There's advice out there that when you enter a space you're unfamiliar with, like a fancy event, the best way to blend in is to act like you're meant to be there, and whatever you do, to do it confidently.
In common, public spaces, though, it's clear how we should behave where everyone can see us, and when people try to confidently do something that isn't socially acceptable, it doesn't look confident; rather, it looks odd.
Curious, Redditor Nellie_666 asked:
"What's the strangest thing you've ever seen someone do confidently in public, like it was totally normal?"
Squeaky Clean Inside And Out
"Years ago, I was at one of those self-service car washes. The guy in the bay next to mine had a reasonably nice sedan of some kind. Think like a higher trim Acura or Lexus. Probably leather interior and lots of electronic bells and whistles."
"After washing the outside with an attention to detail, he opens the trunk and just starts cleaning it with the pressure washer and brush as if it was just more exterior. He closes the trunk, then opens the passenger doors, puts a towel across the steering wheel, and then washes the interior with the brush/pressure hose."
"There doesn't appear to be any drainage holes or anything, so I assume the trunk and passenger compartments are full of soapy water. He takes the towel and just quickly wipes off the driver's seat and drives off. Interior windows are still wet and by my best guess, so is every surface other than the driver's seat and steering wheel."
"He did it all with the confidence and fluidity of someone who never even for a moment considered it weird or odd. In fact, his demeanor would lead me to believe he thought it was weird that I wasn't doing the same."
- NoahTheRed
Making Time For Fitness
"Once saw a man in a full business suit get up from his seat in a busy airport lounge, do elaborate martial arts moves for about 10 minutes, and sit down again without making a sound."
- Friendly_Coconut
"Airports seem like a prime location for weird sh*t in public. Time to kill during layovers, and surrounded by people who, in all likelihood, you will never see again in your life."
- DragoonDM
"Sounds like something my husband would do, he’s got a bad back and sometimes has to be on flights for business trips, and he’s got to get his stretches and exercise in so he isn’t laid up for a week with back pain."
"Sometimes he’s got to go straight from the plane to the client site so it’s just easier to be dressed for it. So… Gotta do what you gotta do!"
- soft_warm_purr
Just Feeding The Birds
"I saw a guy feeding birds at the Redondo Pier but he was biting into a loaf of bread and spitting the bread pieces at all the birds."
- GrapplingWithTaos
"I think he may have been an owl."
- No-Commission-8159
"Whoooo?"
- rguably
A New Definition For "Doggy Bag"
"I just recently saw this. Several people sitting around a shared picnic table outside of a bar. We all do know each other but weren't there together."
"One of the guys (entitled as f**k dude) just grabs someone else's to-go box of leftovers, opens it, and let's his puppy start eating out of it right on the table. I assumed it was his leftovers until the owner of said leftovers asked, 'What the f**k?!'"
"The entitled guy acted like it was normal as anything, and the owner was overreacting. The rest of us were sitting there flabbergasted. The entitled guy rolls eyes and asks to get another order to replace the dog food."
"Kitchen is closed, of course. The way that man acted like the rest of us were the crazy ones was surreal."
- saltyhasbrowns
Dog-Walking Etiquette
"Woman in Seattle walking her HUGE Great Dane. He stops to take a s**t. She gets her bag on her hand and catches his giant steaming dump midair."
- glarbknot
"I saw a guy have his dog poop in one of those tiny garden plots between sidewalk and street. Then when he saw us watching to see if he picks it up, he sort of waves his hands around at the poop like some magical poo-be-gone spell."
- cutelyaware
A Different Kind Of Toxic Work Environment
"A guy in our office would unabashedly rip the nastiest, loudest farts. He didn't even do it to be funny, just would do it and not even bat an eye. He didn't care who was around and blatantly told management that he wasn't going to stop doing it, saying it wasn't against the law."
"He also kept a small trashcan next to his desk that was solely for puke. Every couple of days, he would just pick it up, casually throw up into it, and go right back to work. He claimed that he had some stomach issue, but the guy was also a massive alcoholic, so I'm fairly sure he was hungover or having withdrawals. Dude was a nut case."
"He eventually got fired and now randomly stalks us all on LinkedIn, looking at our page multiple times per day."
- CHUNKY_MONKEY_MEMES
You Can Be Fancy Anytime
"I once saw a guy eating a full-on spaghetti dinner with a glass of wine on a park bench, twirling noodles like he was at a fancy restaurant. He even had a cloth napkin tucked into his shirt. Absolute king behavior."
- OkTop966
"This reminds me of a train journey I took once from London. The guy sitting next to me had an elaborate takeaway meal; curry, rice, sides, poppadoms. He got it all out on the table and proceeded to eat it with metal cutlery, using a cloth napkin, plus a bottle of wine and wine glass!"
"He polished off all the food and the whole bottle of wine before we got to Leeds, lol. This was nearly a decade ago but I still remember him."
- zeddoh
Makes Sense
"This is probably not the strangest response, but one time on a back road in the middle of nowhere, some dude was washing his car wearing one of those horse-head mask things."
- Badfish1060
"Maybe that was his way of becoming united with nature?"
- Capable-Junket-3819
Weird Elevator Greeting
"A friend of mine makes a point of standing facing the back wall whenever he's in an elevator to make everyone else as uncomfortable as possible."
"So that."
- cp_87
"Does he stand by the doors or the back? I'm trying to decide which would be more uncomfortable, and I think someone standing at the back of the elevator facing away from the doors would somehow be worse."
- thirdonebefore
"As close to the doors as possible, right in the middle, so when the doors open, you're faced with the back of a very tall person."
- cp_87
Holding Up The Line
"I went to stop by McDonald's for an iced coffee, at maybe 3 in the afternoon. The drive-through line was around the corner, so I drove around to the front."
"Directly in front of the entrance, there was a guy wearing a Jason mask, no shirt, throwing glass bottles directly into the ground at full force. Halloween was still months away."
"I did not get my coffee."
- ADogAteMyUsrnme
A Totally Normal Question!
"This is about a CONFIDENT woman in Pensacola Beach, Florida. Settle in."
"My husband and I were on vacation with another couple we’ve known quite a long time. We’re enjoying ourselves walking on the beach. As we head to the car park, a woman about our age (50’s) is walking back to the beach. She looks and acts completely normal."
"As she passes by, she smiles at all of us. Then she says (to me), 'I love all your tattoos!' We have a conversation about my tattoos and she’s reacting and engaging normally."
"There’s a lull in the conversation, then silence as we (my group) decide to move on. As she senses we’re about to bounce, she looks me deada** in the eye and says, 'Do you want to smell my armpits?!'"
"I say, 'No.' Then we walk off and she walks away."
"I have not laughed that hard in a long time. We got to the car, like, 'WHAT THE F**K just HAPPENED!?"
- UrbanSherpa108
Inconsiderate Volume
"Watching Instagram reels at a !HIGH VOLUME!"
- ST48
"Ugh. I was flying into LA really early in the morning after an all-nighter while the fires were ongoing. I was woken up by pretty heavy turbulence when we got over LA county and the guys behind me started playing their s**tty AI-voiced short form video at max volume."
"I was mortified that there was a chance the last thing I'd hear before dying in a plane crash was that stupid f**king AI voice."
- infosystemstudent
A Biology Experiment
"On a run, I passed a guy riding a three-person tandem bicycle. The two people riding behind him were skeletons. Not people in skeleton costumes, but skeletons like the kinds in anatomy classrooms."
"He saw me do a double take and just laughed."
- kiddish
Travel-Sized
"I saw a guy in full business attire walk halfway down the street and suddenly stop to open up his briefcase. He then pulled out and unfolded a unicycle followed by a cowboy hat. After that he just continued on his merry way. All as if he'd only then suddenly remembered that he had them."
- stealth-pirate
In-Flight Entertainment
"On an airplane, a guy was reading out loud to his friends a copy of a book one of the friends was trying to get published."
"It started out a little annoying, but it turned into some of the greatest in-flight comedy ever. A lot of us got so invested in this terrible novel about witches, and the friend reading it was hilarious."
"At one point he said, 'Should I continue?' And a bunch of us said, 'Yeahhh!'"
"It only lasted like twenty minutes, but he got a standing ovation and his friend took a bow, lol."
- Pitiful_Winner2669
Many of these stories definitely made us do a double-take, especially considering the thought that the people performing these actions behaved as if they were normal, everyday things to do. They're leading unique, memorable lives, at least?
