Appropriate responses to pointless comments...

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...like, "wow, you must have REALLY bad eyes!" or variations thereof, like "wow, your eyes are really bad!" or "what terrible eyes you have!" (The other day, a complete stranger on the elevator felt the need to say that.)

This comment is utterly unavoidable, as I do have really bad eyes. When people see me with my glasses (I normally wear contacts) they react with utter shock, and I have *never* had someone *not* comment on it. If people would stop saying this to me, I wouldn't feel so utterly rediculous stepping outside my house with my contacts instead of my glasses.

Make them stop.

― qwpoi (maga), Friday, 17 March 2006 08:14 (twenty years ago)

Is it because they're sadistic that they say these things?

― qwpoi (maga), Friday, 17 March 2006 08:15 (twenty years ago)

why do you care so much? i'd just shrug and move on. but i like wearing glasses and i like it when people comment on my cool frames.

― gem (trisk), Friday, 17 March 2006 08:41 (twenty years ago)

wtf? what kind of nut thinks it's strange that someone is wearing glasses??

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 17 March 2006 08:52 (twenty years ago)

the world gone mad

― gem (trisk), Friday, 17 March 2006 08:55 (twenty years ago)

must be really visibly thick lenses, I suppose

it is difficult not to react, sometimes, but these people are, obviously, just v rude

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 17 March 2006 09:09 (twenty years ago)

I have bad eyes and, for whatever reason, comments about my vision have never bothered me. I figure that anything that isn't your fault in some way isn't worth feeling embarrassed about... we all have the shit we're dealt and this is just mine.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Friday, 17 March 2006 09:18 (twenty years ago)

I once saw a comedian talk about this, remarking how it seems to be OK to point out -- or worse, try on -- people's glasses and say, "Wow, you're really blind!" but nobody would ever, say, point out or sit in someone's wheelchair and say, "Wow, you're really crippled!" Too bad you can't work that one in somehow.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Friday, 17 March 2006 12:59 (twenty years ago)

Just respond with "Wow! You have REALLY bad manners!"

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:00 (twenty years ago)

..or a punch in the groin. "Oh, sorry. Bad eyes, you know."

― Dave NSFW (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:09 (twenty years ago)

How about: "And you sir/madam*, are really ugly, but I have glasses to correct my sight"

* I am blind and can't tell

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:13 (twenty years ago)

Oh, that reminds me of one of my favorite gags:
"I know I have thick glasses. I can't see a damn thing without them."
remove glasses, lean in and speak in seductive voice
"You know, you're quite attractive..."

― Dave NSFW (dave225.3), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:15 (twenty years ago)

"NIGGA PLZ"

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!! (ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!!), Friday, 17 March 2006 13:42 (twenty years ago)

perfect

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 17 March 2006 14:26 (twenty years ago)

This is probably equally rude, but wow: if total strangers are really blown away by the visible thickness of your lenses, those must be some serious Coke-bottle glasses!

Okay but my reaction-contribution = copy Richard Pryor's "I'm black?" gag from See No Evil, Hear No Evil. "My eyes are ... what? You're kidding. No -- oh my god, it's ... it's true, isn't it." Then maybe collapse in tears and scream "why, God, why," while pounding your fists on the floor.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

i have pretty good eyesight, and it's always funny to me that SO many people out there would be blind as bats without their glasses. i mean it's THE NORM that people can't see for shit -- something's wrong here!!

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:29 (twenty years ago)

okay, but people are reacting to change here, not nec to the glasses, I'm thinking. So perhaps it's less rude than you perceive it to be. More like reacting to someone's new hair colour or if they're wearing a suit instead of their usual jeans or something. If someone I knew got a flashy new wheelchair, I would comment on it. And then push all the buttons and say "wheee!"

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:34 (twenty years ago)

My response to weird inappropriateness is usually a kind of neutral: "okay." Because "okay" is a great and multifaceted word.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:34 (twenty years ago)

s/c johnson wax, you have perfect pitch, too

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

i don't have perfect eyesight, though... my night vision could be better.

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:40 (twenty years ago)

is this it, currently?:

http://www.profoundeffects.com/products/camerapov/gallery/NightVision.jpg

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:41 (twenty years ago)

i wish

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:42 (twenty years ago)

robyn is right, though

if you see someone wearing v obviously thick glasses when you didn't even know they needed glasses, yes

crosspost

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2079091/2079097/2079098/2079681/030305_6-million-dollar-man.jpg

s/c johnson wax, yesterday

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:44 (twenty years ago)

http://varifrank.com/images/aj_snap5.jpg

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:45 (twenty years ago)

s1ocki will u marry me

― s/c johnson wax (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:46 (twenty years ago)

al jaffee is my hero

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 17 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

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