25 Stories Of That Awkward Moment People Realized Someone Was Not Joking

Some people speak before they think, presenting implausible theories as facts. We occasionally encounter moments where someone says something so bizarre that it leaves us utterly nonplussed. These outrageous claims or awkward requests can come from anyone in your life and leave you unsure how to respond—contemplating whether to laugh or not—until you realise they’re dead serious.

#1

Image source: rattfink, Andrea Piacquadio

An old roommate wanted me to start paying more in rent because he was trying to save up to buy himself a house.

#2

Image source: Rejzorlight, New Line Cinema

I asked a coworker with what his son’s name was, and he answered Legolas. After two seconds of laughing I realised he wasn’t laughing. His son is actually named Legolas.

#3

Image source: Cloud_Fish, Andrea Piacquadio

Her: How do we even know that Dinosaurs were called Dinosaurs if they’re all extinct now and we’ve never met one in real life?

Me: Hahaha that’s funny.

Her: What’s funny?

Me: Oh honey…

It took me literally half an hour to even get her slightly on board with the fact that things are called things because we decided on the name not because things inherently have a name we discover.

I wish I was joking.

#4

Image source: CloisteredOyster, Kaboompics.com

I own a small electronics design business (30 employees). A part-time intern working 20 hrs a week and making about $15 an hour came to me and said “I have to cut my hours back to 10 a week – so I’ll need for you to double my salary.”

Yeah, no. Have a nice life.

#5

Image source: AgentElman, Eduardo Gorghetto

When my daughter said she had been stung by a bee and it went all of the way through her. It turned out she had been stung on the chest and back at the same time.

#6

Image source: stupidusername69, Mikhail Nilov

On Wednesday, a customer asked me why our produce section was so empty, especially in terms of stuff like lettuce. I told him that it was because of extreme weather in Spain, where we source most of our stuff from. He cut off my explanation with “why does it matter what’s going on in Spain, we’re in Scotland?”.

#7

Image source: MoreBrutalThanU, Alexander Grey

**Friend:** I have something I need to tell you.
**Me:** Dude, everyone already knows that you’re gay.
**Friend:** Yeah that’s what I wanted to tell you. How did everyone know?
Me: Haha, funny man. What is it that you really wanted to tell me.
**Friend:** That was really it. I’m gay.
**Me:** No. Really… stop playing. What did you want to tell me?
**Friend:** I’m gay.
**Me:** Wait…Oh my god, you’re serious?? I’m so sorry! I was just joking. I didn’t think you were really going to say that you’re gay.
**Friend:** Haha. It’s ok but yeah.. Are you okay with that? Can we still be friends?
**Me:** Dude. I don’t care if you’re gay or not.

Yeah. He was really worried that we weren’t going to be friends afterwards. It was a bit awkward (mostly my fault for joking about it) but we’re still best friends.

#8

Image source: anon, Alex Shuper

Dated a girl for ~4 months a few years back. One day we’re chilling at my house, ask her if she wants to watch an episode of a documentary *Wonders of the universe* to which she told me she *”doesn’t believe in space”*

She was 100% convinced that the sky was all their was and that space was a huge cover up by the government.

At first I laughed, then we argued and I couldn’t win because I haven’t been to space to prove it exists.

We didn’t see much of each other after that.

#9

Image source: Christz00r, Marcus Aurelius

My grandmother and grandfather were discussing how their computer could have contracted a virus, when my grandmother says: “Well it has gotten awfully chilly outside…” Wait… What?

#10

Image source: WhereTheDarknessIs, Narciso Arellano

A girl I was seeing told me she didn’t believe in dinosaurs.

Edit: her issue with dinosaurs wasn’t so much creationist denial as much as it was a belief in a marketing scheme companies invented to sell dinosaur toys. Also the toy companies must’ve planted fossils, because how else did they get there…

#11

Image source: SystematicChoas, Pavel Danilyuk

Someone once said to me ” Wait you’re Chinese? I always thought you were Asian.”.

#12

Image source: listentoyourbuttocks, Jonathan Borba

Manager: “Remember how Kathy (coworker) said her back was hurting and she went to the hospital for appendicitis? Well she didn’t have appendicitis.”
Me: “Did she have pneumonia?”
Manager: “No, she had a baby”
Me: “HA. Right. So what did she really have?”
Manager: “A baby”
Me: “oh”

#13

Image source: pumpkin_pasties, Mikhail Nilov

On my 25th birthday, my new-ish boyfriend told me he was going to “surprise me” and do something special as a birthday dinner. He told me to get dressed up and wait for him around 7. I was super excited to wear a dress for once, got all dolled up and was eagerly waiting for him. When he showed up, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and just holding a grocery bag with store-bought sushi. I laughed, thinking this must be a pre-cursor to the actual ‘big night out’. Nope, we just ate store-bought sushi in my living room. It was actually a pretty nice time but he shouldn’t have hyped it up so much.

#14

Image source: MobyDicksentme, Hassan OUAJBIR

I posted this before but – I was on a first date with a guy I met at work and things are going good til his phone starts ringing and he tells me to be quiet because it was his wife…

#15

Image source: Nwsamurai, cottonbro studio

I worked at a bookstore and a customer asked why the hardcover and paperback versions of the same book didn’t cost the same amount.

I chuckled and said, “I guess I’ll have to look into that.” He came back to me 5 minutes later and asked if I had found out yet.

#16

Image source: easytoremember306, Pavel Danilyuk

I saw a largely pregnant woman, and made a stupid comment about “bet you can’t wait to get that out of you!” She said “eh, not really. The baby doesn’t have a heartbeat and I’m just waiting to have the still birth.”

#17

Image source: Air2Jordan3, Andrej Lišakov

I was at work, I work in retail, and me and my coworkers heard a loud “boom”. But we didn’t think anything of it.

5 minutes later, an older lady who is in the store almost everyday, maybe in her 50s-60s, came up to me and said ” I just drove into your building.”

I looked at her, and right before I began to laugh out loud, I realized she actually did.

#18

Image source: thisjohnd, Andrea Piacquadio

When I was 18, I went with my then girlfriend to Las Vegas to meet her parents (we were in Florida where she lived with her aunt and uncle). I found out that her dad and mom lived in separate houses right across the street from one another for whatever reason, which was strange but definitely not the strangest thing that would happen that trip. Her dad came over to her mom’s house to meet me and I couldn’t help but notice he was dressed in a suit. I thought maybe he was just a fancy dresser. He kept asking me questions about my family and how I felt about his daughter. He seemed to like me, and we went through the trip on fairly pleasant terms, but nothing else happened of any note.

Once we get back home to Florida, my girlfriend decides to tell me that her dad thought we were coming out to Vegas to get married and he dressed up because he was planning on taking us to get married that day. She had to tell him that we had no intention of getting married in Vegas.

#19

Image source: CodeBlackx1, cottonbro studio

A man was regaling his fellow party-goers with his drunken jokes. He described being found as a newborn in a field, after his teenage mother hid her pregnancy and gave birth at home. All he knew about her was she was a Waffle House waitress. We sat there, enthralled, waiting for the punchline, until we realized he’d moved from “life of the party” onto the “in vino veritas” stage of drunkenness.

#20

Image source: OrdinaryJose, Burak The Weekender

First day on a new job, my boss was discussing standard office policies. He said, “And I’d like to point out we have an open door policy here.”

I said, “Oh, great! So if I have a problem I can come to you?”

He said, “No, I mean keep your office door open at all times.”

Oh.

#21

Image source: shdwrnr, Tima Miroshnichenko

I was taking a long leg cast off a kid about 2.5-3 years old. After I get the cast split open and pull it off, mother says, “Oh, his toe fell off”. I’m like, “heh, nice one”. The kid was in the cast because his small toe had been nearly amputated and reattached; the doc was hoping what tissue was still connected would be enough to vascularize the distal portion. It wasn’t

#22

Image source: NoFapPlatypus, Mizuno K

Met a guy, and I told him my name. He said “I’ll probably not remember it; I have memory problems.” I said “Haha yeah, I’m bad with names too.” Met him again two days later, and I remembered his name. He, on the other hand, didn’t remember meeting me. And when I realized it wasn’t a joke, and was told by his mother that he actually does have memory problems, I felt like an idiot.

Oh well, he doesn’t remember me laughing at him.

#23

Image source: Erulastiel, Mert Coşkun

Someone once told me that men were superior to women because they had bigger brains, therefore, they were smarter.

It wasn’t really awkward for me because I just continued laughing at him.

#24

Image source: anon, Kaboompics.com

When I was in middle school there was a period of a few weeks when kids would fake seizures to get a laugh. It was the hip thing to do.
So, I was at the mall toy store one day and I came around the corner of an aisle and saw a kid a little younger than me on the ground.

I delightfully shouted, “DUDE, YOU ARE GOOD!”

I’ll never forget his parent’s faces when I looked up and figured out what was really happening.

#25

Image source: EchoesOfSilenceXO, Anne Nygård

I met a guy who’s studying engineering with me and he mentioned to me he’s part of the flat earth society.

I laughed at first but he didn’t laugh with me, we ended up having an hour long debate, no matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe me and I learned he believed in almost every conspiracy theory out there.

We’re still friends but we don’t mention politics or anything like that anymore, he’s also a trump supporter despite the fact that we live in South Africa.