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 🤣

@Cam22

Wrong?!

Au contraire.

Pretentious? Moi?

I saw a chap on a TV referring to himself as a third party.
I thought he was autistic before I realised it was a pretentious thing.

@FirewomanSam I think pp was referring specifically to ‘doing’ rather than ‘reading’.

@Lonelymum21 So sweet! I'd love to buy your DD an Eton Mess x

Or more precisely ‘reading for’.

A young woman came to a club I helped to run years ago. It was her first time there & she took my husband aside to tell him that her dad had been in such & such a band but she didn't want people to know

How on earth could anyone possibly have known, guessed, wondered etc & what on earth made her think anyone would give a tiny rat's ass?

It was a 2 person band so I'd better not disclose but it was quite an underwhelming band into the bargain. People are so funny!

@WomanStanleyWoman I follow a dear little dog on Twitter, his name is Louis Vuitton. Perhaps...

DD was very musical and learned several instruments so was quite knowledgeable. In the car one day her uncle commented on something being played on the radio and described it as 'classical' music. DD gasped and said in very shocked voice 'It's not classical, it's baroque'. I think she was genuinely shocked that an adult could make such a basic error. To this day I still don't understand the difference but "it's baroque' has become a running joke between her uncle and I.

@Cam22

Only medical doctors are the real deal. The others have usually not achieved a fistful of top Science grades and sailed through an interview to get into university initially!

Really. Like PhD's in maths. Or biochemistry. Or physics.

Cam22

Only medical doctors are the real deal. The others have usually not achieved a fistful of top Science grades and sailed through an interview to get into university initially!

Really. Like PhD's in maths. Or biochemistry. Or physics.

Yeah, all those Nobel Laureates - what do they know? Let me think....who develops vaccines?

@yesitbess
I think Tolly is probably the only sensible nickname for a Ptolemy! What else could it be abbreviated to?

I know a Ptolemy who goes by Tom - I knew him years before I learned the truth!

We have really dear friends but she (for it's a he and she couple) has this one weak spot which is denying they ever watch TV. You only have to recommend something and it's automatically "Oh, we never watch television, if I had my way we wouldn't even have one, we're far too busy reading our books."

It usually only takes about 15 minutes tops before she's relating all the programmes they've watched recently - and we've occasionally estimated that in a given week, it adds up to more than we do (and we're TV fans).

Oh God, I had a boyfriend who used to say 'thank you I have had sufficient' when he was full and did not want seconds. It made me want to punch him.

My late grandma was an insufferable snob and was aghast if we said we were full rather than having had sufficient. Despite having nice enough table manners, she was utterly convinced that my university interview would consist of being interviewed over lunch by professors. And they would not offer me a place as a result. I never told her that the only food and drink involved was a lovely northern student called Gav getting the interviewees very drunk in the college bar the night before. I also received my offer. She was amazed.

My son was crabbing in Padstow and the family next to us proclaimed how much the crabs loved their Waitrose smoked bacon. Our meat was sourced from the cheapest shop we could find. Not sure the crabs were quite as discriminating as they thought given my son's success rate.

I also have a lovely friend whose kids aren't allowed to use the word "toilet" at home. One week's spelling list duly included the word toilet and her son lost a mark for writing loo instead. It was a no-win situation...

I remember when I was at Uni and having spent the summer in the Greek islands, on return I found shoes too 'uncomfortable' so had to go barefoot everywhere. I went to uni in Northern UK city and of course this lasted about 24 hours, until it rained. What a dick!

@JauntyJinty well I never!

If this thread has taught me nothing else, I have learned that there are an awful lot of stealth Ptloemys among us.

(Insert Among Us joke here)

This is making me laugh because my mum used to hate it when we said ‘I’m full’ when we were kids so we started taking the piss and saying ‘I have had a sufficient sufficiency’ and it kind of stuck. Someone’s probably overheard us at some point and will be posting about it here shortly

(And until this thread I actually had no idea ‘I have had sufficient’ was a real thing people said!)

Hahaha @littlefireseverywhere that’s brilliant and at least you can own up to your own twattery. I sense a spin-off thread: what’s the most pretentious thing you have ever done?

I think mine might be when my parents bought me a first class ticket for the train on a visit home from uni. I can’t remember why, it’s possible there was just a good deal on. Anyway, I’d never been First Class before and thought it was very posh and fancy of me and that the staff would be waiting on me hand and foot. For some reason I decided to ask this poor chap to help me with my bags (I didn’t really need any help, I think I had just convinced myself it was part of the service) and he looked extremely put out and basically threw my bags off the train I cringe looking back at it now!

@TheOrigRights

Cam22

Only medical doctors are the real deal. The others have usually not achieved a fistful of top Science grades and sailed through an interview to get into university initially!

Really. Like PhD's in maths. Or biochemistry. Or physics.

Yeah, all those Nobel Laureates - what do they know? Let me think....who develops vaccines?

1. It’s PhDs. No apostrophe required!

1. When using an ellipsis, only use three dots like so…

@FirewomanSam

Everyone and his dog “does” a PhD, currently. It’s that dumbing down thing, again.

Oh do piss off. This is blatantly untrue. How many people do you know who are doing their PhDs at the moment?

I’m currently doing mine after a decade of full-time work and anyone who tries to tell me it’s easy and dumbed-down can go ahead and punch themselves in the face. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, so so much harder than I ever would have expected and far harder than any job I’ve ever had. Nobody else gets to tell me it’s easy!

Oh yes, I believe you…

I have had an elegant sufficient or an ample sufficiency is more acceptable than “sufficient”.

Correction:

…an elegant sufficiency

@FirewomanSam

I get what you meant, *@BoreiPuriHagafen*.

FWIW, I’m doing a PhD right now and every single PhD student I know (myself included) is absolutely obsessed with Love Island, Bake Off and various other reality TV trash. Make of that what you will.

Everyone and his dog “does” a PhD, currently. It’s that dumbing down thing, again

That used to be true in Germany, I have no idea whether it is, or has ever been, true here. I have one friend who did biology at university and did a medical sciences PhD. Oh and another friend who was an engineer and did one as part of his work. Not sure I know anyone else except someone who did end up with an academic role, being a law lecturer.