What is the most pretentious thing you've seen someone do?

[kinzarose]

Inspired by another thread. When I was at university there was an older lady who thought she was vair posh, was very keen to have her designer labels on display and loved name dropping brands into conversation. We had a group tutorial over lunch once, so we all ate together. This woman took a two foot (yes, literally) wooden salt and pepper mill out of her bag, stood up and started grinding pepper onto the shop bought sandwich she had with her. It was just the most pretentious thing ever, she was a "food snob" apparently 🤣

TheOnlyMrsM

I think I know that headteacher too !!

I remember a newspaper style advice feature, which anyone could write in to.

One woman was worried that every swimming cap she’d tried on was unflattering and didn’t add enough height to her head.

Another woman had bought herself a designer bikini for an upcoming holiday, but was concerned that her acquaintances wouldn’t be able to tell it was designer. Would it be OK to wear the bikini bottoms inside out, so that the label showed?

The style advisor suggested that walking around with one’s gusset on show was unlikely to impress anyone.

My mother was a walking billboard of pretentiousness.

My name is uncommonly spelled with an "i" on the end. Similar to Berri. Ever since I was old enough to spell my name, my mother always told me that "adding a slash over the i makes it French."

Fast forward to My Jr. High days when I took French 101 and learned that:

1. It's not a "slash" but either an Accent aigu or accent grave. (Hope I'm spelling those correctly - it's been decades.)

1. And...an accent only belongs with an "e" not an "i".

I was so embarrassed when my French teacher questioned me about it and set me straight. I tried to explain this to my mother, but she wasn't having any of it and INSISTED that my French teacher (born and raised en France) was wrong.

My mother was born and raised in Indiana and is 0% French and never took a foreign language in her life.

Shopping in Cork,with a friend.She bought something in Penney’s,then made an almighty fuss about how she couldn’t be seen carrying the bag! I took it off her.We then had to go into Brown Thomas so that she could spend ages looking for something cheap to buy in order to get a bag.

Mission accomplished we continued on our merry way,she with a tiny Brown Thomas bag and me with the Penney’s bags.

Ooh, 'ark at 'er, miss fancy pants, showing off her gussets again

A women sitting at the table next to me in McDonald's, many years ago, took out plastic kids plates and cutlery for her two young DC to eat their happy meals off of.

University is where they all crawl out of the woodwork. I had a guy in my halls who dressed like a budget romantic poet and used to doff his hat at people. From Facebook I can see that he is now a very ordinary, jeans wearing, dad of two with no inclination to pretend to Lord Byron...

On holiday once with a package tour company that aimed for a very "nice" type of middle class customer. They were billed as "Greece specialists", though actually offered bog standard accommodation and flights, and were nothing special at all. Customers in the resort were offered "jaunts" - never trips or excursions - the same type of coach tours as other holiday makers.

We were flying back to the U.K. from Australia when our son was about 4 I think and had just started to sound out longer words. We were in business class (it’s a very long flight!) and he was looking through the various info brochures, and sounded out, in a piercing little voice “mummy, what is E C O N O M Y ?”
We still say that to each other if either of us are doing a pompous or pretentious thing.

@spiderlight

We had a dog called Archie - a lovely scruffy mongrel. We met another Archie in the park, who was an immaculately groomed, gleaming white Bichon. His owner looked down her nose at our dog, and then turned to me and said 'I assume yours is short for Archibald. My Archie is short for Versace.'

This is hilarious!!!

@WalkingOnTheCracks

......and the bloke who claims to be a writer misspells 'anonymity'.

I shall be taking down servers worldwide to erase that post. The internet may not be available for several weeks. Just so you know...

This has made me laugh so much! I noticed that but thought I'd better not challenge you, as you're bound to know something I don't!

Also, go on, go on, go on, direct us to your books! You can always name change afterwards . I'm trying to guess, based on your age and writing style already....

@Ozgirl75

We were flying back to the U.K. from Australia when our son was about 4 I think and had just started to sound out longer words. We were in business class (it’s a very long flight!) and he was looking through the various info brochures, and sounded out, in a piercing little voice “mummy, what is E C O N O M Y ?” We still say that to each other if either of us are doing a pompous or pretentious thing.

oh, I'm loving these. Keep 'em coming everyone....

Jacob Rees-Mogg wore spats at Uni.

@SoosanCarter, cool moniker, so totally apt for a pretentiousness thread - did you used to hang around the old BBC Diss The Archers messageboard?

(ooops that sounds a bit ... McCarthyite. "Did you ever knowingly associate with ..." )

@Tulips15

Another one, a group of Mums were at the park when one mentioned their daughter had got into the uni of choice to study law.

Another Mum piped in 'oh she's done well considering she went to Comp'
The above mum sent her kids to boarding school, the other mum sent her kid to the local High school.
Such a dick comment!

I'd have found it VERY hard not to have torn into her. What an absolute arsehole.

About 7 or 8 years ago, my husband loudly announced during a conversation with my Father, in a restaurant, just as the music stopped in between tracks; 'I suppose a four-door Maserati's a bit of a cop-out'. I still rip the piss out of him for it now.

@pinkstripeycat

When I was in college there was a fellow student who every single day dressed, spoke and acted like a 17th Century European aristocrat, complete with ruffles embroidered coat, gloves and cane. Actually it was a bit of a mashup as he also wore a tophat. He was Chinese

Racist then. Mimicking Europeans

Nah.

Timeist. Mimicking 17th century folk, the nasty bigot.

I was talking to my daughters friends mum, we were friendly but didn't know each other too well, they are distinctly richer than us, I said "ooo how posh" about some random thing. She replied "oh no, we're just like regular people, we have just worked hard", I must've looked shocked and did that little laugh thing as she looked embarrassed, mumbled something and just walked away.

I have one. I once bumped into an old school acquaintance, years after leaving school. She had always been somewhat aloof. We were asking the usual questions, what are you doing now, etc, etc. She said breezily, 'I'm with a law firm in the city'. A while later and we found out more details from another friend. She was a receptionist at the firm and 'the city' was actually Coventry. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it wasn't quite what she'd led us to believe.....

I lived in a town with a well known public school on the outskirts. One day in a cafe a bunch of girls from the school (only allowed into town one afternoon a week) were at a table at the far end from where I was sitting. They were discussing something and one of them literally yelled at the top of her voice, "My father is a HIGH COURT JUDGE, so I KNOW best about it". Embarrassed but knowing looks all round by us local peasants.

I remember telling my friend that our log burner would only burn The Times and The Telegraph. The Mail and The Sun would just fizzle out. I 🙈 after I had said it and thought she must think I'm right snob.

In a shop, I overheard a woman very loudly talking to her small dc about a photo frame they were buying:

"YES DARLING, WE CAN PUT IT ON TOP OF THE PIANO IN THE MUSIC ROOM"

Yeah - like all the staff and customers in Wilko on a busy Saturday afternoon needed to know that...

School run as a newbie when my son started school. Rural lanes, so most cars, like ours, always muddy. I ask one of the black shiny Range Rover mums how she managed to keep her car so clean! (I know...clearly I was struggling for small talk). She told me she took it to get hand washed daily at her local garage, and asked them to do it twice over to get it properly clean! Couldn’t work out whether those guys would be cursing her, or rubbing their hands...

@Ozgirl75 hilarious! We had a similar incident with our son. My husbands work pays business class 2x a year for our flights back to the uk as we live abroad, so our son spent his early years used to flatbed seats and lots of space on long haul flights. Once though on a holiday flight we had paid for ourselves (so economy) he made a big show of being uncomfortable in his seat and then loudly asked me if I could make his seat flat so he could get some sleep. He's 7!

*asked

Yeah, go on walkingoncracks. Extra royalties for you!