What stupid questions have you been asked or overheard?

[TheTecknician]

During a training session when I worked in the motor insurance business, someone enquired if 'registration' and 'registration mark' were the same thing. The trainer's disdainful expression was a corker. In fairness to our enquirer, he has come a long way and is now MD of a large commercial insurance broker.

I think one daft question we will all have heard at some time or other is,

'Excuse me, do you have the right time?'
'No, but I have the wrong time if that's any use.'

I phoned our travel insurance provider to say that I had had a hysterectomy and asked if this would cause a problem with my policy. The young man on the phone then asked me if I thought I would need another one!

One from work recently:

Me: company XYZ is having to come and fix this wagon, it’ll be a few days before any can use it
Her: who’s XYZ?
Me: company who fixes the wagons when we can’t
Her: ok, what’s their name?

She has worked with the company longer than I have!

If I had any allergies while buying a bottle of water and nothing else 🙄

This made me laugh! Bless her

Not in my experience.

All churches are different but I've never been to one that has multiple carols before the service proper, particularly at midnight on Christmas eve! If anything a proper carol service would usually be at a more family friendly time.

Besides which, even if that were the case, most people will come for the whole service, so will still need to know what time it starts. It's not normal for a load of people to miss the first half and walk in part way through the service, disrupting everyone.

I got asked once when wandering around Windermere, ‘Excuse me, but where is the Lake District? I just said , ‘You’re in it mate’ 😂

Was on a train from Belfast to Coerainw about a year ago. Woman, mid twenties, discovered she had aunts on ger dad's side she was almost hysterical about it. Her friend asked her why is was upsetying her so much.

She thought dad's brothers were her uncles, mun's sisters were her aunts. She didn't realise her dad's sister was also her aunt, mum's brother her uncle.

Her friends were incredulous too so they had her explain her belief several times. Her mum suggested she buy her maternal uncle a happy uncle birthday card and that's when it came out. She was really distraut no one had ever told her how relatives work.

I guess you can just never catch on, but i found it bizarre.

But not as bizarre as my husband and his twin sister being regularly asked if they are identical. Every so often he tells them the sex chamge wemt really well. His sister is a teacher - her collegue was convinced they weren't twins as they have different hair and eye colour (red and black, not even close which also.makes the identical twin question weirder too.)

They walk amongst us.

Myself and my best friend was pregnant at the same time, 8 weeks difference telling her my labour story I said “after the induction I went from 1cm to 10cm in 3 hours”

she stood at 34 weeks pregnant and said “what is it that actually gets to 10cm”

this gal had paid a lot of money for prenatal classes!!! I was speechless

My teen dd asked me if I'd ever roasted a chicken and then cut into it and found out that it was pregnant.

I think that's a great question. Shows real curiosity about why something we don't even think to question actually happens.

At an NCT class the breastfeeding advisor asked us if we could think of a reason we might want to feed our babies laying down. One mum to be said "if you were feeding your baby in a space ship."

Apocalypse - The Musical?

I'm a translator. People often email me saying that they have "some documents" to get translated. So how much will it cost, and how long will it take?

I'm tempted to advise that it will cost "some money" and take "some time".

A man once asked me "Are you pregnant?" I was sitting at a bar with a glass of wine in my hand at the time.

We have "Iv" on here a lot, which indicates people who can't be arsed either punctuating their post correctly, correcting them when the red corect comes up, or just changing the prose.
People are quite lazy.

This is hilarious!!!!!
The space suit for a baby would be really cute, can’t quite work out how the feeding would work 🤣🤣

They have the time themselves but their watch has stopped. Therefore they don't have the right time. And are asking what the right time is.

When I was a teenager, one of the most academically gifted students in the school asked me, completely seriously, if they have trees in India.

Someone in the USA said they liked my accent and asked where I was from. When I said England, they responded, "But you speak English...?"

A few years ago on November 11th, I popped into another office and was asked "what's with the poppy".

Best answer ever 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I think that's understandable with the Lake District: it's a vast national "park", much bigger than a park in a town, and there are many parts of it with no lakes in sight at all.

@Contrarymary30 Perfectly valid question, why the stomach does not digest itself. I remember that very question being in GCSE biology, or "how does the stomach protect itself from stomach acid?". I used to wonder why the "corrosive" liquids in the chemistry lab did not corrode their own bottles.

It reminds me of this dialogue in a book called "The Temp", which could easily be a Mumsnet thread:
Managing director: (Surrounded by TV cameras) Look at our wonderful floating oil rig design! What do you think?
The Temp: Since the top is heavier than the bottom, I don't understand why it doesn't turn upside down when it's in the water.
Managing director: Oh, you're reading it all wrong... (horrified realisation that The Temp is right)
The next day, The Temp is apologetically sacked, with "you've been super...". Yes. I've just saved them from drowning, and I'm "super" like a member of a hockey team.

It was the Fife-el tower

To be fair our big 24hr Tesco does close at 10pm on a Sunday night and open again at 6am. I was miffed when I arrived found out as they should say it’s NOT 24hrs every single day.

I’m an intelligent person but think so many of these are okay 😂 and just one of the beautiful things about our language and the way we say things. A lot doesn’t make literal sense when you think about it.