Yelling Things (Sometimes Insults) At People From Cars - C or D?

Other times just crazy nonsense sounds or two people yelling in harmony always gets very confused looks from people.

(Double D Dud spoiler)

The other great story I have like that is about Chris from Monkey Steals the Drum on a similar taxi ride. Chris never drinks much and got utterly fucked in Liverpool. The other three Monkey members were in the backseat dozing off, but oh no, not our Chris, who spent the ENTIRE journey home proclaiming in a loud voice stuff like -

"If _I_ was a taxi driver, I wouldn't be taking this route, no . . "
"If _I_ was a taxi driver, I wouldn't have one of those orange airfresheners, no, I'd have a lemon one"
"If _I_ was a taxi driver, I wouldn't be in fourth gear, no . ."

I believe the guy overcharged them a fair amount.

Tarts. they love it.

Or similiarly: a bunch of boys drive by and yell something out the window but they're travelling really fast so what you hear is "mmmfmfmmf ASSH-- mmfffmmmfmmfmmfrr!!"

If witty and not too mean, and not about a woman's body, it can be classic. But it almost always isn't.

It's good to be back home/ backyard/ spherical/ it's good to be back home/ tadpoles

Me and my father are gay/ in the mind/ of a teenage boy in a rusted out Chevrolet/ or better yet/ maybe he just/ hates himself/ and can't figure out/ exactly what/ he should be doing.

Yelling insults at people while driving--either at pedestrians or at other drivers--is obviously stupid, rude and obnoxious. Mind your own business. On the other hand, yelling in general, because you're happy/drunk/high, is OK. I grew up in the south and I certainly heard my share of idiot redneck yelling at people out of cars, and it's not something the region should be especially proud of, a very uncivilized thing indeed.

anyway, i don't think it's probably too much of a stretch to imagine that the people who think shouting things at people from cars on this thread are male, white, middle class, and straight (at least looking/acting)

One time, when I was about 10 or 11, my brother and I walked outta Ehrler's with milkshakes in January, and some teenage girls yelled "Ice cream is for summer!" at us.

dud, dangerous but sometimes fun if it's a friendly recognition of mankinds existence

I think that it's a case of yelling things at people from cars = classic, being yelled at from a car = dud. I don't drive anymore, so my own self interest is going to put me firmly in the latter camp.

I've been yelled at in the "black, working class, and straight" part of Louisville, too. Not sure if there's a "Hispanic, upper class, and gay" section.

I thought all the male, white, middle class, and straight (at least looking/acting) posters would be on the "sex with carrie brownstein" thread.

i have a very vague recollection of some mates turning a car over for some reason but i have no idea what that was about, that was ages ago in bradford, i thought it was pretty dumb

As for my own experiences, I've had things shouted at me, sure, but I've never once been able to suss out a single word.

However, all the other 1000+ cases of yelling from cars were alright. Once, a convertible full of bikini'd babes honked at me and went "WOOT WOOT!"; that TOTALLY made up for the other thing.

"Look out!"
"Get out of the road!"
"MOVE!"
"Yeah, bike dude! RAWK!" - this last one actually occured one night after UK (University of Kentucky) won the NCAA Championship, a night when literally tens of thousands of drunken wahoos spilled onto the streets overturning news vans and screaming, and it was basically exactly like a riot except, uh, like a fun-riot. The thing is, I was holding my bike over my head trying to get OUT of the crowd. They were like "WOO-HOO BIKE DUDE!" and I was like "MOVE OUT OF MY WAY! I JUST WANT AWAY FROM ALL THIS!"

Honestly, though, I've had some good encounters with from-moving-automobile-ejaculations (double-entendre very intentional). Some of my favorites:

Me yelling: "DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!" (a mall in Indiana)
Me yelling: "GO BACK TO KOREA!" (to a white dude)
Somebody yelling: "FUCK HIPPIES!" and me yelling "I DO!"
Somebody yelling: "NICE PANTS!" and me yelling "I GOT 'EM FROM YOUR GIRLFRIEND!"

.

.

Oh, and I was pissed about the backpacker. I bought another one, though, cause the things are only, like, $120.

But male anatomy harassment is all well and good, right?

HONK HONK

"Wow, nice ball-sack fella!"

HONK HONK

"Hey Moby! I give you rimjob!"

I like to walk--I'm crazy--and people love to try to run you over if you walk. So is it OK to yell at the ones in the big cars who're trying to put their tire trax on your bax?

(Especially since, regardless of an FAP actually occuring, I'll be smashed that week anyway.)

Now, people yelling insults at THEMSELVES out of a car window would be funny: "I'm impotent!" "I'm insecure with my sexuality!" "I'm a dumb fuck!" etc.

Carey, if it's any help, I have a Bristol accent, fairly deep voice and an unattractive nasal tone.

I don't have a Bristol accent but my old man voice is fairly creepy especially if your parents never gave you a password to ask strangers before you get in a car with them.

Though a few locals I know have been known to go up to people on the street and say "Wanna buy a baby?"

I love hecklers at concerts, as long as their not monotonous or repetitive. Movies less so (you can't say its in the name of interaction) and only when you're interrupting dialogue.

Oh my.

Am I bullying the police?

Blount is a meanie.

But Blount IS a meanie. Heckles good, random abuse that you can't answer back to cuz they're speeding away bad.

Yes they fucking do. Fuck you Blount. Fuck you.

"No Scrubs" C or D?

I'm sort of with James here, but I've never been scared easily, for some reason. It's certainly not that I think I'm really tough, I am just hopelessly optimistic/naive I think.

i yelled "hooters!" at chipper jones and "gold club!" at andruw jones when they were chasing down fly balls.

Heckling bands is a bit overrated. However, yelling "Slayer" or "Freebird" at inappropriate times in other venues (theaters, business presentations, get togethers, weddings, family reunions, barmitzvahs) is way, way beyond classic. Use of lighters is extra points. Also way beyond classic is turning your back on a band on stage. Making fun of them is something they can usually deal with. Crossing your arms and turning around is something that will internally set off most acts.

-
Alan

My complaint is not so much that I am terrified, but that I feel humiliated and angry, and that I have been distracted from whatever I was paying attention to beforehand.

The fact that you bother to attend football games fits in well with the fact that you'd think this sort of thing is amusing.

Prank calls are the most classic of classic. Has no one learned from Crank Yankers?

-
Alan

somebody buy rockist a hanky

I see. So attending football games = neanderthalic moron?

-
Alan

Sports, fraternities, yelling things out of car windows: it doesn't surprise me that they would go together.

Shouting at ppl from cars = a sign of sexual frustration and a total DUD.

me, ludacris, sugar ray leonard, outkast, jimmy carter = neandertalic morons who attended falcons games last year.

I only completely approve of prank calls when you know the person on the other end of the line, but I'm not gonna pretend I haven't laughed at the Schwarzeneggar or Pacino calls or Roy D. Mercer.

Last time I saw a Cat Power show (which will be the last time I see a Cat Power show) she began to play "Blue Moon" for the third time, and as she began to falter someone yelled from the back, "You played that already." She futzed around on the piano for ten more seconds, mumbled something incoherent, and then ambled offstage.

I'm sorry? Yelling at someone because it puts them off is classic? Do you not understand what a twat this makes you?

Sports, fraternities, yelling things out of car windows: it doesn't surprise me that they would go together. <<

Oh geez. Not this "for shame with your blatant masculinity!" type stuff. Have you never made a joke at another person's expense that you don't feel sorry for? You've never in your life ever said something about someone in a negative sense with them not being around? I'm sorry, but I doubt that for X years you've been alive that you're so nice and benign that you've never done such a thing. If so, why is it any more "right" than a prank call or yelling a random and useless comment like "golden grahams" out of a car window?

And what exactly is wrong with football (American F. or Soccer)?

I'm also confused as to how shouting "pop a wheelie" is a sign of sexual frustration. Explaination, please?

-agrees that freebird should have been shelved as a song for the next 50 years-
Alan

The thing that was amusing was when I was in college, and me and some friends would be driving around and come up from behind on someone we knew. Right when we were just a few feet away and about to pass them we'd scream "AHHHHHHHHHH" at the top of our lungs and make them piss in their pants. The terrified looks we got were priceless.

There is a massive great big difference between openly attacking someone in the street and randomly phoning them. And the big problem with non-sequitur ones is that I'd either think they're using some slang I didn't understand, or think that it was somehow related to the way I look, and go home and cry about it.

Sorry for being sensitive.

She can decide to stop playing if someone moves if she wants to. If they didn't mean to distract her, it's not their fault. If they're deliberately trying to provoke her, they are a wanker.

Well, that cleared everything up for me in an incredibly intelligent fashion. Perhaps for greater effect you could have linked it to regressive homosexuality, illiteracy, Adolf Hitler, and/or Satan. ::rolls eyes::

-
Alan

No one ever picked a fight with me after that encounter.

you waste your time posting to an internet message board = you are not remotely hard

(I may not be very macho, incidentally, but I do think I am capable of homicide.)

On
The
Money

Yup, some people on here are talking about nasty abuse being shouted and others are talking about wierdness. One is bad, the other is truly great. Injecting a big slab of surrealism into the world is an utter joy.

If anyone thinks it's all bad then I suppose the whole Dada movement is out of the window, Trigger Happy TV should be banned and Dom Joly should be jailed for making people "cry", Chris Morris is out of line and his phone number should be published in a national newspaper so people can give him abuse, the Jarvis / Michael Jackson thing was tantamount to personal-space-rape and the Pulpmeister should be strapped with a copy of The Face, ditto Chumbawumba although Mr. Nobacon should've been beheaded with an icepick cheeky bastard, Portillo should've kept his seat because of all those frightful louts chanting while he was making his speech and those awfully loud anti-war protesters should have to pay a one pound/euro/templardisc tax for the slight damage to the scilia of our wonderful world leaders that their terribly offensive heckling causes.

Startling people with inoffensive stupidity is fantastic, and if that's too loud your old. You're really fucking old.

I don't think that injecting surrealism into everyday life is such an overwhelming and unqualified good that it outweights the sort of considerations I've been talking about. (I also think Boyd Rice is an asshole, for example.) In practice, it's very hard to know whether someone is yelling something benignly surreal, or something which is a personal attack.

I see a big difference between yelling (whatever) at random, individual, strangers and most of the yelling that goes on at political demonstration. (Some of your other examples are not familiar to me, so no comment.)

And old people (going back to the original example) are a legitimate target for such behavior just because they are old?

Question: was it any more right for you to allude that sports fans were insensitive people than to randomly yell "Hail Satan" at a streetcorner evangelist before driving away?

>>And old people (going back to the original example) are a legitimate target for such behavior just because they are old?<<

I'd like to rephrase that a bit; what makes old people an illegitimate target for such behavior? Who is a legitimate target? Is no one? If not, why? Because it might hurt their feelings? All of us say and do things regularly that would offend someone else. Should I stop eating burgers because it might upset a devout follower of Hindu? It would probably as "damaging" to their psyche as randomly yelling "Clap For Bacon" as I cruise some suburban street in Witchita/Chicago/New York/Saskatoon/whatever.

additional hypothetical: Would you upset if someone yelled "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" at a group of skins wearing Skrewdriver shirts on a street corner? And why is that any worse/better than making a prank call/jeering a musical act in order to shake them or make them leave/yelling random shit out the window while driving?

-
Alan

And Jess, there is absolutely no reason to try and start meaningless flame wars. If you find Ask A Drunk tedious then don't read it. That's what everybody else does.

Once, at the age of seventeen or so, I was crossing the street in front of a car with two cute guys in it. And I wasn't exactly looking my best that day - wearing a big baggy long T-shirt and sneakers, but I noticed them trying to get my attention anyway - so I look over and being extremely shy at the time, just barely managed a big embarassed smile before looking away. I mean, I was a real innocent back then - totally trusting in others, just not in myself. But one of them then goes out of his way to lean out the window to yell after me "Hey! Maybe if you lose some weight and learn to dress! Ha ha ha!"

Do you know that feeling when something delicate inside you just shrivels up and dies? Thanks to people like that, I do.

I myself do not see the humor in making people feel bad

That said:

I just think 'whatta asshole' or (lately) 'raggett?'.

I admit, I cackle with glee at this thought. ;-)

Graham (I believe it was Graham) was right to say that whatever you yell at someone (even if you think it's harmless), they are likely to be taken aback and wonder what insult you just hurled at them.

Remember that Dada was a staged activity for paying cabaret customers, not streetcorner cultural terrorism.

"hey baby! hey babe..."

I haven't; all I know about her performances is from reviews and other people's first-hand accounts.

That's not really relevant to the discussion, though. I still think my point is self-evident: if you deliberately try to put off a performer of some kind, especially when they have a reputation for stopping the gig because they're distracted or whatever, then you are a twat.

Has anyone else ever shouted at someone who was in a car? On my birthday a few years ago we were walking along near Paddington and one of those white stretch limos-for-hire came past with these three teenage girls poking their heads out of the sunroof and waving at people so we were shouting "Hey! Popstars" and "Are you Mis-Teeq?" and taking photos of them and clapping. We meant it in a nice way cos we thought they looked cool.

Its a great story even if it isn't true.

for more dadaist screaming on record search: Revue OU box set and loads of LPs by sound poets on Algha marghen. also kurt schiwitters 'Ursonate' for some of the most original music ever made.

James blount should search this stuff and spend sometime with it instead of taking indefensible positions.

Sean C/andrew L/jessica OTM.

(....pause...)

"Up your ass."

Yelling out of cars is DUD, & I wd assume anyone doing do is an asshole & a loser. When people yell at me out of cars ("ya fukn puff" etc etc etc) I fantasise about pulling a big fukcin glock or desert eagle out of my coat & blowing a couple of holes in their shit heap ov a car. Try spending time in southern cyprus either if yer a womyn, or with yer so if she is a womyn, and then tell me yelling out ov kars = k3wl. it sux, fux.

yeah...I wasn't sure.

Reading this post makes me conclude that Rockist Scientist is a complete fucking moron.

(NOTE: Check out my FIRST post in this thread and you'll see I too have had encounters of the bad variety; in fact, unlike most of your all's "bad" encounters with this phenom, mine actually included myself being physically hurt. And btw, I was made fun of all the way through school [some previous nick-names include: "Stinkweed", "Dick-less Nicholas", etc.], and have NEVER ONCE enjoyed nor appreciated [American] football, so there goes your theory dude.)

Thanks to anime-porn.

Because... 
Buttercup: Love 
Blossom: Love 
Bubbles: Love 
Girls: La La Love, La La Love makes the world go 'round. 
Love, love, love, la la love, la la love makes the world go 
round. 

Bubbles: Open your ears and listen what the world has to say. 
Hear the birds & bells and you will have a brighter day. 
Everyone has a special song deep inside their heart. 
If you want, you could sing with us, it's the perfect place to start.

Buttercup: Love, love, love, la la love, la la 
love makes the world go 'round. 
Bubbles: You can't hurt me with the things that you do, 
I'll pick up dandelions and I'll give them to you. 
Blossom: Puppy dogs, kitty cats swimming through. 
(repeat) 

Buttercup: Love 
Blossom: Love 
Bubbles: Love 
Girls: La la love, la la love makes the world go 'round. 
Buttercup: Love 
Bubbles: Love 
Blossom: Love 
Girls: La la love, la la love makes the world go 'round.

I've never been able to take anyone with the name seriously since.

I apologise to anyone I offended yesterday, especially the ones I mentioned by name. There was no personal offence intended, I really didn't think people would take it too seriously. I'd just noticed a hell of a lot of tension and vague-hostility-without-names-mentioned around here, so I thought I'd get to the root of it by being a bit reactionary. Oh dear. Bad move. Must not drink as much coffee.

If theres been an airing of grievences and the only upshot is people hate Lynskey, then fair enough. I apologise to you all, and I apologise to two women that a friend who I haven't seen in 3 years shouted something at that they probably didn't hear at a set of traffic lights in 1996.

ok, so it's not the most mature form of humour in the world, and i'm not suggesting for a second that doing it makes me "hard", but what's wrong with a bit of childish fun? Nothing i sez!

Esther and I once yelled at a TV licence detector van's driver only to be accosted by the minging girlfriend of the driver who'd just been dropped off. Her: 'vat's maw BAWFRIEND! I fink people like you should get DONE!' Esther and I turned to face her, applauding. Me: "Wow, it's progress when people like you can get laid on a regular basis!" Esther: "You should really get down on your hands and knees and be thankful you could have even THAT." Then did a great flounce off to work with her bellering like a madwoman behind us.

Ever think some asshole is hurling insults/Dadaist statements/"Freebird" requests at you and it's really just a friend trying to get your attention so they can offer you a ride?

I'm siding with the Dud contingent. I pretty much hate it when anybody yells anything at me. When I do the AIDS Walk, it's excruciating all the non-stop idiotic cheering that goes on..."GOOOOOOOOO WALKERS!!! YOU'RE DOING GREAT!!!!!" And then I feel like a heel because obviously they mean well. It's sheer torture. But I do it for my people!

What about pranks?

-
Alan

Reading this post makes me conclude that Rockist Scientist is a complete fucking moron.

I wish I hadn't said that. I was pretty angry at that point and let this prejudice (not seriously held in more rational moments) surface. Some of my best friends, not to mention family members, go to football games. I like to think I am only a partial fucking moron, but you may say things differently.

(I don't want to get too lovey-dovey there though. I still think shouting things at people out a car window is an absolute dud and I think less of people who would do it, or who even think it's okay to do.)

C/d threads exist for a reason.

"LIKE a long-unchanged litter box, the band Cat Power made a major stink at Irving Plaza Tuesday night. . . Marshall repeatedly begged her soundman for "more reverb" to give her thin yowl a little oomph, but the electronic echo effect hardly helped. Her reverb boo-hooing just gave the hecklers more ammo as they loudly mimicked her pathetic pleas. . . Marshall's stagecraft comes from the "please don't hit me" school. Her between-songs banter, normally a tool used to build audience rapport, consisted of Tourettes-like exclamations, apologies for sucking so hard that ears popped and admissions like, "I'm a f - - - up. We're all f - - - ups." . . . There were audience members who identified with her ineptitude and admitted in dopey shouts, "I'm a f - - - up, too" as if this concert were a F - - -ups Anonymous meeting. Their support seemed akin to Stockholm Syndrome rather than actual defense of this performance."

As for this thread in general, I'm not really sure what to say, except that I've been on the recipient end of being yelled at from cars MANY times in high school and college, and while it pissed me off (once to the point of kicking the side of a car and then getting in a fight with the driver), the bile that's been tossed at Blount is ridiculous. The whole drive-by insult thing can be funny and shaking people up can be funny too. I'd be willing to bet that I got more shit growing up than anyone else here, but it's not neccessarily a bad thing. Dealing with shit like that is life and there are assholes everywhere and figuring out how to manage/cope is an urgent and key life skill. Don't be cowed by shit like that. Learn to take it. Learn to turn this head on assaults into glancing blows...

Oh, and just so you can get your pigeonholing right: I love sports. I grew up in the South. I come from a working class family. I was not in a fraternity.

Wha--?

Definitely. If I were to ever yell something at someone (which is highly unlikely) I would never yell at a solo woman or anything offensive to anyone. That is disturbing, from an observer and 'victim' viewpoint.

I know, i was just saying how it's funny to irritate others (sometimes), but obviously it's not funny to be irritated. i wasn't saying shouting at strangers is a GOOD CONSTRUCTIVE way of spending your time, i'm just saying it can be very amusing (especially while drunk). I recall one merry night in my home town, where a few of us were being boorish idiots, and i started shouting at random strangers "I had a dream about you!" made sense at the time.

anyways, my point is that i was being a twat that night, but it was still a classic.

i know there is a line, though. obviously if i'd been shouting violent threats at passing pensioners, that would be a serious matter.

Why do you think that it's ok to yell at a man on his own, but not at a woman?

(ok, I know you said it's not very likely that you would anyway, and you wouldn't do it offensively; but I'm curious)

the bile that's been tossed at Blount is ridiculous

To me, it didn't look any worse than the things he was saying himself.

(The initial sports thing was stupid. My brother likes sports. Lots of different people like sports, obviously. It's a prejudice on my part based on: my inability to relate (on anything other than a very abstract level) to what people like about watching it; the dickish behavior of the people most involved in sports when I was in high school (though the worst bullies were actually social bottom feeders like me); and the tiresome assumption a lot of people make that everyone is interested in and cares about it. It's actually kind of interesting to have it come out so nakedly, so that I see it as a worse prejudice or bias than I thought it was. Although I must say, ordinarily, I'm more likely to think, "So my dance teacher wants to go home and watch the game. Go figure.")

If someone had yelled at her and fuXoRed it up I would have been very angry at them.

Uh, not really sure it's ok to do either, but since I'd only be yelling something comical and inoffensive I think a guy might not be scared whereas a girl might feel threatened even if you complimented her.

Speaking of hurling abuse at people....

No, it's not good. I never said that it was good. I don't think that yelling at people from car windows is a positive aspect of society, nor do I think it's necessary, but some of the reactions come across like Emily Dickinson! I never enjoyed being yelled at or punched or spit on at all, obviously, but things like this do happen in life and it's good to figure out ways to deal with it. That's all I'm saying.

I think the threat to ones security is a totally different issue to the level of offence caused. It's two different feelings. I reckon I'd be a bit less offended or hurt by someone shouting "faggot" than alot of people here, but I can see how for some people it's not very funny. It's a bit of a bully vs bullied thing in parts of this thread which is kinda ugly, noone wants to admit to having a bit of bully in them I guess.

I don't think there's any argument shouting "faggot" is a shitty thing to do, but messageboards like this are then only place it can really be dissected and discussed to such an extent as it has, that is to say if someone does it IRL you've got to go home and cook dinner etc. I'm not saying you don't have the right to be annoyed, but the less annoyance you get from this type of thing the better, cos it's common enough.

-- brought to you by "The More You Know"

What could Gareth mean?

(Kind of like if somebody came onto most net fora and said "You know what, I am a spammer myself and it's a really good laugh, you guys have a delete button right??")

Bill Clinton: Make me.

classic

abuse/insults huge dud OBVIOUSLY

"Avril is a fake" : "But her single's great!!"

"It's just a bit of fun" : "But it scares me!!"

Biggest problem with yelling things from cars: your clever and witty "Hey Moby, I give you rimjob!" becomes an nearly inaudible "vvviewrimj...", so your comedy becomes solipsistic. So dud.

There were four other people in the car when she yelled this, so it wasn't entirely solipsistic.

I think taking Randomness as scary is a bad thing in our current culture. People have become too sensitized when it comes to "strangers" doing things (Especially in cities) As I said earlier I think yelling at people builds community (just watch any of the older movies where everyone is out in the streets and people are yelling at a bunch of people). Sure there are assholes out there, but the more that people worry about them the less the non-assholes can do for fear of looking like assholes. I think everyone would be better of taking things that seems asshole-like much more lightly or humorusly.

guess I'm still a bully

i don't know why people have such a hard time believing that people - even people who aren't Namby Pamby Pantywaists, and surely my ilx persona alone should be enough to prove that i am invective filled/fueled asshole - are frightened by people shouting things at them. a truck fulla rednecks drive by me and shout something at me = i am scared. what do i do in response? stand their and feel stupid and vaguely annoyed and stew. if shout back (while alone), i stand a good chance of them wheeling the car around and this escalating beyond shouts. this seems fairly basic to me, but perhaps people here have lived outside of the suburbs for too long.

I think some people are saying "you are an asshole if you ever do this" which is kind of up for debate really, I can't speak for other cities and countries but I think I feel quite safe here and would laugh unless what was shouted was menacing. Is anything menacing when shouted from a car? I'm not so sure.

I totally understand being scared by it, Jess. I have been scared shitless by this happening before too...

Generally speaking people who do that are trying to intimidate you so you just don't get intimidated and go about your business and that's that. I've never had a problem with someone really being horribly terrifying about their stupid shout outs, hell, they seem confused if I wave at them or something, like "Oh shit, she must know me" and speed off.

(Also, if someone shouted at me some nonsequitur, I wouldn't have a problem with that at all. I don't think James was actually insinuating that insulting people is good from the get go and I think the reaction caused him to overreact, and now it's just silly)

I am SOOOO doing this.

*pick 'em up truck with bed full of shirtless yokels passes*

"YOU PROVERBIAL BUNCH OF REDNECKS!"

*shirtless yokels raise eyebrows, continue talking sports statistics*

Hense my above post. I think that ideally the shouter shouldn't worry if the person would be offended and enjoy themselves, and likewise the shoutee shouldn't worry if the shouter is being menecing and enjoy themselves.

there's a shocking (i hestitate to say sickening) lack of empathy on this thread that turns my stomach

1) Walking down the road somewhere in Vermont with my girlfriend at the time, holding hands. A car drives us behind us and, just before it passes us, the boys in the car yell "LESBIANS!!!" I wonder what their reaction was when they looked in the rear-view mirror and saw my facial hair...

2) After the Low show in Philadelphia, I went with them to the famous cheesesteak place (can never remember the name) in South Philly. After we finished, as I walked back to the van with Alan, an SUV full of guys pulled up beside us, and one of them shouted at me: "Hey! You look like da Undahtakah!" Once I figured out they were being good-natured about it (NB: I look NOTHING like the Undertaker but I was wearing an Undertaker-esque outfit, I guess), I smiled and waved. Later, when A. was kind enough to drop me at my friend's apartment that night, after I got out of the car, as he pulled away he slowed down and shouted the same thing at me, which was pretty funny.

All that being said, very few encounters along these lines are ever this funny or absurd -- most are cruel, self-indulgent, and/or stupid -- and the fact that they were amusing is in no small measure due to the fact that I wasn't alone at the time. I'm all for making life a bit more surreal and unpredictable, but doing it in a way that evokes people's fight-or-flight response is bad enough, let alone when the power relationship (car vs. pedestrian) is so uneven. Among friends it's OK, but doing it to strangers -- especially solitary or vulnerable ones -- is just shitty. And if someone really feels that behaving compassionately is less important than having their selfish, épater les bourgeois fun, then I suspect the universe will deal to them the fate they deserve. Having had a friend who had the crap beat out of him randomly by someone in a passing car, I can't say I feel that being concerned at the prospect of being a random target is an irrational feeling.

(Better idea, by the way: yelling random-but-encouraging things at marathon runners.)

No one does have that right, but isn't it better to not get upset then to get upset?

I live in Rhode Island.
I am 21 years old.
I am a computer programmer and student on hiatus.
My musical taste focuses mainly on indepedent rock from around 1977 onward; to be overly general.
-- Jonathan Williams (x...), October 8th, 2002.

Answers
Welcome to us. :-) There are a couple of other intro threads around, read up on them to discover who the hell we all are. ;-)
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), October 8th, 2002.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

jonathan you may be the most original character to ever populate ilm.
-- jess (dubplatestyl...), October 8th, 2002.

Look, the only people who could really find random shouted abuse offensive are people who have been , not to put too fine a point on it, coddled. I mean, between the ages of 13 to 18 I got shouted random insults by the kids who hung around at the bottom of my street pretty much every day. Why on earth should I find that threatening? My mate that got beaten and left for dead, my mate that was mugged at knifepoint and then stabbed... these people would treat a quick "Wanker" or "Queerboy" as a fucking vacation.

Sure, why would he take offence to that?

It's Jess, he's allowed to be "wacky", he's like the comedy next door neighbour of ILX. Without the comedy, obv.

yeah, but jess, I don't think that was his point. It's not that people can't get upset by it - it's that you've got a pile of people claiming the most terrifying thing that's ever happened to them is someone yelling at them from a moving vehicle and it seems to be overstating the case. I'll tell you right now your rape victim wouldn't claim the most terrifying thing that ever happened to her was some construction worker yelling "What's happening hot stuff" or whatever....It's not that it ISN'T a potentially upsetting thing to be harrassed.

It's not that someone can't be upset, I just think the entire argument on this thread is based upon a gross misunderstanding. I don't think anyone was actually advocating actively insulting and menacing people to begin with, and it turned into this big ridiculous extreme argument after certain people (on both sides) turned their amps to 11 to prove a point.

And I kind of hope the argument dies because it's stupid. Of course it's moronic to scream insults at people out a window. Now it's just a matter of everyone being pissed off on principal and that's never a good way to have a debate.

Nothing's wrong with it, you just need to understand how lucky you are to have been brought up in a world where you're more likely to be called a shirtlifter than to be mugged by a gang of 15 year olds with knives.

ally i wasn't even remotely implying that the rape victim would say that. but dom's point SEEMED to be (again, since it was phrased as a snarky aside i don't know for sure if there was even a point there or not other than to make him feel better about himself) that people didn't have the "right" to be frightened of being shouted at if they hadn't endured some "real" hardship in their life. everyone can pull some "oh me or me friends were raped/beaten/mugged at gunpoint" out of their ass when they need to make themselves feel above an argument like this, when they want to defend their, as phil said, bourgeoise "fun." i've been beaten up and threatened before, almost every woman i've known has been sexually assaulted or molested (physically or verbally) in some way. i don't think that fact precludes them from feeling afraid when being shouted at ("now that i've been victimized i can take on the world!") nor do i think that someone who hasn't been victimized should be made to feel like a sniveling idiot for being afraid.

OK, my earlier point is wrong, being shouted at out of a car is equally scary as having several shades of shit kicked out of you.

Why must we have empathy for EVERYONE? Do the Darwin Awards offend you as well? Most of this doesn't even necessitate a single target in the first place.

And for christs sake, how does pulling pranks = wannabe hard insensitive asshole? Its not like we're saying, "go yell nigger/kike/faggot from your car". There's a quantative difference between that and something stupid like calling Domino's and asking for a pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and jism. And no one is claiming the latter isn't stupid either; we're just claiming its entertaining. Sorry that we all dare to admit that we think prat falls and farts and phone pranks and people yelling are funny. I guess that makes us lesser human beings or whatever. Hell, on that note, I enjoy boxing and mixed martial arts; sports predicated by violence. I must be an entirely horrible human being.

But I'm sure I'm just trying to pretend I'm HARD and THUG, you know, because anyone who dares to find humor in the misfortune of others is subhuman, secretly gay, and a wannabe neo nazi or some other judgemental bullshit. Sorry Jess, but somehow I doubt that you are empathetic to every person in the entire world, and until I find a Mother Teresa type who is and tells me I'm wrong, I feel any criticism is null and void.

-who's surprised no one has equated the debate into rockist/popist terms yet-
Alan

Is it so unreasonable to believe that the former is often the prelude to the latter?

it's pretty nice today actually, g! kinda cloudy but still some sun. i'm gonna go for a bike ride as soon as i'm done eating me lunch.

Ally - this is what I wrote to start off the thread:

Being both a one-time instigator and recepient, I'd have to say it's totally classic as long as it's somewhat jokey. Maybe yelling "You're Old!" isn't so jokey, but I still think it's kinda funny. Then again the times I've been yelled at with "Hey faggot!" aren't so funny either (then again that's only happened in Chicago - Louisville yellers seem to be less homophobic).

So most of the time I was yelled it was sort of a "Hey!" or "Woooh!" kind of thing, either from friends or complete strangers (usually on a Friday night on Bardstown Road). When I yelled, it was usually incomprehensible gibberish designed to confuse random pedestrians (although occasionally the "Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" joke was yelled at people in Jaguars or Rolls-Royces), and not that mean-spirited, generally.

Surprisingly enough, the earliest mention of violence on this thread - aside from suzy's story about keying someone else's car - was from jess:

total fucking dud, and i sincerely hope anyone who does this for fun as a grown man or woman gets beaten within an inch of their life as a resultr until they realize this

I'd just like to point that out. The thread can die now.

I've said two things here that were deliberately contradictory. Shall we recap them for you?

I think, in effect, if as stated upthread the scariest thing that has ever happened to you is being shouted at from a car by people who didn't know who you are, you really should get on your knees and praise god for your bless'd life.

Is it so unreasonable to believe that the former is often the prelude to the latter?

Apparently, only if you shout it at Jess "Internet Hard Man" Harvell.

Not to put too fine a point on it, dom, but stow that bullshit. If you don't feel intimidated by someone hurling random abuse at you, fine. Your idea that the rest of us who do get upset by it have been "coddled" (and by intimation we're sissies, ineffectual, what have you) is arrogant presumption, full stop. I grew up around too many people who would actually hurl abuse out of cars as a prelude to actually getting OUT of them to beat the shit out of them. Why is it so hard for people to understand that this is a fucking trigger, no matter what is being yelled?

Dom: how are you qualified to say this, anyhow? I've worked in mental health for ten-plus years and what you're saying sounds like fucking bullshit to me. Abused children with whom I work & have worked for some time -- who have not been coddled at all, ever, in any sense of the word -- are if anything even more wounded by random abuse than a "coddled" person. But don't let facts get in the way of your "people should get over their desire to not be treated indecently" stance.

Doing things to somebody "because it's good for them" obv. the biggest DUD of all time

Who's this "them" now?

whether something happens afterwards might not be relevant, in that it is the fear and likelyhood of it happening that is key. which is why some people will feel more fear than others at such things. and why, i think, americans are probabaly more wary of being shouted at than brits, because the context is different. and also, why there have been very few girls on this thread saying they dont mind being shouted at, as, again, the context is different.

likelyhood that it is a precursor to something else informs feeling of how bad it is?

hstencil i can firmly draw up distinctions in this case: people who shout things at random strangers (whether or not they realize that their probably garbled, potentially harmless words will incite the other person to flight or fight) as adults = beneath contempt. those who do not and respect peoples boundaries = not.

whether something happens afterwards might not be relevant, in that it is the fear and likelyhood of it happening that is key
Bingo. When I say "trigger", dom, I mean mentally in the mind of the person being yelled at, not that the act of yelling itself is necessarily going to cause an assault of some sort.

Jess, you've argued against both of my points now, which would suggest that you're being hypocritical. But I'm being generous here, I'll give you another chance to "engage with the text". Which one of those statements do you agree with?

(though shouting "you're old" isn't)

(nor is "nice pants")

(but graham is)

Dom is OTM and all that shit, I can almost SMELL jess squirming

dom are you insane or just illiterate? this is a legitimate question. life is not an ALL OR NOTHING proposition, despite what you've attempted to argue with your "two points." which is why i can disagree with two blanket, blatantly antagonistic and glib readings of this thread at the same time. i've made several attempts to refine my point here, all of which almost everyone on this thread seems to have understood, except for you and your "selective reading." anyway, fuck this. i'm going for a bikeride. let's hope i don't get shouted at.

Look, the only people who could really find random shouted abuse offensive are people who have been , not to put too fine a point on it, coddled. I mean, between the ages of 13 to 18 I got shouted random insults by the kids who hung around at the bottom of my street pretty much every day. Why on earth should I find that threatening? My mate that got beaten and left for dead, my mate that was mugged at knifepoint and then stabbed... these people would treat a quick "Wanker" or "Queerboy" as a fucking vacation.

What you seem to want to deny is that "a quick 'wanker' or 'Queerboy'" and getting one's ass kicked are points along the same continuum. That's why people are taking issue with you.

That was a response to "Why is it so hard for people to understand that this is a fucking trigger, no matter what is being yelled?"

I mean... of all the time I've seen, heard, whatever someone hurl abuse at someone for no reason... I can't see I've ever seen it degenerate into assault.

I have, actually, on several occasions. If you're trying to humiliate someone, the "cheapest" way to do it, in terms of potential cost, is verbally. But if that doesn't work -- if they retaliate, for instance -- that's when the fists, knives, guns come out. So a person on the receiving end of abuse has two choices: fight back, and risk escalating the conflict; or be humiliated and lose self-respect and the respect of others. And when the person on the receiving end is vulnerable, socially (like a minority) or physically...

Because, Sean, someone who has been raped/abused/whatever hasn't been coddled, now, have they? Coddled, I admit, was a bad choice of word. Call it leading a charmed life, if you will.

sometimes if i see a cow off the side of the road i will yell "MOOOO!" out the window...

am i a bad person?

No, that shouting at someone and beating them up are at different points on the scale, and, really, aren't actually on the same scale at all.

am i a bad person?

This makes you a "corny indie motherfucker", apparently. That's what all the kidz on the streetz are saying nowadayz.

Look, I see the point you (and others less succesfully) are making, but, my point is... there's no comparing the two. Not at all. I mean, 50, 100, 200 random abusings from windows are nowhere near as bad as actually being physically assaulted. This is my main point, I just can't see how anyone can argue against this.

Obviously. What's even more sad is that, excluding suzy, your comments were the "trigger" that started the discussion towards violence in the first place! Hardefuckinghar. Isn't that ironic, don't ya think? You think that somehow you're any less "offensive" than someone yelling "faggot" out a car window when you came on this thread and wrote "i sincerely hope anyone who does this for fun as a grown man or woman gets beaten within an inch of their life as a resultr until they realize this?" WTF, are you kidding me? It really bothered me at the time that you posted it, and now I wish I had posted a rebuttal, because obviously the thread completely degenerated afterwards! Hey, meeting violence with violence sounds like a GREAT idea!

OK, OK, I'll concede: random aural abuse and personally delivered physical assault are points on the same scale. So is throwing a paper ball at someone and raping someone at gunpoint before shooting them. They're all on the same scale. Just only a moron would attempt to draw similarities on such a grand scale.

I have...I initially thought that some instances might be funny but the more I think about it the less funny it actually seems.

Yes, dom, being yelled at and being beaten up are different things. Being yelled at and being SCARED of being beaten up seem to follow naturally, from my experience. The way I'm reading it, you seem to be taking that part totally out of the equation.

but "not as bad" doesn't mean "harmless," or even "justifiable." Words can never hurt me, sure, but general societal tolerance for "faggot" as an insult lends tacit permission to those hayseeds in Nebraska to beat Matthew Shepherd to death. Right you are, I'd rather be yelled at from a car than beaten up. But you're mistaken to say that the one has nothing to do with the other. Distant though they may be from each other in terms of severity, they remain points on a curve.

(posted this before your response, think it's still a valid point)

I know it's pointless to be mad at general stupidity, and that's why I let it roll off my back. But if we're discussing this, the information that I want to put out is that this happens all the time. It's not just you and your drunken mates, it was the five cars ahead of you as well. I don't know what it's like to be a man walking alone, but I hope you don't get this kind of treatment.

honestly not. and that's why i'm bowing out. i want to believe there's some sort of sub-continuum of abuse within the realm of shouting things ("moby i give you rim job" > "hey nigger"), and i can to a very dry, distanced effect. but i can't shake the notion that shouting things at people - any thing, in any context - is an act of aggression on the part of that person, and something i want no part of redeeming or quantifying in any way.

and hstencil, one thing before i go. if shouting things at someone is indeed points on a scale, then perhaps you're right that "hey moby i give you rimjob" doesn't deserve to be met with violence. i can concede that. but what about several notches lower on the scale. should a person subjected to being called "kike" or "nigger" or even "faggot" not have the option - if not the "right" - to kick the shit out of the person who wanted to intimidate them but was too stupid to think about the fact that they didn't know who they were fucking with?

(how do you feel about malcom x? < /sarcasm>)

Because just about anything can be a trigger. Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped. So could a TV program/movie/theater production depicting a rape scene, or a painting or a basket of fruit or whatever it is that they correlate with the rape. Do we go forth and ban/eliminate all of these things because people may have phobias related to them? Of course not.

For example, I remember from back in high school my teacher telling me a story about how a kid in the class happened to be afraid of cotton balls. This was discovered when for some reason or another, she placed a cotton ball on the desk and he freaked out. Needless to say, the next day everyone in the class brought in cotton balls, and the kid freaked out. Now, is this a malicious act that clearly hurt someone? Absolutely. Do I think, as horrible as it was to do to the kid, that throwing cotton balls on his desk was funny? Yes, I do, because I personally believe such a phobia is extremely random and hilarious. Should people have gone to my high school and made the act of importing a cotton ball into the building an offense (for both staff and students)? Of course not. That's silly.

If this displeases you, I apologize for having an alternate sense of humor from you. However, don't tell me what I should and should not find comedic, especially when it comes to pranks or jokes that may or may not be at the expense of others unless you yourself are up for sainthood ("people in glass houses" you know). In the meantime, I'll continue to laugh at the various pranks on Jackass and the occasional good bit from the early days of the Jerky Boys.

And Dom is finally OTM on the comparison of yelling out a car window and physical violence with the comparison of a paper ball and rape at gunpoint. Excellent.

-
Alan

Yes, the scariness is prevalent, but, look at it this way for a second: what is it that the person is scared of here? More aural abuse or the aural abuse degenerating into a physical assault? It's the possibility of physical abuse that makes it scary, yes? And, if the abuse is shouted out at you from a speeding car down a packed high street... is there seriously any danger of it degenerating so? Remember this is random (not targeted) abuse (which is something different).

Jess and John D - you talk sense.

Oh, dammit, J0hn beat me to it. This thread is impossible.

For the record: I love you John, please run away with me we will make a paradise of our own.

I feel Malcolm X had many good points to relate to all people of the world, but "by any means necessary" wasn't a good one, nor is it even applicable here. You even bringing that up (even if it is sarcastic), as far as I can tell, proves that HAHA you don't "get it."

Shut up. What threat is there from people on TV? What's personal about? You're fucking nuts. If someone shouts something at me, what choice do I have but to think they have something against me, the way I look? Also being out of a joke everyone else is in at your own expense is fucking horrible.

Anyway, cat-calling is illegal in my town.

After the first few posts, I started to think "hmmm, shouting absurd statements out of cars, never tried that, sounds like fun!"...but then it was explained that people probably wouldn't be able to understand what I said and would just hear some gibberish statement that they then apparently would most likely interpret as abuse, so I figured, "best not".

Ah, just got your post. Good deal, I think we're on the same page.

(btw I think if you could shout it and feel sure that he'd get the joke, it'd be funny as hell. I was totally amused by the Undertaker thing above, though the absurdity was kind of flowing in the opposite direction...)

anyway, hstencil's been completely misinterpreting my "call to violence" from the very beginning. i wasn't advocating violence as the "appropriate" response to things (let alone ANYTHING) being shouted from cars. also, you'll note that i said "as adults", and really i'm not including anyone under 20 in that regard (although people can be 40 and still prepubescent). it's more a "if someone opens the door by violating the semi-unspoken social space contract by shouting invective at strangers then they deserve whatever they get in return, having opened that tricky door without giving it much thought, ostensibly (barring perhaps death or dismemberment)." it's neither just or "right", but if someone shouts "fag" at a passing pedestrian and that pedestrian proceeds to throw a rock through his window or run up to the next stoplight and punch him in the face (i wouldn't recommend it), then i wouldn't be crying.

"please do not understand me too quickly"

i'm well aware of that spencer. i'm not even saying i would do it myself, but that the urge to "take it to their level" makes sense to me.

The things I’ve most often had yelled at me or people I’m with out of cars include: “nigger,” “nigger-lover” for people I’m with, “go back to India,” and “you’d better run, nigger.” So just hearing anything shouted from a car puts me a little on edge. That’s the other aspect of the aggression: no matter what you’re yelling, you’re sort of forcing the person—just in case—to pay attention to you. The person likely doesn’t want to pay attention to your admittedly-childish prank, but now they have to, because on the off chance that there’s a brick following the unintelligible shout, they’ll want to duck.

I’ve only had one positive or friendly thing shouted at me from a car, and that was when some people honked and put their thumbs up and yelled, approvingly, the name of the band whose t-shirt I was wearing. And I’ve only been in one car from which anything was yelled; my roommate’s friends were in from out of state and saw fit to yell “give her the business” to a man and woman on the street who turned out, in passing, to be friends of mine. This was very embarrasing. These guys are also big on getting kicked out of public places, being vulgar enough in public that families with small children are forced to relocate, things like this. Personally despite my ILX behavior I really hate to bother people, so I don't understand how this sort of thing is fun.

I wanted to write something very like this, but couldn't find the right way to put it. I'm glad you did.

I know what you mean, I may have called for the death of D*ave M*at*thew*s on ILM!

and Nabisco speaks profound truth

Yea, but that's excuseable. Dave's almost certainly a cyborg of some sort (a cyborg that loves speedballs, but a cyborg nonetheless).

-
Alan

But about 4 hours ago Gareth made a good point, (Sorry I've been in the pub), the context seems to have been overlooked here this thread started as being about shouting things, that were "sometimes insulting" it wasn't about beating people up or raping. It was about shouting stuff.

I've had so many things shouted at me over the years, but I've never seen anyone stop their car and start beating some one up. Maybe this is a common occurance in America, but it isn't in Britain.

Sorry for quoting your post again Gareth, but there have been very few girls on this thread saying they dont mind being shouted at. Well I'm a girl and I don't mind being shouted at. Maybe I'm lucky, most things shouted at me have been surreal, (which make me laugh), or complimentary, (I'll never refuse a compliment). When I have had insults shouted at me, I just think "Tosser" and ignore them. I'm not going to get all upset because some random stranger thought I dressed wierd.

As for shouting things at lone females, okay I'm lucky, I live in a reasonable safe town. But if I felt unsafe in any way, I wouldn't walk down the street alone. I'd get a taxi. It's common sense.

If I did drive I would be tempted to shout uplifting compliments to random strangers, but they could think I was being sarcastic or cruel ruining the effect I was going for.

never did figure out if it was actually an insult or not.

and clawing back the original thredd question - it's classic, pretty much all the time, cos the sayers find it unspeakably hilarious and thus laugh a lot and make the world seem happier for a secind, and the recipient hasn't really got time to be offended til the sayers have fucked off anyway.

"We might be laughing a bit too loud/Oh but that never hurt on one./Only the good die young."

I have just remembered that a couple of weeks ago I kept getting shouted at in the street for wearing a pretty stupid (but warm) hat. I took it off after a while cause it it was starting to get to me. Before that, I can only remember people shouting things about brightly coloured trousers I sometimes wear. I've never heard anything clever or surrealistic. I think even if I did I wouldn't like it much as I'd resent being forced into the straight guy role. I'd think they were arseholes just for assuming that I couldn't be in on their joke, if you see what I mean. But I could just about imagine doing the surreal thing myself. I'd feel mildly bad about it though, cause of the empathy thing.

A car drives us behind us and, just before it passes us, the boys in the car yell "LESBIANS!!!" I wonder what their reaction was when they looked in the rear-view mirror and saw my facial hair...

YOU JUST CONFIRMED ALL THEIR PREJUDICES

(or was this what you meant?)

Yelling "I'm a ninja in my caddie" -- biggest of all duds, and the secret not-so-secret fear of a lot of folks on this thread. That's not to say that I think that the fear is necessarily rational, or (more importantly) that my fear is a terrific basis for criminalizing a generic form of your action.

I understand a lot better now why Dom doesn't like the Streets though so some good has come out of all this!

It's because he doesn't shout stuff from cars. And if he did, it'd probably wouldn't be on-beat.

-- Amateurist (amateuris...), March 6th, 2003. (later)

MAN, I HAVE BEEN CENSORED.

-- Jon Williams (x...), March 6th, 2003. (later)''

and this! what was so offensive abt what jon posted?

However amusing a comment may seem in yr head, it will not be amusing to the person you shout it at unless (a) they hear it clearly (b) they are not nervous for any reason (c) it is not denigrating to them or their companions and (d) probably not even if all these criteria are fulfilled, because hey, you’re SHOUTING at them. Even extra-loud talking (think about some of your work-mates) can be irritating, for Christ’s sake, so why assume that even the most stunning witticism is going to strike home as intended if yelled? I’m still not ‘grateful’ when I’m 'merely' shouted at, because I find it a dud to be distracted by something I don’t understand, might be insulting or provocative, and which by the nature of the encounter can never be clarified. A bigger dud would be to be attacked, and that’s why I’m also on edge when alone, no matter if it’s on public transport, walking, or riding a bike.

I’ve only been shouted at a few times, but the one time I shouted anything back, I was attacked. Thus I am a ‘coddled’ person who, as a fairly normally socialised, VERY middle-class teenager walking home from school, was not scared but merely replied “Nutcase” or something similar to a bloke who incoherently yelled something out his (house) window to me and a friend, probably about our exceptionally dumb school uniform. We walked on, mildly amused, he sent his immense and terrifying girlfriend and her friend out to follow us. I stopped them half-heartedly attempting to strangle my friend, getting a fist in the stomach and punched several times about the face for returns, my neck hurt for a week or so after, Jenny had a black eye for a while, and I’d imagine we were both much more aware that some people are willing to take very little for an answer when they feel like roughing someone up. Now, I’d assume, again because I am middle-class and would like to believe in civilised behaviour in general, and specifically from people I find interesting, that no-one here is going to do this sort of thing as a prelude to/excuse for violence (after all, the internet is way more fun, and you don’t get sore knuckles), but the person you’re shouting at has absolutely no way of knowing that.

Mild verbal sparring followed by not very significant personal injury – these things are not diametrically opposed, as some people on this thread have appeared to assume for the purposes of shoddy rhetoric, but are directly and consequentially related, and also not very far apart on whatever ‘scale’ one might use to describe interaction with strangers in public spaces, which are not ideal for making acquaintances unless one possesses very finely-tuned social skills e.g can politely disengage from conversation with an initially charming drunk who shows signs of becoming violently unhinged if rudely ignored.

I hope that this thread has made clear that it’s not really ever that much fun being shouted at (truly, in the sense that it isn’t for a clear reason or explained afterwards) randomly, but I think it’s probably just confirmed an arbitrary twee mouse/hard case dichotomy through, for the most part, wilful miscomprehension. Binary, binary, is that all you people think about?

And for the shouters – aren’t you a bit embarrassed now, which is why you’re defending yourselves so vehemently?

Um, duh, Mr q.

I've been chased for retorts but never caught to the point where I had to defend myself physically. Hands in the air I admit I'm a smartarse who likes a good one-liner, and am a sucker for verbally beating down oafs who want to bully me to score cheap points with pals. Obviously as a weird dresser in the Midwest I got countless shouts but as a consequence was sharp as fuck as teenage Dorothy Parker.

Thread-locking is a good way to get people who've been flaming each other to take it to email. I wouldn't have locked this one myself but it's not that big a deal if it gets unlocked again.

I locked it because of the rate people were posting at, look how close together the times are. It just turned into a big destructive brawl.

well how do you know? the arg got heated but it wasn't a 'destructive brawl'. I wasn't here last night but I have seen and been in threads that have taken a similar direction. there was no need to lock.

I'm not embarassed for my shouts, as the only times I have shouted things they were met with VERY obvious laughter on the part of the shouted-at. Except the cows, who can't laugh. I guess I should feel embarassed for those, for I may have hurt those cows and they may never recover from that day some passing strange human yelped at them "MOOOOOO FUCKERS!".

I'm not embarassed at all by my having shouted things, but I am a little frustrated that some people cannot see the difference between yelling "DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!" to a gaggle of high school punk rockers hanging out at a mall in Indiana at 4 in the afternoon and yelling "HEY NICE TITS!" to a lone scared woman walking down a dark city street late at night. There's such a thing as CONTEXT, and I find it quite daft to claim that EVERYONE who has EVER yelled ANYTHING from a moving vehicle is some sort of slack-jawed inhumane bully-boy.

(Elvis has now left the building.)

where's *winky face*?

Word.

>>Aw Nickalicious, high school punk rockers have feelings too, you know.<<

If some punk rock kids in Indiana are offended by "Don't Mess With Texas", they're idiots.

-
Alan

(I bullied people at school too by the way. I'm not proud of it at all but I don't mind admitting it and calling it what it was.)

Okay, you got me, I actually AM a subhuman neanderthalian 'Murikin football lovin' beer drinkin' shirtless meanie who yells at people because it makes me feel good about myself at their expense. I'm sorry for trying to keep this charade up for so long. Dang me. Dang me. Need to take a rope and hang me. High from the highest TREEEEEE woman would you weep for me DOOT DOOT DOO DEE OOT DOO DYEER DYEER DOOOOOOOOoooooo...

I think part of the problem here is that there were certain reactions from certain people (or a certain person) that reinforced that prejudice/whatever word you wanna use and that subsequently upped the temperature quite a lot. I don't know, I mean everyone has a right to be upset at whatever they choose, I mean there are people deathly afraid of spiders and people yelling at you is certainly more threatening than a daddy long legs. But when you got people seemingly willfully misunderstanding each other to prove a point and then people getting kicked off of threads and people screaming "FUCK YOU FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCK" (sort of paraphrase) it's going to cause everyone to go ballistic. That's just human nature I guess.

My whole point is: I don't think that was exactly what was meant, just as I don't think that you, jess, were actually advocating kicking the shit out of people all the way upthread. It's just one of those things that get said only half-seriously and then everyone, in a state of temper or guilt or whatever, goes off like squirrels in heat, but we're now at the point where everyone should be going, what the hell, that's obviously not what (whomever) meant because that's totally mentalist.

For the record, I generally don't care what people have to shout at me on the street and rarely feel threatened by someone saying something to me. Like suzy said, sucker for a good one liner AND a sucker for snapping back at people who DON'T have a creative statement to make. But I personally don't blame someone who doesn't react the way I do. But talking about drawing distinctions, there IS a large distinction between yelling "Pardon me! Grey poupon!" and yelling "Nigger", just like there is a distinction between levels of fear as stated previously.

And I love you too, Yancey.

It's just surprising how this thread blew the hell up, I guess it's just cos there was enough people fighting. You see this all over ILX, someone makes a half-joking snide-but-serious remark and then whomever feels guilt or justification suddenly FREAKS THE HELL OUT, but generally it's only like two people so no one notices. I'm starting to believe that putting (HALF JOKING DISCLAIMER!) on every post like that is only a bonus.

it happens and ppl do need to lighten up but ILX is used as 'work relief' so you gonna get heated args sometimes.

as andrew L said above the thread it is some sign of sexual frustration.

I just always think it's kind of a telling thing, as to who feels bothered about what. Without going into specifics, I guess...by bothered maybe guilty or persecuted or something. I had an email convo about this the other day, which obv. being private I could just say "This person and that person" but now I feel like an ass trying to explain the same concept without using examples.

So forget it! Argument based on what is being said = fine. Argument based on jumping all over some perceived slight and then ignoring any protestations to keep harping your wonderful point = pretty crap.

I think you have to bear in mind that some ppl here don't argue with anyone often (ie. me!) in 'real' life so you get nasty stuff for no reason.

but yeah i agree with what you're saying. I love you too ally.

Every day I'm arguing with people in real life, that's what I get for working with dipshits, but in real life no one screams "FUCK YOU YOU FUCK" when you're arguing about, say, erroneous wires, so actually these ILX fights are very funny to me. It does sound horrible to say that, doesn't it? Real life arguments never seem as silly as these arguments, maybe because you can catch inconsistencies and "arguing for the sake of it" easier if you are reading it versus if it's just being said.

Yeah, but suppose one of those punks had a real bad experience in Texas once, got arrested or something and was locked in a room with some rednecks from Beaumont who kept yellin' "Don't mess with Texas got-dammit" and when you yell it he flashes back, pulls out a gun and shoots your ass? There's your mo-fuckin' context right there, pal. Unless you're all-knowing and you know what kinda context you're wading into when you feel the need to yell at other people minding their own business, who then could feel they need to give you some of what you just gave out. What are we here, in junior high?

That's kind of a dud argument though, I think. I mean, basically, you should never say anything to anyone ever because you don't know what might set someone's "upset" meter off. I mean, I could go up to someone and say "Hello" and if they had a bad experience with a redhead with glasses once, then maybe they'll be upset by it.

(kiddin' of course 'cuz I've never heard - not that I want to!)

(kiddin' again)

*bug-eyed EEK face*

While yelling at them, of course.

ANYWAY...

A few years ago my bf and I were walking down the street and he smacks me on the ass. Just so happens this truck full of frat guys was zooming by so they honked the horn and all whistled.

That is all.

I watch lots of movies.

(note: she's not Chinese.)

WHERE'S WALDO!?!!?!?!

i laughed...

I've had at least one friendly, pleasant thing shouted to me from a car, and seen plenty of situations in which people having fun shout happily to one another from vehicles to elsewhere; there are plenty of contexts in which this is great and fun and everyone's happy about it. I think the reason people here have taken the "dud" line is that the initial examples in this thread all involved yelling things at unsuspecting people -- "sometimes insults" -- and then laughing at their expense.

The potential charge ended up being affray because I couldn't identify the person making the initial threats. This is the only area of law I remotely know anything about, just through personal experience.

No, no, it's fine. Just looked odd.

No pomposity intended. Just effect. You know that faux-brash-seriousness effect?

(Also their first qn to me was "How many of them were black?"!!)

ha! this is now officially my new hobby.

That's kind of a dud argument though, I think. I mean, basically, you should never say anything to anyone ever because you don't know what might set someone's "upset" meter off. I mean, I could go up to someone and say "Hello" and if they had a bad experience with a redhead with glasses once, then maybe they'll be upset by it.

-- Ally

No, Ally, there is a big fuckin' difference between saying something to someone whom you don't know and yelling something out of a car at someone you don't know, "dude." In case you were raised in a barn, let me recommend you refresh your ideas about civilized behavior around people you don't know...one does not comment on the appearance of others, the infirmity of others, etc. If you need me to remind you of this basic fact then you've got more problems than anyone here at ILE are going to be able to solve for you, "chief." Also, please don't call other people "dude," what year is this, 1970?

Jess, you're cracking me up, join in as much as you want. Haven't you ever seen that skit, "Stop Calling Me Chief"? I assumed you got it from that.

(I actually don't know, tho judging by these last two posts he's hysterical)

I found this pretty funny, I was in a pissy mood too. I just read this entire thread, I think it isn't stupid or awful or destructive, in hindsight, it's actually quite an interesting portrait of a whole load of things. I think it's something that could be discussed for months.

Mostly: "FAG"

Yelling wild, positive party-up stuff from cars is great on weekends - "It bout 2 get UUUUUGLY out here! *honk honk* KEEP IT GULLY! etc, especially during playoffs. And as long as the flirty/lusty shoutouts are good-natured and not too vile, you shouldn't get all indignant about it. A lot of us boys can get shy in close quarters so passing in a car gives us the freedom to proclaim our admiration for your beautifulness. Oh boo hoo you feel objectified, do you know how many ugly chicks would KILL to have someone yell Hey sweetheart at them just once?

When I was waiting in line to buy Morrisey tickets at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem 2 Saturday afternoons ago, someone walked by and loudly said "Why are there so many white people here?"

LC, my Camaro/Firebird etc-keying days are long over -- I did this once when I was 18 when it was considered sportif by the Yonkers townies to constantly drive by to insult people at college, and had a 100-yard dash to safety as opposed to times further afield where I had to suffer the insults. Obviously one doesn't do this without some kind of exit strategy. Also, I have never yelled any variant of 'whoo, party' out of a car because ONLY TOOLS DO THAT. It's the 'hi mom!' of vehicular self-expression.

However, memo to the four men who yelled shit at me out of their putrid little Toyota on the City Road yesterday afternoon. I have this great spring coat from the '50s (Peck and Peck 'Carleton Collection', ta grandma) that looks at first like op-art zebra stripes before you realise the black part is a stylised fern pattern instead, and I think this set them off. But I digress.

The memo is: don't verbally abuse girls when, 90 seconds later, you have to stop at the lights. The girl might approach your car, ask you if you can count to one a second before offering one-finger salute, thump the bonnet, and spit in the face of your bridge-and-tunnel self before disappearing down the entrance to the conveniently located Old Street tube under a roundabout. Although I 'won' I was still shaking when I got to Edgy Style Mag.

Stuff like

"You're going home in a hired limo"

or

"You're ace and we know you are"

I had to take him to caught to get some kind of closure.

Graham was unaware that "GOLDEN GRAHAMS" is a cereal and not a personal insult by blount.

Apple Jack Coles

Shouter: Hey! Cop on to yourself! It's fucking 1990!
Dude [looking lost]: It is? Jesus, thanks man!

-- @d@ml (nordicskilla@hotmail.com), January 12th, 2004.

by the end of the summer we were driving around in my oldsmobile with a super 8 camera beloning to jon's uncle taping the people driving in the lane next to us. we were understimulated, overbored and with entirely too much time on our hands. good times.

random offensive-but-not-personally-so yelling is great. like, "I want to rape bob barker," "pardon me, where can I find hookers", "I have ham salad in my pants," "I'm not wearing any pants," etc.

A few weeks ago I was in the passenger seat of a station wagon with a megaphone driving around the east village and chinatown yelling "go back to jersey". The joke being lost on people who didn't notice the car was from jersey and everyone in the car was from jersey.

I think it's incredibly funny for weird geeks like myself to roll down the window while driving through 5th avenue in park slope or bedford avenue in williamsburg while yelling "nerds!" out the window. This never fails to amuse...me.

I would just like to point out that the fact that this is true and a very serious thing is not stopping me from laughing at the po-faced seriousness with which it was stated.

Ok i do shout stuff out of my car, but usually on a high street and not at a specific target. I don't victimise or anything but usually loudly mark a stupid occasion; last time i did this i drove up a busy high street yelling "BUSTED FOREVER" on the day Busted split.

When I was 16: "Nice belt buckle, guy!" He was thrilled.
Last year on New Year's Eve, to people outside a bar: (drunkenly slurred) "AMATEURS!! AMATEURS!! You're like Christians who only come to church on EASTER!" They were appalled.

Someone once yelled a long string of something at me while I was walking down my own street, but I have no idea what he was on about. It sounded ANGRY.

Also, various whoo-hoos, whistles and oh babys and things.

Stuff it being scary (though it is), its just annoying and makes someone look like a 15 year old who thinks Jackass is a funny show. Meh.

Apparently he was "top Goth"

eg some idiot revesing from a minor road into a major (which i was on), basically right into my path, either hadnt seen me which is totally dense, or just saw me and chose to ignore me, either way he only realsied when he was about to hit me, and i was so shocked that his lumbering brain hadnt worked out that he should wait until there was a gap in oncoming traffic ie even on a fucking bike, i am part of the traffic, that i gulped out pretty loud "FUCKING HELL, MAN"

and he looked pretty shocked, he was kinda old, and later i felt a bit bad about it, but for fucks sake. we are road users too!

I'm not sure if the flamboyantly Islamic line is deliberately disingenous. It's pretty funny. Clear thinking: if there have been any instances of people throwing insults or committing worse offences against people with the line of reasoning "I'm all in favour of moslems, but that one is flamboyant!" then I may have to rethink, but basically you are yoking an entirely irrelevant lifestyle choice, flamboyance of dress, to the actual point and acting like you've proved something. You are making no sense.

Do I have to say that there is nothing wrong with any of these lifestyle choices? I can't see where I could have given the impression that I thought there was.

On another occassion/location, I have been the victim of attempted eggings from a car. Those guys can step up too, if they aren't too pussy.

Words will never hurt me, but if you try this sticks and stones shit, you will discover the limits of my commitment to pacifism.

I think I'll just stick to doing laps of my backyard.

:D I demand you do this immediately Sash =)

I suspect his suggestion comes from previous experience.

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Statshot-What-Are-We_0.jpg

Slighlty off topic but what can you do...

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Statshot-What-Are-We_0.jpg

Stupid lack of web skills...

does "Boooo!" count as a variation therein?

If they are walking particularly badly, yes.

that girl doesn't even have any hands so i would probably focus on that rather than her walking style.

That would be needlessly cruel and pass-remarkable!

jesus, this thread

I am pro-talking-to-/-shouting-nonsense-at-strangers in general though so I just treat car-yelling as an extension of that philosophy

I miss hstencil. :-(

One of my most depressing college experiences was late one Friday night when I was finally leaving the office of the weekly campus paper I was editing at the time -- I was walking down College Ave. (the main drag of Rutgers) with my backpack on, tired and kind of depressed already, and this guy rolls down his window and yells "'Ey Yo Dood'! Class ain't til monday dood! Class ain't til Monday!" I'm in college? Oh wait, I forgot, I'm at Rutgers.

-- A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, November 3, 2006 2:44 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Link

Ha, I was just about to post this story (again).

I was sitting at a bus stop when a minibus drove past full of grubby workmen who looked like they were on day release from the local prison. One particularly attractive specimen with long greasy hair, tattoos and missing teeth yelled out the window at me "SHOW US YOUR PINK BITS!". As I was only 11 years old, I was somewhat shocked.

or "GO DOLPHINS" at a gaggle of GA-GA TECH gameday crowd?

hey!

this is entirely dud unless it's driving past a dairy queen and yelling "fatasses!" out the window.

I went for bike rides last Saturday morning and Sunday morning. Saturday morning I was told to "move out of the way you fucking cunt". Sunday morning was marginally better as i was called a "fucking wanker".
both times car loads of unsavoury young males.
Both times I was minding my own business.
But I was wearing lycra. :(

Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped.
Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped.
Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped.
Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped.
Yelling "Golden Grahams" from the window of your car as you tear down Broadway might indeed shake a woman who's been raped.

One to grow on.

A girlfriend of mine in Nashville always used to yell "Dad?!" at smokers outside strip-joints. Great fun.

ooh that's a good one.

The only time i can remember this happening to me was when I was walking into a Rite Aid for beer. I was on my way to a late night pool party so I had changed into cut-offs, but I was still wearing a tux shirt from a bartending gig. A group of snotty girls yelled "NIIIIIICCCEEE SHORTS D00D!!!". Since they were caught by the traffic light I was able yell back something along the lines of "you should see what's in 'em!!" which made the parking lot security guard lol. So that was pretty classic.

Excellent repartee. And I like the concept of a late night pool party.

Dud, plz, because riding a bicycle in any southern state, city or no, is apparently an invitation for people to either to try to angrily run you over, or yell at you, "Get a car!" out the window. I am neither exaggerating nor joking.

yeah man, it's the same on the Gold Coast in Aus.

Full of aggro surfie fucks.

i really wish we lived in an ideal green world where i could yell stuff about farts at random ppl on the moving sidewalk from the window of my dymaxion car and have it always come off as good natured fun but humanity isn't there yet so i won't

SCRUBBERS!!!!!

Scrubbers! That reminds me. Dawdling out the front of a pub one night at closing time, I witnessed a girl scream from a taxi at a group of guys "LICK MY LETTUCE, YOU C*NTS". It was accompanied by some highly unsavoury hand gestures.

I've never yelled anything at a stranger from a passing car - until today. For some reason, I yelled "Ya Pooper!" at a 9-year-old with glasses and a XL shirt, who instantly reacted as if he had been struck by lightning. I don't even know why I said it. Sorry, kid.

some dudes in a convertible in georgetown, dc yelled at me like heeeyyy baby

so i discovered i still have this reflex (it's totally a reflex) to say certain things in french because i yelled TA GUELE at them, then when i got home had to google to find out what the hell i just said

dammit daria, you should have gotten their numbers.

Classic if there's girls in the car, they yell fun/nice things, dud if it's all guys, they yell aggro crap, and esp dud if it happens a minute after I was nearly hit by an suv running a red.

think i need to chill out, some stranger just said 'alright mucka' out of his window to me and i damn near almost stabbed him with my keys for doing so. urgh horrid dud.

http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=2139

i think the early-ilx universe just collapsed on itself

i was in england for three days in september, and while walking my girlfriend's gran home from the local shop onthe last evening i was struck (quite hard, tbh) by an egg thrown out of a corsa full of 15 years olds. would have been funny except for the 85 year old it missed by inches.

i don't think england is a very nice place now.

this thread would have been a real sb holocaust

thot that was jw for a sec

saw some yahoos in a hummer doing this bs at some lady in hollywood tonight

i still get "LANCE!!!" or w/e from a-holes when i'm riding my bike

i mean we're averaging at least once a month

i got "get a haircut" a few weeks ago when i had longish hair. I shouted "I'll cut you". But it was ignored.

got a facebook group for you all http://www.facebook.com/pages/Screaming-at-Random-People-as-You-Drive-By/90648952710?ref=nf

someone yelled "your tire is flat" at me the other day even tho it was clearly not. i still looked down at it and they all laughed their 17 year old asses off.

ownd :/

"white guyyyyy!" yelled @ me 20 min ago

from a person in a car

bbbbbbbbbut?

:-?

lol

http://www.lcet.org/images/sized/images/mainimages/the_big_reveal-757x332.jpg

This always happens to me when I'm out running at night. Three times in an hour yesterday. And it's never anything interesting, usually some riff on "Run Forest Run" or "118-118". The best I've had is "Forgot your trousers mate!", which is itself quite poor.

Anyway, dud.

what is 118-118 about

Popular advertising campaign for UK directory enquiries. Features blokes running.

oh yeah running at night is like some sort of catnip to carbound ne'erdowells

I have gotten "you look like you like to get fucked up the ass, boy" and "are you gay or what, kid?"

the homophobia doesn't hurt me so much as the ageism

some dude downtown yelled "haaaaaay giirrrrrrrl" when i biked by

i guess i was flattered

you sure they're not just clumsy pickup lines tho crut?