When you’re learning at school or university, teachers and professors constantly encourage you to ask them questions and follow that with adding that there aren’t stupid questions. But deep down we know that stupid questions exist and some people aren’t afraid to voice them.
Maybe the person who came up with that phrase really underestimated how stupid and clueless people can be. But Twitter user Pey didn’t. She wanted people to tell her what are some stupid question that they have ever received. And there were some ridiculous ones in the thread that were so bad they were hilarious.
Image credits: PeyMamas
Image credits: Sam Davis
We all ask stupid questions from time to time so let’s just have a good laugh from this list. Also, we would be interested to hear what stupid questions people have asked you? If you’re feeling brave, you can share the questions you asked and realised where not necessary.
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The Twitter user who asked the question to receive more questions is Pay and she is a mother and a certified fitness trainer and a nutritionist. Pay explained that she asked the question because she was thinking of how people always ask where she last put an item she is searching for and can’t find. Because if she knew where she put it, it wouldn’t be lost. The tweet didn’t blow up but it got some pretty funny responses and we wanted to show you them.
As mentioned, teachers often tell you that there are no stupid questions. By saying that they want to encourage students to don’t be afraid to show that they don’t know or understand something. They try to convince them that seeking knowledge is always a positive thing.
Another common phrase people say is that there are no stupid question, only stupid answers shifting the unwanted quality from the person who asks to the person who needs to answer. But all in all, the phrase is there to make sure a person seeking knowledge is not being punished for not learning the information yet.
Carl Sagan who was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator and certainly an intelligent person entertained the idea. He wrote in his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark: "There are naïve questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question."
However, there are people who would argue with that. For example, the genius mind himself, Albert Einstein once said, “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” The physicist leads us to believe that the universe may have limits, but people’s lack of intelligence will never cease to surprise.
That could be applied to our today’s topic. If human stupidity is infinite then logically stupid questions do exist because people come up with them.
Friendly piece of advice: don’t call me at 3 am if you want to keep those legs of yours
And the proof is in the pudding. The questions people in this list ask are really unnecessary and you don’t always understand if they are being serious or you’re getting trolled. Maybe it could be fine if children were asking them but it should be unacceptable for grown adults.
At the end of the day we can agree that stupid questions do exist but we shouldn’t be too mad at people who ask them. Maybe they genuinely don’t know and you can be the one to explain an important thing a person should have the knowledge of.
Reminds me of that XKCD comic where completing Mavis Beacon unlocks capital numbers.
What a dumb question. Everyone knows they don’t have birthdays in Korea. They just sort of slowly appear and it’s hard to tell the beginning date
I had a coworker whose religion banned tattoos. Every two weeks she went to someone and had a new henna design drawn on because she loved body art. They were often multicolored because she loved flowers. Depending where the question was asked, it may have been a legitimate query.
There was a strange phase in the early 2000s where girls who could see fine would buy non-prescription glasses from Claire's to look smart.
I have no idea how the USA's army work but yeah.. You are on the army, but which one? Air army, Sea army, Ground army... or whatever it is said in English
Note: this post originally had 36 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
A good half of these questions just sound like the person must’ve been joking. A few of the twitter users also don’t sound the smartest.
I have been asked twice (in Germany and the Netherlands) if my country (Spain) has drinkable water. I know that we are poorer but, yes we have drinkable water and also toilets and roads...
Not having drinkable tap water doesn't necessarily mean poor! I also research that before i travel!
I was once told that the best thing you can do in different countries is to drink bottled water as the local tap water even though it’s drinkable still has the highest chance of giving you a stomach bug due to the different mineral composition. They even recommended to do it even if you’re still in your country but in a different location for the same reason. Easiest example is the USA and travelling between states
This is true. I used to visit a buddy of mine in West Virginia (I live in North Carolina) and I couldn't stomach the tap water there. It had a high sulfer content that made me nauseous. Locals pounded it back like nothing.
Yeah i know it's better not to drink at all i just research just in case i really have to drink and not have other water available
That's true!
The US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet thousands of children can’t drink their own tap water because of lead contamination, and not just in Flint, Michigan.
We (the Dutch) have some of the best quality drinking water in the world, ranking 3rd to 15th place depending on the list and the research. That is without use of chlorine! And even we have a few places where people use a filter, because the calcium level is too high. Being a wealthy/well developed country is no guarantee for perfect tap water (also Katchen, the US is by definition a 3rd world country... People not having access to safe, clean water is 1 of the reasons)
Well most of the good, drinkable, rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain, so the question might have merit for city folk.😉
We have some of the best quality tap water in the world and are taught from being small kids that you always have to check when you're in another country (and that most countries don't have water safe for drinking coming out of the tap). Also where I was in Spain we had to buy bottled, because the tap water wasn't safe to drink. Those are not dumb questions at all!
I was surprised when I lived in Spain that tap water is not drinkable
Uhh... wait, what???
Same for me, I didn't live there but went on holidays. The travel agency warned us that not all tap water is safe to drink, and when we got to the hotel the staff told us in no uncertain terms that we were not to drink any tap water, because it was not safe to drink. This was on the coast, close to Barcelona if that makes any difference
Wth? Spain is known for high quality tap water..
Not everywhere. I had to buy bottled water when I was in Spain, because the tap water was not suitable for consumption. We were warned by the travel agency and on arrival again by the hotel staff to under no circumstance drink tap water
Spain is glorious and sophisticated and very much first world.
In italy you cant drink tapwater everywhere and had to buy bottled water. Thats not a poor country. Your country doesnt have to be poor. It doesnt have to be gross water. It can contain chemicals, lead or diffent minerals. We do know that you have roads and toilets...
More often than not the question "Do you work here?" is eyerolling, I mean what else would I be doing wearing clothes with the store name, logo & name badge on them, but I remember the time I was working at Barnes and Nobel, in the music/movie section, behind the desk, at the register, actively typing on it & got the question. I still can't imagine what that lady thought I was doing back there.
To be fair, “do you work here?” might mean, “in this department,” since I’ve been told by retail workers that they don’t work in the department they happen to be standing in.
No just suffering some of that 'imposter's syndrome', that's all.
On the other hand, a friend and I were in Target. She was wearing khaki pants and a red shirt and accidentally knocked over a part of a display. When she was picking it up an older lady asked her for help finding something. At first we thought it was because she was messing with the display - not even realizing she was basically wearing the Target uniform.
Getting a free book I guess
Hacking??? 😁
A good half of these questions just sound like the person must’ve been joking. A few of the twitter users also don’t sound the smartest.
I have been asked twice (in Germany and the Netherlands) if my country (Spain) has drinkable water. I know that we are poorer but, yes we have drinkable water and also toilets and roads...
Not having drinkable tap water doesn't necessarily mean poor! I also research that before i travel!
I was once told that the best thing you can do in different countries is to drink bottled water as the local tap water even though it’s drinkable still has the highest chance of giving you a stomach bug due to the different mineral composition. They even recommended to do it even if you’re still in your country but in a different location for the same reason. Easiest example is the USA and travelling between states
This is true. I used to visit a buddy of mine in West Virginia (I live in North Carolina) and I couldn't stomach the tap water there. It had a high sulfer content that made me nauseous. Locals pounded it back like nothing.
Yeah i know it's better not to drink at all i just research just in case i really have to drink and not have other water available
That's true!
The US is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet thousands of children can’t drink their own tap water because of lead contamination, and not just in Flint, Michigan.
We (the Dutch) have some of the best quality drinking water in the world, ranking 3rd to 15th place depending on the list and the research. That is without use of chlorine! And even we have a few places where people use a filter, because the calcium level is too high. Being a wealthy/well developed country is no guarantee for perfect tap water (also Katchen, the US is by definition a 3rd world country... People not having access to safe, clean water is 1 of the reasons)
Well most of the good, drinkable, rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain, so the question might have merit for city folk.😉
We have some of the best quality tap water in the world and are taught from being small kids that you always have to check when you're in another country (and that most countries don't have water safe for drinking coming out of the tap). Also where I was in Spain we had to buy bottled, because the tap water wasn't safe to drink. Those are not dumb questions at all!
I was surprised when I lived in Spain that tap water is not drinkable
Uhh... wait, what???
Same for me, I didn't live there but went on holidays. The travel agency warned us that not all tap water is safe to drink, and when we got to the hotel the staff told us in no uncertain terms that we were not to drink any tap water, because it was not safe to drink. This was on the coast, close to Barcelona if that makes any difference
Wth? Spain is known for high quality tap water..
Not everywhere. I had to buy bottled water when I was in Spain, because the tap water was not suitable for consumption. We were warned by the travel agency and on arrival again by the hotel staff to under no circumstance drink tap water
Spain is glorious and sophisticated and very much first world.
In italy you cant drink tapwater everywhere and had to buy bottled water. Thats not a poor country. Your country doesnt have to be poor. It doesnt have to be gross water. It can contain chemicals, lead or diffent minerals. We do know that you have roads and toilets...
More often than not the question "Do you work here?" is eyerolling, I mean what else would I be doing wearing clothes with the store name, logo & name badge on them, but I remember the time I was working at Barnes and Nobel, in the music/movie section, behind the desk, at the register, actively typing on it & got the question. I still can't imagine what that lady thought I was doing back there.
To be fair, “do you work here?” might mean, “in this department,” since I’ve been told by retail workers that they don’t work in the department they happen to be standing in.
No just suffering some of that 'imposter's syndrome', that's all.
On the other hand, a friend and I were in Target. She was wearing khaki pants and a red shirt and accidentally knocked over a part of a display. When she was picking it up an older lady asked her for help finding something. At first we thought it was because she was messing with the display - not even realizing she was basically wearing the Target uniform.
Getting a free book I guess
Hacking??? 😁