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30 Times People Realized They’re Not The Brightest Crayon In The Box, As Shared In This Online Group
Our life consists of deeds and actions, both smart and not, and often it is extremely difficult to draw a line between the first and second. And it's true that something which could be perceived as a flagrant manifestation of stupidity with time, at the moment of the action itself, could look quite reasonable and logical.
And yet, there are situations when people did something, and then literally on the spot understood that it was incredibly stupid. So here's our selection of similar stories based on the viral thread from the Askreddit community, which is simply bound to put you in a good mood.
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I was talking on the phone with my mom. After a while I got frustrated because I couldn't find my phone any where. I told my mom about it and she replied: "wait a second, I'll hang up and then call it so you can find it". I figured out how dumb I was as I was staring the ringing phone in my hand. We had a good laugh about it. But apple really doesn't fall far from the tree.
When someone told me they had the same name as me; I said "Really? What's your name?"
Needless to say, I felt like dying
I was out clothes shopping when I spotted someone I recognised. We made eye contact and smiled at each other. It was just then I realised I was walking towards a full length mirror.
Found a lost smartphone when walking somewhere. It was the exact same model as my own phone. Dropped it off at the nearest police station so they could contact the owner. Found out later that i had dropped off my own phone in stead of the one i found.
One time I went to the pet shop to buy a hamster, I bought huge cage for him, some food, but when I went home, I realized, that I forgot to buy hamster.
Better than buying the hamster and forgetting everything else. Then you're that weird person who carries a hamster every place they go.
Opened drawer to look for something, don't see what I need. Start to close drawer, spot thing I wanted in the first place, reach hand back in while still closing drawer with other hand. Shut hand in drawer.
My bf was weighing our suitcases the night before a flight. He did the classic, step on the scale and then step on the scale with the suitcase and do the math technique. One of the bags was a couple of kg over the limit so I reassured him that by morning he will have lost a bit of weight which might help get back under the limit. Didn't think that one through.
Edit: Thank you kind strangers for my very first awards!
I said out loud. “Wouldn’t it be crazy it Halloween fell on a Friday the 13th” it would be crazy because that’s not how dates work
I spent a good 45 seconds trying to open a can of beans with a can opener and couldnt for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong. I remember thinking it had been awhile since I'd opened a can but really?
Then I took a good, hard look at what I was doing and realized I was trying to open an can with a potato peeler.
My divorce finalized in early 2017.
In late 2017, I got back together with my ex-wife.
Sitting across from my ex-wife in a Mexican restaurant in late 2019 after our thousandth argument, I very calmly, but firmly, said "we're the stupidest people on the f*****g planet." She agreed.
A couple days later she moved out.
I'm from the south and dated a girl when I was younger. First time meeting her mom, in a heavy New York accent, she asked me, "you like dogs?" I said, "no thanks, I'm not hungry."
It took me way too long to realize she was talking about the two giant pets they had, which were literally in between us, and not f*****g hot dogs.
I put my phone in the freezer to charge. I remember having the thought that it would actually work. Several hours later, I couldn't find my phone. When someone called me, my brain refused to put together that the reason why my fridge was playing music was that my phone was in it. I just thought it was a feature I had missed.
Went to the store to buy coffee.
Got home with pasta, lettuce and milk.
I forgot the coffee.
I used to work at a lovely deli around two, three (?) Years ago. Some of the beverages we offered was fresh, hot coffee. A gentleman walked in and asked for a coffee with lots of cream. Not a problem, says I. I pull out the cream, take the lid off, and my boss reminds me to shake it first. Not a problem, I think again, and shake the (open, lidless carton of light cream) sending cream all over the floor, counter, fridge, etc. Everyone in the deli just stopped and stared at me for a few of the longest seconds of my life. Made me rethink so much of my life.
I once talked to my gf about the impressive records of Cristiano Ronaldo in football; in her next sentence she asked: how old is Ronaldo?
To which I stupidly replied: who's Ron Aldo?
Edit: Thx for the award, I'm not American, but if I were I'd vote for Bi Den.
Not me, but my sister. One time, she went to go put a glass of water in the microwave to help keep her food moist, but the glass was too tall. Instead of getting a smaller glass out of the cabinet, she poured half the water out into the sink. The glass still wouldn't fit in the microwave, and she realized after what she had done.
I was working with my deaf coworker and the store we worked at was having a sale on airpod pros. I FORGOT he wouldn't be able to use them and was miming to him that he should buy some. He just pointed to his ears and shook his head. Then to make it worse, I kept trying to sign to him that I was sorry and kept signing thank you instead. He at least got a good laugh out of it.
I was in my late 30's before I realized you can raise the lever on the toaster to lift up the toast and easily grip it... instead of playing Operation with your fingers and the toaster slots.
My son drives me crazy because he forces the toaster to pop without pushing the button and never used the timer and he's a millenial. He's broken seven toasters in five years, I've told him if he wants toast he has to buy a new one and I refuse to teach him to make toast under the grill. If I had a superpower it would be refusing to do anything I don't want to. Only realised I had it in my 50's.
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My Grandma always had wooden tongs that I never knew what they were for, but they were for toast. Lifting the lever is way better.
I much prefer to use my toast tongs, especially if it's something small like an English muffin. No chance at all of burning myself on either the toast or the appliance, plus if the bread gets stuck I can reach all the way down to the bottom of the slot to pull it free.
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As a kid I always thought the numbers on the toaster were "levels of toasty-ness" instead of, you know, minutes
Depends on the type of toaster. Some it's minutes, others it's toastiness level.
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Wannabe home ninja move: You flick the lever up quickly so the toast flies up into the air above the toaster. Then you grab it mid air. I happened to do this one day in front of my then young grandson. Caught two slices of toast together between my finger and thumb. "WOW Grandpa! How did you DO that?!" I got unintended street cred that day. PS - this "feature" is mostly newer toasters. When I was young most toasters had stronger springs and would stay all the way up on their own.
I didn't actually realize it myself. I mentioned having trouble getting the toast out and my brother showed me the trick lol, never occurred to me that it wasn't as high as it could go.
I knew an elderly relative who had a little pair of wooden tongs for getting the bread out of the toaster!
Yeah! You have to remove all the breadcrumbs sooner or later anyway!
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During a dental appointment, my dentist asked me to bite down on this little strip of like sand paper? Not sure what it’s called exactly, but she says okay now “tap, tap, tap” but while she said it, she motioned with her hands like this:👌🏽 .. what she meant was tap my teeth down on the sand paper a few times... I took it as okay I’ll tap my fingers together - and just mimicked her gesture. She was trying so hard not to laugh at me when I realized what I had done
Me: "You know I've had better Mondays, but I've also had worse". My co-worker: "Good thing it's Tuesday so"
This one time I was asked to ref a football match, was gonna flip a coin to decide which team would start. I asked for a rep from each team, asked the first guy whether he was picking heads or tails. He picked heads. I asked the other guy what he was going to pick.
Reading my shampoo bottle and it said "30 uses." I thought of 1. Shampoo and 2. Emergency body wash before I thought of 3. I am an idiot.
In my kitchen I have one cabinet for bowls and plates and another one for cups. This hasn't changed since moving into the house four years ago.
About 75% of the time, I open the wrong cabinet to get what I need. Even when I try really hard to focus on opening the right cabinet, I still regularly get it wrong.
That was the final straw that validated my stupidity.
Me: "Hey, have you seen my glasses?"
Her: "Did you check the fridge?"
And there they are just like the 100 other times I can't find my glasses. Why do I put them in the fridge?
This conversation with my boss.
"I will be in late tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment."
"Is everything ok?"
"Yes, why do you ask?"
I threw up in the middle of a school day last week and had to be sent home. I came to school the next day and people asked me if I was doing well. I calmy answered, “yes, why?”
Not me but my sister had this realisation when I challenged her confident proclamation that she wanted to sit at the back of the roller coaster to get a longer ride!
I said, "I'm consistent just not all the time." And it really had to be pointed out to me
Deployed, heard word of an unidentified drone flying relatively close to our area, so I’m just sitting there staring up at the night sky. I really have never seen a drone during the night time, so I didn’t really know what altitude to expect them to be flying at, or if they had lights on, so I was pretty clueless. This dim light catches my eyes as I’m scanning the sky and I focus in on it. The light seems to be getting bigger and bigger, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. So i ended up calling it up over the radio for the guys I was working with to come outside and take a look. They came outside, looked at the light in the sky I was pointing at, looked back at me, and then called me a dumbass. It was clouds slowly drifting in front of the moon. So I think that one was a mix of my own stupidity and tiredness
Birds aren't real, and neither are clouds. They're all government spy drones.
I guess it's ironic in some ways, but when I allow myself to be baited into replying to an idiotic stupid person/comment. That's pretty dumb in itself although it's tempting as f**k (check my history, I just did it, lol). I'm either feeding a troll or allowing my emotions to be somewhat aggravated, and over what? Over text on a screen from someone I'll never meet and who has NO influence on my life (other than what I give them) whatsoever. I may as well be arguing with a bot and it's not like you ever change someone's opinion or bring them to a realization *they're* the idiot. Not gonna happen. What's the saying, oh yeah. Don't argue with a stupid person, they'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. I've been downvoted before because of being misread and I felt like "noooooo, you don't understand, I'm not the idiot you thought I was I'm actually smart, nooooo" - like holy Christ, what was I thinking, it's *meaningless*.
Since being concussed.
I won’t say I wasn’t stupid before the concussion but I know for sure I’m stupider now and it’s a strange sense of loss.
5 or 6 concussions - I forget :-) and a brain bleed. Definite decline in IQ, memory, physical aptitude, etc. Be careful, once you get a concussion, It's MUCH easier to get additional.
Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I had temporary brain damage after an accident. During recovery I went to walk my dog one day, checked and double checked that I had everything, keys, leash, poop bags etc. Forgot to take my dog.
Hope you are doing well. My Dad had a stroke that didn't impact him physically too much but we quickly found out he was having some processing issues when he darn near burned the kitchen down and put sugar in the eggs instead of salt.
Load More Replies... I was reading a paperback novel and found myself looking for the comments section so I could say something smartarse about the paragraph I'd just read.
Lmao done this. Didn’t realise why it hadn’t worked until 3 chapters later
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My daughter dropped her keys on our doorway (apt building). I stuck a note in the elevator saying "if you've found a set of keys, please contact me on floor X apt X . I told my then boyfriend and after a 5 second pause he told me, very calmly "are you sure.... it's a good idea to give out your address when looking for your keys?". It was only then that it clicked. I called my daughter to change the note immediately to the phone number. I went to university and everything, if you're wondering. And yet.
I once texted my dad, asking him to call my phone. Still have the screenshots to prove it.
Stupid implies an intelligence issue. These are what i call brain farts
I was brushing my teeth when I noticed a scuff mark on the floor of my bathroom. I crouched down to examine it and at the same time had the thought I had too much toothpaste froth in my mouth. So proceeded to spit it out over the scuff mark 🤨
lol, reminds me of the time my cat jumped in the sink as i was brushing my teeth & i immediately thought, "good thing i wasn't about to spit out my toothpaste!" ... which prompted me to spit out my toothpaste all over the cat 😬
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Mine happened just over a week ago. I work on a ferry, right before rough seas I was asked to sweep out the walk in freezer. No big deal. Rough seas happened, I heard a bang in dry storage next to me, set down my broom and dust pan, closed the freezer door and went to go deal with something on wheels breaking free. Only as I was leaving, I didn't notice the broom fall and it managed to jam itself under the door latch, preventing it from opening. Engineers had to remove the door. Best part to me is while I was going through the ship safety training, my trainer pointed out that there is no boxes or anything stacked near the door incase something breaks free of the system in place to keep everything from falling, because sometimes it does depending on how rough it gets, yo prevent the latch on the inside from getting jammed. I really don't want to go back to work next week.....
I was momentarily shocked that my sister, who is four years younger than me, was born four years after me as well! WHAT A COINCIDENCE!!!
During one of the Atlanta Braves' championship runs, the Cincinnati Reds were our closest competition and my family kept up with their score while we watched ATL. During one game, my mom asked if I had checked on the Reds' game. No Internet at the time, so we cruise through all the sports channels during breaks to find the score. Eventually we give up. My dad pops in to check on the Braves-Reds score. "Braves are winning, Dad, but we haven't found the Reds score even though they're scheduled to play." God bless my father: "That ain't the Reds batting?" Yes, Dad, yes, it is and Mom and I just spent over an hour being total idiots while watching the Reds and ATL play each other. 20+ years and my entire family (including Mom and me) still joke about it and ask if the Reds are playing or what their score is. The look my mom gives me can be withering when I ask her the score of the opposing team we are currently watching play an ATL team.
When I was a teenager, I was playing with my nephew who was a baby. He had one of those toys that attaches to a crib or wall with a suction cup and the baby can bat it around. I thought it would be funny to attach it to my forehead while playing with him. Spent a week with a perfectly round “hickey” on my forehead. I think that was the first time I used makeup. But hey, I was a fun aunt!
My memory recall has gotten so bad (at least, I think it used to be better. I don’t actually remember lol) and it really does make me feel like an idiot. Even the simplest conversations are a struggle because I keep forgetting what I was saying halfway through a sentence
Well, once I searched for the remote, something like 30 minutes or so amd it was very inconvenient, since I had only one hand free at the time... I very rarely look for my glasses whilst wearing them but regularly freak out about the whereabouts of my phone when calling someone and wanting to check things (Google maps for instance).
Thanks for the advice! I'll try that! I sometimes get frustrated with the memory things, but this might help. Thanks so much 😸 But hey look on the bright side! Every movie I have ever watched before covid is all new to discover again, same with books! So I can sink back into the ones I remembered I loved, and they are all new for me to discover why again.
Since I got Covid, I can't smell the dog's farts. Wife and daughter are gagging and I'm like, what's the problem?
Load More Replies... I can just feel myself getting stupider since high school. I've never had the greatest of memory, but now I definitely struggle with remembering lots of things and things I had come very easy to me are now harder. Getting older sucks.
I worked at a branch of an organisation where I was the only woman. Later on I got transferred to another branch and a friend of mine asked how many women does this branch has? I said three. But then I said four. There is one on maternity leave and she is a woman too. My friend replied "it's good that you cleared the one on maternity leave is a woman!"
My ex wife legitimately asked me if pigs had bones. So there's that gem lol
I ak the kid that they used to call really smart etc. But this is too realistic. I am Smart in math class but not in real life. Sometimes i wish to smart in other ways...
I had temporary brain damage after an accident. During recovery I went to walk my dog one day, checked and double checked that I had everything, keys, leash, poop bags etc. Forgot to take my dog.
Hope you are doing well. My Dad had a stroke that didn't impact him physically too much but we quickly found out he was having some processing issues when he darn near burned the kitchen down and put sugar in the eggs instead of salt.
Load More Replies... I was reading a paperback novel and found myself looking for the comments section so I could say something smartarse about the paragraph I'd just read.
Lmao done this. Didn’t realise why it hadn’t worked until 3 chapters later
Load More Replies... My daughter dropped her keys on our doorway (apt building). I stuck a note in the elevator saying "if you've found a set of keys, please contact me on floor X apt X . I told my then boyfriend and after a 5 second pause he told me, very calmly "are you sure.... it's a good idea to give out your address when looking for your keys?". It was only then that it clicked. I called my daughter to change the note immediately to the phone number. I went to university and everything, if you're wondering. And yet.
I once texted my dad, asking him to call my phone. Still have the screenshots to prove it.
Stupid implies an intelligence issue. These are what i call brain farts
I was brushing my teeth when I noticed a scuff mark on the floor of my bathroom. I crouched down to examine it and at the same time had the thought I had too much toothpaste froth in my mouth. So proceeded to spit it out over the scuff mark 🤨
lol, reminds me of the time my cat jumped in the sink as i was brushing my teeth & i immediately thought, "good thing i wasn't about to spit out my toothpaste!" ... which prompted me to spit out my toothpaste all over the cat 😬
Load More Replies... Mine happened just over a week ago. I work on a ferry, right before rough seas I was asked to sweep out the walk in freezer. No big deal. Rough seas happened, I heard a bang in dry storage next to me, set down my broom and dust pan, closed the freezer door and went to go deal with something on wheels breaking free. Only as I was leaving, I didn't notice the broom fall and it managed to jam itself under the door latch, preventing it from opening. Engineers had to remove the door. Best part to me is while I was going through the ship safety training, my trainer pointed out that there is no boxes or anything stacked near the door incase something breaks free of the system in place to keep everything from falling, because sometimes it does depending on how rough it gets, yo prevent the latch on the inside from getting jammed. I really don't want to go back to work next week.....
I was momentarily shocked that my sister, who is four years younger than me, was born four years after me as well! WHAT A COINCIDENCE!!!
During one of the Atlanta Braves' championship runs, the Cincinnati Reds were our closest competition and my family kept up with their score while we watched ATL. During one game, my mom asked if I had checked on the Reds' game. No Internet at the time, so we cruise through all the sports channels during breaks to find the score. Eventually we give up. My dad pops in to check on the Braves-Reds score. "Braves are winning, Dad, but we haven't found the Reds score even though they're scheduled to play." God bless my father: "That ain't the Reds batting?" Yes, Dad, yes, it is and Mom and I just spent over an hour being total idiots while watching the Reds and ATL play each other. 20+ years and my entire family (including Mom and me) still joke about it and ask if the Reds are playing or what their score is. The look my mom gives me can be withering when I ask her the score of the opposing team we are currently watching play an ATL team.
When I was a teenager, I was playing with my nephew who was a baby. He had one of those toys that attaches to a crib or wall with a suction cup and the baby can bat it around. I thought it would be funny to attach it to my forehead while playing with him. Spent a week with a perfectly round “hickey” on my forehead. I think that was the first time I used makeup. But hey, I was a fun aunt!
My memory recall has gotten so bad (at least, I think it used to be better. I don’t actually remember lol) and it really does make me feel like an idiot. Even the simplest conversations are a struggle because I keep forgetting what I was saying halfway through a sentence
Well, once I searched for the remote, something like 30 minutes or so amd it was very inconvenient, since I had only one hand free at the time... I very rarely look for my glasses whilst wearing them but regularly freak out about the whereabouts of my phone when calling someone and wanting to check things (Google maps for instance).
Thanks for the advice! I'll try that! I sometimes get frustrated with the memory things, but this might help. Thanks so much 😸 But hey look on the bright side! Every movie I have ever watched before covid is all new to discover again, same with books! So I can sink back into the ones I remembered I loved, and they are all new for me to discover why again.
Since I got Covid, I can't smell the dog's farts. Wife and daughter are gagging and I'm like, what's the problem?
Load More Replies... I can just feel myself getting stupider since high school. I've never had the greatest of memory, but now I definitely struggle with remembering lots of things and things I had come very easy to me are now harder. Getting older sucks.
I worked at a branch of an organisation where I was the only woman. Later on I got transferred to another branch and a friend of mine asked how many women does this branch has? I said three. But then I said four. There is one on maternity leave and she is a woman too. My friend replied "it's good that you cleared the one on maternity leave is a woman!"
My ex wife legitimately asked me if pigs had bones. So there's that gem lol
I ak the kid that they used to call really smart etc. But this is too realistic. I am Smart in math class but not in real life. Sometimes i wish to smart in other ways...
