I'm surrounded by idiots!

[Tokyo Slim]

So check this out;

This girl I work with today got a little confused. She began our conversation on where certain tiles come from with the misguided understanding that Paris was a country. Halfway through, something clicked in her poor little underdeveloped mind and she blurts out, "Oh, I get it. Paris is in Italy... It's the capital of Italy". She was completely serious.

My jaw hit the floor and my eyes glazed over.

"What?!?" She imploringly questioned me. "What did I say wrong? Italy is a country in Europe. Paris is shaped like a boot"

"Italy certainly is", I replied, "But Paris is in France, which is a completely different country than Italy. And France is not shaped like a boot."

This person is 19, Is it even possible to have graduated from High School, and gone to a year of college while under the impression that Paris is a country shaped like a boot? I doubt that she would even be able to find Europe on a map. She'd probably point to Canada.

Anyone else have any FIRST HAND accounts of egregious stupidity?

Ken Pollock is not allowed to post in this thread.

 

[Gradstudent78]

Here you go:
http://www.whoisthemonkey.com/videos...ound-the-earth


Whoops, not first hand, but still painful to watch

I did however once have someone argue that you could prove the bible because men had one less rib then women.

 

[Brian278]

The older I get, the more I am constantly astonished by the stupidity found in the average adult. Merely count yourself lucky you aren't one of them and attempt not to have a conniption every time you encounter one.

 

[Fuuma]

Heard at video store:

"-Client: I'm going to watch that movie Gladiator, I loved "Braveheart" and this one should be even cooler even though its set in more recent times.
-Video store clerk: Err Gladiator is set during the time of the Roman Empire which was hundreds of years before Braveheart.
-Client: But haven't the Romans tried to conquer the world recently?"

I'm assuming the client was referring to WWII BTW, can you even imagine the way this person perceives current events? Poor store clerk.

This is more about ignorance than stupidity though, and I'm sure a conversation about American football (I don't think I can name a team) would show you that I can be ignorant too (not that professional sports are as important as history or anything but...).

 

[DNW]

At least the girl understood that Paris is a geographical location, instead of that other blond bimbo.

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

This is more about ignorance than stupidity though, and I'm sure a conversation about American football (I don't think I can name a team) would show you that I can be ignorant too (not that professional sports are as important as history or anything but...).

that's easy, there are two football teams right here in L.A. i heard: Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Ducks that won the world series last June, something like that.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Overheard today:

Chump 1:"Wait - he was in Breakfast at Tiffany's and was in the A-Team"

Chump2 "Mr. T?"

I was then presented with an image of Mr. T as Paul 'Fred' Varjak pointing a finger at Holly Golightly while exclaiming "THAT'S RIGHT THE 'T' STAND FOR TIFFANY"

 

[California Dreamer]

From the captain of the Melbourne University team on TV program University Challenge (bear in mind this bloke was presumably one of the smartest guys at one of our premier universities, or he wouldn't have been on the team):

Q. "Name three of the four divisions of a COBOL program"
A. "The beginning, the middle and the end".

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by California Dreamer

Q. "Name three of the four divisions of a COBOL program" A. "The beginning, the middle and the end".
Identification, Environment, and... Data? I haven't heard about COBOL in years. Do people still use it?

 

[TheIdler]

My brother used to date one of the stupidest people I've ever met. She lost her car keys one day, so she asked if she could borrow mine, because we both had Volvos. She went to the bathroom one night at a club and came back complaining because the bathrooms were "bisexual." (It took us a minute to figure out she meant "unisex.&quot She often got lost when driving, but she informed us that she had a perfect strategy: she chose the nicest-looking car driving in front of her and followed it...because she could be sure she was going someplace nice.

 

[amerikajinda]

Sorry, Slim -- not first-hand accounts, but funny nonetheless: "Hi Mrs. O'Quinn!!" "lots of peanut butter jelly sammiches!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQBSm...elated&search= "I want to eat delicious turkey!"

 

[TheHoff]

Originally Posted by lee lin

sometimes i assign a caretaker among one of my maids when i'm traveling. anyways this caretaker of mine insists that when i pick out the fleas that i put them in a pan of water and flush them down the toilet because if i squish them they will come back in more numbers. I MEAN WTF IS THAT?! A GREMLIN?!
Would you apologize to one of your maids if you found out she is right? Fleas are impossibly difficult to squish between your fingers and quite resilient. Drowning them in a dish of water with a drop of soap is a very typical method after picking them off; my father did this every day with our dogs.

Flea combs with fine teeth that snag fleas are commercially available. It is helpful to have a small dish of ammonia-laced water on hand to kill the fleas on the comb rather than trying to nail each one by hand. Alternatively, mix a few drops of detergent into the dish of water so that there is no surface tension and fleas dropped into the treated water will drown. Use a metal comb; the plastic ones are too flexible and allow the fleas to escape.

http://www.k9web.com/dog-faqs/fleas-ticks.html

 

[Manton]

I once had a native Californian tell me that Los Angeles is north of San Francisco.

 

[fareau]

I agree with Fuuma that it is better (and probably more accurate) to call this ignorance rather than stupidity, but I don't want to get caught up in a discussion of semantics. What I have observed is that the ignorance is most apparent in the subjects of geography and history, and I think that the above posts are intimating similar experiences by others. The same people who can't tell you where Italy is on a map, or what countries made up the Axis powers in WWII, can typically 1) do basic math; 2) read and write; 3) answer comparably basic science questions (at least I think).

If the above is true, then why is it that geography and history are so poorly emphasized in school or in the general public???

 

[Rome]

History and Geography are not emphasized in real life situations as comparable to simple math (using money), reading and writing ( leaving passive-aggressive post-it notes on the fridge letting Craig know he is a dip-****.), and basic science (making a Meth lab in your garage).