ADVERTISEMENT

You’ve probably been there—you’re talking to your friends and then you say something that makes everyone go quiet. You thought you were being incredibly smart, but it later turns out that what you said was so ridiculously wrong that you’ll be facepalming and cringing for weeks when you remember your mistake.

The good news is that you’re not alone: practically everyone’s embarrassed themselves with their knowledge gaps. Even better, the odds are that what you said was nowhere near as wrong as the stuff that the people in this viral r/AskReddit thread heard from their friends and acquaintances. If you want to feel better about yourself, scroll down to check out the dumbest things people have heard, and upvote the worst of the bunch.

Bored Panda reached out to the author of the viral thread, redditor u/PagalScientist, and they were kind enough to shed some light on the inspiration behind the question, and shared their thoughts on how to react when someone says something that is massively incorrect. You'll find our full interview with the OP as you scroll down below. 

#1

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “Why don’t you go back to where you came from” - racist guy at the grocery store checkout
“I’m Native American, this is literally where I came from.” - me

anon , Tara Clark Report

Bored Panda was very interested to find out what the inspiration for the OP's viral thread was. According to the redditor, they drew inspiration from their own life. "I heard one of my friends say something extremely dumb, and had a thought in mind about how much dumber people can get, so I didn't really give too much thought to it and just asked it on the subreddit," u/PagalScientist shared.

According to the redditor, they were taken completely by surprise by how the thread took off. "I absolutely didn't expect to get this much attention from my fellow redditors. Maybe when I think about it now, it makes sense why this happened," they said.

"Perhaps because everyone almost certainly had something dumb being said to them, and it's also a fairly common occurrence," u/PagalScientist pointed out that many people probably have a ton of examples to choose from, so they were happy to share their experiences on Reddit.

ADVERTISEMENT
#2

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards That we don’t need farmers because we have grocery stores.(i live in a rural area)

ApplicationFar655 , Raul Gonzalez Escobar Report

#3

I'm American of Mexican descent. Someone asked me where I'm from. I said California. He then asked where my parents were from. I said Michigan and Texas. Looking at me rather upset he said no where are your people from. I said dude I can trace my family back to within the United States to 1817. Where the hell are you from? He just walked away after that.

Brucef310 Report

For the OP, there are two types of dumb things that people say. "One is the dumb things you say when you are having fun with friends or family and want to make everyone laugh, just those casual things," they noted that in this case, it's best to have fun with these comments because they're meant to be taken in jest.

ADVERTISEMENT

"But if there is some serious topic going on, and someone says something dumb, I usually try to correct them with logic or with facts," u/PagalScientist told Bored Panda. They added that their approach also differs on whether or not they're talking to that person privately or in public.

"If we are privately talking, then I prefer telling them straight that, 'Whatever you said isn't correct' or just straight up 'dumb.' But if we are in a group, then I prefer not to possibly embarrass them in front of others, and tell them about their mistake in private. And I would be lying if I didn't say that there are also those moments when you straight up laugh at them, that's what the whole post was about."

#4

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “You shouldn’t drink carbonated water, it’s full of carbs!”

I’m rarely at a loss for words but I almost lost brain cells when I heard that

anon , Ryan Zi Report

Add photo comments
POST
Nea
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See, this wouldnt have happened if you didnt drink too much carbs.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#5

Used to work in Yellowstone. The amount of stupid coming through the park is unimaginable. Had a bison come and lay down close to the boardwalk at old faithful. A woman holding a toddler started running up to it. Luckily I had grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her down.

She kept screaming she was going to sue me and the lodge for ruining her perfect vacation photo.

Then watching a 20 something walking out of the lodge in a swimming suit to go soak in the pots.

Telling another tourist that he could not walk off the boardwalk. He became angry and demanded to be allowed to do this. When this happens we are on higher alert.

We always had to watch tourists, like they had IQs of 10.

realisticby Report

Add photo comments
POST
Skara Brae
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe the US National Park Service should entice the undereducated with "Best of Yellowstone" zones near the entrances to the actual park, where everything is fake and safe. Pools and geyser water are lukewarm, Bison are cows wearing full-body wigs, the boardwalks lead to hot tubs next to burger and ice cream shops, and little nozzles spritz the smell of sulphur if people get too close to the real park.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#6

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards My husbands mom is very ignorant and known to say really stupid things. Most recently we were in Italy and she asked why they don’t just tear down the colosseum because it looked so old…


Edit to clarify: She wasn’t physically there just seeing it on social media. She doesn’t believe in leaving the US because she thinks it is the best place, so she doesn’t need to see any other places. Honestly probably better she stays where she is at!

M-Y-GirlieGirl , Davi Pimentel Report

Now, to be fair, you can’t expect everyone to know, well, everything there is to know in life. We’re all human beings with limited time. We all make mistakes. We all embarrass ourselves in silly ways. And we might have in-depth knowledge in a bunch of subjects but may be oblivious to even the basics of other topics.

That being said… there are some common sense things that everyone ought to know. Like how food is grown on farms and does not magically appear in grocery stores. Or that when you get on an airplane, you don’t actually fly above the stars. Or that eggs are neither fruits nor veggies. One thing’s for sure—common sense isn’t all that common. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Redditor u/PagalScientist’s thread went viral and got over 36.6k upvotes. The topic hit very close to home for many internet users. And they had a lot of fun spilling the tea about the very worst offenders to common sense and science that they had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting in their lives.

#7

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards From a family member, years ago, "My husband and I are having problems, so we're trying for another baby,. That should make things better. "
I smiled inanely and walked away, stunned.

Krissy_ok , Bonnie Kittle Report

Add photo comments
POST
xolitaire
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was never able to grasp that logic. How is more stress, responsibility and lack of sleep going to "fix" anything?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#8

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards That the Golden Gate Bridge connects North-America and Europe.
Yeh.. don't even ask

diesereineda , Joonyeop Baek Report

Add photo comments
POST
Caro Caro
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

HA. Me hopping in my car to visit some of my Panda friends. We would have a blast LOL

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#9

Elementary school, we were learning about local Native American cultures and legends.

One legend had all the men go off to war except one boy or something, and it was left to him to continue the tribe's existance, or something like that.

Got in a debate with a girl who loudly asked why didnt he just go and die too, the women can keep the tribe alive.

Me, being worldly and having had The Talk already, tried to explain that there would be no more tribe without at least one guy present.

She yelled back 'Thats not true! We know how to fish!'

I had to be told to sit outside because I couldnt stop laughing.

ShiningRayde Report

ADVERTISEMENT

There are a few potential reasons why so many people might not have (what many would consider to be) basic knowledge. For one, their education might have been limited or very chaotic, whether due to the low-quality teachers they encountered or because they put very little effort into their lessons and homework.

Meanwhile, these people might have grown up in families that didn’t prioritize education or didn’t help their kids understand the importance of independently verifying information. Moreover, these individuals might simply not be curious about how the world works or may have focused on other subjects at the expense of common sense knowledge.

At the end of the day, no matter our individual circumstances, the responsibility for doing better and learning new things rests with each and every single one of us. Though life may be easier if you can afford a good education, there are plenty of free resources out there just waiting to be used. If you have access to the internet and have a public library in your local area, then all you need is the drive, discipline, and perseverance to tackle new subjects.

#10

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “Wait you’re Asian? I thought you said you were Vietnamese”

anon , Eirik Skarstein Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#11

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards I’m a skydiver. I once had a woman ask me if the plane stops for us to get out.

Yeah, it parallel parks next to the 747.

Taneva_Baker_Artist , Tom Fisk Report

#12

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards A friend of mine asked me why we didn’t see stars when we flew over them. She truly believed that when you were flying on an airplane , you flew over the stars. I was speechless.

Outrageous-Crow-5359 , Ali Abdul Rahman Report

You could start off by delving deeper into a subject you’ve always liked but never found the time to analyze, whether that’s physics, programming, psychology, or personal finances. Or you could start off with a topic where you’ve embarrassed yourself before because all you’re relying on is hearsay and random tidbits of information that you’ve picked up from social media.

In the meantime, if you realize that your lack of education is having a negative effect on your job, daily life, and relationships, you may want to consider signing up for some classes. You could go to night classes, apply for a crash course, or even go to college. But that’s always easier said than done if you have responsibilities like work and taking care of your family. So a bit of planning is in need here. But it’s sure to pay off in the long run. 

ADVERTISEMENT
#13

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Someone once said that they couldn’t wait for Halloween to fall on Friday the 13th.

burningmurphys , Monstera Report

#14

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Some guy on a discord server insisted Pakistan is in Africa, i told him that Pakistan is in Asia and he called me racist and had a little rant.

slimebor , ELLA DON Report

Add photo comments
POST
Nea
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Honestly when people confuse that I am an Indian and an Asian, I dont mind. It becomes a problem when they start explaining my geography to ne.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#15

My old roommate pointed an laser thermometer at a pencil on a table, inside our house.

The laser thermometer read “68F”

He exclaimed “this thing is broken!”

I asked why he thought it was broken?

“This is a pencil. It doesn’t produce any heat. This thermometer should say 0”

I stared at him for a few seconds, unable to collect my jaw off the floor…

“Well 0F would mean it is frozen, or well beyond frozen, so I think 68 is the temperature of the air in the room”

This man was 26… his two adult brothers were sitting in this room. I was the only one who understood why the thermometer was correct.

rogan1990 Report

Add photo comments
POST
Richard Willis
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Specific heat only mentioned by one person below! The specific heat of a substance is the number of calories required to raise its temperature by one degree Celsius. The specific heat of (?most) metals is higher than that of wood. Assuming both the metal and wood have acclimatised to room temperature, the number of calories required to raise the metal to the temperature of your skin is greater than for the wood, so it extracts more heat from your skin and feels colder. If you held one in each hand, once they had risen to body temperature they would both feel the same.

View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
#16

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “Tigers are girl lions!” Said by my 40 year old ex boyfriend who is a nuclear engineer.

doctaliz , Rishabh Pandoh Report

#17

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards "Idk if an egg is a fruit or a vegetable"

cannedbenkt , Monserrat Soldú Report

Add photo comments
POST
Aly
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My friend once claimed with full confidence that an egg was a vegetable

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

My mom, to me one time, “you son-of-a-b***h!”

We both laughed quite heartily about it later :)

akRonkIVXX Report

#19

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Last month a coworker asked if I'll run out of blood eventually because donate very couple months. He's 34 years old.

murray22161 , Nguyễn Hiệp Report

Add photo comments
POST
Brenda
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Good grief 🙄 Hard to believe people can be that ignorant about how the body works.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#20

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “Isn’t it amazing how dogs just come out knowing commands like sit and lay down?”

The man was *stone cold serious*.

anon , Zen Chung Report

ADVERTISEMENT
#21

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards When I was in 5th grade in Mississippi, a girl asked me if I saw everything "flat" because because of the shape of my eyes (I am Asian).

Kingofkong88 , Sane Sodbayar Report

Add photo comments
POST
Nea
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I know thts ignorant but I just am amazed at how the child arrived at her conclusion.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#22

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Apparently what was causing my mother's computer problems was "Mercury in retrograde".

MomentOfHesitation , NASA Report

#23

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards A supervisor told me “You can only get sick, if you want to be sick”.

Donut106 , Sora Shimazaki Report

#24

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards I’m from New Mexico and was once told that my English is excellent. Have also been asked for my green card once.

anon , Mehrpouya H Report

Add photo comments
POST
Jason
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I get a lot of people asking if I need a passport to travel to the US, or they enjoy going out of country. I live in Hawaii

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#25

*my boss after I had to leave work to save my suicidal mother-in-law*:
“When you leave like that, it’s not fair to us because you just leave us hanging”

EDIT: Thank you all for sharing your experiences and kind words. My MIL is okay and has recovered greatly. I promptly quit that job and have been living the freelance life.

EazyCheezy95 Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#26

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards I have a "friend" who doesn't believe many things if he hasn't experienced them himself.
Ex: He told me he doesn't believe allergies are real. I asked why not? He replied, "Well *I've* never had them. It's all in people's minds."

JabberJaahs , Adrian Swancar Report

Add photo comments
POST
AJay
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah yes so the large number of allergies I have, including some that are literally LIFE THREATENING, don't actually exist so I really CAN eat a peanut or something if I want to because it will be FINE and I won't actually die if I don't want to because it is all in my MIND? And I don't have to carry around multiple forms of expensive medicine including an emergency needle with me at all times just in case? Wow, I am learning so much today! /s. In all seriousness though, if someone said this to me I would quite possibly punch them in the face.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#27

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards “I don’t mean to stereotype, but you look too white to speak Spanish” after I told my college suitemate that I was taking Spanish courses. Coming from a girl that always denounces stereotyping.

anon , Mimi Thian Report

#28

Not me, but my brother, his wife is a pharmacist. A friend introduced him to his fiancé and upon hearing my brothers wife was a pharmacist, she went with "Oh cool I've never known anyone who worked on a farm before" he tried to correct her but she doubled down with "I think I know what someone who works on a farm is called"

KingThermos Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#29

IT work a few years back. Had a director blow up after day two of trying to resolve a complex firewall issue that was affecting the finance department receiving invoices.

And I quote: “STOP trying to figure out what the problem is and JUST FIX IT !!!”

Wispirer Report

#30

"I'm never going to quit smoking [cigarettes]. My aunt was healthy until she quit. Then she was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer."

This was said to me by my manager at a Domino's Pizza (Pennsylvania, USA). I didn't have the time or energy to explain to a man 3 decades my senior that she probably had cancer for a long time, but didn't go to the doctor until she was feeling withdrawal from the nicotine.

So we finished our cigs and went back to slingin' pizzas.

I quit smoking and delivering pizza not long after.

Stable_Destroyer Report

#31

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards That 100lbs of metal weighs more than 100lb of feathers

I’m sure this has happened to a few people.

Edit: I should have just used metric…

Saintsfan019 , Piret Ilver Report

Add photo comments
POST
LK
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is sounds like the tricky question, what's heavier a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? Answer, the pound of gold is lighter because precious metals are measured using troy pounds, not imperial pounds.

View more commentsArrow down menu
ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#32

When I was doing tech support:

"How do I type the upside down i?"

"Ma'am, that's an exclamation mark."

slappy_mcslapenstein Report

#33

Was talking to the cashier at a 24 hour Tesco's at about 1 in the morning and he said

"I don't mind working nights because I'm a necrophile"

Me "do you mean nocturnal?"

chayay123 Report

#34

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards "I thought windmills cool down the earth to stop global warming".

missions**tpost , Waldemar Report

#35

"You can only get AIDs from butt stuff."

This is from a guy who thinks pulling out is a good method of contraception and never uses condoms.

suspicious_niffler Report

#36

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Had a guy I was working construction with say “I hope the sun comes up on that side today” pointing west “because yesterday it came up on this side and it was so hot” with us being on the east side of the building, ya bud that’s not how the sun works lol

I_reddit_rong , Ivan Levchenko Report

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda
#37

Duck is seafood because it swims.

neoncatt Report

#38

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards I was told that if I did some breathing exercises for six months and then checked my blood sugar my T1 diabetes would just disappear.

Frobun11 , PhotoMIX Company Report

Add photo comments
POST
AJay
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How the hell are breathing exercises supposed to fix a f**ked up pancreas?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#39

40 Incredibly Dumb Things People Have Said That They Probably Regretted Afterwards Not me, but a friend of mine travelled to the US with her family when she was younger. Upon hearing her family’s accent, an American asked “where are you guys from?” the answer was Australia, and that person confidently responded with “ah, which state is that?”

jjayus , Greg Rosenke Report

Add photo comments
POST
Skara Brae
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hopefully they respond "New South Wales" or whichever state/territory they were from.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#40

"Was it difficult for your husband to learn English? Is there a language barrier for you guys?"

My husband is Scottish, born and raised.

ETA: Wow this really blew up. So I'm going to add some additional info, especially for those saying this is totally valid. The people asking me this question were supposed to be well educated teachers. They had never met my husband so they didn't even have the excuse of hearing his accent. But had they met him they would have been more surprised at how diluted his accent was due to having left Scotland at 18 to live in London for 7 years and by the time I met him he had been in the states for 14 years. He had an accent but was very easy to understand and had adopted a more American style of speaking so people could understand him (so he said things like pants instead of trousers).

Zoo_In_The_Bathtub Report

Note: this post originally had 99 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.

ADVERTISEMENT
See Also on Bored Panda