I think you may be right, actually, now that I think about it.
Overheard at the Komodo Dragon exhibit in San Diego, mother to child: “Oh honey, look at this, these are monitoring lizards!”
At the FDR house eons ago:
Kid: Dad, it says Roosevelt was elected president four times.
Father: That’s right.
Kid: But I thought you could only be president twice!
Father: Well he was such a good president they changed the law just for him!
I have one that I thought was funny:
I was in Borders where I saw this woman (she looked like a trashy bitch) over in the religion section where her daughter comes up to her with a book on the Vatican. A book of pictures or something.
“Mom, I found this book on the Vatican for you.”
“[Scoff] I don’t believe in the Vatican.”
“Mom, the Vatican is a real place. It doesn’t matter if you believe in it or not, it’s still going to be there.”
I’ll thumb wrestle you for the title.
There is a poster-sized photo of Helen Keller with her frind Polly Thompson here. This photo, in fact.
“Hey Midge! You have to look at this picture! It’s real nice!”
Midge responds “Wow, that is nice! But how come there’s two of her? Oh wait, I get it. In one, she’s not wearing her glasses.”
I once attended a talk in which the speaker, among other things, was talking about ancient peoples’ knowledge of astronomy. As an example of people tracking the phases of the moon, he showed a slide of something that looked like a calendar. Most of the “days” were blank, but every four weeks, there were a few days with dots, followed by a few days filled in, then another few days with dots.
Unfortunately, I was unable to fight his ignorance, because it wasn’t until after I left the talk that I thought back on it and realized that what he really had was a menstrual chart.
Agreed. I think the OP sounds like someone who enjoys being oh-so-much-more-clever than everyone around her/him. Think Comic Book Guy.
That is hilarious, but mostly because they really DO look a lot alike.
Typical true seal (Phocid). Typical sea lion (Otobenid.)
True seals are substantially the more efficient swimmers, but awkward on land. Sea lions (which include ‘fur seals’) are a compromise group, better able to get around on land but poorer swimmers than true seals. Almost all “seals” in entertainment are sea lions; a properly mounted true seal looks weird to someone not familiar with the difference.
Oh, and Walrus. Elephant seals.
Doesn’t that say less about his knowledge of seals and more about his knowledge of taxidermy?
I had a similar experience. I was at the Silk Road exhibit at the AMNH (it was fabulous, btw, for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet) and there was a family behind us that started talking about Egypt when we got to the section where they talked about the importance of paper as a trade good and communication tool. The daughter was about 20 and started talking about how they have no Jews in Egypt. You know, because Moses made them leave. And then her father said, “The hotel we stayed at in Egypt was down the street from a synagogue. There are Jews in Egypt, they are just assholes.” 
Thinking that I have no place in their conversation I just kept going but they would not stop talking about how horrible Jews are and how they destroy everything. We eventually just stepped aside and let them get a few feet ahead of us so we wouldn’t have to listen any longer.
My eight year old daughter just pointed out that sea lions have ear flaps and seals have holes, so I suppose if they sewed the seal ears shut they would look a bit off.
One of my favourite sites - Overheard Everywhere. Really restores your faith in humanity. 
Oh, quite the contrary. I will be the first to admit when I’m not the smartest or most clever person in the room. I really don’t care one way or the other, actually. I was just genuinely confused over their comments.
I think we can lay the confusion of these two squarely at the flippers of the LOLrus.
But the whole, “They appeared normal enough” and “My jaw nearly dropped” lines come off like you think he’s a mouthbreathing cretin for saying such a stupid thing. And to be honest, I still don’t get the stupidity. As I posted earlier, if anything, it makes me think he’s not sure of how taxidermy works–and I don’t think most people know that. Based on my own and others’ reactions it’s not really all that stupid a think to say so I’m not sure why you’re acting as though it was so bizarre/ignorant.
Right- along with “oh-so-charming gentleman” and the description of how they rushed through the exhibit. Don’t back-pedal OP: “Taking longer than we thought, indeed.” That’s not a sentiment of genuine confusion, that’s condescension.
Any chance we can get these two families together?
(I’m imagining “Why were they hiding?” “THEY WERE FUCKING JEWS!”)
I beg to differ. Not ONE of those creatures was rampant.
