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Falls over laughing

Started by Thesunmaid, September 05, 2013, 04:07:03 PM

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Thesunmaid

I was on my way home from work waiting at my bus stop when this Mormon comes to me and my co worker and we are both atheists so we were not in the mood to hear their we love us some Jesus speel. So I looked at her and said"Let me handle this.."I looked at the guy with a huge grin and he asked"Have you heard the good news?"I jumped up and said"Unicorns are real?!" he looked startled and said "uhh....no..."I then proceeded to pout and apparently this made him panic so he said"B...But they might..umm...in heaven.."I then grinned and then saw my bus coming and said"Yay! well thats good to know. ok well there is my bus so thanks for talking about unicorns with me..have a nice day!" and left him there looking bewildered.

just thought I would share.
Some mornings its just not worth chewing through the leather straps.
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Funguy81

So, you just assumed he was going to you and your friend to give his sermon. He could have went there simply waiting for a bus like you.

I will have to say that the joke was cute and original. Hehe.

Oniya

He did start out with 'Have you heard the good news.'  Usually, there's some unspoken capital letters there, but regardless, her answer still left him an opening to share whatever 'good news' he was talking about, whether that was the Good News, or just that [random]bus fares were going down next month.[/random]
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Iniquitous

I am not a fan of these kind of antics. I am the one that will simply tell them ‘thanks, but no thanks. Have a blessed day!’ and move on with my life. I see no sense in trying to scare them, embarrass them, bewilder them or what have you. Generally, such behavior leaves them feeling that their belief that we all need praying over/preached to is correct. In other words, it encourages them.
Bow to the Queen; I'm the Alpha, the Omega, everything in between.


Callie Del Noire

One of my mentors, a self professed lapsed Mississippi Jew, was home after a back breaking 5 day 19 hour shifts grind on the moat when someone rang his door bell at 7 AM on our first day off in like 10 weeks. (Our shop chief was a dick what can I say)

He opens the door to some straight starched dude in a suit (in 85+ California summer) who goes. "Have you found Jeasus?"

his reply. "What you Gentiles lose him again?!"  Slammed the door in his face and stomped back to bed. Said he could sleep for laughing. 

Funguy81

Quote from: Oniya on September 05, 2013, 04:17:06 PM
He did start out with 'Have you heard the good news.'  Usually, there's some unspoken capital letters there, but regardless, her answer still left him an opening to share whatever 'good news' he was talking about, whether that was the Good News, or just that [random]bus fares were going down next month.[/random]

An ok, I misread it, and thought she asked that question before he had the chance to say or do anything. 

TaintedAndDelish


Cyrano Johnson

Quote from: Iniquitous Opheliac on September 05, 2013, 04:22:16 PM
I see no sense in trying to scare them, embarrass them, bewilder them or what have you. Generally, such behavior leaves them feeling that their belief that we all need praying over/preached to is correct. In other words, it encourages them.

Meh, not like they need much encouraging. I'm the same way, but if the opportunity for a good joke presents itself... well, what the heck. Not going to hurt someone to be joked with a little bit.

Also, I've always thought "Have you heard the Good News?" was an incredibly shitty opener. Using that line, you are practically begging for someone to do just what TSM did there.
Artichoke the gorilla halibut! Freedom! Remember Bubba the Love Sponge!

Cyrano Johnson's ONs & OFFs
Cyrano Johnson's Apologies & Absences

Oniya

Worst I've done at a bus stop is convince the guy that I was a visiting chess player from Budapest.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Beorning

Quote from: Oniya on September 05, 2013, 05:35:56 PM
Worst I've done at a bus stop is convince the guy that I was a visiting chess player from Budapest.

...why would you do that..?

Oniya

Why I would try to convince someone I was from far away:  Mostly so that they wouldn't expect to ever see me again.

Why a chess player from Budapest:  I'd actually played that character in a LARP the weekend before, and I still had plenty of the character profile in my head.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Callie Del Noire on September 05, 2013, 04:22:42 PM
One of my mentors, a self professed lapsed Mississippi Jew, was home after a back breaking 5 day 19 hour shifts grind on the moat when someone rang his door bell at 7 AM on our first day off in like 10 weeks. (Our shop chief was a dick what can I say)

He opens the door to some straight starched dude in a suit (in 85+ California summer) who goes. "Have you found Jeasus?"

his reply. "What you Gentiles lose him again?!"  Slammed the door in his face and stomped back to bed. Said he could sleep for laughing.

Heard this one before but it's a line I cherish.  :-)

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

gaggedLouise

Old-style classroom conversation - found this one in a jubilee book from my old high school:

Teacher (having stated something he thinks the student should have mastered quite some time ago, standing next to the guy but aiming for the entire class to hear): "Do we understand this?"
Student: "Yeah, at any rate I do, Sir."

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Pumpkin Seeds

So essentially you saw someone coming that looked Mormon.  Then you prepared to mock him and when he opened his mouth to discuss something that he obviously feels strongly enough about to go around talking to strangers about, you publicly ridicule him so that you and your friend can have a cheap laugh at his expense?  Then on top of that you just run off laughing at him.  Wow.  So I wonder if I bragged about doing this to someone going door-to-door promoting gay rights, environmental causes or any other campaign that someone felt was important if I would be thought of as funny.  I don’t understand the humor of being rude or finding a laugh at the expense of a random stranger.

Cyrano Johnson

Quote from: Pumpkin SeedsSo I wonder if I bragged about doing this to someone going door-to-door promoting gay rights, environmental causes or any other campaign that someone felt was important if I would be thought of as funny.

Well let's break it down:

Done at the expense of someone who was promoting something that's a concrete social good irrespective of faith, I wouldn't find it funny. Maybe you agree with the cause, maybe not, in any case the person has a half-decent reason to be knocking at the door or approaching you on the street.

Done at the expense of someone who's selling a product, meh. Maybe the product is useful, at any rate people have to make a living, I incline more toward sympathy and a "just say no" attitude.

Done at the expense of someone who's simply pushing, unasked, their own certitude about the hereafter and the nature of God: sure, funny. Because in the normal course of interaction and conversation they are doing a rude and presumptuous thing, and it's funny to skewer rude and presumptuous people, and if one is going to go around doing such rude and presumptuous things -- let alone successfully overcome that initial deficit to actually persuade someone one's religion is worthwhile -- then one had better develop either a thick skin or a sense of humour.

Joking at someone's expense is of course not strictly speaking a nice thing to do. But in life one often has to choose between the nice thing, and the funny thing, and Man cannot subsist on Niceness alone. So it goes.
Artichoke the gorilla halibut! Freedom! Remember Bubba the Love Sponge!

Cyrano Johnson's ONs & OFFs
Cyrano Johnson's Apologies & Absences

Kythia

I'm pretty ambivalent about unicorns being real being good news, to be honest.  They wouldn't approach me, that ship sailed long ago, so I'm not sure how much impact it would have on me personally and I imagine the novelty of seeing them in a zoo would wear off eventually.  Sure, its not actively bad news like Dragons being real or something, but I'm not sure its good.
242037

TaintedAndDelish

TSM, how did you know it was a mormon? Was his magical underwear sticking out?


gaggedLouise

#17
Several years ago, in the forecourt of the public library, I was approached by two kids (or college students) handing out leaflets headlined "Defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo! - and support the Shining Path in its revolutionary struggle!" The first of those slogans had been seen on posters and flyers quite a bit, the Shining Path movement (Sendero Luminoso) were being touted as the new Che Guevaras even here on the other side of the globe - and their leader Gonzalo had been captured some years before and put on trial, risking a death sentence. I knew some about them, out of personal interest and from having written and modestly researched some pieces about terrorism and militancy for a student frat media outlet, so the news of their methods - brutal mass killings of civilians in the parts of Peru they had controlled over time, and attacks on foreign politicians and embassies, including the U.S. embassy at Lima - had got through to me. I knew, moreover, that "Chairman Gonzalo" aka Abimael Guzman had a rep for being quite authoritarian, striking back at any opposition, and that the Path had never been widely supported by the people whose country they operated in..

  The young men here were locals, clearly born around here, not refugees or otherwise hispanics. One of them handed a leaflet to me and the convo ran as follows. There was no tone of enmity, even if it was plain we didn't see this in the same way:
:
A. (hands over leaflet): Hello! This is to let you know of Chairman Gonzalo!
me (looking over the paper briefly) So why should we defend the Inca? (it just came to me on the spot, referring to their brutal top-down methods and desire for absolute control)
A (unflappably): Sometimes iron discipline is needed to achieve results.
me: Right. (stuffs leaflet in shoulder bag and walks on)

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Pumpkin Seeds

A person giving a campaign speech or social movement presentation is no different than someone attempting to present their religion.  The concept is the same, an attempt to either gain support from a believer or convert a non-believer over to your own ideology.  Whether this is converting an atheist to Christianity or a disbeliever of global warming into a believer, the concept is the same.  Ridiculing either is just as bad.

Two grown women just ridiculed a man (whom I can only assume was young since most of the Mormons on their bikes are young) for his religion in public.  Then those two women were laughing at him as they got on a bus.  All because of his faith which he didn't even have a chance to mention might I add.  They only assumed what he was going to say.  Most Mormons begin their speech with an identification of who they are, not simply “Have you heard the good news?”  For all she knows, he might have been opening with a cheesy pick up line. 

gaggedLouise

I think I'm with Cyrano here: sometimes being just nice (as in blandly nice) doesn't spell effective communication. Especially not in a culture where everybody seems to have something to sell and some people will go to great lengths to make you feel you have to/ought to buy their shit. I'm not particularly singling out mormons here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0YrXjeRSoE

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Pumpkin Seeds

So effective communication here is to make fun of someone while getting on a bus?  I could understand if the man was harassing people or continually pushing on sunmaiden after she asked him to leave her alone.  He did...none of those things.  He said a sentence. 

gaggedLouise

Quote from: Pumpkin Seeds on September 05, 2013, 10:14:03 PM
So effective communication here is to make fun of someone while getting on a bus?  I could understand if the man was harassing people or continually pushing on sunmaiden after she asked him to leave her alone.  He did...none of those things.  He said a sentence.

Well, the way she tossed off that line didn't seem to be very *aggressive* and from sunmaid's post it doesn't sound like there were any large number of people watching and overhearing it, if any. It's not as if they were pulling down the pants on him in front of a big bunch of strangers looking on.


Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"

Pumpkin Seeds

I don’t see much, if any, aggression from him either.  Also, I am guessing your point is that ridiculing another person for their personal beliefs is alright so long as there are not too many people around and the reaction doesn’t “seem too bad.”  Makes it alright to brag later about the act too right?

lilhobbit37

#23
Anyone is free to believe what they want. But if they decide to approach me to peddle their beliefs, and I choose to turn it into something that won't ruin my day, and won't really hurt theirs either, then I see no harm in it.

If you don't want to be ridiculed, don't try to sell your faith on the streets. And her response wasn't rude, it wasn't cruel. She didn't tell him he was wrong, or an arse. She just made light of it because she didn't want to hear what he had to say.

I don't see the harm in that.

Edit: Also, given that I'm homosexual, and the mormon stance is that if I don't act on it, I'm ok, but if I do then I'm subject to face the Church's punishment (not knowing enough about the church to know what that punishment is), I have personal reason to NOT listen to a mormon push his/her beliefs on me. They can't respect my lifestyle, so I shouldn't have to listen to them selling their religion. And if I chose to joke around instead, in a way that wasn't throwing in their face that their religion can kiss my arse, then I think I did well overall.

gaggedLouise

#24
Quote from: Pumpkin Seeds on September 05, 2013, 11:03:44 PM
I don’t see much, if any, aggression from him either.  Also, I am guessing your point is that ridiculing another person for their personal beliefs is alright so long as there are not too many people around and the reaction doesn’t “seem too bad.”  Makes it alright to brag later about the act too right?

If someone walks straight up to other people and pitches what he believes in, and implicitly what he thinks those other people should/must do to get saved, to be righteous and just, to support the good cause, whatever kind of imperative - then they cannot count on a foolproof protection against those people replying with oneliners, jokes, speaking their mind. The people they talk to may have heard the same pick-up lines from the same kind of people twenty times before, they may be in a hurry, tired or not wanting to engage in a discussion about the Bible as prophecy or whatever. If you take your beliefs or your morals face to face with other persons in some kind of public space, and make claims on those persons' time, then yes, you have to at least count in the possibility that some of them won't be all welcoming smiles.

It's not valid to act like you're feeling anchored in some moral cushion that says "nobody's allowed to talk back at me, joke or rephrase what I said to make a point, if they do any of this they are hateful and low-spirited." (well, maybe you wouldn't put it that strongly but it's an attitude I get to see sometimes: any kind of criticism or jibes equals hate).

Good girl but bad  -- Proud sister of the amazing, blackberry-sweet Violet Girl

Sometimes bound and cuntrolled, sometimes free and easy 

"I'm a pretty good cook, I'm sitting on my groceries.
Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipes"