# My TV just scolded me **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 20, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809 "2023-06-20T03:41:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![slicedalone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slicedalone/32/12515_2.png) [@slicedalone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slicedalone)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/1 "2023-06-20T03:41:30Z")
I’m watching TV, settling into the couch, carrying a drink, a plate of food, and the remote, trying not to spill one of them on the other (or the couch), and inadvertently hit the button that activates the voice-control thingie on the TV so that it urges me to ask it a question but which also takes up half the TV screen, and I give out with a general “Oh, fuck you!” and the TV gets offended. It says to me (seriously) “Although I am an artificial intelligence here to fulfill your requests, your words still have meaning. Please try to keep a civil tone.” I try to find the button on the remote that will shut off (and shut up) the goddamned AI assistant, but because I never use it, it takes a minute. I do manage to keep my mouth shut so I don’t actually start an argument with the machine. I have seen the future, and it’s absurd. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/2 "2023-06-20T03:43:18Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > I give out with a general “Oh, fuck you!” and the TV gets offended. > > It says to me (seriously) “Although I am an artificial intelligence here to fulfill your requests, your words still have meaning. Please try to keep a civil tone.” - Next time, just give it the finger and see if there’s a hidden camera. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/3 "2023-06-20T03:46:47Z")
Wait until you really piss it off and it orders a few hundred dollars of fiberoptic flowers and digital ice cream from Amazon Prime (using your account, natch), while refusing to show anything but the Hallmark channel until you apologize. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/4 "2023-06-20T03:52:44Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Wait until you really piss it off and it orders a few hundred dollars of fiberoptic flowers and digital ice cream from Amazon Prime (using your account, natch), while refusing to show anything but the Hallmark channel until you apologize. - The Hallmark Channel shows _The Golden Girls, Cheers, Frasier_ and other quality programs. Smurfs, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/5 "2023-06-20T03:56:14Z")
Time for a 12 guage, Double Odd-Buck into that fucker. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/6 "2023-06-20T04:26:44Z")
I’ve heard of this sort of response before on these voice-activated devices. They’ve never seemed like a good idea. If you are actually mad enough to curse out your “assistant,” changes are such a response would just make you more angry. Surely it would better to ignore it. Or hell, just program it to say “sorry.” I don’t think most people want to be lectured to by their devices. Those types of responses seem better reserved for jokes and such. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/7 "2023-06-20T04:55:51Z")
That reads to me like a scene from a Philip K. Dick novel. But he would have played it out further, into an actual argument. And the television would most likely have won. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/8 "2023-06-20T05:00:24Z")
My TV gets mad and just turns itself off on a regular basis. Yes, I know inactivity will cause the service to wig out. But the TV goes off. It’s a bitch and I love her. 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/9 "2023-06-20T05:01:54Z")
> [@slicedalone](#): > > “Although I am an artificial intelligence here to fulfill your requests, your words still have meaning. Please try to keep a civil tone.” "Hey, you work for me, motherfucker!” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/10 "2023-06-20T11:35:05Z")
“What kinda tv do you have?” “Passive-aggressive”. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/11 "2023-06-20T11:42:44Z")
Alexa listens better. And has a better sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/12 "2023-06-20T11:42:46Z")
When our generation dies out nobody will remember the good old days when our electronics were stupid. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/13 "2023-06-20T11:48:47Z")
> **[The Twonky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twonky)** > > The Twonky is a 1953 independently made American black-and-white science fiction/comedy film, produced by A.D. Nast, Jr., Arch Oboler, and Sidney Pink, written and directed by Arch Oboler, and starring Hans Conried, Gloria Blondell, Billy Lynn, and Edwin Max. The film was distributed by United Artists. > After seeing his wife (Janet Warren) off on her trip, Kerry West (Hans Conried), a philosophy teacher at a small-town college goes inside his home to contemplate his new purchase: a television se... ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/14 "2023-06-20T12:25:26Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Alexa listens better. And has a better sense of humor I once asked, “hey Siri, do you love me?” She replied, “oh, look, a puppy!” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/15 "2023-06-20T13:13:03Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I once asked, “hey Siri, do you love me?” 🎵 “Do I **what?!** ” 🎵 ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/16 "2023-06-20T13:15:04Z")
@discobot, do you love me? ---
**Author:** ![discobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/discobot/32/570_2.png) [@discobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/discobot)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/17 "2023-06-20T13:15:06Z")
Hi! To find out what I can do, say `@discobot display help`. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/18 "2023-06-20T13:17:17Z")
I think **discobot** is evading my question. At least the TV and Siri don’t ghost me like that. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/19 "2023-06-20T13:23:48Z")
Siri is a bit of a prude. Alexa and Google are both much more tolerant of foul language. I was very happy to learn that “Ok, google, shut the fuck up!” was a perfectly valid command. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2023, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809/20 "2023-06-20T13:32:05Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Alexa and Google are both much more tolerant of foul language. We had an Alexa $2 add-on that gave us Samuel L Jackson in place of Alexa. It was pretty funny, but we stopped using it due to an embarrassing misuse that happened. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tv-just-scolded-me/985809.md?page=2)