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Hey Pandas, What Is A Thing That Took You An Embarrassing Amount Of Time To Figure Out?
Share your thoughts down below!
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#1
That just because it was your parent’s opinion it does not have to be your opinion
Final score:
34points
Mary Rose Kent 3 years ago
My mother made no bones about her brainwashing us politically...and it stuck, except with my sister, who’s always been a contrarian.
RELATED:
#2
Ponies' tails.
Because a ponytail is on the back of the head, I thought a horse's mane was called a ponytail. I never once thought that they were called ponytails because, you know... THEY LOOK LIKE A PONIES' TAIL.
I owned 2 ponies and 13 Miniature donkeys for 8 years before I realised.
I had my personal eureka moment in front of my wife and when I explained what I'd worked out...
Well, now every time she ties her hair up she make a point of saying she's 'tying-up my mane'. She also says there's no point in me doing a coin toss because I 'can't tell the difference between heads and tails'.
Final score:
28points
Kate Wooding 3 years ago
to be honest, your wife sounds like my friends... never letting me forget the embarrassing stuff
#3
Ted Bundy was NOT an actor who played Al Bundy on Married with Children. I used to think only until about a year or two ago that he was a renowned actor and after the show had ended, he became a serial killer. Thankfully, I never actually mentioned this to anybody until after I realized this on my own.
Final score:
22points
Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago
Technically speaking, Ted Bundy WAS an actor performing his real life.
#4
Those like, big weekend bags that you carry, that people call “Hold-all’s”.
100% serious, up until the age of 30 I was calling them “haul-dauls”. I had no idea what it meant, I just thought it was a random word like umbrella, which didn’t need to be descriptive.
My wider family lives a few hours away from us so growing up we had a lot of weekend trips to visit them; where we all had to pack our “haul-dauls”. I’m probably more concerned that it look my parents 30 years to notice I was saying it wrong if I’m honest!
Final score:
20points
Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago
Don't worry, as long as everyone knew what you meant, you were successfully communicating
#5
That a slight turn in the eye is called an astigmatism. I thought for years people were saying they had a stigmatism in their eye. I'd obviously never seen it written down..... I have a degree in Biology 😂
Final score:
17points
#6
I didn't understand how people were good at things. I would sit there and watch them be good at things and then just sulk about how im not good at things
Now I know you need to practice things to be good.
I never have the motivation to practice
Which is why I'm not good at anything
That should've clicked QUITE a while ago but it didn't until recently.
Final score:
16points
anarkzie 3 years ago (edited)
I can sadly relate to this. It took me a really long time to realise that the feeling of not instantly knowing what the hell I'm doing when I'm trying something new does not mean I cannot do something. It actually even took me a long time to realise that this was my approach to trying new things.
#7
The "Why was six afraid of seven?" joke. I thought it was a maths joke and pretended to get it until I was 12.
Final score:
16points
#8
The Far Side cartoon that had a man in bed with a note around his missing toe that read "Gone to Market". I never asked anyone what the joke was and one day it clicked and I lust Laughed out Loud at my office desk.
Final score:
15points
Thorfin Wolfsbane 3 years ago
It took me a really long time before I realized "this little piggy went to market" meant the pig was slaughtered and sold for meat...
#9
My family moved to a new state when I was in high school. The new neighborhood/development was very very large, with straight/grid pattern. Took us several months to realize the streets (which were named after trees) were in alphabetical order!
Final score:
15points
Mary Rose Kent 3 years ago
They’re definitely not alphabetical in my town: I’m on Redwood, to the south of me is Alder and to the north is Laurel.
#10
I thought fidelity meant Performance. As in a hi-fi stereo is hi performance. As a result I thought infidelity was being bad in bed.
It led to an embarrassing mixup when a friend told me she was leaving her husband over his infidelity. My first thought was he can't be that bad in bed given how many women he is sleeping with
Final score:
15points
#11
I thought exercise was pronounced extra-size till about 11 years old
Final score:
14points
#12
Untill a year ago when I was walking randomly on my neighborhood streets, I never though that the Winnie the Pooh 🦘 characters Kanga and baby Roo are the combination of word 'kangaroo'
Final score:
14points
#13
I used to call butterflies , which we call titli in hindi , chitli . Soo , My maternal aunt , now calls me chitli all the time. Its so embarrassing
Final score:
11points
#14
Efficiently removing the pit from an avocado with a swift strike from a knife.
Final score:
10points
#15
First time I went to a coffee shop I was probably nine. I wanted to seem sophisticated so I walked up to the counter and ordered the most exotic sounding thing I saw on the menu. “Can I have a “cha-mom-i-lee” tea? Took the girl a few tries to realize I was asking for “chamomile”.
Final score:
10points
Pascale Pierloot 3 years ago
When I was first learning english I thought a cupboard was the rim of the cup. Also I pronounced the word neighbour as ney-j (like in jeans)-boor and that it was some sort of profession people had.
#16
That the song from Annie was saying "It's a hard KNOCK life" instead of "It's a hard NOT life".
Final score:
7points
Jashton Gieser 3 years ago
In the song Tomorrow from Annie I somehow lost the "dollar" in "Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun" and thought the song was saying to bet your rear end
#18
When I was twelve I realized orange juice was juice from an orange and we were not just calling it the color it was.
Final score:
6points
Samantha Melnychuk 3 years ago
Technically you were right because the colour was named after the fruit, not the other way around
#19
the differrence between a zucchini and a cucumber. i couldnt figure it out untill i was 14...
Final score:
5points
HooowlAtTheMoon 3 years ago
I know the difference. Once we decided to grow zucchini and cucumbers in our garden and forgot about the garden....... there were SO. MANY. VEGETABLES. I got a lot of experience tasting the difference between them :)
#20
For a long time I thought Petra was in Turkey. Even now, this would be my first answer if I had to answer quickly. And I still have to look it up, I just can't remember that it's in Jordan. (Yes, I had to check before I wrote this.😁)
Final score:
5points
#21
The lyrics from Free From Desire. I always wondered why she sang "Mine incense is purified" until this year when I found out it is "mind and senses purified."
Final score:
5points
#22
That final lyrics to the song Mr. Blue Sky by ELO are “please turn me over”, and that this is referring to turning over the record on the record player to continue the album.
Final score:
5points
#23
My 4yr old thinks that when you sneeze/burp etc you say “garden me” - I hope he never figures out that he’s wrong and I will be very unhappy if anyone corrects him. It’s so cute.
Final score:
5points
Pascale Pierloot 3 years ago
My 4yr old niece once farted when she sat on someone's knee. So my sister asked her: 'Now Lily, what did you forget to say?'. And Lily looked up and said: 'Thank you!.
#24
Just few years ago I figure out what is polo shirt - in my language polo košile. I'd never seen it written, just spoken, so for me it was polokošile and polo- is also our prefix for half-. So I thought it's a halfshirt because it doesn't have the buttons all the way down like a "real" shirt, like something halfway between a T-shirt and a shirt
Final score:
5points
#25
Took me until I was 9 to figure out that the Aardwolf isn't a crossbreed of an aardvark and a wolf.
Final score:
4points
PixxelDust (Submission author) 3 years ago (edited)
For anyone wondering, this is what they look like. They used to be my favourite animal https://cdn.britanni...12/aardwolf.jpg
#26
Until I was like, nine, I thought that lightning was pronounced “lightming”. I also thought there were two different ways to say the name Gavin; “Gavin” and “Gabin”
Final score:
4points
Tiny Dynamine 3 years ago
At least you can spell it properly. Not like lightening which many people write.
#27
Was over 40 before I found out that the term "old wise tale" is actually "old wives' tale"...
Final score:
4points
#28
That the stopwatch at the top of the program "60 Minutes" is counting down 60 minutes.
Final score:
4points
#29
That people who should know what they're doing because it is their job or responsibility ACTUALLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. Incompetence is real.
Final score:
4points
#30
That the Property Brothers (Drew Scott and Jonathan Scott) are twins. I've been watching the show since I was young!
Final score:
4points
Laurie Ostergaard-Overbey 3 years ago
at least you didnt think it was one guy playing both parts!
#31
I was in my 20s or 30s before I realized that a steer was just a castrated bull.
Final score:
4points
#32
For too many years, I thought the song "leaving on a jet plane" was about an astronaut going into space (this was pre Armageddon, btw.) I knew what a plane was, and 80's movies showed jets going into space, so the combination, plus the line "don't know when I'll be back again" confused me.
Final score:
4points
#33
That I have 2 webbed toes on each foot. I only realised this about a year ago. All those many many baths over all that time and I only just realised. I am 46 years old.
Final score:
4points
#34
My sister thinks that “volleyball” is “Ballyball.” We have had many heated arguments about this.
Final score:
3points
#35
I swear it wasn't with bad intentions, but, when i was a kid, i thought that fur coats weren't actually made of fur, i thought they used those "furry fabrics" and printed the animals spots/stripes/etc on the fabric, and i used to think they were expensive because the process of printing was difficult, but when i grew up and learned how it was made, i felt so bad, ( if someone gave me one, i would feel sooo bad - because, even though i am not the one who hunted the animal, it's because of me tha they did so, because the gift was for me - so i would probably throw up over the coat and throw it away!
Final score:
3points
#36
That great Britain isnt a country
Final score:
3points
#37
That a cockapoo/cockerpoo is a type of dog, not a type of bird.
Final score:
3points
#38
The last verse of Randy Newman's "Burn On." It says that when a river catches on fire, the insurance companies consider it an "Act of God."
Final score:
2points
#39
This one is from when I was a child : there was only one asian girl in my school and she was named Nathalie. So I was convinced that it was an asian name. Years later, I was maybe 17, I met a white woman named Nathalie. And I was like "whaaat? Why are you called like that? Have you asian origins?" The woman was O.O ??
Final score:
2points
#40
That hands have muscles in them and aren’t just skin sacks of bone and fats. I was twelve lol
Final score:
2points
#41
I thought that if at a movie theater it said playing on two screens, it meant that you had to watch the movie on a spit screen. I didn’t find out what it actually meant until I was about 14. Full on left movie theaters because I didn’t want to watch a movie on a split screen.
Final score:
2points
#42
Took me years to realise that electronics don't give you square eyes.
Final score:
2points
#43
5 things
1. How to make grilled cheese, (11)
2. Tooth fairy, Santa etc. weren’t real (10)
3. My sexuality (12)
4. The existence of the lgbtqip+ community (9)
5. Mall Santas are a thing (12)
Final score:
1point
#44
It was only about 5 years ago (I'm 57 now) that I realized the Domino's Pizza logo was a domino. I'd only ever seen the black w/white dots style and didn't make the connection. When I pointed out what a coincidence it was, he couldn't stop laughing.
Final score:
1point
#45
If your brain were in a tin can; it would be like a BB in a boxcar.
Final score:
1point
#46
How to correctly pronounce the name Siobhan.
Final score:
1point
#47
I was about 12 when I found out that "laurels" are the fronds of a plant. I thought it was a polite term for your f***y. Thus the "resting on your laurels" saying did not mean "just sitting around."
Final score:
1point
#48
It took me about 20 years to realize the song 'Lola' by the Kinks wasn't a typical boy-meets-girl song. I was a sheltered child.
Final score:
0points
#49
My dad always said you can catch a bird by putting salt in its tail. I was about 40 years old before I realized that if you're close enough to put salt on a bird's tail, you're close enough to just grab it. Duh!
Final score:
0points
#50
This was more personal. I was about 21 and my car was totalled by a semi. Lawsuit, out of work because of back injury, filed for unemployment. Received a rejection letter from the unemployment office saying I had filed an invalid claim. I accepted that they wouldn't pay me because I was temporarily an invalid. Decades later I realized the letter was saying my claim was not valid. If only they had written my claim had incorrect information!
Final score:
0points
#51
This happened in 1992, and I only grokked it this week as I recalled it in 2021 while remembering what it was like before everyone had cell phones. I was alone working the night desk at Kinkos, and the local news anchor came in to pick up her copies. She was taking business nonstop on her mobile, which was weird in 1992, but in the chatter she included “I’m here at Kinkos with sofacushionfort.” Almost 30 years later I realize she said this because we were alone together, and it was a security measure.
Final score:
0points
#52
Terminator is NOT a kid movie(my dad showed it to me when I was 6)
Final score:
0points
What do you think ?
Geraint Davies 3 years ago
It's only taken me 49 years to realise that Santa Claus Means Saint Nicholas.
Geraint Davies 3 years ago
It's only taken me 49 years to realise that Santa Claus Means Saint Nicholas.
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