'd "disappear" but they didn't...

Turns out my SO had been wiping these water stains I leave for the last 6-7years... and I'd grown up with a housekeeper who would wipe/clean this stuff, so I was completely oblivious. I assumed mirrors were kinda self-cleaning by being coated with something that would make water drip off and not "stain"?

Anyways, I messaged my SO and thanked him for doing this all this time and not complaining, and apologised for making a mess and having not noticed this. He found it hilarious I thought mirrors were self cleaning.

Unfortunately, I was the dumb one here. From the US, visiting a friend in France. She'd told me that stores close on Sunday. I thought I understood--yeah, so the department stores and stuff are closed, but of course necessities like groceries and pharmacies are open.

I needed to get something at the pharmacy, and asked if we could stop by one. She reminded me it was Sunday, and the pharmacy was closed. Cue bluescreen in my brain. But, they're pharmacies. Surely not /everything/ is closed. "No hun," she says, "it's Sunday. Stores are closed on Sunday." You could practically hear my brain doing a dial tone as I tried to process this very simple idea.

My aunt once argued with me that H2O was was not two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen, but a word on its own—maybe spelled Aitchtwooh? I was never clear on that. “It’s just another word for water it doesn’t stand for anything.” I was 13. I still get mad remembering it.

I had to explain to a 30 year old man who has lived with women for years and dated plenty that tampon sizes have nothing to do with how small a person is.

He genuinely thought tampons came in different sizes due to women having different sizes vaginas depending on how tall and big they were. So many wrong assumptions it still confounds me. I had to explain both that vaginas dont work like that, and that tampon sizes are due to how much they can absorb. His mind was blown.

There was a trend thing going around the internet some time ago about asking men where a period pad goes/what it sticks to.

My husband, who I’d been living with for five years and who grew up with two sisters, said we must stick it right to our vulvas. This is also what my dad and both my siblings’ partners said SMH. It just never occurred to them that it sticks to our underwear!

Having lunch outside with a group of colleagues, all professionals with minimum of a masters, and several were shocked to hear that there are different kinds of clouds and that they have names, ie cirrus, nimbus, etc. I was gobsmacked, as I learned all that in maybe 6th grade.

I was watching a sunset at the beach with a friend when she asked me why the ocean doesn't extinguish the sun when the sun goes under the water. She was young, but an adult. Had a short conversation about the sun, the earth, and the rotation of the earth.

My mom thought Liechtenstein was a fictional country in A Knight’s Tale.

My friend and I went grocery shopping, she bought like 5 milks, she saw my questioning face and she said they drank a lot of milk so I shrugged it off. A week or so later she tells me all of the milk has spoiled. Took a while to figure out what went wrong, and when we finally did, I couldn't believe it. She didn't know there was fresh milk that needs to be refrigerated, and shelf-stable that does not. She of course bought the fresh milk, not knowing any better, and put it in the pantry. Apparently her mom only ever bought shelf-stable milk and she had no idea that any other kind even existed. We were in our early twenties and she had a pretty sheltered life so it wasn't THAT surprising, but I teased her about it for years.

Reverse situation here. My husband is Swedish and we met on holidays in a third country. The first time he visited me in Australia he was cooking dinner for us and was rattling through the utensils draw for ages before he asked me “where is your potato stick?”

I was laughing hysterically, what the hell is a potato stick?!”

Turns out it’s just a skewer but it’s a common utensil over there- as soon as he got home he sent me a potato stick and it’s still a huge joke in our house now.

I grew up near the beach, my bf grew up near freshwater lakes. Very early on I took him to my hometown. We went in the ocean. He said, it’s salty! He knew intellectually that the ocean is salty but hadn’t really experienced it much and the extreme saltiness surprised him.

My friend and I (both 30 at the time) were decorating for a party. I was blowing up balloons. She asked me why they weren't floating up to the ceiling. I was like what do you mean? She genuinely thought all balloons should behave like helium balloons. I had to explain the difference to her.

For years, my husband told me I must have some sort of dental problem because I had excessively bad breath. I went to the dentist regularly and nothing was wrong, and nobody else in my life seemed to notice. But I stressed out about it, kept mints on hand, was very careful with dental hygiene, etc.

Then one day he remarked on how it was really only bad in the morning. I drilled down into that for a bit, and found out that he'd never heard of morning breath. He had no idea that bad breath in the morning was normal, or that he had it too.

So now I've got a lifelong complex about my breath because my first husband never paid attention to a mouthwash commercial.

I had one of those. I grew up in a medium-sized city (~35,000 people) that was also a major travel/shipping hub. I spent 18 years thinking that *all gas stations* were open 24hrs. I went to college in a small town and was like....WTH? How is everything closed? What if you run out of gas after 8pm? Where do you buy cigarettes at 2am?

People were like...you don't. You have to wait til morning.

I'm still shocked by it TBH!

My dad has a PhD and genius level IQ. He once took his car to the mechanic because the windshield wiper fluid wasn't working. The mechanic checked and told him it was because the windshield wiper fluid was out and needed to be replaced.