See, coin and stamp collectors usually know that others aren’t the slightest bit interested in their hobby, so if they have any social skills at all, they don’t go on and on about it.
I think the ones that get to be the most tedious are the ones who are obsessed with stuff that you DO have some level of interest in. Many of these types have been mentioned in this thread. Examples:
Audiophiles. Yes, I do like music. Yes, I do like it to sound good. No, I don’t want to hear about your cables, and I don’t want to improve my cables.
Bodybuilders. Yes, I am concerned with exercise and nutrition. Yes, I would like to get in better shape. No, I don’t care about your affection for Super-Mega-Pumparoid powder.
Oenophiles. Yes, I do like wine. Yes, I would like to learn more about wine. No, I don’t want to know the difference between a 2001 Chateau Sceubideaux and a 2002 Chateau Sceubideaux, especially given that I’ve never tasted either.
You get the idea.
The ones I find to be the most tedious wankers are Foodies. And I’m a bit of a foodie myself. But jeez! With some of them, everything has gotta be so perfect and so wonderful and so authentic and so fresh! AUGH! SHUT UP! I just want to sit 'em down and make 'em eat Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for a week as punishment.
Did you mean motorcyclists or bicyclists? I met a guy once who had to drop his girlfriend because she was cutting into his bike-riding time. How messed up is that???
Not so much nowadays that computers have become a commodity item, but computer hobbyists used to be terribly tedious and painfully prolix. I remember, 20 something years ago, being cornered at work by someone who thought I was interested in his new DOS machine and having to chew my own leg off to escape.
“Gamers” win by a mile. By two miles, even. I’d rather spend time with whoever has the biggest porn collection than the guy who owns the most Magic cards.
[wanker]You clearly aren’t a gamer. Not only did you neglect to specify what kind of saving throw, but the standby phrase is “roll for initiative!”. It’s a pet peeve of mine that whenever someone mocks D&D, they invariably get something wrong (with the possible exception of Patton Oswalt). A word of advice: It’s way, way funnier if you get the terminology exactly right.[/wanker]
Much like Priceguy, I make an effort to refrain from talking about D&D and so forth with the uninitiated. I know for a fact that you wouldn’t care that [wanker]my gestalt drow wizard//swordsage has three levels of swashbuckler so he can apply his Int bonus to damage rolls with his elven courtblade[/wanker], so if D&D ever comes up in a conversation, I ask “you don’t play D&D, do you?”; if the answer is no, you can bet that I’ll be mentally screaming at myself to change the topic of conversation ASAP.
People who obsess about television picture and sound quality. Typical conversation:
Obsessor: “Man, I saw <random movie> on my HDTV XFC3000 Super Fat Millicent with 6 million watt surround sound last night! The picture was sharper than anything you’ve ever seen! The sound
was like the war cry of a million Zulus!”
Me: “So… how was, you know, the movie?”
Obsessor: <blank stare>
From these people, you never ever hear how good Kill Bill was or how much Metal Gear Solid 4 kicked ass. They only ever talk about the picture and the sound. Now, I may be overstepping the bounds here, but to me, that is kinda missing the point just a little bit. If you’re not going to enjoy the movie or game, what the hell is the point of all that hardware? If all you care about is picture quality and not what the picture is actually of, I can recommend something whose picture quality gives a Chuck Norris style roundhouse kick to any ass you may point out.
Oh God, I think you win. I live in Utah. Gene-fucking-alogists are every-fucking-where. Salt Lake City is like a Mecca for those people because of the Genealogy Library here.
“Guess who I’m related to!”
“The Emperor I-Don’t-Give-a-Fuck?”
“Guess where I’m from!”
“The shores of I-Don’t-Give-a-Fuck?”
I don’t actually answer that way, because I’m polite, but man, do I wish those conversations would end quickly.
Heh. I seem to have struck a rich vein of hatred for audiophiles.
As for Japanophiles, I spent about seven years living and working there, and nobody gives a shit about Japanese popular culture. Plenty of people come to learn the language, you meet quite a few who are there to practice their martial arts, but almost everyone sane combines it with having a life: you’re there to pick up a few bucks, polish your Nihongo a bit, see some of the country, meet the locals, have a couple of beers and maybe meet some girls. Learning Japanese in order to understand the intricacies of J-Pop or Lupin Sansei is rather like learning English in order to wank over old Porky Pig catoons and The Spice Girls.
Did anyone see/hear the flap a few years ago when the movie Alexander came out, and a woman on one of the fandom sites started to complain about how it was besmirching the memory of a very important man.
Who just happened to be her direct ancestor. :rolleyes:
She ended up deleting her account, and her posts, after several people pointed out that none of Alexander’s acknowledged children survived to adulthood. Let alone the absurdities of claiming a 2000 year genealogy.
I’m not very keen on people who are into outdoor sports who have to have all the most up to date gear. I don’t mind skiers and golfers who do that so much because those sports have been associated with conspicuous wealth for about 100 years. But walking, cycling and camping are supposed to be about getting away from materialism and getting closer to your inner self (yes, I know I’m sounding like a tedious wanker myself). Outdoor shops are full of over priced rucsacs, jackets and stuff made by cutesy little brands that make money by pretending to be somehow outside or above the grubby capitalist system.
They start off with some kernal that does not square up, reject the 99.9% of confirmed information, and then just batter your head with quotes from papers of unverified and dubious sources, and if you refute one point, they have a dozen more.They expect every single detail will tie up perfectly and when it doesn’t, there’s some major international conspiracy.
Actulally, I don’t give a flying fuck why any Kennedy died, nor Kurt Kobain, who gives a fish’s tit about the Knights Templar, the Hildeberg group, Illuminati, Princess Diana, Bruce Lee or some engine that runs on water that the big companies bought so they could carry on selling oil.
You get intellectual midgets trying to big themselves up with so-called facts and hidden agendas, when actually all they can do is repeat the same old tired dross, instead of doing some real research for themselves, but worse, worse by far, are the idiots trying to follow some secret code or instructions written using ‘forbidden’ knowledge like the Da Vinci code or some offshoot.
If you are unlucky enogh to be caught out at a social gathering and get pinned into a corner by one of them, no one rescues you for fear of either being caught themselves, or giving any semblance of credibility to the nutter that is somehow connected to one of the guests.
Have to go with the sports fans. Model railway enthusiasts, audiophiles … at least they do something. Sports fans just sit around watching other people do things - if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, they’ve memorized the damn statistics.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a model railway enthusiast. But I would far rather listen to one of them talk about miniature scenery they’ve made, than to a sports fan talking about someone else’s batting averages or best times or whatever else they drone on about …
