Another movie theater scenario.. who was more rude?

In My Humble Opinion
1

After reading the thread on here about movie theater etiquette, I brought up this story to a friend today and a group of her friends… it happened three years ago. My friend thought I was right but her friends all thought I was incredibly rude and insisted on attacking me for how I handled the situation I am about to describe. I am curious who you think was more rude.

I was at the movies with a friend, and the movie had not started. There was a group of girls behind me, maybe one or two years younger than me (so I would have been 17 and them about 16) and they were talking loudly and gossiping about the guys in the theater and who they thought was cute. I was like… okay, until the movie starts, I won’t say anything.

Five minutes into the movie they are still talking loudly and disrupting my ability to focus on the movie, and my friend’s as well. The people all around are going “SHHHH!” to get the girls to be quiet, and they start yelling “Don’t tell me what to do” and keep on with their nonsense. They were also texting, and people were complaining about the light from their phones and the sound of hitting the keys.

So I finally had enough. I turned around and said, “I am here to watch a movie, not listen to your preteen gossip. You paid to see the movie too… now watch it and please be quiet, for everyone’s sake.”

They didn’t. Rather, they started throwing popcorn at the back of my head and down the back of my shirt. I turned around and said, “I asked you nicely the first time to be quiet, and if you do not and also stop throwing things at me, I will go get management.”

They didn’t stop and continued throwing not only popcorn but candy, coins, and God knows what else at the back of my head. eventually I said, “My patience is running out. I will go get management” and then they started swearing at me, so my friend went to get the management or an usher or whoever was the closest worker they could find.

The girls did not stop throwing things at me so I said, “Next person that throws something at me gets their box of candy shoved up their fucking ass. Want to keep testing my patience and see what happens?!”

They were asked to leave the theater, but they kept yelling and swearing at me as they left.

I perhaps should not have said what I did… but Who was more rude?

2

They were more rude. Obviously. Pretty much violating every rule of theater etiquette.

Opposite George at the theater: - YouTube

(Background: George realizes that if every instinct he has is wrong, then the opposite has to be right. So he starts doing the complete opposite of what he would normally do, which becomes his new religion.)

3

They were.

4

so did you take their candy?

5

They were ruder longer, but you made a good attempt at evening it up at the end there. (At which point being rude had become acceptable, mind. It might have been more admirable not to sink to their level, but you were under no obligation to take the high road.)

I think you should have gone to get the management as soon as they started tossing stuff at you, though. It would have saved everybody except the girls (who deserved it) a whole lot of annoyance.

6

You should have just gone to the management much sooner.

7

I’d have gone to get management as soon as they started arguing with the audience members who were telling them to be quiet. At that point it should have been obvious that they weren’t going to shut up no matter what you said to them, and that arguing with them would only make things worse.

And yes, the girls were far more rude.

8

What the hell is wrong with people, honestly? Throwing candy and coins? You should have collected all their money. Fucking raised in a barn.

As others have said, I would have gone to find a manager as soon as the first thing hit the back of my head. I see a clear line drawn between talking and throwing!

9

What did they think was incredibly rude about what you did? How did they think you should have handled the situation?

This is leading me to suspect the they would act, or have acted, the way the girls behind you in the theater were acting.

10

That part was rude and unnecessary. They had already reacted badly to your reasonable requests, how did you expect them to react to this unreasonable one?

You could have gone to management as soon as they started throwing popcorn at you, then the whole thing would have been over a lot quicker and with a lot less disruption for everyone.

Apart from that, they were totally in the wrong.

11

You should have gone to management when they first refused to shut up.

You should have gone to the police when they threw coins.

12

Seriously? Your friends friends could not be more wrong. I agree though that you should have got management sooner.

13

You weren’t rude (at first, anyway) but you should have just gone to get the manager (which I notice you never actually did; your friend had to do it!) instead of getting into a verbal slap-fight with a bunch of 12-year-olds.

Edit: oh, I see you said they were 16. Okay, with a bunch of 16-year-olds. (Why then did you say “preteen gossip”?)

14

I hate people who talk in movies, I don’t mean I hate them while they are talking in movies. All you need to know about a person is that they are the type of person who talks in movie theaters while the movie is running, no one who talks in a theater has ever gone on to make a positive impact in the world in any way. You know who else was a movie talker? Hitler.

15

16-year-old girls are incapable of preteen gossip?

16

It depends, did you remove the candy from the box first or did it go in box and all?

17

Er… the fact that they are teenagers makes it de facto teen gossip instead of preteen gossip, doesn’t it? Perhaps there is some nuanced difference between preteen and teen gossip that I am missing out on here. Anyway, I mentioned it only to explain my initial mistake in saying 12-year-olds instead of 16-year-olds.

18

Why would her friends think that you were rude? What was their rationale and how did they attack you? It sounds like they might be the type of girls to talk, text and throw things in a theater.

19

Those bitches were a bunch of fucking cunts. They weren’t there to see the movie or else they wouldn’t have been the cunts they were. They were there to be cunts and then go home afterwards and giggle to themselves, “Man, we were a bunch of cunts to all those losers. Wasn’t that awesome? What with us being fucking cunts and stuff?”

Exactly. Those bitches are cunts as well.

20

Cite.