We’ve all been wrong about certain things for far longer than we’d like to admit. I had a girlfriend who pronounced the word “height” as “heighth,” and even though she was 30 years old at the time, didn’t realize she was saying it wrong until I pointed it out to her. It’s crazy the stuff you believe growing up that nobody corrects you on—until they do.
British comedy writer Ariane Sherine recently asked her followers to share their embarrassing misunderstandings or things that generally took them way too long to realize. She shared a couple of her own personal mixups, as well as one of her friends’: “I used to think chocolate truffles were snuffled out of the ground by pigs. My friend John asked the barber for a ‘short back insides’, and another friend thought the bow under Colonel Sanders on the KFC logo was his arms and legs!” she wrote.
I used to think chocolate truffles were snuffled out of the ground by pigs. My friend John asked the barber for a ‘short back insides’, and another friend thought the bow under Colonel Sanders on the KFC logo was his arms and legs!
What’s your most embarrassing misunderstanding? pic.twitter.com/QKb45A7rUZ
— Ariane Sherine (@ArianeSherine) May 13, 2020
To be fair, the colonels’ necktie really does resemble a stick figure’s arms and legs.
Here are some more of people’s funniest and most embarrassing misunderstandings:
1.
I used to think colour was invented at the same time as colour TVs and that everything was black and white before it
— Gordon Jackson (@nobodys_biz) May 13, 2020
2.
I used to think Henry VIII was pronounced Henry Vill 🙈
— MJ Meads (@MJMeads) May 13, 2020
3.
Thought the phrase prima donna was pre-Madonna. As if she was such a pioneer and megastar that she redefined what it meant to be a demanding idol with super-diva personality
— David Inglis (@dinglis100) May 13, 2020
4.
When I was about 5 I thought all calendars were made by the Smitwifts company because it was always written across the top.
SMTWTFS
— Señor Hijas (@TedDaughters) May 13, 2020
5.
I’m literally trying to pronounce it how you thought it was pronounced but I can’t wrap my head around it.
— leah (@leahmadd_) May 14, 2020
6.
Well in to my teens I thought ‘melancholy’ was a type of dog (like a border collie)
— Luke Veasey (@Lukeveasey) May 13, 2020
7.
My colleague (she’s 25) thought the name Geoff was pronounced GEE-OFF and had been calling a contractor that for 2 years. 🙃
— Hannah @ Home (@hesaw_) May 13, 2020
8.
I thought this said Disnep pic.twitter.com/3c88QLnHSQ
— Benali Hamdache (@greenbenali) May 13, 2020
9.
I thought Sigourney Weaver was a man called Sir Gourney Weaver. Mg
— Marty Gerald McKeever (@martygerald) May 13, 2020
10.
For years I used to think George “Dubya” Bush just had a weird army nickname. Then one day I said it out loud and my brain went “…OH…”
— Iain Clark (@iainjclark) May 13, 2020