I have an Ex BF who may be the most beautiful man I have ever been able to see naked without getting arrested or paying a large sum of money, is without a doubt a freaking moron.
True story-I rented the movie Philadephia and he asked me what city I thought it took place in.
Back to the OP, pretty dumb boy and I would go to a movie.
PDB: Who’s that?
Me: I don’t know
PDB: Why is he doing that?
me: I don’t know
PDB: wait, what happened to that other guy?
me: I don’t know
and this would go on and on…until one day I just yelled at him and told him to shut up since I was watching the same movie that he was, so how the hell would I know? And if he would shut up for 5 seconds and actually WATCH the damn thing, maybe he could figure it out on his own.
I would have married him if he lost the ability to speak.
Miss Creant, I once babysat a five-year old who did that all the time when we were watching tv. In a five-year old, I can somewhat forgive it. Anyone older and I agree with your assessment of ‘shut up and watch the danged thing for yourself’.
You just need to add some variety to your answers:
“I’m clueless about the whole matter.”
“You know as well as I do.”
“I’m not lieing when I say that I don’t know.”
“You are as likely to get any factual information out of me as you are from that wall.”
“I could make a tape of me saying ‘I don’t know’ for you to play repeatedly, rather than forcing you to ask me these questions.”
“Nope, wording it that way didn’t magically impart the information to me either, but please continue.”
etc.
If you don’t care whether you have the chicken or the lasagna, why don’t you just pick one instead of making your poor sainted mother go through all that?
Best way to deal with someone who doesn’t understand “I don’t know” is to exercise any leverage over them you can. This was especially effective in my previous job at the health insurance company.
Clueless member: I got that drug for $5 before, why is it $15 now?
Me: It was always supposed to be $15.
CM: Then why was I getting it for $5 before?
Me: I don’t know.
CM: No, why was I able to get it for $5 for the last two years and now I can’t.
Me: I don’t know. You weren’t supposed to get it for $5. If you’d like, I can have all of your claims reprocessed and see if they come up at $15 copays. Then you’ll get a bill from the pharmacy for several hundred dollars. Shall I have your claims reprocessed?
CM: No, that’s OK.
Me: Thanks for calling (disconnects call) jackass.
I don’t care. Pick one for me. Either one is fine. You have more important things to do than try to get the answer to a meaningless question. I’m not going to complain about what I’m served at a wedding, even if it’s a severed baby’s head. It’s their special day.
But, yes, as I admitted in my previous post, I do realize that such a response can be misconstrued. I try to avoid it by now and just pick the first option I’m given in circumstances like that.
Miss Creant - My wife used to do something similar.
In her defense, when we’re watching TV or a movie and the characters impart information to the audience in a way that’s not direct I’m generally able to figure out what’s going on faster than she is. (Strange considering that she’s smarter than me at all other times.)
The problem is that she can’t tell the difference between info that she hasn’t picked up on yet and info we as an audience simply don’t know. We’ve had a little talk about the questions and all is well.
In one of my wittier moments: I was working at my desk in a job I had a few years ago, and a certain Pam approaches me and says “Who is that out in the lobby?”
My desk wasn’t in the lobby, it was two hallways and several walls and partitions away from the lobby. So I squinted in the general direction of the lobby and then said, “Must be Lex Luthor, cause my X-Ray vision isn’t working.”
Of course there is always this with my mom and dad when we are going out to eat,
Dad: So where do you want to go?
Mom: I don’t care.
Me; How about Harold’s?
Dad: OK.
Mom: I don’t like Harold’s, it’s too noisy.
Dad; Then where do you want to go?
Mom: I don’t care, you guys pick?
Me: Let’s go to El Tepeyac.
Dad: OK
Mom: No, I am not in the mood for Mexican.
Dad: Then what are you in the mood for?
Mom: Anything but Mexican…
Why not just pick an entree right away? “What would you like, chicken or lasagna?” “I don’t care.” “Well, which would you like.” “The Lasagna.” Instead of making poor mom pester you until you eventually pick one to shut her up?
Maybe they’re asking “Is anyone sitting there who is currently not there because they have temporarily left?”
Ohhh, I hate this. Jim* here at work seems to think I’m Joe’s keeper. Whenever he’s looking for Joe and can’t find him, he comes to my office:
Jim: “Where’s Joe?”
Me: “I don’t know, I saw him earlier.”
And goddess forbid I actually know where Joe is:
Jim: “Where’s Joe?”
Me: “He said he was going to the bank.”
Jim: “What bank?”
Me: “I don’t know”
Jim: “Was it <bank> on 7th?”
Me: “I. Don’t. Know.”
Jim: “When will he be back?”
Me: “I don’t know”
I don’t even work in the same department as Joe, I’m not his boss, why does he think I’m going to have all the details of his damn schedule?
*names changed to protect the innocent.
That is so fucking stupid. A simple yes or no should suffice. And it is a perfectly reasonable way to say it. The part they don’t say, like “is anyone sitting here [but is temporarily gone for some reason, I just want to know if I can use the chair]” is left out for clever people to construe. It would be so ironic if after bitching over something this trivial you would cut off someone in the middle of that sentence with “yes, just take the damn chair!” Language is a flexible tool and the brain is (usually) pretty good at interpreting meanings so people can opt for efficiency when addressind a simple yes/no question.
Whenever I hear such a repy I just think, “jeez, bozo the clown is so damn witty”.
I will usually say “is this chair being used?” or “mind if I take this chair?” but it’s painful to hear replies like that because I can’t roll my eyes that far back in my head. Or I might laugh watching the expenses you would go to make a fool of yourself. Or I might make an outright faked laughter and say “makes me wonder how someone as big as yourself can have such a small brain…”
I see this almost every day, people think they’re friggin Einstein because they pointed out “a glass of water” vs. “a glass with water”.
