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27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done Brother in law is a pretty clever guy. Ran a bath for his kid, couldn't get the tap to turn off, mad panic, rang a plumber friend asking him to come round quick or the house is gonna flood. Friend was like, you could just pull the plug?

Real nice, real clever guy. Zero common sense

whydidyadothat , Imgur Report

Final score:

435points

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Serial pacifist 3 years ago

I always panic when it comes to uncontrolled water running. Had a similar experience. It knocks the common sense out of you.

142points

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done I was picking up my date (future wife) when her valedictorian roommate turned quickly away from the TV and said in all seriousness “don’t look, they’re welding! It will damage your eyes”. She got more serious as I continued to look back and forth at the tv and her. She actually yelled “it’s going to blind you!” I then asked her “So when your tv is showing an image of the sun…”. That’s as far as I got. You could see the wave of embarrassment wash over her face, she immediately started laugh/crying and begged me not to tell anyone.

El_Dentistador Report

Final score:

386points

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TmKhr 3 years ago

Imagine how dangerous it is to watch war movies on TV!

112points

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My friend has a master's degree in mechanical engineering and robotics. He once made a potato salad with raw potatoes because he thought, since it's a salad, you're not supposed to cook it.

massi95 , Peter Schad Report

Final score:

334points

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TmKhr 3 years ago

I guess he doesn't even cook the chicken if he makes chicken salad

113points

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My sister. My wonderful sister. So intelligent, educated… but dang. They had their house inspected and the inspector found an issue with their gas heat. Called in a repairman and it turns out the were having lower levels of carbon monoxide leaking into their home. When my mom asked her why she didn’t have several working detectors she answered “well I did, but one just wouldn’t quit beeping”. This was 10 years ago and we still bring it up all the time. Thankfully everyone turned out to be ok, but that wouldn’t have been the case much longer.

momx3f , Parvesh Kumar Report

Final score:

327points

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James016 3 years ago

This reminds me of the episode of Fawlty Towers where the guest Mrs Richards refuses to use her hearing aid as it drains the battery.

100points

Comprehensive_Crab79 , Neil Drumm Report

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My brother was in uni in the UK And needed a toaster. He ordered on off of Amazon for £3 and was surprised to find one so cheap. Turns out it was a kids toy, it came with plastic pieces of bread as well.

Final score:

283points

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James016 3 years ago

Whoops

43points

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My one college professor had a double doctorate, several masters, and was literally was the head of the national magazine for his field and had a lot of respect in the science community. He didn't know electric eels were real. Like he argued with us.

suitology , Steven G. Johnson Report

Final score:

272points

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Tweetysvoice 3 years ago

That's quite shocking!

178points

sizzlingmaniac69 , Sharon McCutcheon Report

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done while applying for a job, he thought “sick pay” meant that the job paid really well

Final score:

269points

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Caro Caro 3 years ago

He was 17?

73points

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My brother has PhDs in bioengineering. We were on a call one day and he was saying "i can't find my phone. Probably my kids took it." Didn't realize until i told him that he was using his phone to talk to me.

needsomevitaminstbh , freestocks Report

Final score:

266points

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Serial pacifist 3 years ago

Been there, done that 🤦‍♂️

132points

t-h-e-d-u-d-e · , Matthew Lakeland Report

#10

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My aunt. College professor. PhD in mathematics. Was blown away when watching my father cook rice without a rice cooker.

Final score:

258points

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Vicky Zar 3 years ago

You can toast bread without a toaster too... shocking

13points

#11

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My friend M is really good at math. She literally minored in it for fun.

One day, we were walking along, and she said "guys, I saw something on Facebook this morning - we're only 81 years from the year 3000." (This was in 2019.)

I thought she was making fun of the silly Facebook people. Then she said "isn't that crazy?" And then I realized that my friend who enjoyed calculus... Genuinely thought that 2019+81=3000. I had to break it to her gently. I will never let her live it down.

ParsnipPizza2 , Solen Feyissa Report

Final score:

228points

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Samantha Lomb 3 years ago

It reminds me of the people who think the year represents the Earth's age

103points

#12

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My husband. He’s a mathematician for the Feds, but he has repeatedly gotten us to the wrong airport in cities that have more than one. Like at least three times. He’s brilliant, but a moron.

Azryhael , L.Filipe C.Sousa Report

Final score:

216points

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Andy Acceber 3 years ago

Yep. My father is a legit genius. My mother says he could get lost in a paper bag. My brother is also a legit genius. He got lost one day walking home from high school. Our house was on the same street as the school; it was a straight walk and a route he'd taken twice a day for years. He walked out the school doors and turned right instead of left. It took him an hour to realize he' was lost. We realized he'd inherited my father's sense of direction.

125points

little_asian_man_89 , Kristina Tripkovic Report

#13

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done My colleague was tasked to put mail into the mailbox.

She asked me where it is and what it looks like.

"Around the corner, and it's a red box"

Turns out, there is another red box marked "GENERAL WASTE"

About 2m away, is the red box that spells out "AUSTRALIA POST"

She's been throwing away mail.

Final score:

206points

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Sian Edwards 3 years ago

Could BP not find a picture of an Australian post box? This one is Danish.

102points

#14

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done I have a neighbor, he is by far the smartest person I know. A couple fourth of July’s ago he got a quarter stick of dynamite, and strapped it to an rc boat with a detonate button and a timer. He sent it out on the lake at night, flipped the switch and it didn’t go off. So he took it back into the house to fix it, but never turned the detonate button off. So when it was fixed the 7 second timer started going. It ended up going off in the house and blowing out all of the windows. Everyone was safe.

Jmiller13202 , Remy Sharp Report

Final score:

200points

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Lauren Caswell 3 years ago

They had access to dynamite to use at home? Is this normal?

132points

PeppermintFart , Andrew "Donovan" Valdivia Report

#15

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done They used their bare hand to check if the stove was still hot by pressing it directly on the burner, and they had two doctorates.

Final score:

187points

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Demi Zwaan 3 years ago

Aj, my mom did that too. Nasty scar.

28points

#16

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done I know a guy with a PhD who thought reindeer were fictional

fencerman , Philip Swinburn Report

Final score:

175points

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ʕ º ᴥ ºʔ 3 years ago

They're not?! So Rudolf and I can be friends then! Yay! You lean something new everyday!

40points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

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#24

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done No joke, poured gasoline on a campfire.

AlwaysInTheFlowers , Eric Report

Final score:

110points

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Tweetysvoice 3 years ago

Last time we had a supposed gas shortage and idiots were rushing to hoard gas, I saw someone filling black plastic bags with gas...

59points

#25

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done Swallowed an entire Jenga piece.

Whole

WebMission4185 , makeshiftlove Report

Final score:

102points

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Francis 3 years ago

from the reddit post: the person did it as a dare and had to go to the ER to get it removed afterwards

63points

JohnWarosa69420 , gelato_alla_prugna Report

#26

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done Tried jumping over a pallet of boxes with their arms tied behind their back. Split lip open.

Final score:

99points

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Cactus McCoy 3 years ago

And that's the lucky outcome.

31points

#27

27 Of The Dumbest Things That Pretty Smart People Have Done I graduated with someone who got a perfect S A.T score, but managed to cut off two fingers in shop class while trying to make a birdhouse.

SweetPrism , Ian Schneider Report

Final score:

98points

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Amina Hays 3 years ago

This is more like an accident than lack of common sense.

63points

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

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What do you think ?

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Kim Kermes 3 years ago

My brother was a chemical engineer, navigated fighter/light bombers, rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, but argued with a crazy woman holding a chain saw. She was me.

44points

DC 3 years ago

And now, you have two brothers, huh?

21points

ADHORTATOR 3 years ago

Thank you for the good laugh! :-)

14points

Monday 3 years ago

Did you win the argument?

4points

NsG 3 years ago

There's a school of thought that suggests that the cleverer a person is, the more likely they are to do dumb stuff if they are distracted by their field of expertise. So, to elaborate, someone thinking about complex mathematics problems will microwave a spoon, because they've turned off the thinking parts of the brain not associated with mathematics to conserve energy and divert resources to the "more important" task. Some others of these are simply down to different life experiences - you can be a genius and get confused by multiple airports if you've never been to that city before. And then again, I'm not sure the bar for "smartest" was set very high with some of these...

35points

Amina Hays 3 years ago

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Amina Hays 3 years ago

I'm a biomedical scientist in histopathology and a member of Mensa. I didn't understand the play on words in 'The Beatles' until I was 30. Oh the shame, the shame of it all! :-D

20points

Katelyn 3 years ago

Wait.. what play on words

7points

ivan bolitekurac 3 years ago

Weird flex but ok

2points

Hanni 3 years ago

If nobody ever told you, why would you think it's a play on words? Not a case of stupidity IMHO.

1point

Potato 3 years ago

Don't feel bad. It's not like you majored in creative writing or linguistics. You were focused on science!

0points

Auntriarch 3 years ago

Well I only found out just now! And I agree, cleverer does sound wrong

0points

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Kim Kermes 3 years ago

My brother was a chemical engineer, navigated fighter/light bombers, rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, but argued with a crazy woman holding a chain saw. She was me.

44points

DC 3 years ago

And now, you have two brothers, huh?

21points

ADHORTATOR 3 years ago

Thank you for the good laugh! :-)

14points

Monday 3 years ago

Did you win the argument?

4points

NsG 3 years ago

35points

Amina Hays 3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Amina Hays 3 years ago

I'm a biomedical scientist in histopathology and a member of Mensa. I didn't understand the play on words in 'The Beatles' until I was 30. Oh the shame, the shame of it all! :-D

20points

Katelyn 3 years ago

Wait.. what play on words

7points