site banner

Friday Fun Thread for May 30, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Random question?

How big of a social faux pas is it to wear football shoes off the turf? I haven't played football in a decade, but I was secondhand shopping and saw an Adidas pair I really liked, with modest cleats as they go.

My best friend insists it's not right to wear those as casual footwear. What about at the gym, as spare gym shoes? I just think they're neat :(

I'm going to go against the grain and say I don't think it's a faux pas at all. I don't give a shit if someone wears cleats off the field, and to be honest I would think less of anyone who does.

Ok let's do a quiz. In which of the following scenarios would you either judge someone as having committed a faux pas, or wouldn't immediately think less of someone who did judge:

  1. Man wearing hat inside someone else's house (ok cap, it doesn't have to be a bowler or whatever)

  2. Girl applying make-up on a public train full of people.

  3. Hawking a big throaty loogie and setting it free via a big spit off the train platform while waiting for the train.

  4. wearing white socks with a dark suit

  5. woman going bra-less at her friend's wedding

  6. walking barefoot in a mall (in a landlocked town)

  7. bikini top in a restaurant (enclosed)

  8. striped necktie with plaid shirt

  9. speaking while chewing food

  10. laughing after your partner's orgasm

These are in no order. Your answers will be entered into your permanent record.

Definitely not 1; if I’m wearing a hat, it’s almost certainly because my hair looks like shit. The real faux pas would be letting everyone see my bad hair day. 2 is totally fine by me as well.

I’m torn about 3, because on the one hand I recognize that this one will probably be the most popular answer, but on the other hand I sometimes have a pretty bad post-nasal drip; I always endeavor to spit somewhere where people won’t see/hear it and get grossed out, but occasionally that’s unrealistic. Spitting is definitely my most slovenly behavior.

Neither 4 nor 8 is a faux pas as far as I’m concerned, because neither is going to actually make anybody uncomfortable. They just look bad visually, and if someone is trying to look good — which, if he’s wearing a suit or a tie in the first place, he obviously is — he should avoid doing things that detract from that goal.

5, 6, and 7 are obvious [insert whatever is the correct plural of faux pas] to me. 9 is a spectrum, where it depends on what kind of food you’re chewing, how adroit you are at manipulating it in your mouth such that it’s not visible to your interlocutor and doesn’t significantly impact your diction, etc. If it’s a faux pas it’s generally a minor one.

With 10, I would need more context to judge. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t gotten laid in a while and my instincts about the finer points of the etiquette have atrophied.