How does one recover from Public Humiliation?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m sorry but people calling you muffman and such had me cracking up. Unfortunately you’ll just have to ride this one out, hopefully they’ll find another person to torment sooner then later.

22

Whenever your friends call you “Muffdiver”, they’re actually saying “There for the grace of God go I.” It COULD have happened to them.

A friend told me a story about a college he went to. It was a small college in the middle of nowhere, so people had nothing better to do than to hang out with each other in dorm suites and party.

There was this one guy, a complete social retard, who started whacking off in his chair during one such occasion. A girl looked over and remarked, “Oh, that looks just like a little mushroom!” :eek: He’s been called Shroom ever since.

To make matters worse, they composed a song in his honor, called “Bad to his Bone” (a la George Thorogood) and would start singing DA DADA DA DUMP every time he walked in.

23

That’s hilarious! That said, that really sucks that it had to happen to you. Sounds like you already apologized, though. And at least it sounds like the lady you ran into and her, er, bulldog-like companion, are people you don’t run into very often. Are the people making these comments friends of yours? If so, laugh with them and give them absolute hell next time you see them do something stupid. If people you don’t even know are razzing you about it, all I can say is let all the nasty comments roll of your back. You really can’t stop people from being assholes once they’ve demonstrated their determination to do so. Good luck!

24

My usual response is to say “Oh, how embarassing” because, as mentioned, it precludes others saying “What an idiot.”

But in your case, a bit of a different tack is necessary. You must do what loser children like me did while we were taunted by awful playmates: don’t let it bother you. If they see it getting a rise out of you they will continue. If you laugh along they will get bored and stop.

(I’m reminded of the That 70’s Show where Kelso has an incident in the cafeteria which results in the nickname ‘Tater Nuts.’ Clearly they were just doing it to get a rise out of him, and it always worked … if he hadn’t have gotten so upset, it wouldn’t have been so funny!)

25

Advice from someone who embarasses VERY easily.

  1. Learn to meditate. It is the single most rewarding thing anyone can do in my opinion. It can help you deal with nagging painful memories and help you find solutions to problems.

  2. Learn from your mistakes. You messed up because you were frantically rushing about. Don’t do that. If you are late, so be it. If you need to run, try to be more careful.

  3. How to deal with jerks who keep on jabbing you where it hurts? The most profoundly powerful thing to do is to ignore them. If they are remotely decent, you can tell them it bothers you. If they are not decent, then they aren’t worth your time and you should ditch em.

  4. Use your imagination and think of things that could have happened instead: you could have tripped and broken your neck. You could have tripped and caused someone else to break their neck. A know a guy who is paralyzed. He would kill to be able to tell your story.

  5. At least your humiliating little episode wasn’t recorded on video, distributed all over the world, and become an internet remix phenomenon. (See star wars kid).

  6. Appreciate the fact that that story is a gem, you will enjoy retelling years from now.