It seems like we always used to say, "I have a silly question," and our teachers would come back to say, "There are no bad questions!" However, sometimes that is just not true.
There have been some serious miscommunication and misinformation that resulted in absolutely ridiculous questions, and often can end in a good chuckle. And katlian wanted to know the questions that made us do a double take.
Redditor katlian asked:
"What question was so [ridiculous] that you asked the person to repeat it because you thought you must have misunderstood?"
Here's some of the most mind boggling, annoying, and laughable questions.
They're asking the important questions.
"'What channel is the baseball game on?'"
"I misunderstood because my question to him just before that was: '9-1-1 what is your emergency?'"
This teacher is almost done.
"'When is this due?'"
"After saying it out loud every day for a week, writing it in big letters on the board where it's been displayed for two weeks, handing out detailed instructions in writing on paper with the due date on it, publishing said document on two different online classroom platforms, and sending out an email with the due date included."
"I am a week and half from retiring after teaching for 36 years. I can't answer this question again. Not one more time."
- moinatx
"It kills me how completely disconnected some students are. I provide the same information in the syllabus, emails, web announcements, and in person (classroom or via video conference these days). Yet they are still shocked that a due date has passed, or even existed in the first place. They send me panicked emails with questions they could answer themselves with three mouse clicks. Instead of reading instructions, they make assumptions and then argue with me when they're wrong. (Why did you think this was at midnight? I've never said anything was due at midnight . . .)"
"I know its learned helplessness and there's not a lot I can do about it at the college level. I should be used to it after 15 years (OMG . . .) 17 years. But its still so frustrating!"
A few about email addresses.
"'If I give someone my email address doesn't that mean it's my email address?'
"To elaborate this lady thought she could just give people a random email address without actually creating the email and that the email account would just magically be created on its own. She didn't understand why she couldn't log into the email address she had been giving people for years, and why she got a phone call from a guy telling her it was his email address and to stop using it."
"Ugh, I feel his pain. I've had some dingbat in AZ using one of my email addresses for months. I keep getting notices for their cable and internet bills. The companies won't change it because I'm not the customer."
- katlain
"A person called having a problem with a web application I wrote. Now this application had been up and running for a year with no major modifications or issues so I was sure that it was a problem on their end. I went through some standard debugging questions and narrowed the issue down to their email address not being accepted by the system."
"They were using an AOL address, so I make sure they were including the "@aol.com" part. (Back in the day, AOL users would often forget this ) I did some more debugging but finally figured that they must have triggered some weird edge case bug that went unseen for a year."
"Just as I fired up my code editor, the person asked:"
"'Does the email need to go in the box labeled 'email address'?'"
"I had to mute the call to keep him breaking my professional demeanor and laughing at them. Then, I unmuted and told them that, yes, the application expects you to put your data in the boxes with the appropriate labels. She did this and her email was accepted immediately."
- TechyDad
Best Excuses For Late Assignments That Were Actually True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
"These are the same people who become online shoppers and email the seller questions that are answered right in the description of the product, which would be less work to read in the first place."
- katlian
"And leave scathing negative reviews that begin with them saying they didn't use the product properly/as directed."
Not the question we expect from a medical professional.
"Went to the doctor because I injured my left knee and she asked me how I was sure which knee was hurt. Because...it's the one that I hurt?"
"I once had a radiologist give me an x-ray. I assumed she wanted a couple of different angles so I let her work on the uninjured side of my body. Then she blamed me for not telling her the arm in the sling was the one that was hurt."
Someone needs a geography lesson.
"'Is that Hawaii?'"
"Asked of me whilst we were standing on the Golden Gate Bridge."
"Tisk. Tisk. Every body that has seen a map of the US knows that Hawaii is next to Alaska."
An oops at TSA.
"Going through TSA I asked the person if she needed me to take my hooded sweatshirt off. I didn't mind because I had a shirt on underneath."
"She looked me dead in the eye and with a straight face asked 'is that your outermost garment?'"
"'Excuse me?'"
"'Is that your outermost garment?'"
"I looked down at myself then up again. 'Yes,' I said."
"'Then no, you can leave it on.'"
"I'll assume to this day she meant innermost. What a buffoon."
"'Why no, I'm wearing my invisibility cloak on top. It's a cloak that makes itself invisible.'"
Oh deer...
"The guy was about 55 at the time, he asked me how animals like deer/moose got the "Antlers" to stick to their heads."
"He thought they were sticks, that they made them in the shape of antlers and spent a lot of time finding sticks that looked the same."
"I had to do a double take on that one."
"Anyways they obviously use gorilla glue."
"A lot of people aren't familiar with gorilla glue. I only know about it because I use it to style my hair."
While some of these questions are truly ridiculous, they're absolutely laughable now. Hopefully someone set these people straight!
@JennJVN/X