# What qualifies as the stupidest thing you've ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2005, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330 "2005-03-26T07:12:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/21 "2005-03-27T00:16:42Z")
That idiot my brother married. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/22 "2005-03-27T02:01:52Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Steve Irwin dangling his baby infront of a aligator. All-time stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. I used to volunteer at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, usually near the tigers. The number of parents who would set their small children on the rails over the tiger moat was truly frightening. If one fell, I’m pretty sure the tiger would have it before it hit the water. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/23 "2005-03-27T02:24:15Z")
In person, the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen may be some drunk people on the beach on a July 4 with fireworks. They lit one, and it didn’t go off, and then they went up and poked at it like Wile E. Coyote. _Twice_. It didn’t blow either time, but dude. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/24 "2005-03-27T02:24:57Z")
Probably people who visit the Southwest and feed the ground squirrels while standing next to signs that say “Do not feed rodents. They may carry Bubonic Plague.” (Yeah, plague is rare but if you get it the results aren’t pretty.) ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/25 "2005-03-27T03:04:38Z")
A mother left her baby in a stroller outside to go buy coffee. :rolleyes: Luckily, I stayed there until the ass-hatted mother came back. Some people just should not fucking reproduce. This bitch was one of them. ---
**Author:** ![a\_pirahna\_brother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@a\_pirahna\_brother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_pirahna_brother)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/26 "2005-03-27T03:25:58Z")
Next door neighbor was cutting down some trees and managed to get one of them hung up, not a big deal, I’ve had to happen to me. What happened next was sheer idiocy. He stood directly under the tree, held the chainsaw at or above chest height, and preceeded to make his first cut. Amazingly, he didn’t cut through the tree, hen then stepped out from under it, make the back cut, the tree dropped 5’ and was still hung up, so he repeated the process of standing under it and cutting at least 3 or 4 times. He ended up repeating this procedure off and on over the next couple of months, this guy cut a tree down to save his life. He never got hurt or anything, blind luck in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/27 "2005-03-27T03:53:47Z")
A guy comes into my workplace (radio station) as a friend of somebody who works there. Wangles his way into doing a “time study”, to see what everyone does, at what time, in which studio, for how long, etc. Everyone kept a diary for a week. We submitted them. Never heard another word about it. Same guy slimes his way into a position as Productions Manager, despite never having been in a radio station before. Gets put in charge of finishing an important project that had been bogged down by incompetence and office politics. He hires several twenty-somethings from the A/V course at school to help edit. He makes the company buy $30,000 worth of equipment to finish this job. He hires some guy taking music at university to compose the soundtrack. It is putrid, unsynchronized, cheesy, MIDI sludge. They use it anyway. The series is finished. The kids drift off. The guy has an argument with management and gets fired. The station loses the funding for his position and can’t get it back. The series is launched, with most of the people who did the work uncredited. There is no response. We never hear about it again. $30,000 worth of equipment is gathering dust, because it’s so complicated that we don’t know how to use it. The cost of this project, in excess of $100,000 from inception to completion, has gone entirely to waste. I think that’s pretty freakin’ stupid. ---
**Author:** ![a\_pirahna\_brother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@a\_pirahna\_brother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a_pirahna_brother)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/28 "2005-03-27T16:59:59Z")
This sentance _should_ be: > [@a pirahna brother](#): > > He ended up repeating this procedure off and on over the next couple of months, this guy **couldn’t** cut a tree down to save his life. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/29 "2005-03-28T01:46:16Z")
The Premier showing of “The Office” on NBC. Touted as brilliant new comedy destined to be the latest and greatest in prime time. I came to my conclusion early and stayed with it to the bitter end to confirm my evaluation of it being one of if not the stupidest so called comedy I had ever had the misfortune to have witnessed. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/30 "2005-03-28T02:24:33Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > That would probably have to be my brother in law microwaving chili in a metal dish. And watching it with VERY closely with his two sons (aged 4 and 8) at either side of him. When I called him on it, he said "What, it isn’t _sparking!"_ I just left and let him continue to keep a close eye on it. What can I say the guy is a total :wally We’ve all heard that you don’t put metal in the microwave. But why? I realize, reading this, that I’ve never been told what exactly is supposed to happen when you put metal in the microwave. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/31 "2005-03-28T15:09:03Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > We’ve all heard that you don’t put metal in the microwave. But why? I realize, reading this, that I’ve never been told what exactly is supposed to happen when you put metal in the microwave. Anyone? It’s supposed to spark. I know this from experience- I’ve watched classmates stick blank CDs into the microwave. :rolleyes: This can cause a fire, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/32 "2005-03-28T15:46:50Z")
The Master speaks on microwaving metal: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a940923a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a940923a.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/33 "2005-03-28T15:55:30Z")
That’s odd. I don’t remember the OP being blue? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/34 "2005-03-28T15:55:51Z")
Stupidest thing? That’d be my “adult” uncle and my brother playing a game in the woods which involved shooting each other with BB guns. My brother was a young teenager at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/35 "2005-03-28T16:07:05Z")
Ahh, bb guns. A friend of mine discharged a magazine of sixteen pellets at point blank range into the face of another friend. Fortunately the guy was ok because what the other friend did was discharge the gas, which doesn’t push the pellets out at full power (He assumed it wouldn’t push pellets out at all but it did) I myself was shot in the face with a bb gun. I was very lucky. The bb hit the hard part of my nose dead center. ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/36 "2005-03-28T16:09:35Z")
My parents’ next-door neighbor provided most of the truly stupid sights I’ve seen. I watched him trim his hedges with an electric chainsaw while he stood in a puddle of water. Mom and I just peered out the kitchen window, waiting for the “bzzt” sound and the sparks. He somehow didn’t electrocute himself. After an ice storm, he wanted to get the ice off his roof because it was leaking around the chimney. He did so with an axe. Then he complained that the roof leaked even worse. He wanted to reduce the amount of light coming into his dining room, so he hung one of those roll-up bamboo blinds. On the outside of the window. 😕 He liked to practice his golf swing in his backyard, by hitting golf balls toward the plate glass window on the back of the house, rather than toward the empty field behind the yard. (He also ended up hitting a lot of golf balls into our backyard, so enterprising six-year-old that I was, I collected them and sold them back to him, for about a dollar a dozen. He humored me, and paid. Dad was also paying me for picking them up out of the yard so he wouldn’t mow over them. I cleaned up on that scheme. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330/37 "2005-03-29T03:33:09Z")
> [@spingears](#): > > The Premier showing of “The Office” on NBC. Touted as brilliant new comedy destined to be the latest and greatest in prime time. I came to my conclusion early and stayed with it to the bitter end to confirm my evaluation of it being one of if not the stupidest so called comedy I had ever had the misfortune to have witnessed. Hah! I switched over to “Life on a Stick”. Thanks for confirming my view of the thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-qualifies-as-the-stupidest-thing-youve-ever-seen/296330.md?page=1)