People who work as interpreters (spoken word) or translators (written word) are all too familiar with the power of language, and how choice words can completely transform a vibe - for better or worse.

As the person responsible for translating a conversation, it's crucial you keep it professional and don't interject your own feelings or word choices into the mix. In most cases, this goes fine and all parties are satisfied. But there are conversation and circumstances where working as an interpreter puts you in an incredibly awkward position.

In a popular Reddit thread, people who work as interpreters and translators shared the most awkward, NSFW, and tense conversations they've mediated.

1. heyheyhedgehog had to explain a lot to the older Japanese man.

I was a conversation teacher for adults in Japan who wanted to practice more natural English (not strict formal grammar, but conversational). Not quite an interpreter but:

One student was an 80 year old man the others called “Mr Dictionary” because his vocab was seriously exhaustive. There were very few words that could stump him, usually some type of slang. On the rare occasion he brought a print-out to ask about a new word, I would get both excited and nervous to see what it was.

This was in 2007. One day he pulls out a paper and says “I heard a news story about a scandal with an American radio host insulting some athletes. Please tell me... what does this mean?”

And with all eyes in the class waiting for my wise translation, he loudly and carefully pronounced: “NAPPY HEADED HOES”

Edit: for everyone asking how I responded... also very carefully and with a lot of warnings to not trot these phrases out themselves!

2. MetaScip had a very awkward phone call.

Long time ago, I did a pro bono interpreting gig for a community health care clinic. The doctor asked me to help call a woman who had come in for a pap smear to tell her she had an STD. She insisted it was "only a cancer test" and hung up on us. We had to call her back. She didn't answer the phone.

3. thumbstickz has nothing but love for the translators.

I work tech support and often have to use a language line. My favorites are Asian languages and when people are pissed. The interpreters bless their hearts will faithfully translate, but every so often will say "They are saying not kind things about you personally."

4. koreth05 works with translators who are very good at euphemisms.

The company I work for has a Spanish translation team that I use very frequently and know all of them. We basically do customer service. The most awkward conversations is when you have an irate person on the other line that is cussing you out. Our translators are supposed to translate word for word unless vulgar language is used, then they can summarize.

Basically what I hear is about a minute of someone screaming at me, using multiple choice words that I can recognize as curse words, then the translator "translating" essentially "they are not happy with your answer."

It's awkward for everyone because the translator is basically getting yelled at and has nothing to do with anything other than he picked up that call, and I have to just sit there for minutes at a time listening to someone scream and a short 5 word translation. The customer usually catches on after the first tirade or two that there is no point and they should just calm down and be a decent human being and talk it out.

5. SteadfastEnd worked for an American who didn't understand how puns work.

This may not be awkward/uncomfortable per se, but I once worked for an American teacher in Taiwan who expected his interpreters to be able to translate puns into another language. He did not or would not understand that a pun in English isn't a pun in Chinese.

6. annana once translated a bunch of Facebook drama.

I'm a translator, which means I only work with the written word. Not normally anything particularly juicy.

However, I once had to deal with a landlord writing to Facebook to try and get Facebook(!) to take down derogatory comments from his tenants. Basically, the landlord was accused of giving apartments to people who would sleep with him, so I had to translate a whole bunch of comments calling him a horndog, saying the whole towerblock had been under his desk, etc. Someone called him the Lidl version of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Edit: I actually did once have to interpret between a woman having a stroke and a first aider (NOT as a professional interpreter, just happened to be there and speak her language). I did ok at getting her info and keeping her calm waiting for the ambulance, but then the paramedics wanted me to tell her that she was probably having a stroke and I couldn't remember the word... so I said she was having a brain attack :/

7. vilhjalmurengi hates delivering the bad news.

There are a few. One of the worst is having to relay bad news, like cancer diagnosis, especially when the doctor is extremely blunt or hurried. As an interpreter, you cringe and wish you could change even just the tone or the insensitive wording to make it sound more humane, but you really shouldn’t because as an interpreter your job is to relay the info as closely as possible. Another difficult situation is when you’re called to a patient that is coding (this was especially difficult when I worked with pediatric patients at the Children’s Hospital and trying to calm down the frantic parents).

Another one is being called to the ER and then upon arriving, finding out it’s a person I know outside of work, like a family friend. In that situation, I would try to get someone else to interpret because of ethics, but it’s still a tough situation, because you want to help as much as you can while you wait on someone else to take over. I honestly could go on and on, but these are usually the exceptions, as I love my job. There’s just some days that are more difficult than others.

8. Butwhydoyouthinkthat had an awful exchange with a grieving mother.

I was interpreting for a high school teacher who was participating in an event to try to get dropouts to come back to hs in a majority Hispanic neighborhood. Anyway, the school gave us a list with addresses that we had to go to to try to persuade the kids/parents. We go to this one house and ring the bell, the mother answers. I start translating what the teacher was saying and we go back and forth with the mother, asking her to see the kid, lets call her Maria.

The mom kept insisting we couldn't talk to Maria and the teacher kept giving the whole spiel about dropping out and to think of the future etc. About 10 mins into the conversation, the frustrated teacher wants me to ask the mother why on earth couldn't we talk to Maria, to which the mother breaks down crying and says that she died a week before from a long illness, that's why she had dropped out. Ensues the worst and most awkward maybe 5 mins of our lives, between apologies and condolences. Needless to say, we didn't go to any other house that day.

Btw, the school turns out was aware of the kid's passing but had forgotten to take her out of the list, smth.

9. ctngu had to translate their parents' bankruptcy process.

Similar to others, not an actual translator but my parents spoke poor English when I was younger. When I was 12 they filed for bankruptcy and took me to the lawyers office to translate for them. Having them go through and tell me everything they blew money on was extremely uncomfortable. Now as an adult they get offended when I don't want to take financial advice from them.

10. Shawn_Spenstar had to caption phone sex.

I wasn't a translator but I worked at a place that captioned telephone calls for customers who were hard of hearing. We only heard one side of the phone call then basically repeated what we heard into our voice recognition software and then corrected it on the fly. Most of the conversation we're boring as hell old people talking to other old people, 50 people in a row calling in to vote for Dancing with the Stars. But ever so rarely you get a good one, mine was what I'm assuming was a deaf young lady and her boyfriend because the conversation very quickly turned from how are you doing to I want to to tie you spread eagle on the bed and lick you all over.

This continued for about 15 minutes but the best part is all the cubicles around you hearing you loudly and very clearly speak (so the voice recognition doesn't fuck up) graphic, depraved sex acts while they are trying not to lose their shit laughing and still keep up captioning an old ladies cookies recipe.

11. Contrariwise2 found out their dad's secret in the social security building.

My elderly parents spoke English very poorly and I often translated for them. After my father passed away, I took my mother to the Social Security office to take care of paperwork. One of the questions they asked was whether there were any other potential beneficiaries of my father's benefits such as other children or ex wives.

Being an only child, I immediately answered "no". My mother asked me what the question was. I interpreted with my answer. She looked at me sheepishly and answered, 'that's not exactly correct'. It was then, at the age of 50 in the Social Security Building, that I learned that my father had previously been married and had had a child. Mother and baby died during childbirth.

12. bzzinthetrap's friend had to get a new job for the sake of her mental health.

Not me, but a dear friend was a refugee when she came to the US fleeing the Bosnian genocide. She was brought into the translation/interpretation business out of necessity, assisting fellow refugees with communication throughout the process of being granted asylum, finding apartments, entering the work force, etc. Over time she got all of her certifications, but just last year she up and switched careers, quit her job and matriculated as a full-time MA student in a completely different field in a city two hours away (and she commutes every day).

About a month ago she told me the real reason for this abrupt change in life trajectory: she'd been hired as the court interpreter for a fellow Bosnian refugee, one whom she'd known a long time but whose story she wasn't familiar with. Anyway, this man had, during the genocide, been forced to violate his own young son. My friend was charged with listening to him regale his and his son's suffering before a judge, then translate it into English for all to hear. She said that usually, her policy when helping fellow refugees in a courtroom setting was "be a chair." She avoided emotional involvement out of her own necessity. But this case was too much for her. She saw it through but immediately started hunting for a new job.

13. Meear's cousin had to interpret a racist microaggression.

My cousin is a sign language interpreter and he says a big problem he and his clients have is that people talk to him rather than the client. Even at really important things like doctor appointments, the doctor will spend ages asking my cousin where he learned BSL while the Deaf client just wants to get their medical issue looked at. It's against policy for my cousin to hold their own conversation with the doctor when he's working, as he's only there to help the client understand what people are saying.

He and his clients find it really frustrating and rude, so basically if you see someone with a sign language interpreter you can literally just ignore the interpreter and everyone will prefer it that way, as they can just get on with their job!

Also one of his first ever clients saw his doctor was Indian and signed "where's my curry". That was pretty f*cking awkward, especially when the doctor then asked what the sign meant.

14. choosingtheseishard's dad has facilitated a lot of awkward conversations.

I’ve been on multiple medical trips to Mexico with my urologist father. Bringing translators that have little to no medical experience is incredibly difficult, and in the OR, no one knows the different names for instruments (differs between states/ countries).

I’ve sat in on multiple appointments and surgeries with translators, and by far the worst is when my dad makes the (usually very religious) translators talk about sexual health.

In addition, often times people only speak Mayan in this particular village, so there has to be a English to Spanish translator, and a Spanish to Mayan translator.

15. smittyleafs learned too much about their dad.

Ok, so my parents are divorced and my dad is deaf. He's not the brightest fellow, so I sort of manage his medical stuff for him when his parents passed away. Now typically I'd book a sign language interpreter for medical appointments so I can just take notes and ask questions, but this time I didn't bother... figured I could just interpret. Now dad had a new girlfriend, and I had the joy of interpreting my father's struggles with erectile dysfunction.

See his new girlfriend, who was 10 years younger, was looking for more frequent performances than dad could muster. So we got in depth about how frequently was appropriate for man in his late 50's and then had to discuss the risks of erections going on too long with Viagra. Yeah...I always book an interpreter now, and no...I never did figure out the correct sign for erection.

16. infj1029 had to describe several sex positions to their parents.

My parents don't speak English and I use to go with them to doctor appointments to translate. I was ~14 and my mom was pregnant. The NP told me to ask them when was the last time they had sex and then proceeded to tell me to translate sexual positions they could partake in while my mom was pregnant. I didn't want to tell my parents or translate anything but she kept stressing that it was good for them. I don't think my parents understood me or wanted to understand what I was trying to tell them.

17. VampireFaun delivered the pregnancy news the wrong way.

I was a Spanish medical translator for a while, and there were some pretty bad ones, but one really stands out above the rest.

I followed a nurse into a room where the patient was waiting. Now, I know nothing about the patient, I'm only there to translate what the nurse says, so when the nurse says "You're pregnant!" I gave a huge smile and went "estas embarazada!!!! :DDDD"

Patient stares in shock for a second, and then bursts into tears. The nurse stammers a bit, and then goes......"no bueno........?"

The news we had to give was bad enough, but the fact that I thought it was supposed to be a happy announcement made it 10x more cringe!

18. Hysterical_Realist watched an interpretor shut down a comedian.

Not the interpreter, and not Deaf, but I attended a comedy performance that had a female interpreter on stage with the comedian. For context, the interpreter was provided by the university, and it was the comedian's first experience being interpreted.

He decided to make jokes about the situation, including (at one point) wondering aloud how the word "bra" would be signed, and watching the interpreter for the answer.

She got to the Important Word, and decided to finger spell. I was highly amused.

19. XanLV interpreted a very heated exchange.

I live in Latvia, Eastern Europe. I was a guide/interpreter for a hockey team from Canada/US. Now, one of the guys decides that he needs his skates sharpened, so we look around the arena we are in and we find the sharpening station, a small room with an old Russian grandad in it.

So he gives him the skates, the old guy gets to work. When he gets them back, he looks them over and goes "Wtf, what was the guy even doing?" So now he insists that he will use the station himself. This hurts the old Russian and he just plain refuses to allow it. So he offers money to the old ruskie. 100 local currency. 200. (That would be 1/3 of the guys monthly salary.) Now, here comes the problem for me as an interpreter.

There is no way to explain to the old Russian guy: "Yes. This guy is a millionaire. Yes, he doesn't think this is big money. Yes, that for just using the machine for 10 minutes." Honestly, impossible. I know the words and how to arrange them, but in no way I can do it so that the guy understands.

So I got a pissed hockey dude waving his skates around one one side and an old Ruskie telling him to go sit on a dick. (not paraphrasing here.)

I couldn't piss anyone off, so, like a masterful pilot, I continuously switched from English: "Yeah, he is an old Russian fart that knows no better, fuck him, lets find a professional" to Russian: "Yeah, fucking Americans, think they always know better." With these words I urged the skate guy out the room and left the old Ruskie goblin to his own secrets and devices. Conflict averted. Sure, I did stop interpreting during their "negotiations" about who has fucked who's mother, but I don't think they would have reached a consensus anyway.

20. RingoGaSukiDesu had to interpret a very awkward game of truth or dare.

I went on a study tour with a group of people from my uni together with folks from a Japanese uni and when we were all chilling in someone's hotel room one night someone had the bright idea to play truth or dare. As the only one who spoke both English and Japanese, it was my job to translate the questions/dares between the languages, and all the Japanese guys wanted to ask the girls were things like "What color are your underwear?" "Do you shave down there?" Made things super awkward for them as it shattered their image of the perfect polite Japanese guy.

We love our families, but sometimes they say something so unbelievably dumb that we wish we could temporarily cancel our membership...

We all say uninformed and unintelligent things every once in awhile which is why "thinking before you speak" is always a wise rule to live by. In 2020, "Google before you speak" is also a sage motto, though...

When a Reddit user asked, "What's something a family member has said that was so incredibly stupid you couldn't believe it came out of their mouth?" people were ready to share their most cringe-worthy, face-palming family memories. Sorry mom and dad, you're about to be embarrassed...

1. Oh no mom, "darth-nick."

I asked my mom why birds hop the way they do and she said I'd do it too if I had two legs.

2. Yikes, "[deleted]."

Sister:I know it sounds silly, but I want to name my baby after a country.

Me: Well what do you want to call it?

Sister: Miami.

Me: Umm... that's no...

Mother (interrupts me): Don't be stupid, Miami is a state, not a country.

Me: facepalm

3. This is so cute, "capep."

My dad was giving my little brother some cough medicine. He was about 7 years old. After he took the medicine into his mouth, he started making this weird face, then a few seconds later spit it all over my dad. "I forgot what to do" was all he could muster as an explanation.

4. Oops, "stormkeeper."

My mother once called 911 to report a 'suspicious purple cloud' in the sky.

She's outside smoking, and suddenly runs in the house yelling, "Everyone get in the basement!" and bolts for the basement door. I peek into the basement where she's on the phone with 911. The conversation goes something like this:

"Hello police? There's a suspicious purple cloud in the sky; I think it might be terrorists! ...Oh, it is? Ok then."

She comes back up the stairs like nothing has happened and tells me dispatch told her it was the Aurora Borealis.

5. Hooters University, "adamcognac."

We were at Hooter's as teenagers, and my friend Dan decides he's gonna lay down the cool guy rap. He asks the waitress where she's from, she says "Eastern Europe".

Dan then says, smooth as fuck, "Wait, let me guess: Brazil".

6. Babies are tumors, "Ishbizzle."

Upon describing how I was born, my mother forgot the term "C-Section" so she said "You weren't born. You were removed. Like a tumor."

It actually turned out to be hilarious.

7. Wow, "girlyevil."

"You can't be a homosexual, you're not a man. You'd be a lesbian."

8. MOM, "b3thanie."

I asked my mom why there was braille on a drive up atm. She replied because the deaf people need to use it too.

9. What even, "Deejaymil."

40 Year old Uncle: "You're reading a book? What are you, one of those queers?"
Me: blinks

10. HA, "Gothbot6K."

For the longest time my mother apparently believed that they used real lava in lava lamps and only upon me telling her a year ago and showing her videos of how lava lamps were made did she believe me.

11. Damn, "monroeski."

My sister once asked me upon which continent China was located. i said "Sister think about it, Chinese people are called Asians, so China must be located in..." to which she replied "Africa! Sweet my friends were trying to convince me that china was in Asia!" my only response was to walk across the room to a well placed globe which i put in her lap and walked away.

12. They're "journalists." "Cass_the_Lass."

Mom: "Of course the National Enquirer is fact! They can't make stuff up, it's a magazine!"

13. Oh boy, "ducks_are_cool."

My then 12 year old brother asked at the dinner table, "what animal does corn come from again?"

14. Sigh, "erryday_IAm_rustling."

My cousin, who was 22 at the time, tried to convince me there were 52 states in the USA. He became very angry when I laughed at him. I still think he thinks there are 52 states.

15. Definitely a drug, "Parthide."

My mother refuses to acknowledge that alcohol is a drug. "It's not a drug, its a drink!"

16. Genes are complicated, "Planet-man."

My sister once pointed out how that a TV show goofed by having a baby played by a baby with blue eyes when both the actors for the parents had brown eyes.

My sister has blue eyes. Both my parents have brown eyes.

She was well-aware of the dominant/recessive factors of how eye colour works and everything, too. It's been discussed in my family a bunch of times.

17. What is happening, "justpat."

"So? So what if Obama is smart? I don't want a smart president!!"

18. Oh, honey! "JustForCancer."

My sister: "Can you believe what would happen if they legalize marijuana? Kids would be smoking it everywhere!"

Me: "Would be up to the parent then wouldn't it? Kinda like cigarettes... ?"

Her: "Yeah but cigarettes aren't addicting."

Facepalm.

19. No..."xTRYPTAMINEx."

My brother in law:

While on a trip in Aruba, he looks up and says, "Hey there's a moon in Aruba too!"

20. Wow. Just...Wow. "lettheidiotspeak."

My wife and I are planning an incredibly long road trip (NY to Alaska) and as we were driving along she turned to me in all seriousness and said "I'm worried about driving through Canada."

"Why?" I replied, expecting something about the Alaska highway, which is notorious for being a dangerous road.

"Well, they use liters up there and my gas tank is in gallons... what if we run out of gas?"

I was speechless...

Hating or judging someone for their sexual orientation is not only wrong but extremely stupid—especially when there are so many other things to judge people for, like chewing loudly or calling instead of texting. But though homophobia is very, very dumb, it still exists, often as a result of religious indoctrination, internalized self-loathing, or just plain ignorance. Luckily, the problem is often cured with education, interacting with members of the LGBTQ community, or even watching TV (Joe Biden memorably credited the show Will & Grace with helping him get over his narrow-minded views).

Someone asked Reddit: "ex-homophobes, what made you change your views?" These 31 formerly homophobic people shared the experiences that helped them get over their bigotry and realize love is love:

1.) From xompeii:

My best friend threw a book at my head and told me to form my own opinions instead of absorbing my parents.

2.) From Jaysynner:

I was moving into a rental house with my girlfriend and another couple in a trendy neighborhood in my city. I was discussing the move with my conservative stepdad and he says something, like "Why are you moving there? Isn't that a gay neighborhood?" Without missing a beat, I replied "What are they going to do? Break in and redecorate?".

In the moment I realized that I really didn't have a reason not to like being around the LGBT Community. It's not like they would try to convert me... That's more of a religious and conservative attitude.

The house was amazing. The couple that I moved in with got married and I found my wife because of the move. No gays broke in to redecorate, though. That was disappointing.

3.) From WunDumGuy:

I used to be like "it's wrong because it's not natural! If it was natural you'd be able to procreate!" Then a co-worker was like "well my wife and I choose not to procreate does that make us unnatural?" And I'm like "no you're good" and he said "what about infertile people who can't have children, are they unnatural?" And I'm like "well they didn't choose to be infertile" and he said "well what makes you think gays would choose to be gay if it's so much harder to live like that?" And I went 🤔 and now my wife and I are infertile as hell

4.) From d_wib:

First gay dude I met was some weirdo in high school who told everyone I turned him gay after he saw me at swim practice freshman year and it really bothered me. I eventually met many nice and normal homosexual people since then.

5.) From DallasITGuy:

I'm in my late 50's and was raised by very conservative / far right wing parents, so homophobia was pretty much baked into my psyche. My wife's openness to gays and my own exposure to gays - especially the couple who bought the home next to ours - were what made me realize my old beliefs were wrong.

6.) From smidgit:

Yeah, that's pretty much what happened with my dad.

He's 85, and didn't actually know homosexuality was a THING until he was 21, and I think that's only because someone he knew was arrested for it. He met my mum when he was in his 50s, and she was a 30-something priest who was passionately fighting for gay rights within the church - something that had kicked up massively in the 80's.

They started going out and getting serious, and one day she mentioned that one of her male friends had a new boyfriend and how happy she was for him. My dad, obviously being told most of his life that not only was homosexuality wrong but it was at one point so wrong it was ILLEGAL reacted with some disgust.

At which point, my mother informed him that he either educated himself on the LGBT community, or she'd leave him, using the excuse that in the event any future child of theirs turned out to be gay she would unhesitatingly choose the child over my dad - so she needed to know THEN to save everyone the potential heartbreak.

He still says he doesn't understand it, but as long as people are happy it's all good.

7.) From sozimdrunk:

Honestly I don't know. Used to be all racist and homophobic and the like, then realised a year or so ago I don't actually care. Be gay, be Muslim, I couldn't give a shit, and I don't know why I did

8.) From Metron1992:

I am an Indian,and the awareness level about Homosexuality used to be very low,They are literally just steretypical joke characters in Bollywood.

My parents were not even aware that there is a difference between Eunuchs and Homosexuals.

I got to learn about them through X Men.

9.) From PearlSquared:

I realized I was gay.

Maybe some weird internalized stuff, but I basically just agreed with whatever my Christian mom said before I turned ~eleven and realized Felicia Day was smokin'.

Part of it was also getting access to the Internet and meeting a bunch of similarly aged friends who all already knew that there was nothing wrong with being gay. I'm forever grateful to the Internet for giving me this. I don't know how I would have dealt with myself if I'd realized I was gay while I still thought all homosexuals would go to Hell, etc etc.

10.) From Morigyn:

My family was/is more like casually homophobic. They would sometimes make remarks about how it’s disgusting, and they would go to hell. They said the same thing about black people and Jews were of course the ultimate evil 🙄

Once I started to think for myself, I realised that their reasoning didn’t add up. Men weren’t better than women, no black person has ever harmed me and one of my best friends was Jewish. Made me think about what else they were bull crapping me about, and after a little bit of thinking, came to the conclusion that being gay is completely fine.

Also, having been born in a country where being gay will literally get you killed, the whole ‘they choose it’ bs didn’t make any sense. I would never willfully choose something that could get me disowned, abused or murdered, why would they?

So yeah, by the time I was 12, I was an atheist and didn’t believe in any of the relgious/cultural crap they had tried to feed me.

11.) From M1sterX:

While I was not mean to gay people, I was raised with the idea that they were "wrong" and that Heaven would not be in their future. But two things changed my perspective and made me see that I was incorrect.

Firstly, like most people here, I got a chance to interact with people who were gay when I went to college. When I made a friend or acquaintance, we would talk and interact casually and over time, I learned about who they were attracted to. This opened my eyes to not judging people on my preconceived notions on who is right and wrong and instead taught me to actually know the person and judge their character after getting to know them. While at the beginning it weirded me out (as I was still learning), I eventually got over the stigma and began to care less and less on who they decided to sleep with, as that was never any of my business.

During this time, I had another revelation that helped me see how wrong I used to be. I'm Hispanic and my ex-wife was white. On a couple of occasions, we were met with some backlash by older white people who did not agree with interracial couples. This was around 2010 and the topic of gay marriage was heating up. I remember thinking of my situation, and how if some people got their way, I could not be in the marriage I was in at the time. I then applied that to same sex couples going through what I dreading going through and realized that their marriage was not a threat to anyone and they just wanted to do their own thing without restrictions or prejudice.

This time was my enlightenment and since then I have done my best to make sure no one feels singled out by me based on how they choose to love.

Edit: I do want to clarify on my last line. I mean "choose" in the sense of making a conscious choice to marry/spend their lives with. I don't mean gay people are choosing loving someone of the same sex, just that they are choosing who they want to build a life with as adults.

12.) From wadezero27:

Moved from Saskatchewan to Vancouver

13.) From stephen_1975:

Well, I got over my own issues after sexual abuse as a child and eventually made a gay friend. He's one of the best dudes I've ever known. When my daughter's mom lost her car due to the flooding a couple of years ago and only got $500 back on the insurance because well, it was a bit of a pig, he gave her a car. He had thia 2002 Chevy something or other (I'm not a car person) that he didn't need but just hadn't gotten around to selling, that was fucking cool.

We don't see each other as much I'd like these days though, separated by distance and life. He taught me a lot about the culture and lifestyle, happily answered my shy questions about how they dealt with poop and stuff. And he explained away any remaining fears in a way that I could understand

Stephen, do you have women everywhere trying to fuck you all the time?

No, Marc, no I do not.

So why would you be worried that gay men would for some reason be breaking down your door to fuck you?

You're not any prettier to us, get over yourself.

Thanks, Marc.

14.) From CurtGentry:

I used to be surrounded by people that were, for the most part, very conservative. A constant barrage of negativity, including homophobic viewpoints.

One night at my favorite watering hole, the subject turned to gay marriage and how it would be a detriment to society - the usual exaggerated bullshit.

I'd had enough. I decided to challenge the kingpin of the bar. I looked at him and said - "What changed in your life 3/31/2001?". Of course he thought I was an idiot. I said it again. He again thought I was an idiot. I said, "You can't answer because nothing has changed for you since that day. That's the day my wife and I got married and if that guy over there and that other guy over there got married tomorrow, it won't change your fucking life either."

Silence.

15.) From [deleted]:

Was taught that gay people were literally satan-spawn. Brother came out. He didn't seem like satan-spawn to me. Re-evaluated what I had been told, and now here we are.

16.) From jcartier2:

I really was never homophobic so much as emotionally distant. It was a foreign, incomprehensible thing to me, but I felt it was other people's business. But they were not me. The words "they" and "them" were the operative labels.

Then, in 1983, a man I knew contracted AIDS. I had grown up calling him "uncle." "They" became my family.

17.) From [deleted]:

My story is similiar to many here: My family is super christian and taught me a lot of wrong stuff, mostly wrong stuff about gay people. When I went to college, I went to an art college, basically half of the students were from thr LGBT community, and everyone always treated me so nicely, the total opposite from the people of high school, that made me realize that everything I was taught about them was totally wrong and vile

18.) From MrStopNShop:

Was a young child. Parents were like, "they bad," and I'm like, "cool! They bad!" Eventually, after a couple years not actually being bothered by 'the gays' as my mother puts it, I was like, "but why are they bad?" and my mom is like, "cuz they icky," and I'm like, "ah... I've never seen you brush your teeth, and that is icky."

All uphill from there

19.) From IDidNotGrowUpForThis:

My parents never seemed to love, much less like each other. One day (I was at least 21) I realized it would've been nice to grow up in a home with love and then I realized even if that love were homosexual it would've been better than what I saw my parents have/endure. The whole "love is love" thing. Children are better adjusted if their parents are happy. Mine weren't so I'm still a mental mess from time to time.

20.) ​​​​​​​From Devlik:

I grew up in the Midwest in a factory town where all the factories were leaving. We lived in government housing after losing our house and that was that. Low grade racism was everywhere, homophobia as well. A lot of it was far subtler then you think. It wasn't all "let’s set the gays on fire" or "kill the queers" or anything like that. It was "man up", "don't be a girl", calling boys by girls names if they complained. This was before the 90s when "gay" turned into a insult all its own in common use, at least near us. Threatening to put a boy into a dress was grounds for a physical altercation.

People that were gay or even as seen as gay were isolated, ridiculed, shunned. Now this wasn't just by their peers. This was by teachers, parents, adults, kids. So picture this, everyone you know and trust are acting this way. The behavior is modeled you are told to stay away from them, as they may be pedophiles. I was under 10 being told this.

This stuck with me, even after I left that place. Especially the pedophile part. It was something that I truly believed and having had experience with child abusers, was something I abhorred. I know people have a very hard time with understanding "how can someone hate like that" or "how can they be so ignorant!”. But I can tell you from personal experience, its far easier than you think. Everyone you know is taught this, everyone you respect and love and trust are telling you this. It’s very powerful on a level that I can't really express if you have not experienced it.

Now to the crux the matter, how did I change my opinion. In short, the answer is people who cared enough to help me change. Exposure to gay people, watching loved ones sexually mature in to gay, bi, and several mixes of pansexual helped. But it really was the people who took the time, that humanized them, people who ware insanely patient with me, that firmly told me I was wrong but didn’t dismiss me out right for it and showed me there was another way. Now most of my friends and loved ones are LGBT and I try to be an advocate for them. You cannot teach someone how to see someone else’s humanity with insults, with derision, with anger or with hate. You will not change their opinions by mocking them, insulting their families, or ridiculing all they have known. Exposure, patience, leading by example, constantly firmly teaching in small ways if you can, and most importantly empathy will get it done if it can be.

Empathy is critical here, I cannot stress this enough nothing will stymie your efforts faster than dismissing them as an ignorant hick/redneck/racist/etc. It really makes a difference, view it from that point of view, you have someone telling you up is down that is counter to your prior experience, that has always just simply been that way AND they are insulting you the whole time. What are the odds you are going to listen to them? This is hard work, and honestly it should not be up to the people being directly impacted to be the advocates. No one should ever have to justify their humanity to someone who does not want to accept it. This is an issue the straight community needs to address and advocate and teach much more strongly than we do. I have the discussions now so that my loved ones don’t have to. They are tired enough.

TL:DNR I was a homophobic jackass, I got better because other people taught me empathy.

21.) From SoundTrax:

It was a slow process. I was indoctrinated by church for decades before I'd ever met a gay person. I wrote an embarrassing letter to a student newspaper about how being gay isn't like being from a different country or of a different race. The local PRIDE president invited me to a meeting and I realize they're just people. They just want to find love and they've had these feelings since they were kids.

The final kick from moving to "gay people are just people" to "I should advocate for gay people" came when I had a kid. I hated reading stories about parents who kicked out their gay kid and I never wanted to be like that, ever. I wanted to love her no matter what, no matter who she would choose to date one day. And I realized everyone should have that same opportunity.

22.) From [deleted]:

Not me but my partner's father. He is a Chinese immigrant and relatively conservative who did not react well to his son (my partner) coming out as gay. He partially came to terms with it but when I came into the picture he was convinced I was a white devil only with his son for the money, who is a pharmacist. Two years later his wife died and he moved in with us (I know.) he latched onto me emotionally because his son is emotionally distant and we now get along famously and him and my grandpa are best friends now. They go ice fishing. He also loves my cooking aside from constantly reminding me white people eat too much butter. Lol.

23.) From Jeffery_G:

March on Washington, April 1993. Seeing 600,000 gays/lesbians/etc. convinced me that this was not an anomaly but rather a natural facet of human existence. Since then, my warmest friends are almost always from the LGBTQ community. AND I live near the center of Atlanta GA.

24.) From rob7030:

Met gay people, spent 4 years of college 500 miles away from my hyper fundie dad who raised me in some WACKY beliefs. Like... Young earth, Catholics are actually satanists, the world is ending within 20 years, a literal dragon will rise from the seas to devour the wicked, and Christians will be slaughtered en masse by the US government.

4 years away from that at a liberal school... It took all four years, but I pulled my head out of my ass.

Also I realized that sucking dick is awesome.

25.) ​​​​​​​From Ober_O:

I used to be very much against homosexuality at the time. I was working at Walmart at the time and I met the backroom manager and he was smartest guy working at that Walmart. He knew more about the job positions above him than the people who had them. Anytime anyone had a problem, they would ask him and 95% of the time he knew how to fix it. I think at one point he had to teach the store manager how to use a specific program on the hand terminal. And overall a really cool dude that no one in the store had a problem with and he got along with everyone else.

One day while I was doing inventory, I turned around to see him kiss his boyfriend. It was kinda shocking to me because him being gay didn't make sense to me. I grew up under the impression that homosexuals we're dirty and filthy people with no morals. And this didn't describe this guy at all so I thought about for a couple of days and came to a conclusion.

I realized that homosexuals are the same as me and they aren't anything what I've been taught growing up. I no longer judge people on their sexuality but purely by their character now. Thanks to this man, I've also grown to respect other people in my life as well.

26.) From muse32712:

Watched a kid get the hell beaten out of him by some kids I knew in HS for no reason other than he was gay. Didn't stop it out of fear and wish I had a time machine to go back and stop it every time it crosses my mind. Never associated with the kids again and immediately began re-evaluating who I was and my belief system

Came out as Trans this year and have been an active part in the LGBT community where I live for the last decade etc.

27.) From aoriyuu:

Born and raised Southern Baptist. Taught my entire life that homosexuality was a sin, ugly, and distasteful. First boyfriend in highschool, however, had lesbian moms. We had our first Thanksgiving together with his family at their house, and I was surprised by how normal it was. The exact opposite of everything that I was taught. They had a normal house, decorated like mine. Kids running around happily and noisily like my siblings. His moms were affectionate with each other like my parents, and were the exact opposite of everything I was raised to believe. They were just two wonderful moms who happened to be lesbians. My bf was so great...always challenging me to think differently and be more open-minded to what the world had to offer instead of just never questioning why I believed what I believed. I wish it was an experience that more people could have.

28.) From [deleted]:

I met a gay person and realized they're not scary and they're just people. Catholic school messed me up, man

29.) From Fungon:

I grew up.

30.) ​​​​​​​From FlowSoSlow:

I was more "I don't care what you do I just don't want to see it." Which is still wrong.

Then my best friend came out and I got used to it and now it doesn't gross me out anymore.

31.) ​​​​​​​From Ciroc_N_Roll90:

It's funny because I went through a "Christian" phase when I was a teen. Going around saying how much homosexuality was a sin, wearing a cross around my neck, the full nine. Yeah looking back at it now is just fucking so much cringe. I remember watching Penn and Teller's Bullshit! episode about the Bible and started doing lots of research myself, slowly turning into an athiest. After that, I opened my mind to a bunch of things that most religions looked down upon, homosexuality being one. Now, I'm a huge advocate for human rights and the subject of homosexuals being denied the right to love whoever the fuck they want really tugs at my heartstrings. As a straight person, It may seem weird to some how passionate this subject is to me and I've gotten it before, but I believe every human being should have the right to be with whomever they love.

Natural disasters, national emergencies...you'd think that would be enough to workday on pause, right? Not for these bosses.

A Reddit thread asked the internet, "What is the most bonkers thing that happened to you or your work and your employer STILL expected you to continue your work day?" Here are the most interesting answers.

You shouldn't have to go into work if the boss is calling you from jail.

1. The bank was cold to ostentia.

Right after Hurricane Sandy, the bank I worked for had no power for days, so obviously we couldn't do any banking. Rather than just close, my manager insisted that the entire staff show up for shifts as usual, just so we could sit in our normal seats in our uniforms and winter jackets to tell any customers who wandered in that we didn't have power and couldn't help them with anything at all.

Just about every single person asked us some variation of "then what the hell are you doing here?" It sucked.

2. TentaclesAndCupcakes was bloody committed.

I was working at a pet store and was used to being bitten by the pets we sold, hamsters, ferrets, birds - no big deal.

This day, however, as I was helping a woman who had brought her dog in, it attacked me. Luckily it was a small-ish/medium sized dog so it didn't get my face, but I had big bleeding holes all up and down one arm. The lady never said sorry, and my manager told me to go to the back, get cleaned up, and come back out and ring on the resister. So I did, with big blood splatters all over my yellow uniform shirt.

3. PhilipLiptonSchrute's story is as American as apple pie.

College professor, not a boss:

In college, we had our final semester presentations that counted for 60% of our grade. I was on blood thinners at the time and the night before my presentation, I had an accident in the home and split my head open. 12 hours later, it was still bleeding.

First thing I did in the morning was email my professor with an explanation and a time-stamped photo of blood running down my face. I asked if I could present the following day instead and said that was not possible without a Doctor's note. I had to go to the doctor, pay a $32 co-pay just so the doctor could write on a note "Philip's head will not stop bleeding because of medication he is on. I can't believe I had to write you this note."

4. I_throw_socks_at_cat got to have a casual Friday.

The air-conditioning broke down and people started passing out from the heat.

But they let us take our ties off, so that was generous.

5. mkicon's boss might as well have been the president.

Hurricane Katrina was going to make landfall that day, and the owner of the restaurant I was managing at the time got super pissed when I said I wasn't coming in.

He wouldn't accept that, and kept bargaining with me. "Okay, you can go in for 4 hours, and I can get [other manager] to come relieve you. No.

He was like, well go hide your keys then so we can have someone else pick them up. Absolutely.

After the storm hit and devastated New Orleans, the owner was calling me because they needed people to open the restaurant. The roof had blown off of my house, and I was asking him where was I going to live while I worked for him. He said to just get a hotel, as if he was paying me enough to afford such a thing. I also think hotels were pretty well full? Not sure.

6. gud_spelller chilled with the feds.

Federal agents with a search warrant shut down all the computers so they could image the drives.

We puttered around for hours before we finally got sent home at the regular time. However, long lunches and gym visits were permitted.

7. becauseiamtheDM sold deer piss-scented bullets that day.

Someone spilled (or poured out) a bottle of deer attractant on the floor under the shelves in the sporting goods section of WalMart. Stank of deer piss for...well, actually, it probably still does. They never cleaned it, and we had ammo to sell.

8. Hopefully DenL4242 got paid overtime.

The power went out at 8 a.m., but we weren't allowed to go home. We sat around doing nothing for nearly eight hours, "just in case" the power came on. Then our boss said if it didn't come on by 4 p.m., we could go home and the work schedule would be pushed ahead a full day. Power came on at 3:50 p.m. and we had to do our full workload.

9. whereegosdare84 made the right choice.

Worked for a small graphic design company fresh out of school. They used cracked software, didn't really pay anyone and were generally shady but I didn't really think anything of it, until the FBI showed up.

Apparently they also didn't pay their taxes and so my boss was taken away in handcuffs and the office was closed.

Or so I thought.

Our boss called our creative director from jail and told us to work from this seedy motel room he set up to finish up the assignment or else we wouldn't get paid.

Nobody showed apparently as we all decided now would be a good time to look for new opportunities.

10. xaradevir's boss sounds shady as hell.

At a factory, sliced my finger open using a cutting blade that had been partially broken, resulting in the spare blade hidden inside it coming partially out of an opening. I grabbed the blade and started using the proper portion of it, but I had unknowingly placed my right index finger right over the exposed spare. I started slicing with the blade and cut a line down my finger from about the middle to the tip.

Immediately started dripping blood all over, called my boss over radio, they ushered me into the nurse's office. They didn't want me to go to a hospital or any form of urgent care because that would have been an "incident" and reset the "days since last incident" tracker that people got bonuses for. I was young and let them pressure me into accepting that. So they wrapped it up tight until my finger looked like it had a cast on it, and sent me back to work.

It wasn't that deep, although it looked nasty. It probably could have used stitches. It healed ok, but I still have a noticeable scar.

11. TheWolfmanOfDelRio's teacher had algebra to teach that day, goddammit.

Not work, but in [high school] on 9/11 we had a teacher who instead we go about our normal day and speak nothing of what happened about 10 minutes after the second plane hit. Every other classroom in the school had the news on and she refused to even acknowledge what was going on.

12. safetyschools couldn't put the cops on hold for paperwork.

I got a call one day from my cousin saying our house had been broken into. I went home to deal with it and file a police report, and it was honestly so stressful. My supervisor then rang me to ask what time I was planning on coming back to work later in the day because she had paperwork for me to finish.

13. Hopefully WYcked_In_Spurs sued their a**es.

Was a welder in a factory. Five minutes after I got back from lunch, a nice bit of slag somehow made it under my glove and burnt my wrist. I quickly dropped the welding gun, trying to get the glove off to get the burning metal off. I tried to grab the gun with my other hand so it wouldn’t clatter to the floor and possibly break, but I missed the handle and instead grabbed the hose a little under. The tip of the welding gun swung down, and the hot wire went straight into my leg.

I pulled it out and gimped to my lead, explaining what happen and if I could go treat the wound. The response? “You’re behind. You’d better hit your number.” I didn’t get even a bandage, it wasn’t recorded, and I still had 6 hours to go. Wasn’t the worst pain I’ve endured, but would not recommend. But now I’ve got matching scars on my wrist and my leg.

Long haul truckers drive hours on end, often through the night, and as those hours add up, so do the stories. The most mundane of shifts can transform into a story for the ages after a creepy exchange with a mysterious stranger, a ghost sighting, or the vision of a Sasquatch-like beast chowing down on a deer carcass.

In a popular Reddit thread, long haul truckers shared their most creepy and paranormal stories from the job.

Truly, these people deserve all the truck stop cinnamon rolls.

1. Pirate_Freder was hit by a swarm of bees.

Maybe a bit off the mark but it still scared the crap out of me. I was headed west on I-76 here in Denver just cruising along at about 70mph. Out of nowhere, I saw a massive, almost solid cloud of what looked to be dirt coming at me. I'd say it was at least 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall. I scanned ahead of me but couldn't see any vehicle it could have came from. With nowhere to go I slowed down and took the hit, hoping there wasn't anything big enough in there to come through the windshield or jack up my truck(owner/operator).

It was pretty loud as I smashed through it, the instant it hit I knew it wasn't dirt though. I immediately hit the washers because I couldn't see a damn thing through all of the carnage, my windshield was painted with guts. Turns out it was bees, freaking huge bees that sounded like rocks when they hit. I can't even imagine seeing that swarm if I was walking, they would kill the crap out of anything in their path.

2. Heywoodjajustgoaway helped a woman get to safety.

Westbound I-90 between Vantage and Ellensburg WA. Young woman in a summer dress and heels walking alone on the shoulder towards Ellensburg. No vehicles for miles so I knew she didn’t break down. If you are familiar with this stretch of 90 you know there aren’t any houses either. It’s desolate. I pull over and ask if she needs a ride. She gets in, says thank you and I immediately see that she’s been crying. I silently take her to the nearest gas station and let her out. She thanks me and tells me her boyfriend had gotten mad at her shortly before I had stopped and kicked her out.

Dude, if you’re reading this I hope you rot in hell.

3. Koko_San doesn't know where the mannequin came from.

Well, I'm not a trucker, but a motorcyclist which kinda makes it even more spooky. Drove home from my gf's house, just a 20min ride but it was 3am and the road goes through a forest without any street lights. So I ride through the forest, already giving everything my little 50ccm dirt bike had in it back then and suddenly on the side of the road, a f*cking naked mannequin is standing. I saw it appear in my headlights and drove by it only doing like 60kmh, it was scary as hell. A f*ckin' mannequin standing there naked on the side of a dark road in a forest at 3am in the morning. Damn, I still get the shivers...

4. KJ6BWB had their life saved by a hitchhiker.

I picked up a hitchhiker in my small Nissan Versa sedan, and we were driving down the freeway. There was a big vehicle in front of me so I couldn't see what was in front of that when all of a sudden the other guy start yelling "Tire, tire!" and pointing ahead of us.

I slammed on my brakes just in time to see the SUV in front of us swerve too late as the car in front of it swerved as this massive tire that was rolling down the freeway. It demolished the front end of the vehicle in front of me, and bounded high into the air coming down in front of my car where the steel band broke and it stopped rolling. If I hadn't slammed on the brakes, it probably would have come down on top of me.

He got out at the next gas station. I don't remember his name but I think he saved my life that day.

5. JimBobPaul's friend saw a terrifying creature eat a deer.

A good friend of mine told me this story years ago. He is a the stereotypical old big bad trucker. I've seen some weird stuff with him while driving in south Texas along the border. He never batted an eye, but while telling me this story he had goose bumps and a concerned expression. Which from this guy is about the equivalent of a trembling lip and shit stained pants.

I'll tell this story in the first person as he told it to me.

Years ago in the late 90's I was on my way from the house (central Texas) heading to Loredo to pick up a load. It was early morning, around 4 or 5. I had just come off a string of days at home, so I know I wasn't tired.

I am on one of those two lane winding roads in the absolute middle of bum f*ck nowhere, when I see something on the side of the road at the edge of my high beams. At first I just thought it was roadkill, as is usually the case. As I get closer, I see that it is roadkill AND there's someone crouching over the deer carcass. I remember thinking either this guy's taking the antlers as a trophy, or he's f*cking sick.

As I got closer still I can now see that's this guys eating the fucking deer. He's pulling chunks of meat from the stomach and bringing them up to his face. At this point he stops mid motion and looks up at me. Not at my truck, but at me. He/it stands up and that's when I see that its f*cking huge, brown, and covered in hair. I remember thinking at this point, oh f*ck. This thing is standing on the tiny shoulder looking at me. By this point, maybe 3 seconds have passed and I'm about to the point in the road he's standing at.

I didn't even think of stopping, in fact I'm starting to lay on it and get the hell out of there. As I'm passing it, its looking at me, again not at the truck, its looking through the driver's side windshield at me. He obviously has the intelligence to know that there's a driver in here and knows where I'm sitting. As I start to pass him I can still see its head above the hood of an old needle nose Pete. (Old truck design where the hood goes straight out from the windshield, known for being tall and difficult to see around.) This thing is f*cking giant. I remember seeing what looked like human intelligence in its eyes. It scares the sh*t out of me.

Sorry for the wall of text. It's a story worth sharing though.

TLDR ¿Bigfoot? eating a deer on the side of road.

6. BULLET_BALL_BJOERN's dad is just happy to be alive.

My dad is a truck driver and about 13-15 years ago while resting at the side of the road he woke up in the morning seeing that his entire trailer was robbed empty. My dad's a heavy sleeper but his cargo could not have been stolen without at least a forklift and everyone would have woken up by a forklift unloading a trailer.

My dad suspects the robbers used a pump to get some kind of chloroform into his cabin to make sure he couldn’t wake up.

7. JasonVoorheesthe13th's uncle saw men dispose of a body.

My great uncle was a long haul trucker and he swears that one time he was driving down the road to see two guys pull a rolled up carpet out of the trunk of their car and throw it in the river. Whether that’s true or not I don’t know, but it’s still creepy none the less.

8. FecklessKing see lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

I am a log truck driver in the Pacific Northwest. We go up into the woods on logging roads and haul logs back from the loggers to sawmills. We start work very early in the morning (2-5am), so it's night time obviously. One of my co-workers pulled away from the job and started down the logging road.

After a couple miles--after the load had settled a bit--he decided to pull over and throw his remaining wrappers around the load. As he is tying his load down, he looked back and saw a mountain lion watching him from ten feet off of the end of his trailer. He slowly backed up to his driver door and got in. By the time he looked in his mirror the lion had disappeared.

Not paranormal, but it's d*mn sure creepy. We see lions and bears fairly often out there, but to be that close and out of the truck. We face different obstacles up in the woods than highway drivers.

9. The-Gargoyle interacted with a ghost cop.

Okay, so here is a spook for you, and to this day I still have no idea WTF.

So I was in the VA/MD area, and had a lot of work related sites ranging from downtown Baltimore to Virginia Beach and all around.

Friday wrapped up, and I hit the road to some social arrangements I had made for the weekend. Spent the weekend with friends out in various parts of VA, got dragged off to other places even further out, the usual weekend fun times.

It's late Sunday night when I have to leave, Or I'm not going to be able to get home in time to start my (thankfully late afternoon) Monday. I'm fully rested, I didn't do any drinking, I'm not into drugs.

On the highway at about 3 AM, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere between Roanoke and DC, absolutely nobody around. I'm cruising along in the left lane simply because nobody else is around. No headlights for the past hour, no tail lights either. No road lamps either. It's dark, its mildly damp, its foggy. I have the music up, I'm feeling good, all is fine.

And then I just happen to look to the left and there is a f*cking dog barking at me. A German Shepard, in a car passenger seat, somewhat blue-glow from the instruments inside the car, and its got its face to its window and its barking its head off at me. I get a good hard look at it, too, because at first my brain is not registering 'cop car, dummy!'

I'm doing 90+ in a 75, I promptly have the 'oh sh*t!' moment when the dog, the instruments, the white crown vic/light bar all click in my brain after a second hard look. I put my foot on the brakes and start slowing down hard but safe, to pull over. I even put my blinker on to start shifting lanes over to the right to pull over because-

WAIT.There is no shoulder on the left side of this road!

I look back to my left (where there is still no shoulder/room for another car!), and it's just gone. No trace. I slammed my brakes and stopped in the middle of the f*cking highway,f lipped on all my light bars and even looked around with my handheld spot.. there was NOTHING. No tail lights, no headlights, no engine sounds, nothing. There are no other tire marks in the damp but mine, and I can see for a nice long distance both ways, too. Nothing.

My vehicle had great visibility, and a lot of extra lighting (offroad SUV with the trimmings.), there is no possible way somebody pulled a sneaky, let alone drove that fast on wet sloped grass and rocks on my left side.

So.. Yep, there you have it. Ghost cop and his dog didn't like me speeding, apparently.

10. IshvalanWarrior's dad is pretty sure he saw a demon.

My dad has several stories from hauling logs in Idaho and driving trucks through Utah and Nevada. My favorite is from actually just in his pickup going through Utah. He said there was a light keeping pace with him out in the desert on a moonless night. It kept pace for a minute before it disappeared and his truck turned off. He stopped and turned it on and pulled off at the next diner. The folks in the diner called it a common occurrence.

The creepiest is when he was hauling logs in Idaho and was coming down from near Coeur d'alene area during a snowy winter night. He was putting on chains before heading down steep grade and said all of the hair stood up on his body. It felt like there was something watching him. Halfway down the switchbacks he saw a large figure standing on a 20 foot tall embankment.

As he got closer it jumped down and the shoulders were as tall as the cab. In a single bound it leaped down and then leaped over to the other side of the embankment. At the time he thought it was a Sasquatch, now he says it was probably a "demon" trying to make him crash. He didn't stop to remove the chains until he was well away from the mountain.

11. Aceofspades161 has a few stories up their sleeves.

Creepiest

Driving I-40 I-30 through Texas and Arkansas, I would see what looked like animals/faces popping out of the bushes but longer than a glance proved nothing there. They had just paved the highway, and there was hardly any traffic. I was dead tired, it was super dark. Highway hypnosis I suppose.

"Paranormal"

When I went to local driving, my route ran near an Air Reserve Base in Indiana, so you'd see planes and helicopters pretty often. One night, about 2 AM, I was headed to pick up another load when I saw a bright green light in the corner of my windshield. It was too low to be an aircraft. It moved pretty slowly, then darted and I lost sight of it behind some trees I drove by. Typical "I saw a UFO" sh*t, but I still think it was just a helicopter or a jet that I saw at the prefect angle that turned after a takeoff. The jet pilots have broken the sound barrier over town a couple times in the past (sonic boom) so a jet flying abnormally isn't necessarily out of the realm of possibility.

Just batsh*t crazy

Driving South on I-75 in the winter in Ohio, I witnessed a compact car like a Cobalt or similar get on the on-ramp to merge in to I-75 North and lost control. They went sideways, fell at least 6 feet off the ramp and onto the shoulder of the interstate landing on all 4 wheels, spun 360 degrees, and then proceeded to merge into traffic like it was f*cking nothing. Blew. My. Fucking. Mind. The CB radio was going fucking nuts for about 5 minutes. "HOLY SH*T WHO ELSE JUST F*CKING SAW THAT?", etc.

12. Biffmcgee passed a scene at the marsh.

I drove by a marsh every night when I was going home from work. One night I saw a car pulled over with hazards on. Dude was head to toe covered in blood. No crash, no injury, just covered in blood.

13. pepitawu's dad had a guardian angel on the mountain.

My dad told me and my brothers this story when we were growing up and it’s always stuck with me, particularly on long drives when I’m feeling a bit sleepy. The first time I remember hearing it was after I asked him if angels were real, I was probably 7 or 8 yo.

He drove trucks decades ago, before I was born and before labor laws around limits and breaks were more standard (I’m assuming it’s different now?). He’d fairly regularly accept calls that would extend his shift to where he was driving 24, 36hrs, or more without a break longer than a quick bathroom or fast food stop.

My dad has a pretty mathematical brain, he’s the type to make up logic puzzles out of something totally mundane just for fun. Whenever we were driving around town, he’d regularly ask me things like how long would it take us to get from home to the store if we were going 30 mph but had to stop for 5 minutes in the middle because a family of kittens were crossing the road, etc. He’d come up with similar equations for himself while he was driving solo that involved things he was seeing like the odometer, mileage markers, the time, and then he could test his speed based on the equation, etc.

One night after having already driven a particularly long day, he noticed his eyes getting droopier and the whole roll-down-the-window-and-blast-the-music-up thing didn’t seem to be helping much. It was a rainy night on a pretty windy mountain road without a shoulder to pull over safely, so he started doing those logic games out loud to keep alert and awake.

He was saying something to the effect of “I just passed mile marker 146 so what time will it be when I reach 200 if I’m going 55mph...” then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and felt his head do the nod-jerk thing which woke him up with a gasp. He opened his eyes to see he was driving straight towards mile marker 158, which would have sent his whole truck tumbling down a random ass mountain ravine. He was able to correct the course safely back, but it was a matter of seconds between that reality and certain death.

He insists to this day that he slept through 12 miles of windy mountain road going 60+ mph, only to wake up right at the last moment between life and death.

The story usually ends with him tearing up saying “I don’t know if there’s angels, but I know there’s something bigger going on in this universe than our human brains have been able to understand yet. If I wouldn’t have woken up right when I did, you kids wouldn’t be here today and that’s something that feels pretty close to spiritual.”

14. s_craig was warned by a woman in a long white dress.

My grandfather was in the Air Force and one night he was driving (back to his base maybe??? I can’t quite remember) and he saw a woman standing on the side of the road in a long white dress at about two AM. He circled back to ask if she needed help and she was nowhere to be seen. He searched for her for about an before giving up, and deciding to leave it alone.

When he decided to go on his way he had a strong feeling that he needed to switch lanes (he was on the road alone in the middle of the night so he had no idea why) and just ahead on the road there was a broken down truck with no hazards on that he would have hit, and probably been killed by, if he stayed in the lane he had been in. To this day he’s convinced the woman was trying to warn him, like an omen or something.

15. GozyNYR is glad she trusted her gut.

I was 23, my newly married husband and I decided driving team would be a fun adventure after college - rather than jumping into the 9-5.

I was down in Arizona, on a long stretch of nothing about 4am when a guy pulled up next to me waving his CB (I never left mine on, listening to those guys BS was irritating.)

I turned on my CB and he told me I had a blown tire. I thanked him, figuring I would stop at the next truck stop.

He kept harassing me to pull over and check my tire for a good 40 miles.

I finally got to a next town and pilot truck stop, got out and checked my truck. No blown tires anywhere.

No clue what that guy would’ve done to me - but so glad I trusted my gut and didn’t stop.

(Not paranormal - but I have plenty of stories as a young woman on the road.)

16. vzec helped a farmer find their horse.

In the early 1990s, I was driving from a small town in Ontario, Canada to Florida. I just got past the border at around 3 AM and found out one of the roads I needed to turn on was closed. There was no one around so I looked at my map and decided to turn around and take a different road. As I made the turn, I immediately knew that I shouldn’t go this way. It was a tiny, one way street and there was trash scattered all over. It looked like a huge group of people were just there, but there was no one. No street lights, no other cars or houses or any reason for anyone to be out there. I was so creeped out that I turned around and went the correct way.

This story isn’t paranormal but it is unusual. There was also a time where it was late at night (again) and I was near Renfrew, Ontario, driving on an old, bumpy, twisty road. There was no one around. I looked to my left and I saw a face. It looked like a horse. I immediately stopped my car and noticed that there was a horse following me. After a few minutes another car pulled up and they were looking for the horse. This one ended well with the farmer taking the horse back. It really freaked me out though.

17. iamverysuccessful saw something disappear into the ocean.

Not exactly at a road, but in the sky. I’m a pilot and usually fly around Florida. This specific night I was out at around 11:30pm with a friend, flying down the eastern shoreline, when I suddenly see a medium-sized white light slowly start coming towards us, stop, and then go vertically into the ocean and disappear. Both my friend and I saw it and we were completely speechless. Asked the air traffic control if there were any kind of aircraft around us and he told us we were the only aircraft in a 40 mile radius.

18. toxicwaste331 saw a clown let loose at the end of the day.

Saw a clown staggering down an alley in the city, back facing us, while we were coming to a stoplight at like 1am. Looked like he was still blowing balloons (or masturbating). Not seeing his face made it more ominous. I'm not sure if its either really creepy or sad. Maybe he was on his way to abduct children, or maybe he was blind drunk after a long day.

19. YorkshireTeapot may have seen a UFO.

I’m a truck driver in the UK. Was driving through rural Scotland one night going down a country lane, all off a sudden I start to see flashing lights come through the trees. Lights of all colours flashing through the trees and causing some really freaky looking shadows on the road.

I’m not a believer of aliens or anything but my first thought was UFOs. Safe to say I put my foot down and got out of there.

Found out the next day it was rave happening in a field. But at the time it didn’t half scare me.

20. UnknownNaiad's cousin saw an escaped lion.

I’m not a trucker but my cousin was for a short stint. A lion ran out in front of him when he had gotten out to pee. He called his mom and she asked if he was high. He denied it and said “a f*cking lion ran out in front of me, I’m telling you!”

A few days later, the news revealed animals had escaped from a local zoo he was near, including.......a lion! We love to tell that story to everyone!

Guess what time it is? Time to look at memes while you run out the clock for the rest of this day. This is my favorite time of day besides lunch and the 400 bathroom breaks I take to avoid doing any actual work. Laugh at these memes now and it will be time to leave before you know it.

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An "Am I The A**hole?" post on Reddit has such a clear villain, and it's not the person behind the post.

Emotional-Deal posted about the flack she's getting from her fiancé's family for not wanting her sister-in-law to bring her son to the bachelorette weekend.

No, she doesn't have a vendetta against her two-year-old nephew-to-be, she just doesn't want to have kids present at the bar crawl.

She wrote:

Me (25f) and my fiancé (28m) have been together 6 years and have a little boy who is 2. I am an only child and my fiancé has 4 sisters. For context, I’ve never had a strong relationship with any of them (not through lack of trying) They are extremely close and even bought houses next to one another. They kind of have a clique and I’m tolerated I guess, but not really accepted. They have often vocalised indirectly how they prefer fiancés ex (who cheated on him) which hurts. I’ve just kind of accepted how life is and try my best to build bridges where I can.

The problem starts here: for my bachelorette party, we decided to book a weekend away to a hotel in a nearby country. I was super excited as I have never had a ‘girls trip’. It works out to around $200 each for 3 nights including flights. We booked it a year and a half in advance to give everyone a chance to save. So far there have been no problems with anyone, except for [sisters-in-law].

The sisters-in-law are being snobs about the weekend, while the bride and her friends are working class.

They made comments on the hotel, location, etc despite them being best in the area. Myself and my [Maid of Honor] are workingclass and have to save for the wedding. This is our only luxury. His sisters on the other hand are all well-off (married into money) and have multiple trips a year both with and without their kids.

We agreed and the place was booked. Now, 2 months before the trip, one SIL is insisting on bringing her child (the same age as our son) I refused and have been called a huge asshole for it by all of his sisters. They say she has anxiety over leaving him with her husband who has had him while she has had week long trips before with her friends no problem. She has never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I have had anxiety for years and have recently stopped counselling so I understand what it can be like, but I suspect it’s an excuse. She is very self centred and always seeks the limelight (announcing her pregnancy at her friends baby shower etc) and I’ve reached the end of my tether.

Our hotel is adults only. We have excursions booked where children aren’t permitted, have bar crawls planned etc and an adults only spa day. There is absolutely no place for a child, let alone for a 2 year old boy. She expects us to change the hotel last minute to accommodate him.

While this might seem like an obvious and understandable decision, the groom's family is taking the opportunity to be mean to the bride.

He is my nephew and I love him, but this is my ONE thing that I want to be about me. I’ve never had a birthday party, engagement party, baby shower etc. I just want this one trip to be about me, as selfish as I sound. Im getting rude texts and phone calls from everyone telling me it’s wrong to exclude him (even my own son isn’t coming- my fiancé has even offered nephew and [brother-in-law] to stay at our place with them for the weekend too, which she has refused.)

[Am I The A**hole] for not wanting him there? I am on the verge of just cancelling the whole thing and all I have done the last few days is cry, it’s getting to the point I don’t want to go at all because I’m scared they’re going to make it hell for me either way.

Allow me to be the first to say that this woman's future in-laws suck, and the sisters should be Parasited.

The Reddit Jury agrees.

"Girl fuck those ladies," witchtiddies (lol) commented. "Your man sounds like a good one and y'all shouldn't let his shitty sisters ruin your bachelorette night. You deserve to have a good time and they're making it all a big drama. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this but you and definitely [Not The A**hole]."

"NTA. It never ceases to amaze me how people will try to make somebody else’s wedding about themselves. And bringing a child on a bachelorette party? No thanks,"

Emotional-Deal provided an update, thanking the internet strangers for their support and saying that she will be putting her foot down.

I just want to say thank you to everyone for your verdicts, whether I’m [Not The A**hole] or not. I never thought this would get even half as much attention as it has. I’m going to put my foot down and bluntly tell them no children, and as others have suggested, say how she will be sorely missed but everything is non refundable and can’t be changed such short notice. If they all drop out then so be it. If I’m an asshole, so be it. I’m only planning on having a bachelorette once in my life and goddamn it I’m going to enjoy it without any regrets. Thanks for giving my head a wobble guys. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of yourself when you’re swimming in negativity! Love to you all, even that one guy that called me an a**hole.

Love to all, except those sisters-in-law.

It's pretty normal to lie to your doctor, especially when they ask how many alcoholic drinks you have per week ("alcohol? Never heard of it!"). But medical professionals are well-equipped to sniff out bullshit from patients—especially when the truth is ridiculously obvious.

In one popular Reddit thread, people who work in the medical profession shared the most obvious lies patients have told. In another, doctors shared the most bizarre issues patients have tried to hide from them.

Here are 18 stories of patients who tried to lie or conceal the often-embarrassing truth from a doctor, nurse or medical professional, and failed spectacularly.

Only about half of them involve getting objects "accidentally" stuck inside their private areas.

1.) From parrotman41:

Patient brought to the er - was allegedly naked in his bedroom making a salad, when he accidentally sat on an upright cucumber.

2.) From nellirn:

Oh yes! I had a patient who was standing up while paddling, naked, in his canoe, when he sat on a 20 ounce bottle of Coca Cola. He couldn't find his Coke bottle ANYWHERE. Huh.

3.) From yeahnahmaybe26:

Nurse here. "I've been sticking to my diet and exercising but my blood sugars are staying high all the time" says the diabetic patient who I just saw buy a damn snickers from the vending machine in the waiting room.

4.) From DrFiveLittleMonkeys:

There is no chance of pregnancy because I’ve never had sex before (patient is pregnant).

I don’t use drugs ever (drug screen is positive for marijuana and/or other substances).

We honestly do NOT care if you have sex or use drugs. We ask for medical reasons and not being truthful can make things worse or even kill you. Please don’t lie to us.

ETA: patient lie to me about drug use daily. My most recent favorite was the guy who swore up and down he’d never ever used any drugs, including marijuana. Except he had a tattoo of a marijuana leaf, was wearing shirt espousing marijuana use, and reeked of pot smoke. I pointed that out to him and he had the grace to look completely abashed. Yes,his drug screen was positive for THC. (Shocked pikachu face)

5.) From max:

i once heard a little boy tell a nurse that he was bitten by a brontosaurus.

he was obviously lying, because brontosauruses were herbivores.

6.) From roc_and_roll:

Every time a patient feigns a seizure (either intentionally or unintentionally) it's a comically bad interpretation of what they think it should look like.

7.) From BlackCross20:

Not a doctor but a paramedic, the most obvious lie is probably the one alcoholics tell when we pick them up like: „how much did u drink ?“ „ only 1 or 2 beer“ like sure m8 you smell like you just took a bath in vodka.

8.) From squirrleyhooker:

“Oh I gave up salt last year for my blood pressure” while literally reaching for her second White Castle slider during our conversation. The cheese fries were gone by then.

She was admitted to the hospital. This was morning rounds. Her sister had brought her a crave case and cheese fries and (she was very proud) a DIET coke.

9.) From Scullllaaaay:

Not a doctor, an audiologist, a common-ish scenario;

"Do you use cotton buds to clean your ears?"

"No, never, absolutely not, never have, you shouldn't put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear!"

"..... Because there is definitely the end of a cotton bud stuck in your ear.."

"Oh yeah, maybe just this one time.."

10.) From FauxMajor97:

Well i'm not a nurse or doctor but my brother once told me about a guy who said that he wasn't sexually active.....my brother knew him from couple of porn videos😂

11.) From Richter915:

Dermatologist here

Patient was convinced she had a melanoma and needed a biopsy and would need to be on workers comp

I told her it looked like ink from a marker

She demanded a biopsy

I wiped the area off with an alcohol swab and showed her the ink and that there was no spot on her skin anymore

She stormed out threatening to sue

I'm just glad I cured her melanoma

12.) From nipplequeen69:

This happened to me 3 days ago! A guy came in with a wheelchair.

"Do you have any medical issues?"

"No"

".... Umm, why are you in a wheelchair?"

"Oh, I have a degenerative neuromuscular condition. And type 2 diabetes."

13.) From xchelsaurus:

Nurse here: one time had a patient come in with insane intestinal trauma, had to have his colon stitched up. Said he was fishing and fell his rectum just happened to fall perfectly on a fishing pole.

Must have been a wild night, to be "fishing" naked.

14.) From SpinningDespina:

From a nurse friend - guy came in with burns to his entire willy. He tried to say he got it by trying to shoplift a hot bbq chicken from a deli down his pants. What he was really doing was fucking the chicken.

15.) From Smeeee:

A patient came in with chest pain. Said they'd fallen and hit their chest on a table. Xray was performed to evaluate for a rib fracture or collapsed lung.

The xray instead showed a long metallic foreign body in the left chest, within the heart. When questioned further the patient admitted to lying, and that they'd actually shot themselves in the chest with a nail gun. The wound was not bleeding nor really noticeable.

They were taken to the operating room and did quite well after open heart surgery.

16.) From Oodles_of_noodles_:

Not a doctor but an EMT. I had a guy who tried to tell us he fell while playing softball and hurt his ribs and arm. This was ten o'clock at night.

Come to find out, he tried to screw his drug dealer out of some money and the guy chased him down with a bat and beat him with it. So I guess he was kind of playing softball?

17.) From Rotator_Cough:

My late dad was a surgeon and, when he was a resident, had a middle-aged male patient come in complaining of pain in the rectum. They examined him and found a vibrator lodged fairly deep. When they asked him how it happened, he looked extremely surprised that it was there and then explained , "I was lying in bed and it was on and vibrating on the bed near me... and it sort of moved on its own... guess it found its way up my ass all by itself."

18.) From boxotomy:

Pregnancy.

Patient arrives into ER triage. She is in her early 30s and was complaining of lower abdominal pain and nausea. The British triage nurse (who tells this story best) says the poor woman was bent over double in her chair. From all accounts, she was a relatively 'skinny' individual. In order to make sure there was no emergent, emerging emergency, our triage nurse has a peak at the patient's downstairs. She was greeted by a crowning baby. The nurse bolts up and runs into the ER and grabs my attending: "Sir, she's up the duff!" Confused, a brief 'Who's on first?' exhange ensued before my attending and I ran in...just in time to catch a healthy 8 lbs baby.

There are several other incidents similar to this, but none so pronounced. Mother denied being pregnant up until the moment her baby girl was on her chest.

“In olden times, sacrifices were made at the altar, a practice which is still very much practiced.”

—Helen Rowland

Marriage can be a lot of sacrifices and hard work, but hey at least you have someone to split the rent with. These hilarious memes perfectly nail what it's like to have a permanent and weird roommate, aka your spouse.

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"The road to success is always under construction."

-Lily Tomlin

The road to success might be under construction, but at least there are always plenty of laughs along the way. These memes will crack you up and make your morning way less painful.

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Laugh today, because tomorrow could be worse. These memes are sure to put you in a good mood if only for the 2 minutes it takes to read them. The rest of the day, you are on your own, pal.

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Only college students would quite literally mourn the loss of a closed Taco Bell on campus.

Cheap, late night food is a dream for broke, overnight studiers and hard partying college kids. So naturally, when the news broke that a Penn State Taco Bell was closing, students gathered to show their respects.

According the Penn State's independently published student newspaper, The Collegian, the sacred and somber Taco Bell event was organized by Prajesh Patel, who set up a Facebook event and dressed up as, of course, a taco. Fellow mourners joined Patel with candles and flowers, singing songs to honor the memories shared at their beloved, fallen Taco Bell...

Of course, Twitter had a lot to say...

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Thanks for the laugh, Penn State students!

One of the hardest parts about getting married is facing all of the unsolicited opinions from your friends and family. Even the most supportive people are going to have their own ideas about what a relationship should look like, and where you should draw boundaries or call it off, and the best thing you can do is take their words with a grain of salt and stick to your guns.

Still, when a friend comes at you with an opinion that undermines your partner or feels like an attack, it places you in a difficult position. You ultimately have to decide: will you cut them off, or assume the best of their intentions?

In a recent post on the Am I The A*shole subreddit, a man asked if he overreacted when a friend asked if he'd considered calling off the wedding with his disabled fiancee.

AITA for yelling at a friend when she said that I should think about cancelling my wedding because my fiancée has recently become disabled.

OP kicked off the post by sharing that their fiance got in an accident just a month ago and is now wheelchair bound. While physical therapy is helping, at this point it looks like OP's fiancee may never walk again.

My fiancée and I are planning on getting married in September, and we’ve been together for 5 years now. A month ago she got into an accident that has her in a wheelchair. She’s been seeing a physical therapist about prosthetics but for now at least there’s no walking happening.

While it's been a huge adjustment for their relationship, both OP and their fiancee are rolling with the punches.

It’s been... an adjustment for both of us, and I won’t say it’s gone perfectly, but you can’t expect something like this to transition perfectly.

However, despite their obvious loyalty, during a recent night out on the town one of OP's friends asked if he thought about calling off the wedding.

I recently went out with a couple friends, and I was talking about my fiancée and how she was doing when one of them asked if I had thought about calling off the wedding.

OP felt angry at the question, and their friend doubled down by claiming OP's fiancee might be a "dead weight" with her disability.

I immediately said no and asked why I would, and she started talking about how she’s going to be a burden and I don’t want to start the better part of my life with dead weight as a wife.

This moment of ableism made OP understandably angry, and the conversation ended in a heated fight.

This really pissed me off and I yelled at her that just because she got into an accident doesn’t make her worthless and that she should shut her mouth if only sh*t is going to come out of it. I’ll admit I made a bit of a scene, so I left and went home.

While OP has stuck to their guns on the situation, their fiancee actually empathized with the friend and understands where they're coming from. Now OP feels unsure about whether they were too hard on their friend, since even their fiancee seems to understand the friend's intentions.

My fiancée says that I shouldn’t have been so harsh and that she can see where my friend is coming from and that she only has my best interests in mind. This honestly really surprised me since my friend was talking about her, and she’s saying I should have been less harsh. So I’m wondering whether I went overboard since the woman getting trashed even thinks I was too harsh.

AITA?

lostonravenna thinks OP was completely correct in standing up for his fiancee, and pointed out that ableism is never okay.

NTA. Your fiancée likely feels the same way about herself as your friend does. Not necessarily that you should cancel the wedding, but she may think of herself as a burden and a deadweight. Your friend is no friend at all and that’s an unacceptable thing to say. Just because someone can’t walk doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to be married to someone who loves and cares for them.

WeeBabey thinks OP should cut off their "friend" immediately.

NTA

Your friend calling your wife dead weight is f*cking disrespectful.

Kooky_Chipmunk thinks reacting strongly to ableism is the only way to go.

NTA.

You did the right thing and being harsh was warranted. Disabled people are not a dead weight. Your friend is a total a*shole. I’d consider ending the friendship based on that ableist comment.

IOnceWasLegend thinks OP and their fiancee should go to therapy to figure out the current dynamic, and unpack the fiancee's current views on herself.

Marriage is for better or worse, in sickness and in health. What, would this "friend" divorce their husband if he got sick/disabled after their wedding? Would she be as understanding if it was her who lost mobility and he said, "Yeah, you're dead weight"? Just...wow.

You're being a good SO. Although, you really want to have a serious talk with your fiance/go to therapy together. If she's agreeing with the friend, she could be taking this much harder than either of you realizes and it's better to address it sooner rather than later.

usernameawesome1 thinks OP should exclude the friend from the wedding, but more importantly, that they should talk with their fiancee more in-depth about her feelings about herself.

NTA at all. The friend I would consider not inviting to the wedding. And address the doubt that your fiance has about herself before you get married. She is obviously thinking that if she agreed with the friend and this needs to be addressed to support her and help her confidence and heal mentally from the accident. Recovery from injuries that are life changing take a myriad of emotions and struggles.

It seems clear that OP was in no way wrong for defending their fiancee against ableism. But also, their fiancee's response opens the door for a crucial conversation about the emotional dynamics of their relationship moving forward, and the fact that she is in no way a burden.

5. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, because they're the latest dropouts.

Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race, just in time for you to have finally learned how to spell (and pronounce!) his last name.

Despite having the resumé of an Aaron Sorkin character and the speech patterns of Barack Obama, his campaign didn't see a path to victory.

Mayor Pete's exit has been cited by pundits such as President Donald Trump as "proof" that the Democratic Party powers-that-be want to consolidate the moderate vote around a non-Bernie Sanders candidate. Pete's fellow moderate, Senator Amy Klobuchar, seemed almost gleeful at the news that she outlasted Pete, as the two were frequent sparring partners at debates and appeared to be in a fight to the death over who is the more Midwestern Midwesterner.

Then, having achieved her goal of outlasting Pete, it was reported today that Klobs is out, too.

Call it even?

4. The guy in his underwear who stole an ambulance and lead the police on a chase around Philly.

The (*Bruce Springsteen voice*) streets of Philadelphia were thrown into chaos on Friday night when a 40-year-old man wearing nothing but boxer shorts stole an ambulance and tried to run over an officer who shot him three times.

ABC News reports that police were responding to a domestic disturbance involving the man that required medical attention, and when the first responders arrived, he got aggressive with the cops and then stole a medic's ambulance.

The result is a slow-motion OJ's Bronco chase, but in Philadelphia and without the murders.

Philadelphia reporter Maggie Kent caught a good street-leve view of the 90-minute chase and the police choppers above them.

They ultimately caught the guy, pulling him out of the ambulance before he could pull his boxers up.

The ambulancejacker was taken into custody and brought into the hospital. Charges are still pending, reports Action News.

3. Hilary Duff, because Lizzie McGuire is in limbo.

When Hilary Duff signed on to do a Lizzie McGuire reboot at Disney+, millennials were thrilled to get an update on what America's favorite crimped-haired teen and her cartoon alter-ego were up to. In January, production was put on hold when the show's original creator quit the reboot, and now we know why: Disney wouldn't let Lizzie go beyond a PG rating.

Duff posted on Instagram a humble plea to the executives to let the show move from Disney-owned Disney+ to Disney-owned Hulu so a now-thirty year old Lizzie McGuire can act like a thirty-year-old on screen.

Lizzie McGuire allowed to open-mouth tongue-kiss Gordo in a PG-13 show? That's what dreams are made of.

2. Flava Flav, because he's now Public Enemy's public enemy.

Hype man and clock model Flava Flav is out of supergroup Public Enemy after he refused to perform at a Bernie Sanders.

Chuck D revealed that Flava Flav was pissed because he didn't want to perform for free, so the rest of the group decided to perform without Flava Flav.

He also added that Flava Flav has nothing against Bernie Sanders specifically... Mr. Fav isn't even certain who this "Barney Sanders" fellow is!

There's still a chance that Flava Flav could become Comrade Flav.

1. The woman who accidentally heckled her ex, confessing her love for his dog.

Nobody should get to break your heart and keep the dog. It's not fair.

It's definitely not ever okay to be transphobic, but what do you do when your transgender sibling wants to come out at your wedding?

Stealing the spotlight from a couple on their wedding day is the running theme of a lot of wedding drama. It's not polite to celebrate anything other than the bride and groom on their wedding day, especially at a party they paid for. If you really want to propose to your girlfriend or announce your pregnancy and the open bar and built-in party seem like the perfect setting, think again. A couple's wedding day isn't about you--smile, drink champagne, bring a good gift and don't cause a scene.

However, one of the best things about weddings is that you get to celebrate your relationship with all the people you love and care about. When a recent Reddit user consulted "Am I the As*hole?" to ask if he was wrong to tell his transgender sister she's no longer allowed at his wedding because she wants to make his celebration about her coming out, the moral compass of the internet was ready to chime in. Long live family drama!

AITA for uninviting my transgender sibling from my wedding?​​​​​

Throwaway. I'll try to keep it to the point. Basically, my fiance and I are getting married soon, in about 4 months. Our families are all going to be there, including all of my extended family from around the country.

My sibling (this is new to me so it's hard to imagine them as my sister when I've always known them as my brother) is also flying in to see me. Well they were going to at least.

We grew up pretty close and usually share everything with each other. The other day, they called me and told me they were identifying as a woman, and wanted to be called Stella. I was shocked and still am honestly, but I love them regardless.

Anyway, they, she (it's really hard to wrap my mind around right now, please be patient) wanted to come out to the family at my wedding. She wanted to come to the wedding with a dress, wig, fake breasts on, heels, the whole works. I told her that maybe that would be really shocking to everyone and steal the spotlight from my bride. She said she could come as Dave and at the reception change and reveal Stella.

That seemed like it would take even more of the spotlight. I asked if she could just come out afterwards, or even before, just not on the wedding day. She said that, because her job is new and she doesn't have many days off yet, she wouldn't be able to stay more than the one day.

While I get that not everyone can stay to socialize, I don't think this is the day to reveal it to family. It's a big deal and will definitely take attention from my bride (who agrees.)

I've tried negotiating but she's adamant that the family never gets together anymore, and this is possibly her only opportunity for a big reveal. When I asked why she needs such a big reveal, she got angry and asked if I was transphobic.

Eventually, I told her she can't come to the wedding, because I won't have the day turn into something completely about her.

My fiance is grateful for what I did, but I'm worried I've strained relations with my sibling. AITA?

Luckily, the internet was here to determine as*hole status:

"Sappyliving" wrote:

she shouldn't be taking your spotlight on your wedding day. That is just douchie. She can post on FB and do a reveal there

"Likely_Not_Your_Mom" wrote:

Your wedding, or any wedding is not the place for any kind of big announcement. This includes proposals, pregnancy announcements, come outs, gender reveals (both for pregnant women and people transitioning). This is a huge deal I’m sure for your sister, but certainly not the place or time.

"fkedddd" wrote:

As a trans person myself, a siblings wedding is not the appropriate place to come out. Maybe she could work out a way to have an extra day off and come out the following day at lunch/dinner or something.

"N7_Hellblazer" wrote:

trans man here. Stella does sound like she wants all the attention on her. There is no reason why she can’t phone your parents and tell them.

I came out after speaking on the phone with my parents, then my aunt and a week later made a Facebook post to let my friends know. I am fed up of people throwing around the transphobic comments over stuff like this. Gives a bad name for the trans community.

"aaronwputman" wrote:

as a trans person this honestly makes me sick. Yes she deserves every opportunity to be her true self and I hope she is able to do so, but her doing so in that fashion completely ruins the wedding. Your family is going to see you and your partner. You deserve to have a special day. Her coming out can come another day on terms everyone is happy with. I would suggest she come out before so she can be herself at your wedding, but if you have family that isn't ok with that "lifestyle" you risk not being able to see them on your big day. You obviously care about and respect your sister a lot and I applaud you for that, but don't let her steal your day.

So, there you have it!

Don't make someone else's wedding about you ever. You will have your time to shine, Stella! Good luck out there, everyone...

Nanny cams are a useful technology that are supposed to be used by adults to keep tabs on their kids (because if there's anyone who has the right to employ espionage, it's parents of young children). But it's not always the kids that these cameras catch misbehaving. Someone asked Reddit: "parents with Nanny Cams, what have you caught your babysitter doing?" After reading these responses, it seems like maybe babysitters are the ones who need to be spied on.

These parents (or pet-owners) share their stories of the bad, weird, or surprising things they've caught their babysitters (or pet-sitters) doing:

1.) From MassacreNecro2:

This was my (equivalent of) pre-k. All the kids were regressing in their movement ability and getting really fat so they set up spy equipment. Turns out one carer was doubling every baby’s food portions and forcefully overfeeding them.

2.) From nmarietaylor:

i’ve been a pretty regular weekend nanny for an amazing family for four years now. they’ve cycled through a couple different weekday nannies since i’ve been with them. there is only one monitor and it’s in the little dude’s room. once the mom showed me on the camera why they let one go. little dude said “mommy said i don’t have to do that.” and the nanny snapped back “well it doesn’t matter, mommy is a bitch.” and then dragged the kid out of the room by his shirt. super fired.

3.) From chrisacip:

Chasing my cats around with a broom, hitting them. (She’s since been fired.)

4.) From nmarietaylor:

i’ve been a pretty regular weekend nanny for an amazing family for four years now. they’ve cycled through a couple different weekday nannies since i’ve been with them. there is only one monitor and it’s in the little dude’s room. once the mom showed me on the camera why they let one go. little dude said “mommy said i don’t have to do that.” and the nanny snapped back “well it doesn’t matter, mommy is a bitch.” and then dragged the kid out of the room by his shirt. super fired.

5.) From 46from1971:

She picked up our pug Doogie and was dancing around the living room with him while that "Hey, I just met you" song was playing.

6.) From radiobrain:

A friend caught his nanny hitting their kid for interrupting that days binge of the TV show Friends.

7.) From Aztecdupstep_:

My mom put a nanny cam on my sister's bedroom. The only disturbing thing my mom allegedly saw was the babysitter crying while holding my sister. Turns out the babysitter just had a miscarriage the day before.

8.) From J-rizzler:

Caught the babysitter masturbating on our couch. The babysitter was/still is my female cousin. I figured the best thing was to just say nothing, save the awkwardness. She did it a fair amount.

I then mentioned our house cam by accident some months later and her face dropped. I realised what I'd said then casually threw in that I'd never checked it, again, to save the awkwardness.

9.) From animasrapids:

My mom suspected our maid of stealing the silverware. And she's just fucking nosy. Anyway, the maid was indeed stealing the silverware. I think that ended up being overshadowed by my dad fucking her, though.

10.) From calcifyon:

Not me but my aunts friend set up a nanny cam because she noticed that every time she changed her child’s diaper the child would start crying a lot more than usual. Turns out when they watched the nanny change her diaper, she would use Clorox wipes if they were nearby instead of grabbing the baby wipes.

Edit: For anyone wondering what happened afterward they fired the nanny immediately and the father became a stay at home dad.

11.) From plasticimmunity:

We once caught the nanny putting charcoal to feed them as a “snack”. This woman claimed that she thought it was a snack. It was in a charcoal box. My brothers were 4...

12.) From MrYamaguchi:

My grandpa was staying with my parents but they figured it best to hire the regular sitter to watch my younger siblings overnight since they didn’t think my grandpa was up to the task and they were attending a wedding a couple hours away and made plans to spend the night in a hotel nearby. They had set up a nanny cam in a couple room, my siblings bedroom, the master bedroom, living room and kitchen. All motion activated. They normally wouldn’t bother looking through the footage if everything seemed fine upon returning home and their master bedroom cam had never been triggered before. When they returned they noticed that the cam in the master bedroom had been triggered so they decide to take a look, cut to footage of my grandpa and the sitter both naked aggressively making out from the entrance of the room staggering while intertwined towards the bed and then about 20 minutes of banging on my parents bed. The sitter was about 20 years old and my grandpa was around 70 at the time. My dad called me immediately after he saw the footage laughing his ass off, and I could hear my mom crying in the background completely mortified from what she had just witnessed and shouting at my dad to throw out the sheets and kick out grandpa. My mom called the sitter to confront her and she just apologized and said there was “connection” or some shit to that matter, when she ask my grandpa what he was thinking he just said “At my age you must seize every opportunity.” I wish there was audio for the build up, I lay awake at night sometimes just wondering what kind of game my grandpa was talking to get in that sitters pants.

13.) From madtitan1304:

Caught my little sister's babysitter catching a good hour long nap at 2 PM while my 1 year old sister was up having the time of her life destroying my playstation.

14.) From Vlinder_88:

We didn't have a nanny cam, but my mom set up the camcorder when she suspected our babysitter was stealing... And then caught the babysitter stealing... She returned most of the stuff when my mom threatened to report her to the police.. I think she should still have reported her anyway. Now she probably just went on stealing at other people's places.

15.) From dylanmg06:

My aunt has a nanny cam and found my older cousin's babysitter playing blackjack with him......she lost $50 lol

16.) From RealityJaunt:

I have caught her making pillow forts that are heavily resistant to the monsters that may or may not come out during heavy thunderstorms with my kiddo... twenty minutes after bedtime!

Needless to she was dealt with appropriately.

17.) From Kalidoscope98:

She stole a single puzzle piece of what we were trying to solve. Saw her put it in her pocket.

Final straw was one of our fucking potted plants.

18.) From cloudyglasses:

I'm not a parent rather the child and I had this nanny, or yaya as we would call it. It became useless because she soon found out and kept unplugging the camera. It turns out she was slowly stealing money from my family.

We fired her.

19.) From VeganMacN0Ch33z:

When I was around 12yrs old, my parents caught my babysitter on camera stealing my NES games and shoving them into her pants and shirt. They confronted her about it and she kept denying it until Ninja Gaiden fell out of her pant leg. My mom took her into a room and made take out all the games she stole. She literally had games shoved under the strap of her bra on her back so that she could sneak them out of the house, and others were put inside the waist band of her underwear. She must've really thought about this for awhile. Anyway, we got the games back and she was sent home without pay.

And here are some stories from people who caught their babysitters or pet-sitters in the act of being straight-adorable.

20.) From dope__username:

My story isn't that interesting but I have a camera to check in on my rabbit when I'm not there. The biggest surprises were mostly just how almost nobody followed my pet-sitting instructions. The one exception, ironically, was my brother who claimed to hate the rabbit and always wanted to get rid of it. I got an alert one day that my camera had detected movement while my bro was there taking care of him and I decided to take a peek. I opened the app connected to the camera and saw my bro walk into my room, lay on the floor, and start playing with my rabbit. It just warmed my heart.

21.) From veritaszak:

We have a nanny cam and we caught our nanny... dancing with our baby, making him laugh and giving him kisses. She’s the best and the cameras gave us the peace of mind to know she really treats him like her own.

22.) ​​​From raffmeup:

We have a security camera in my bedroom for my free roam bunny so we can keep an eye on her whilst on work, if we go on holiday ect.

Well my dad, is 50 and is a big bloke who acts like he doesn’t like pets came over to visit one day whilst I was out. He went in my room and crouched down calling the bunny, he spent an hour trying to pet the rabbit and kept repeating in a soft voice “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to pet you and see how fluffy you are”

He just about shit himself when I spoke through the security camera to tell him she’s very fluffy.

23.) From SwiftScoutTeemo:

My family bought one to see our dogs when we leave on vacation twice a year, it's one where they can hear us and we thought id's be great (we hardly used it). We also asked our maid to dogsit for us while we were out. Once when we looked at the feed we saw the dogsitter there a solid 30 minutes early just petting the dogs and playing with them. She's since retired from working, but she was the sweetest old lady and we love her.

Another time my dad left a wad of cash ontop of the washing machine (about $600) and she put a rubber band around it with a note saying he misplaced it.

24.) From MooseThings:

This isn't a bad one. My parents caught the baby sitter carrying our 60lb golden retriever like he was a baby.

25.) From AngelIslington:

not mine, but my friends

we watched her daughters nanny playing with her, singing to her and just being so lovely. she was so good, that all the others mums wanted to hire her.

We all have moments where our brain briefly flies out of our body, and all the thoughts that are left are incredibly stupid. Sometimes it manifests in us forgetting the name of a close friend or family member and other times we forget how science works completely.

Luckily, for most of us, these moments come and go and we're able to function like real adults in the world a majority of the time. However, there are the unfortunate souls who wander the earth completely oblivious at all hours, and while their ignorance seems like bliss, it's also confounding to the rest of us.

In a popular Reddit thread, people shared the "stupidest" people they've met and peak stories of their stupidity, and it's honestly a confidence boost for anyone experiencing a brain fog day.

1. Rustyraider111 will never forget James.

An old co worker named James. We worked at McDonald's and were both 16. One time, while mopping the lobby, he for some unknown reason decided to chase a number of customers around with the mop yelling "I'm gonna getcha". He was fired on the spot.

2. Eponius's dad witnessed a truly absentminded moment.

My brother and I were in the kitchen one day as teenagers. My brother was filling the sink to wash dishes. When the sink was nearly full he went to turn the tap off but it wouldn't budge so the water kept flowing. I tried turning it too but with no success. This is when the panic set in. The level of the water was rising fast and we didn't want to flood the kitchen. He took big saucepans out of the press to fill with water to keep things from over flowing, while I was in a frantic scramble under the sink trying to find the mains to turn it off there.

I couldn't find it!! Now really panicking i took over the pot filling duty and my brother went running off to look for dad as quick as he could. Dad came running in with my brother while we were shouting at him about looking for the mains. Dad just came over to the sink and pulled the plug out of the hole letting all the water down the drain. Ha ha.

3. Isthatyourhair will always think of Tammy when they see an eclipse.

I’ve told this story before, but I like telling it because f*ck Tammy. I had a boss named Tammy. One night, we were all working late doing stocktake, and we were discussing the impending lunar eclipse. Someone asked what happens during an eclipse. Tammy grandly explained that the eclipse would occur when America went in front of the moon, blocking our (Australia’s) view of it. Like she literally thought the earth stretched itself into like a U bend or neck pillow shape, and half of it stayed in our normal orbit, and the other half stretched itself over and around to casually block the moon for the rest of the earth.

4. ChanceFray's roommate is either a brilliant troll or someone who truly doesn't understand science.

My roommate for the last 3 years once said that if solar technology keeps advancing at the rate it is, we will absorb all the energy made by the sun and fix global warming. Not 5 minutes later after attempting to inform this poor fellow about how the suns energy output is not determined by what the energy eventually interacts with, he states that wind farms are worse because they cause tropical storms. I hope he is just an epic troll. I just... I don't know.

5. Dankmaster_Reptilian's classmate truly didn't grasp what SIDS is.

Had a guy in a third year undergrad developmental psych course raise his hand in a full lecture hall and ask the professor; "Prof, do infants diagnosed with SIDS get asthma later in life...like are they more likely to get asthma??"

SIDS stands for sudden infant death syndrome.. He just kept pursuing the question the prof didn't understand how she could answer it, she thought there was some kind of logic in it that she wasn't seeing. Finally some girl took the initiative to shout across the room, "No they are not more likely to get asthma, they are dead...they have died suddenly, and will thus not be at risk of developing asthma." Great day. He always sat in front of me and I would see him writing just absolutely horrible poetry and song lyrics .

6. christamh experienced a next level racist microaggression.

I am Half-korean going to high school in the Midwest during the 1992 LA riots. My typing teacher pulled me into the hallway and asked if I had an uncle or something I can call in LA to make the riots stop. She said she knew that we are all close and we all have stores and what not, therefore I must have a connection there. I was like, "lady, even if I did have an uncle I could call do you think he is Batman?"

7. needs_more_zoidberg had an incredible argument about eggs.

Our biggest argument was over whether the correct phrase is 'egg yolk' or 'egg oak'.

8. deamt watched Nick try to burn it (his brain) all down.

My high school classmate whose name is Nick. We were in chemistry, doing a lab practical, which required the use of a bulb pipette (a glass pipette with a removable bulb that you squeeze).

Nick didn't know how to use the pipette so he put it to his mouth to suck up SULFURIC ACID. It got about three quarters of the way up before our teacher screamed "NICKKKKK!!!! STOP THAT RIGHT NOW."

9. BitcoinBanker encountered people who truly don't understand crosswalks.

“Why do the crossings beep.” “For blind people.” “But blind people can’t drive?” “...”

10. PingTheAwesome's cousin didn't know how laundry worked.

My cousin. All through public school, she was a snob who looked down on everyone. She was super stylish and struggled academically.

We graduated in 2014. We both went to colleges (not the same one.) She got a job at a bar, stayed out late drinking. Her boyfriend told her she didn’t need to complete college, so she just stopped showing up. Didn’t drop; just stopped showing up. Completely flunked out.

Here comes the mega stupidity: Our families live hours away from her college at the time. Her family went to move her back home. My cousin’s mom noticed a pile of clothes in the corner. The mom said ‘what’s that, your laundry? Pack it and we’ll wash it when we get home later.’

My cousin (I kid you not): ‘you can wash those?!’

Turns out, she’d been throwing away clothes instead of washing them. She claimed she didn’t know she could, yet she washed her undergarments and bras without a hitch.

She’s now at home with her family and has started doing more chores to show an increase in responsibility. She still tries to throw clothes away, citing that she didn’t know they could be washed and reused. Makes me wonder what she thought all those years before college, before she left home. She wore some of the same outfits repeatedly — she had to have known they could be washed.

11. AuspiciousAuspicious could not trust the Navy cook, at all.

When I was in the Navy, there was a cook on my ship. He once served "rare" chicken. I genuinely couldn't tell whether he was trying to cover up his limitless incompetence or if he genuinely believed that rare poultry is a real thing. He was dumb enough to believe it. Another time, he just filled a pan with ground beef and called it meat loaf.

Another time he was supposed to make sugar cookies, you know, several hundred of them for the whole crew. He didn't bother to read the label on the container he opened, and apparently he didn't taste the batter at any point, and he actually made salt cookies. He used up all the remaining salt in the pantry and we had unseasoned food for the remaining several weeks of the mission, during which time the captain assigned someone to be the cook's bodyguard.

12. ShiraCheshire's dad has underwhelming taste in women.

A girl my dad dated for a while. Even while dating her my dad would say she was dumber than a bag of rocks.

One day, she sat down to watch a movie with my dad. Movie was all about this guy and his twin brother. She sits and watches the whole thing, no interruptions. At the end, she turns and asks, "So there were two of him?"

Would explain why she always had the TV turned to a music channel. Apparently she couldn't follow normal TV or movies.

13. RougeWinter went to school with a guy who became a bootleg counterfeiter.

There was a troubled kid I went to high-school with. He struggled with school but had friends but was starting to do drugs and go down a bad way. He decided to photo copy the front and back side of a 20 dollar bill, cut it out of normal paper, and glue the two halves with Elmer’s glue.

What's even more sad is that to test his new money he went to the gas station and bought some gum and it ACTUALLY WORKED?!? So in his mind it must have meant that it was fool proof. So he then tried to go and deposit the glued up money at an actual bank. He was obviously found out and arrested. I don’t know where he is now but I’m assuming he is making similar life choices.

14. Surfguitar's neighbor truly didn't learn from his mistakes.

Had a next door neighbor who robbed a Howard Johnson's at the top of our street at gunpoint, wearing a ski mask. Took the money, took off the mask and was walking home (two blocks down said street) when cops pulled him over, and found the mask, the gun and the money. He was wasted and asked them "would it help if I said I'm sorry?". Got a couple years in Riker's Island.

Came out, broke into a local apartment house, stole some money and jewelry, got stuck out on a fire escape when the ladder wouldn't go down, and he had closed the window behind him. Couple more years. That's two stories, I guess. There's a few more, but you get the picture. He did leave me a box of cassettes when he went up one time, among them The Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore. I became a lifelong fan, so, thanks, unnamed next door failed robber. He was actually a really nice guy, and, like, a young Ray Liotta handsome. Just dumb as a brick.

15. sammienglish knows a guy who eats more to pass drug tests.

I know a guy smokes a lot of weed and is fairly overweight. He had been trying to find work but was having trouble finding a job since everything he was interested in drug tested. He told my boyfriend that he had a plan that might help him pass a drug test.

Since weed supposedly gets stored in your fat cells, he proposed that he should just eat even more than he normally does so he can gain weight. That way, the fat that he gained would replace the “weed fat”. Boom. Problem solved.

16. accieyn's coworker thinks you can get pregnant from dry humping.

She ashamedly told us, her coworkers, how she dry-humped her boyfriend and thought she was pregnant.

They were wearing clothes.

She wasn’t pregnant.

She also thought the great depression was in the 60s and along with the end of world war 2.

In the 60s.

She’s a nurse now.

17. Face_Roll was on a drive with a woman who thinks different cuts of meat come from different animals.

Don't know if the stupidest, but pretty stupid:

We were on a drive through an animal park. We see an animal. She asks "what kind of meat would that one be?". Someone replies "oh...it'd probably taste similar to beef I'd imagine". A few minutes later we see a different animal. She asks "and what about that one? Would it be, like, a fillet or a T-bone or something?". Then I realized...this woman thinks different cuts of meat come from different animals.

18. brandontomlin has a friend who thinks pasta is made of cheese.

Once at a restaurant in New Orleans, my friend ordered macaroni and cheese. At the table with about 15 other people he says out loud, "How did macaroni and cheese become a thing?" To which I replied "What do you mean?" He says "I mean, it's so redundant, you know?" I say "What? How is macaroni and cheese redundant?" And he says "Think about it. You've got cheese and then you have pasta, which is made of cheese." HE THOUGHT ALL PASTA WAS MADE OF CHEESE.

19. deeeeeetroit's college roommate got his parents into massive debt because of video games.

My freshman year roommate dropped a class because he wanted to play his PlayStation more. It put him below the minimum credit threshold for his scholarships and his parents owed $40,000.

20. RollTideGaming worked with a guy who had no idea New York was outside of Washington state.

I worked on a hay press for about a month. Most guys had high school education. One particular guy was telling me about a girl he was talking to on Tinder (or some various dating/chat app) when he said that she was in New York and that he wanted to go visit her. I told him that that’s pretty cool and New York will be quite the change from our little town. He then asked me how close New York was...we were in Washington state...he had no idea New York was over 2,000 miles away.

A new reality dating show has hit Netflix and let me tell you, it is a HOT mess. This show has it all: tears, threats, weddings, dogs drinking wine, and for some reason, Nick Lachey. On Love is Blind, couples fall madly in love with each other and get engaged to be married without ever seeing the other person. If you think this sounds like a recipe for some delicious drama you are correct. Anyone who is utterly obsessed with this trainwreck show will absolutely fall in love at first sight with these memes.

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Stretching the truth in a job interview is about as common as showing up in an ill-fitting blazer with the tag still on. But though it's pretty normal to exaggerate your Photoshop skills or claim your greatest weakness is "working too hard," some candidates take it too far, lying about their experience or qualifications in hopes of beating out the competition. The problem with this tactic is that hiring managers are experts in sniffing out bullsh*t—it's literally their job. And no one wants to hire a liar.

Someone asked hiring managers of reddit: "what are some telltale sign that your candidate is making things up?" These 19 hiring managers share stories of job interviewees who tried—and failed—to fabricate the truth:

1.) From BaconReceptacle:

As someone who has hired many technicians in IT positions, I'm amazed at how many people would fake highly technical knowledge. I remember I needed a telecom engineer with very specific knowledge of a very specific voice system. I was getting suspicious of this one candidate so I started asking about the exact syntax of command lines and this guy was actually throwing out made up commands! I was both fascinated and annoyed.

2.) From tvb1313:

When you're doing a video interview and you can watch them try to google stuff in the reflection of their glasses. Small props for being clever though, he was paraphrasing the question back to me as a way to use the voice assistant.

3.) From fck-rffld:

All buzz words no context, examples, or personal opinions

4.) From takecareful:

A common one I see a lot is work history that is grandiose and excessively overqualified, especially if it's difficult or impossible to verify. I am in a high immigration city and deal with lots of international candidates, and have met a vast amount of people with titles like "Executive Director of Worldwide Distribution" or "Senior Vice President of Global Operations" from a company in Bulgaria or Cambodia or Dubai with no phone number or English website. The position descriptors and skills on these resumes usually look copy and pasted from a template, and additionally, these people often claim master or doctorate level educations that are equally difficult to verify.

I have had more than one "CFO" interview for an entry level position who had never seen a Profit & Loss statement before.

5.) From eozyo:

I once asked to a supposedly experienced front-end developer "can you code valid HTML?" Her reply was more than enough: "yes, all my software is legal." 🙄

6.) From dgran73:

Maybe more of an answer about general competence but in my observation the smartest people are comfortable saying they don't know something or acknowledge limitations in their knowledge or experience. Naive or bluffing candidates want to project an air of knowing everything, which is implausible.

Another signal is how eager they are to go into depth. I interview programmers and technical staff, so I like to ask them about the project they are most proud of. I listen carefully and ask a few questions about how they worked through some thorny tech aspects. I understand that software is a team effort, but the legitimate contributors are eager to talk about technical details of what they built. The ones who just attended meetings and rarely contributed much struggle to say anything of substance. That is quite telling in my view.

7.) From tvb1313:

When you're doing a video interview and you can watch them try to google stuff in the reflection of their glasses. Small props for being clever though, he was paraphrasing the question back to me as a way to use the voice assistant.

8.) From takecareful:

A common one I see a lot is work history that is grandiose and excessively overqualified, especially if it's difficult or impossible to verify. I am in a high immigration city and deal with lots of international candidates, and have met a vast amount of people with titles like "Executive Director of Worldwide Distribution" or "Senior Vice President of Global Operations" from a company in Bulgaria or Cambodia or Dubai with no phone number or English website. The position descriptors and skills on these resumes usually look copy and pasted from a template, and additionally, these people often claim master or doctorate level educations that are equally difficult to verify.

I have had more than one "CFO" interview for an entry level position who had never seen a Profit & Loss statement before.

9.) From -1z-:

I was interviewing candidates for level 1 technical help desk. The most ridiculous candidate had a b&w print out of an MBA from a Panama university that didnt exist from a google search.

I asked him how he would guide a user to troubleshoot their internet connection and and replied "The tcp/ip protocol is used for communication over internets..."

10.) From CaveatAuditor:

At a job fair I told people that we were doing a lot of work in the programming language Balrave, and asked if they had any experience with it. A disappointingly high number talked about using it for classes in college, and writing some side programs in it after they heard about it, and so on. They must have felt silly later when they Googled it and discovered that there is no programming language Balrave, I'd just made it up as a way to tell who was lying to me.

11.) From NoFunHere:

When you ask them about something on their resume and they use the term "we" in their answer without ever saying what he/she actually did.

"It says here that you increased market share by 15% on your last product. What did you do to contribute you that market share?"

"Well, we increased training and did this and that and the other thing."

"My question was what you, as an individual contributor, did to increase your market share."

"Well, we worked as a team."

"But what did you do?"

Good interview answers discuss what the team did and what the individual contributed. If the individual can't articulate what they contributed, they likely contributed little to nothing. Likewise if they take all the credit then they are also likely full of shit.

12.) From Crazeeeyez:

Agree with many of the comments here. My own view :

1. no examples just vague conversation or talking points

2. avoids or can’t answer follow up questions

3. multiple interviewers hear a different Story and take away. I had one person tell me they lived and breathes operations and another interviewer they never worked in operations before. Do you think we don’t talk before making a decision??

13.) From jekka31088:

We had someone come in and interview for a call center position. Their resume claimed they had 3 years working in a call center in town. When she arrived, she was very lethargic, and couldn't answer basic interview questions. When asked what she did at Call Center A, she literally just said "call center rep." When asked to elaborate on her duties, she repeated the same thing. No details were given. She even claimed that she has never been asked such hard and detailed questions during a job interview before. We didn't make it past 3 very basic questions. We have concluded she lied about working at Call Center A, or at least she certainly didn't work anywhere near 3 years there.

14.) From teamtouchbutts:

Putting fluent in English on their resume and not knowing a word of English when I conduct the interview in English

15.) From Shyless21:

One woman I interviewed literally took a pause and read the answers to the questions straight off of Google (online Skype Interview). I noticed it because they were really weird pauses and googled it myself and literally followed along like subtitles.

16.) From NewYorkGiantsFan1:

1] They ramble and the answers make absolutely no sense.

2] They never answer the question asked. They talk about something they are comfortable with in the hopes I don't notice that they didn't answer.

3] Give them an easy test. One that, if you knew your skill you should pass easily and within 5 minutes. If it takes longer, you either lied on your resume or suck at what you say you are good at.

17.) From carnagebestvillain:

Trying to turn questions into a conversation without answering them with any actual content.

Example stories arent compelling or dont flow naturally.

18.) From elvislaidlaw:

Everything’s just really vague; results are never backed up by numbers, they can’t describe exact actions they took, they use shite loads of managers jargon that often feels unrelated to the question.

19.) From rkeller9:

Anything along the lines of “expert in excel” for a standard front office position.

No one is an expert in excel. There are some people who are incredibly talented in it but they will never call themselves experts because they understand the massive potential of the program.

Re #19: oops.

We all know that power can corrupt people, but in most cases we think of it in the context of a world leader or someone wielding inordinate amounts of it.

However, there are those people who go hog-wild when given the smallest taste of power, and it can reach Dwight Schrute levels of ridiculous very, very fast.

In a popular Reddit thread, people shared times they've seen a tiny amount of power make someone go off the rails, and it's equal parts terrifying and amusing.

1. alphasquatch1968 works with a librarian who is truly doing the utmost

Teacher here: We had a school librarian here who berated the children about the most minor infractions and even questioned kids about why they wanted a particular book. She would often yell, "this is MY library." The kids called her Conan.

2. chalmun74 worked with a guy who got off on telling people to put their feet down.

I ran a movie theater. One guy was told to go and do a theater check, which was basically ensure the emergency exit was closed and that no one was doing anything unruly. Dude really got off on telling people to put their feet down. He was studying to go into law enforcement. I was legit scared by how much he delighted in getting into people’s faces because he felt he had real authority in this scenario.

3. becauseiamtheDM watched a kid become a dictator in no time.

I left a kid "in charge" of the classroom while I stepped outside for two minutes to consult with an administrator.

I came back and he had a list of everyone who needed to be suspended.

4. Maelstrom_6Bot loves delegating the babysitting duties.

Ever babysit and put one child "in charge" of multiple children?

It's hilarious.

5. J-Dizzle42's friend is really feeling his current car situation.

My friend put a cold air intake in his '95 Honda Civic.

Some guy was trying to pass him on the freeway and my buddy was like, "let's show these guys what real power looks like," then he floored it. The car gently accelerated to maybe 75mph before we overtook the other car, but my friend acted like he just won the Indy 500.

6. gertgertgertgertgert works with an HR assistant who takes it all out on the receptionist.

At my company of 80 people we have an "HR assistant" that is inexplicably in charge of the receptionist. She does nothing but make the receptionists life miserable, and has for the previous 4/4 receptionists.

She'll reprimand them for: their clothes, posture, smiling too much, not enough, arrangement of workspace, cleanliness of workspace, keeping water at the desk, keeping food at the desk, using the bathroom too much, etc. It's like she saves all her anger in her whole life and takes it out on the only person who is obligated to listen to her

7. Luckboy28 watched a man gain it all and lose it all.

I work on a team of programmers.

One of the guys is terrible, and screws up all his projects. But for some reason he's never been fired, and he's been with the company forever.

Somehow, he got it into his head that he had "seniority". So whenever the boss would be out of town for a day, or call in sick, he'd immediately start walking around asking people what they're working on and assigning them tasks, as if he were the manager.

The actual manager eventually sent the whole team an email clarifying that if somebody was going to be left in charge, she would let us know.

His tiny amount of perceived power was completely removed. =P

8. gabezermeno should never had been given all that pizza power.

When I was the assistant manager at a pizza place. No one teenager should have all that power.

9. ChrisJamesCostello's mom is hooked on court.

My mum took my dad to court. The court agreed with her on the littlest thing and now she let the power of that go to her head and thinks she is going to win every court order.

She has lost at least two.

10. jwfowler2 is merely yet another person subjected to the reign of Genghis Khan.

You'd think the guy driving the miniature car that writes tickets for meter violations in my town was Ghengis freaking Khan.

11. Back2Bach's mom's cleaning lady is constantly flexing.

Mom had a house-cleaner that came every 2 weeks for about 3-4 hours each visit.

The cleaner would rearrange Mom's things, including items in her "curio cabinet," kitchen cabinets/counters, and other personal areas (like her jewelry box, figurines, and hygiene items in the bathroom).

When Mom asked her to please stop doing that, the cleaning lady said: "This is how I do things. If you don't like it, find someone else!"

12. rexxar-tc witnessed a discord moderator completely going wild with power.

Moderator of a discord channel.

Not the whole server, just one particular channel with a couple dozen people, out of a server with nearly 10k users.

He started tripping, instituted this insane code of conduct he stole from wizards of the coast, including a clause that everyone had to respect him, and not block his messages, or they'd be banned.

The absolutely wild thing is no one had ever heard of this guy before. The last time he'd said anything in the whole server was two years prior.

13. Hugh_Jampton worked with an incorrigible snitch.

One guy at McDs when we were all 16/17 on the tills. He was given an extra 20p per hour and after that even Hitler would have tipped his hat.

He genuinely thought he was being fast tracked to franchise owner or something. Watched us all like hawks, snitched on us for anything he didn't like.

Spotty little oink.

14. burningcookies4this saw way too many volunteers go wild with power.

Pretty much any volunteer at a convention. One guy told my friends the empty hallway outside their room roughly 30 stories above the convention floor was a walkway and not a stand way and they needed to move. He couldn't understand why everyone just started laughing. They weren't even there that long, someone was just trying to find their badge.

15. jimmypagesguitar interacted with an intense assistant guildmaster.

I was in a Ren Fair group. One asshole was the assistant guildmaster--he handled the fees and membership paperwork, because the main guildmaster didn't want to.

He lorded that over other people. Be nice to him, or maybe your paperwork suddenly went missing, or dues payment didn't go through. He was also severely overweight and ugly as sin, so when he hit on a girl and she shot him down, he suddenly made things uncomfortable for her--which caused a few women to leave. Also, weirdly enough, her paperwork got lost, or her dues didn't go through somehow.

I'm so glad I got out of that group.

16. QuietDolly was born into and molded by the power.

In fifth grade the art teacher let me be the only one to use the hot glue gun, that’s when I knew the power.

17. PostItFrustrations watched their daughter go wild with power.

One time I let my daughter choose what we were doing that day.

She constantly reminded me, my boyfriend, and my son that she said we were going to the playground and dictated how and when we had fun there.

I had to stop her when she tried to tell her brother it wasn't a good time to pee. But it was honestly funny.

The next day was his turn and he chose to just watch Star Trek TNG, so everyone but my daughter had a great day that day.

18. surgicaldamage has seen how absolute power absolutely corrupts.

I worked security for a very popular hospital in Baltimore. We had a new hire take any chance to call someone out on the radio (being late from lunch, being a patrol and not seeing someone stationed at their post) he would keep a notebook with him and document on others and wasn't a guy you could show him a shortcut or he would tell on you. Our supervisors decided to put him as a base monitor (gives out orders to what's going on and who should respond to things etc.)

He had told one of the supervisors to respond to a nurses station about a complaint. She confirmed but was caught up with another situation putting her on the other side of the hospital (very large place). A few minutes passed and when he called again she stated she was on her way and he responded "I sent you on that assignment 10 minutes ago you need to hurry up!!!" This was a supervisor who , if we kept stats, lead the league in firing security. Needless to say he didn't make it out of his 90 days.

19. BouncyCastleofDoom has seen the older elementary school traffic lady throw down.

This old lady who is allowed to control the traffic at my kids’ elementary school at pick-up time. She has hundreds of traffic cones and blocks off all the spots she doesn’t think people should park. Most of the places she blocks are actual legal places to park. She supposedly has permission from the PD to do this and no one questions her.

She doesn’t work for the school, she’s a volunteer. I’ve seen her get in dozens of confrontations with people, including me, because her rules are ridiculous. She’s told me straight-up that it’s the only thing in her life she has control over so she goes way over the top. She’s the worst.

20. Saberleaf watched a geography teacher completely go wild with power.

Imagine a setting. A small village Catholic elementary school in a village of about 1500 people. Total of about 8 teachers, one for 2-3 subjects for 9 grades. Total amount of kids across all grades, maybe 150.

A geography teacher a good but demanding dude. Likes to make jokes, is pretty cool with kids and pushes them to do their best. Dresses casually and doesn't think twice of his vocabulary.

Well, sunny days end when the geography teacher becomes the director at the young age of 28. He fires the best teachers, hires teachers in pensions who don't care and college graduates who have no idea what they're doing. Dresses in tux 24/7 and enforces extremely strongly school rules, so strongly that he forces a guy (about 14) to take off his earring, because earrings are only for women, in front of a school assembly and makes the boy an example of shameful behavior.

He later gets fired for wasting resources.