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There’s No Such A Thing As A Dumb Question, But These 50 People Proved Everyone Wrong
Interview
There's a famous saying: "There is no such thing as a stupid question." Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan thought that "every question is a cry to understand the world." Yet the questions that the people in this list were asked would probably elicit an "I'm not mad, just disappointed" headshake even from Sagan.
A few months ago, one Redditor asked others to share the dumbest questions someone legitimately asked them. And, boy, did people not disappoint, as almost 8,000 netizens rushed to the comments to share some instances of others being dumb.
Bored Panda got in touch with the author of this thread, u/Isellkidsontemu. They kindly agreed to have a chat with us about what prompted them to post this question and whether there really is no such thing as a dumb question.
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#1
A long time ago working retail, someone came up to me and asked me if I worked there, to which I replied “no ma’am I’m just a mannequin”, and she just straight up sighs and said to herself “not again Stacy, why do you always end up talking to inanimate objects. You gotta stop smoking so much, god!” and she just left. I hope Stacy’s ok.
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#2
I was born with one arm (the right one), and people used to ask me all the time if I was left- or right-handed. I got tired of answering such a stupid question so I started answering left and let them figure it out.
Petra Peitsch 1 month ago
I can't belive, that is real ....we can be so stupid, and still survive ...
#3
My brother-in-law's girlfriend was amazed that I had two brothers and no sisters and asked me how that is possible because she thought that humans gave birth in a boy/girl/boy/girl sequence and couldn't wrap her mind around how someone could give birth to 3 boys and no girls.
I'm not convinced that she is not some alien trying to pass off as a human and failing miserably.
The Redditor tells us that he came up with the question while one day just hanging out at home. They thought of such nonsensical questions as someone asking "Are you ok?" after they see a person falling. "[I] put it on r/AskReddit not expecting much engagement, then I wake up and my inbox is exploding! It was amazing," u/Isellkidsontemu recounts.
The Redditor doesn't agree with the famous saying that there's no such thing as a dumb question. "Some people may not know and that's okay, but there are some questions that people should just know, like two plus two is four," the Redditor says. "Unless you're in the first grade, you should know."
#4
I was at Walmart, a worker, young kid, asked about my hat. I told her I have cancer, and the chemo caused me to loose my hair. She looked at me square in the eye and said “Did you survive?”. It took everything in my power not to say “No, I didn’t. I’m actually dead. I’m a ghost.“.
Damned_Cat 1 month ago
When I die, if I find myself shopping at Walmart, I'll know I'm in hell.
#5
I have waist length, deep purple hair.
A clerk at the beauty supply store said "Wow, your hair looks great! Did you dye it that way?"
No, I had a tragic grape juice accident when I was four and now it just grows this way.
Tyranamar Suess 1 month ago
This is one of those questions people 'ask' just to have conversation. The lady is not genuinely asking. She's just giving you an option to talk more.
#6
My mother had dementia and the Social Worker asked me "" what relation are you to your mother ?".
u/Isellkidsontemu says they'll probably be more cautious about asking questions after reading the many answers in the thread. "I am a little more cautious when asking questions, not accidentally saying something stupid and obvious. It's a wonder and I'm proud to have this account, never did I expect so many people to actually respond to that!"
The famous saying about dumb questions, perhaps, is more applicable to scientists. When you're in any kind of learning environment, asking questions is crucial. How else will you learn? There's apparently an African saying, "No one is without knowledge except he who asks no questions."
#7
Someone asked me to repeat the pronunciation of my last name and followed it up with, "Are you sure?".
#8
I was showing a friend a telescope and pointing out all the constellations and planets I knew, and he legitimately asked me “Where’s earth?”.
Why are we afraid of asking questions? Because we worry we might look dumb. Naturally, no one wants to end up in a thread like this because of their intellectual failures, but sometimes we have to get off our proverbial high horse and accept that we don't know something.
Psychologist Paul E. Spector writes that "asking and answering questions can be an art and should be encouraged." People are reluctant to ask questions because they don't know what they don't know, or think they know something when they actually don't. A good instructor's job, according to him, is to make people comfortable enough so they're not afraid to ask stupid questions.
#10
I worked at Yellowstone National Park in the early 2010s and one of the tourists, a French lady, came up and asked me when the animals were going to be brought out for people to see.
#11
I was at Niagara Falls with my British sister-in-law. We were looking at the section of the river right where the water goes over the falls. She asked me "Is the water very toxic, then?" I replied, "No, the great lakes is where southern Ontario gets it's drinking water. Why would you think it's toxic?" She replied, "Well, everyone who falls in the river here, dies." I had to explain that they died because they went over the Falls. This had never occurred to her.
Teressa Reeves 1 month ago
Oh dear god! That's even wilder than the German dude who complained that the desert wasn't green
#12
"Is that your real skin?"
I think she meant to ask if I'd had cosmetic work done, but I was quite alarmed. No. No, it's not. It's a backup skin that I carved out of a turnip.
#13
Used to be a whitewater raft guide. No end of dumb questions. One was "Do the rocks (in the river) go all the way to the bottom?" No, they're those special floating rocks wtf.
Also, "do we get out where we started?" Implying the river goes in a circle, like an amusement park ride.
ILoveMySon 1 month ago
Thankfully, they were with a guide. Many resources have been expended rescuing Tourons.
#14
Someone asked me once if bananas were vegan......their justification was "maybe they're tested on animals" *HUH*????
#15
"How did they train all the dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park movies?".
#16
"Is it true you all live in igloos?"
Asked by someone from the deep south when I worked help desk for IBM in Canada. Dead serious.
#17
I was on the phone with an American based hotel chain, looking to book a hotel in Seoul. The agent wasn’t familiar with that location, so I shared that it was in Korea.
“Kansas?”
“No, the country-Korea.”
*silence while typing*
“North or South Korea?”
I refrained from pointing out the likelihood of an American chain having a location in North Korea.
#18
"If there's a deep end and a shallow end, how come the water is flat on top?" - my ex's sister, she was around 30 at the time.
ILoveMySon 1 month ago
I took a friend out on my boat when a fire boat passed us. He asked, "How much water do those hold?"🫤
#19
Do chinchillas poop?
My schoolmate at a university wanted one as a pet "because it's cute". She was 20 years old at the time. After she learned that chinchillas do indeed poop, she no longer wanted one. .
#20
Me and bunch of friends were talking about the discovery of atoms when one of them says something like: "It's amazing, How did they even know that they were called 'atoms'?!"
*Silence*.
Nelson Álvarez Sáez 1 month ago (edited)
I don't believe in atoms. They make up everything. I'll see myself out.
#21
When I worked at the zoo, I had a lady ask me if Tigers laid eggs. Context, there were rocks along the waterfall fed stream that ran through their exhibit and they could be mistaken for large eggs, and the tiger like to sit on them because they were always cold.
#22
"What do you do for a living?"
It was at a restaurant. I was their server.
#24
I'm a teacher who began my career teaching the blind. I cannot tell you how many people asked if the kids knew sign language.
They were not joking.
#25
At my old job several years ago, tourists from New York asked if they had to change their currency to buy things in here in Hawaii.
dan gerene 1 month ago
The large denomination for trade in Hawaii is the pineapple and you get orchids back for change. You can tell that someone is rich in Hawaii because their pants drag the ground carrying around all those pineapples.
#26
Someone asked if my kids, then aged 3 and 6, were twins.
#27
My business partner got this one:
"What are you studying for"
"the bar exam"
"cool, bartending sounds fun!".
Gavin Johnson 1 month ago
Imagine you’ve gone into the world of lawyering, you’ve found out about the bar exam, spent seven years getting through your studies and the first question on your bar exam is….. What are the components and measures required to make a Mojito?
#29
"How can women pee with a tampon in?".
Celestial Phalanx 1 month ago
To be fair, this one is at least partially due to the fact the education systems of most nations have actively excluded boys from this type of learning when the conversations regarding menstruation are being discussed with the girls in the school.
#30
I’m lactose intolerant “ so you can’t eat eggs “. Well I can’t actually but that’s because I’m also allergic to eggs.
#31
I was selling a party tent 20ft x 20ft. Some rando on marketplace asked me if it would fit in their backyard. Lol I don't know, never been to your backyard maybe measure if you have a 20ft x 20ft space?
Another time I was selling a black dress also on marketplace and some woman asked me if it would meet the dress code for her new waitresses job at chili's. How da f**k I'm supposed to know that, lady??
Gavin Johnson 1 month ago
Friend of mine used to work in a shop that sold that horrific clear plastic for protecting your hall carpet, a customer insisted that he should know what length of it would be needed to cover their hall carpet. No amount of him saying ‘I don’t know how long your hall is’ would change their position, ‘well sell us an average length and we cut to a to size when we get home then’
#32
Them: "It would be really useful if the program could tell you if you've entered the wrong address; returned mail costs us a lot."
Me: "Well, we validate addresses against the Post Office API so we can be sure we're only entering addresses that legitimately exist-"
Them: "No, I know we do that, but sometimes people mistype and enter an address that exists but isn't theirs, like getting the number wrong so we send it to their neighbours or something. How long would it take you to add something to prevent that?"
Me: "To add a feature that knows when the address you've typed isn't the one you live at?"
Them: "Yes. How long?"
Me:"...in order to check whether the address you've entered is where you live, the software would need to know what address you live at, and if it knew that, it wouldn't be asking you to enter the address you live at. Do you see the chicken and egg problem?".
Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
Does this person answer wrong numbers and get their phone repaired?
#33
How much garlic is in an onion?
#34
I'm from Alabama. I've been asked, among other things, if I had an outhouse, if I rode a horse around instead of driving, if I normally wore shoes when I went places, and if I owned a police dog specifically trained to attack black people.
Catlady6000 1 month ago
Also, just how closely are you and your spouse related? Oh, and Roll Tide!
#35
"Can you turn him so we don't see the scratch on his cheek?" Asked of me as we were reviewing the portrait photography of her son.
No ma'am, it's a picture. You should've asked this while we were in the camera room.
#37
Someone asked me if my snake was an invertebrate and I had to sit there and explain that snakes are like 90% vertebrae.
Caitlin Youngquist 1 month ago
Snakes are the ultimate vertabrate, the pinnacle of vertabrate technology, the all-vertabrae-all-the-time animal.
#38
It wasn't a question, but a statement that a well-educated friend made. She said, "I don't believe in dinosaurs." I replied, "How do you explain all the dinosaur bones they've found?" She couldn't answer.
#39
Going from England to Wales for a week away with my then girlfriend. She ask what we would do about food while we were there. I said we'd probably just pick something up from Tesco while we were there.
"Do they have supermarkets in Wales?" she asked.
Beak Hookage 1 month ago
I've been to Wales. People there have to get their food by hunting and foraging.
#40
Why are you wearing sunglasses? It’s like 10 degrees out.
Colleen Glim 1 month ago
Because it’s also hella bright and I like to be able to see without a migraine! Duh!
#41
After someone bragging they knew a lot about Catholicism, “Do Catholics believe in Jesus?”.
#42
Was discussing not owning a car with a coworker
"Do you have your license?"
I was actively driving a work vehicle...in a job where you need a special license to even get hired.
When I side-eyed her she doubled down, "I know lots of people living in the city who don't have one!!".
#43
I have a conjoined toe. The normal stupid question is "Does that make you swim faster?" They're conjoined, not webbed. The stupider version got asked when I was staying in a trailer park my dad lived in. One of the girls saw my foot and asked "Did you ever try just pouring hot water on it?".
Stephanie Did It 1 month ago (edited)
That's going to be my go-to question for every problem now! 😅😅
#44
Not me, but one time some guy who was from the US, who had driven to the west coast of Canada in the summer with his snowboard, asked my grandma where the ski hill was while she was at the gas station... she was like "Uh sir... there is no snow this time of the year..." the american guy couldnt understand how there was no snow in summer... he was like "but this is Canada!"
Hell, even in winter these last couple years, there has been very little snow. I do recall hearing that the Whistler ski hill/resort is facing warming winters that will eventually shut it down forever.
Miracle Max 1 month ago
Meanwhile, ski resort in Arizona has 12 inches of snow on Nov. 9. IN ARIZONA!!!
#45
I used to work in the UK and a colleague was travelling to the US in early July, I said something about her being there for 4th of July, Independence Day and she asked me "who did they get independence from?".
#46
“How long have you been Swedish?”.
Aroace tiger (she/they/he) 1 month ago
Its a terrible story, when i was 15 the swedes took me and held me at gunpoint. Told me to convert or be shot. I've been Swedish since :(
#47
I’m blind. Somebody asked me how I walk.
#48
Do you curl your hair every day? Why is your hair always curly?
... I dunno, it grows that way, man.
#49
I’m a cook at a bar, someone while reading our food menu said, “French toast?? Is that some kind of beer flavor?”.
#50
“What do Jewish people do?”
In response to me saying that Chinese food places are closed on Thanksgiving.
What do you think ?
Beak Hookage 1 month ago
"Can you turn your accent off?" asked by a Canadian of me, an Australian. I just stared blankly at her.
Luisa 1 month ago
Yes i can. If Im speaking English with and American person my accent is one, if Im speaking English with a africano person , it becames nigerian accent. If Im speaking with a person from England, i go full in .
Load More Replies...
StarCrossedFriday 1 month ago
Not a question as such, but the check-out girl at Tesco insisting that I’d made a fake ID with a fictional country when I used my Belgian driver’s license as ID in the UK. And her being backed up by her manager. This was before WiFi was everywhere - I still wish I’d gone back and gotten a box of Belgian chocolates to show them, but I was so stunned I just left.
michael reid 1 month ago (edited)
I went to a Tesco in England having come back from Scotland with Scottish notes (legal through all UK). This was when they had released the new 10 and 5 pound notes but not the 20s. I paid with Scottish 20s and the cashier and manager both said you can't use paper 20s any more, even though the plastic 20s didn't even exist at the time. So I left and never went back. Do all my shopping at Asda now
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Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
Not a question, but perhaps my dumbest moment as a kid (10): The news bulletin came on, and I relayed this info to my mom, who was in another part of the house--"Mom! Martin Luther King has been shot!" A few minutes later, and another slightly more detailed bulletin: "Oh no Mom, now they've shot Martin Luther King JUNIOR!"
Ottoman 1 month ago
I bet you were devastated when you found out that Martin Luther died in 1546.
Load More Replies...
Beak Hookage 1 month ago
"Can you turn your accent off?" asked by a Canadian of me, an Australian. I just stared blankly at her.
Luisa 1 month ago
Yes i can. If Im speaking English with and American person my accent is one, if Im speaking English with a africano person , it becames nigerian accent. If Im speaking with a person from England, i go full in .
Load More Replies... StarCrossedFriday 1 month ago
Not a question as such, but the check-out girl at Tesco insisting that I’d made a fake ID with a fictional country when I used my Belgian driver’s license as ID in the UK. And her being backed up by her manager. This was before WiFi was everywhere - I still wish I’d gone back and gotten a box of Belgian chocolates to show them, but I was so stunned I just left.
michael reid 1 month ago (edited)
I went to a Tesco in England having come back from Scotland with Scottish notes (legal through all UK). This was when they had released the new 10 and 5 pound notes but not the 20s. I paid with Scottish 20s and the cashier and manager both said you can't use paper 20s any more, even though the plastic 20s didn't even exist at the time. So I left and never went back. Do all my shopping at Asda now
Load More Replies... Stephanie Did It 1 month ago
Not a question, but perhaps my dumbest moment as a kid (10): The news bulletin came on, and I relayed this info to my mom, who was in another part of the house--"Mom! Martin Luther King has been shot!" A few minutes later, and another slightly more detailed bulletin: "Oh no Mom, now they've shot Martin Luther King JUNIOR!"
Ottoman 1 month ago
I bet you were devastated when you found out that Martin Luther died in 1546.
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