There are a lot of things in this world that are really obvious.
For example, Cruella de Vil's name is a play on "cruel devil," Shaggy from Scooby Doo was completely stoned and only thought his dog could talk, and Rihanna's "Rude Boy" isn't about a boy that's mean (which is what my best friend thought it was about). People just seem to "know" these things.
However, a lot of these "really obvious" things aren't apparent to anyone.
It took me until I was 16 years old to realize "Ring Around the Rosie" was about the Black Plague. It took me until I was 24 to realize the phrase was "for all intents and purposes" and not "for all intensive purposes."
And despite knowing Diagon Alley in Harry Potter was a play on "diagonally," I was today years old when I realized Knockturn Alley, a place that's both figuratively and literally shady, was a play on "nocturnally."
It all started when Redditor Remarkable-Lead-3946 asked:
"What really obvious thing have you only just realized?"
Cracked
"My sister learned recently that when you're at the grocery store and opening the egg carton, you're checking for cracked eggs and not just making sure that there are, in fact, eggs in the carton."
– everett640
"“Yep, those are eggs.”"
– FragrantWin9
"A grocery told me that single eggs are often stolen. So checking also assures you get all 12 eggs."
– Tundraflora
Some Nursery Rhyme
"I was at least 50 when I learned that the little piggy who went to market wasn’t shopping."
– HBC3
"I grew up on a farm, and I had always presumed as a kid that the pig was there buying bread or something."
– gmgregor
"I was today years old when I learned this."
– Dramatic_Efficiency4
Ouch!
"Not me, but my 21yo cousin just realized he is mildly allergic to peanut butter, and has been his whole life."
"Up until now, he had assumed EVERYONE'S throat closed up a little while eating a pb&j sandwich, but they just fought through it."
– itisverboten
"Reminds me of a post I saw on Tumblr back in the day. Someone didn't realize they were allergic to bananas until they found out that you shouldn't be having a burning feeling in your mouth from eating them."
– writingskimmons
Robbery
"I was like 25 when I found out the jugs of washer fluid outside the gas station aren’t free. I was walking out of the gas station with a buddy one day, grabbed a jug of washer fluid, and he asked me, “Did you just steal that?” And I was like, “No dude, it’s free”. It’s not. I stole washer fluid for nearly ten years of driving and no one ever said anything to me about it."
– BruceWang19
"If Only Daddy Had Seen..."
"In the song ‘I saw mommy kissing Santa Clause’ it’s the husband dressed up as Santa and kissing his wife. Mommy is not having an affair with Santa."
– Stevemachinehk
"Wait until you start questioning why dad was dressed up as Santa in the middle of the night when the kids were all asleep and it was just him and Mommy…"
– Keeeva
What's In A Name
"I should take this to the grave but somehow thought Mickey Mouse was a dog until I was 17 (I’m 24 now) one day I just saw a Mickey Mouse somewhere and went “Why does he have such a skinny little tail??? It looks like a ra-…..wait….”"
– Extra_Complaint_2208
"This is probably my favorite one in here. It's even funnier because you wrote Mickey Mouse and not just Mickey."
– __Proteus_
Ketchup!
"I'm Norwegian, and was at least thirty before I realized that the tomatoes crossing the road schoolyard joke (two tomatoes cross the road, one gets run over, the other says "Come on, catch up") has, in what I assume is the original English, a punchline. Well, for a schoolyard joke, anyway."
"Norwegian kids tell the same joke, but there's no catch up/ketchup pun in Norwegian, so they just tell a joke where the squashed tomato is now ketchup. At some point a kid who knew enough English to have heard the joke but not enough for the pun told it to younger kids, who assumed it was funny because an older kid was telling it, and it has been repeated between children for generations."
– Kjeik
The English Language
"It is a wheel barrow and not a wheel barrel. Came as a huge surprise."
– Doitlikethis23
"psssst...wait til you find out it's one word, not two."
– cubs_070816
Gender
"Sheep are not female goats."
– Significant_Anteater
"Don't feel bad for that one. I used to think that dogs were boys and cats were girls."
– not_now_reddit
Misheard
"I didn't know there are two little bumps on the F and J keys so your hands know where to center while typing. I only learned this when my kids wanted to try typing and it's the first lesson!"
– YosemiteDaisy
"I did not know this until one day my son was complaining about keyboarding class. He was about 10 or 11 years old and I heard him say, "Mom I can't stand keyboarding, I can't get the f'ing J!""
"I'm thinking, you just said f'ing j to me? I'm a liberal mom but it was still a bit surprising."
"I said, "what did you say?""
"He replied, "I can't put my fingers on the f and the j keys the way they want me to.""
"OHHHH. We still laugh about it, that f'ing J."
– JoyousMN
Who They Are
"Lil Wayne and Lil John were two different people this whole time."
– danforthfonville
"And neither of them is John Wayne."
– sudomatrix
I Was Today Years Old...
"Ray Ban is not an actual person."
– Bigstar976
"They ban sun rays. Oh my God. I'm 37."
– Smpkfan2
That One Hurts!
"My goldfish didn’t run away..."
– Charming_Cash
"My dog went to farm."
"I just couldn't never visit, because they didn't allow humans."
– Banished2ShadowRealm
"This reminds me of a funny (well, it's funny it retrospect. I was not laughing at the time) story from when I had a pet hamster as a kid."
"I was terrible at tending to the hamster and had no concept of properly caring for a pet and my parents always picked up the slack."
"I'm not sure if they got tired of caring for my him or if he simply passed due to natural causes, but one day I came in to find Charlie was not in his cage. My parents informed me that he must have escaped, as hamsters are known to do, and is likely living a life free in the wild now."
"About a week later we were watching something on Animal Planet and saw what looked like a hamster on screen running across a large open plain and I was like, "IS THAT HIM?! IS THAT CHARLIE??" and everyone was like, "Yeah, man that's Charlie look how happy he is in the wild!""
"Not five seconds later a f**king eagle swooped down from the skies and flew off with Charlie. It's a lot easier to laugh about it now, but the image still haunts me to this day."
– Call_me_Tomcat
O...M...G
"That the sound of a snap is your finger hitting your hand, not rubbing off your thumb."
– ProfessionalYear9265
"Not knowing how many people snapped after reading your comment is mildly annoying. And yes, I did."
– OutrageousEvent
I did too! My mind is blown!
(Truth: I didn't think that was even obvious until I told my dad and brother and they started at me like I was stupid for not knowing that)!
@DonaldJTrumpJr/X
@DogRightGirl/X