Article created by: Ilona Baliūnaitė
They say there are no stupid questions. Well, that depends on the setting. If it's a classroom full of eager-to-learn minds, then it might be true. But if we're talking about a conversation between two colleagues in front of the coffee machine...
So in an attempt to disprove this old saying, a now-deleted Reddit user asked everyone on the platform to share the dumbest things people have asked them. And they succeeded: the comment section was flooded with ridiculous submissions, stemming from ignorance in subjects like geography, religion, and the human body. Continue scrolling to see our hand-picked selection of the funniest ones!
About 25 years ago I was explaining time zones to a 20ish year old intern at a large scientific agency. She wasn't getting it, so i got an orange I brought for lunch and used it as the Earth.
Me: Ok, pretend this is the Earth. The sun only shines on one side, so it's day on approximately half at any given time. Now since the Earth rotates (as i spin the orange)...
Intern: So wait. Hold on. So you're saying the Earth is round?
I wish i was joking.
Why do we need farmers when we have supermarkets. Heard this in real life and blew my mind
Before I got married my doctor asked me...
Doctor: Are you sexually active?
Me: yes
Doctor: Are you married?
Me: no
Doctor: Then how can you be sexually active?
I used to be a tour guide in a cave and one summer we had a running contest among the guides to see who could get the dumbest question. Keep in mind, we only accepted questions from adults for entry into the contest. Some of the finalists were:
"Is this cave underground?"
"Will the stalagmites bite me?"
"Are the steps natural?"
"What time is the 4.30 tour?"
And the winner: "Does the water go all the way around the island?"
Are you sure that's how you spell your name
one of my best friends came to visit me in the hospital when i had my baby. i was laying there with my newborn and there was a banana on a tray next to the bed. he asked, “has he had lunch yet? is that for him?” everyone in the room just cackled so hard that i almost felt bad
Someone asked me why I have a dark skinned baby if I'm white and couldn't comprehend how it is possible that my daughter is mixed race
Was in a maternity class with my wife. One of the husbands was an endless source of amazing comments. My favorite was while on the topic of breastfeeding. “So do you just poke holes in them or what?” There was a very long, very shocked pause from the instructor before she explained it to him.
"Do you work here?"
No, ma'am, I just... felt like stealing a work vest and working this shoe pallet for giggles.
Is the blue part on a map the sky or the water?
Repairing the scanner scale at a grocery store. I have the scale out of the checkstand, on it's side, bottom removed from the scale, one of the circuit boards removed from the scale and placed on the conveyor belt, I have JUST removed the board that the spinner part connects to (that spinning mirror thing in the bottom of the scanner scale), and someone walks up to the checkstand, places items onto the conveyor and asks "Are you open?"
I should be allowed to throw things at people this dumb.
“Who is the man and who is the woman”in regards to a relationship between two gay men.
Holding my cat while outside. “Is that a cat?” “Why yes, yes it is”
I had the neighbors by for a quick chat a few years ago, and we happened to be standing by our goat pen, we had three at the time. For whatever reason, people don't really see goats as pets, and I'm often asked about their purpose, are they meat, etc.
Well, this guy asked if I milked them. I explained that they're all retired breeding males.
He followed that up by asking again if we milk them, and was so affronted by the look I could not help giving him that he left in a huff. I didn't mean to be rude, but I definitely looked at him as if he were an idiot and he was smart enough, at least, to figure that out.
I was having a disagreement with a customer in the workplace. At one point she said “why would I be arguing with you if I was wrong?”.
I mean….what do you say after that?
Context I’m a lesbian:
So do you like get turned on looking in a mirror?
In retail "Where is the paint in this stupid store? I was sent down here and they lied! " "Right behind you (literally dozens of paint cans 8 feet behind her) " "No they're not!" I walk past her and put my hand on the can, took her a good 10 seconds of ranting to accept the paint was infact there.
"Where does wood come from?"
This person was 19
This is second hand from a diving guide in Bermuda: "how far do you have to dive to get under the island?"
I have been asked and witnessed stupid questions but I am struggling to think of a good gem.
All I can remember is, "how does the paper get to the other fax machine?"
I tried explaining fax machines merely scan a copy and the image travels through wires and it prints a copy but they weren't getting it.
Another one, a girl was offering me soy sauce and I reminded her I am allergic to soy. "Oh. There's soy in soy sauce?"
“Do the chicken lettuce wraps have chicken in them?”
Once my mom had to have part of a lung removed due to cancer. Afterwards, the doctor showed us the imaging that showed the remaining cancer spread through the rest of her lungs, which we already knew about. My dad asked him why they didn't remove all of her lungs.
“What was it like to grow up in a third world country?” My step grandmother the first time I met her after moving to the the US from Canada...
”Why don’t they schedule New Year’s Eve so that it’ll always be on a Monday?”
"Continents would float away if they weren't anchored down, right?"
Edit: This was asked by an 18 y/o girl in a top-level secondary school.
Is Thailand in alaska.
How my son was conceived. I'm in a wheelchair.
I worked at an ice cream store and someone came in, looked at the ice cream cone I was handing to someone then looked at me and asked "what kind of soups do you have"
“Is that your baby?” I was breastfeeding at the time.
Why does apple juice taste like apples?
