Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[Scotrail12]

People who constantly ask 'what are your plans?' for the day/week/month or whatever. Unless you're trying to organise something with me, it's rude and highly intrusive. What happened to respecting privacy?

 

[Sorcerer]

I was hoping that there might be somewhere in the world, an island genuinely bearing that name; so that I could ask what you had against that innocuous isle and its inhabitants ; but alas, it seems there's no such place.

I would consider it a relief to not have your home isle tarnished with the name of such a rubbish reality TV show.

 

[duncanp]

Can we just ban all so called "Reality" TV?

Honestly, who watches this utter pile of garbage?

 

[GusB]

Can we just ban all so called "Reality" TV?

Honestly, who watches this utter pile of garbage?

I'm going to agree with you, probably for the first time ever.

This might be worthy of its own thread, but I watched the latest series of Channel 4's "Hunted" and on numerous occasions I kept thinking "No, you can't do that without a court order".

I know that the state tends to have ever-encroaching powers, but even so - this series goes a bit too far!

 

[D821]

I'm going to agree with you, probably for the first time ever.

This might be worthy of its own thread, but I watched the latest series of Channel 4's "Hunted" and on numerous occasions I kept thinking "No, you can't do that without a court order".

I know that the state tends to have ever-encroaching powers, but even so - this series goes a bit too far!

I've only seen it on Gogglebox and it looks so bad & contrived. I laughed at a bit where the chasers' Land Rover rounded a corner and they had dubbed on some tyre squeal. The vehicle wasn't even going fast and nor would it have been allowed to.
There was another scene where the people being chased were hiding behind a fence, though how the chasers failed to see the other group's camera crew I'll never know.

 

[birchesgreen]

People who constantly ask 'what are your plans?' for the day/week/month or whatever. Unless you're trying to organise something with me, it's rude and highly intrusive. What happened to respecting privacy?

I think they are just trying to be friendly and trying to initiate some conversation. Unless you are talking about when you were in a Gestapo interrogation then i quite understand.

 

[Techniquest]

I think they are just trying to be friendly and trying to initiate some conversation. Unless you are talking about when you were in a Gestapo interrogation then i quite understand.

Agreed. It's part of a normal conversation between friends/family, and it's especially handy if you're getting to know someone and develop a stronger friendship/bond with them. Developing such bonds is, in my opinion at least, really good when it comes to working in teams, the more you know someone and understand their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, the closer to them you feel. Which creates a good bond and you're all more likely to work well with each other, and help each other get the job done/cover each other's shifts when necessary/just make new friends/etc.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Can we just ban all so called "Reality" TV?

Honestly, who watches this utter pile of garbage?

Please don't ban it...

Without it, I'll need to invent a new version of my "Social Litmus Test" to determine which people to give a (very) wide berth to!

 

[Strat-tastic]

I'm going to agree with you, probably for the first time ever.

This might be worthy of its own thread, but I watched the latest series of Channel 4's "Hunted" and on numerous occasions I kept thinking "No, you can't do that without a court order".

I know that the state tends to have ever-encroaching powers, but even so - this series goes a bit too far!

Yes, the number of folk who readily hand over their mobile phone for inspection or let hunters onto their property is astonishing. Some folk are just so compliant in the face of imagined authority.
However, as a program, I do enjoy it and ban anyone from banning it.

 

[nlogax]

However, as a program, I do enjoy it and ban anyone from banning it.

Same.. it's my one guilty reality tv pleasure. Takes me right back to The Interceptor from the late 80s if anyone remembers that?

 

[Strat-tastic]

Same.. it's my one guilty reality tv pleasure. Takes me right back to The Interceptor from the late 80s if anyone remembers that?

Yes, like on Monday's finale brought that to mind.

 

[Pinza-C55]

I would ban the Northern Trains advert on Youtube. It plays incessantly and I am tired of hearing that woman going through her little dramatic narration.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

I would ban the Northern Trains advert on Youtube. It plays incessantly and I am tired of hearing that woman going through her little dramatic narration.

I would ban the Numan advert on YouTube. It plays almost every time I use the app. Considering that YT ads are supposedly targeted to the individual user, I’m not sure what it’s implying!

 

[nlogax]

I would ban the Numan advert on YouTube. It plays almost every time I use the app. Considering that YT ads are supposedly targeted to the individual user, I’m not sure what it’s implying!

In this case it just assumes you're a male of a certain age.

 

[D6968]

I would ban the Northern Trains advert on Youtube. It plays incessantly and I am tired of hearing that woman going through her little dramatic narration.

Have to agree on this, I’m finding Susan Calman rather irritating, I’m also finding it difficult to understand why I’m getting those adverts when I’m in GA/GN territory.

 

[adrock1976]

Some junctions do have part-time signals, but they're awkward legally because of the additional signage and road markings required for when the signals aren't in use. If you've gone to the trouble of installing signals it's easier to just leave them in use all the time- there's no real saving to only operating them at peak times. Sequences can be changed for quiet times, and/or use of sensors to prevent unnecessary waiting at quiet times.

Fog lights on the rear seem to get left on after the fog lifts. Front fog lights is probably people wanting to be Colin McRae.

If signals are only required for peak times, it saves electric when they are switched off.

In some instances, when the lights fail at some roundabouts, the traffic seems to flow better than if the lights were not there.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

If signals are only required for peak times, it saves electric when they are switched off.

In some instances, when the lights fail at some roundabouts, the traffic seems to flow better than if the lights were not there.

With use of modern LEDs rather than incandescent bulbs, it doesn't take all that much electricity to power them 24/7.
There's certainly a use-case for part-time signals, but they aren't the best option everywhere.

 

[dgl]

I would ban the Numan advert on YouTube. It plays almost every time I use the app. Considering that YT ads are supposedly targeted to the individual user, I’m not sure what it’s implying!

Personally I think any adverts that are a bit "close to the mark" shudl not be shown on YT, primarily because you don;t know who is actually watching that video, if you were showing something to one of your children, for example, would you want them to see an advert like that .
I have ad personalisation turned off and get some real wierd adverts, a lot of them clearly for products that are crap or from health companies I've never heard of, I'll get my medical device from a doctor no a salesman!

 

[David Goddard]

On the railway:
1. Ticket Gates on any National Rail station
2. Evening peak restrictions that mean it takes twice as long to get home while the fast trains leave half empty
3. TOCS where the catring trolley does not stop in First Class (you know who you are!)- they assume you only want the freebies, but all you really want is to buy a Mars bar
4. Station and third party security staff who think they can make up their own rules against enthusiasts and photographers
5. Timetables with random incursions to the regular interval for no obvious reason

Elsewhere:
1. Smoking and vaping
2. People in public places that descend on you wanting you to sign up for their (often political) causes
3. Booking fees on top of the purchase of a product, or so called service charges in restaurants
4. Shops that get the vacuum cleaner out half an hour before closing to make it obvious they dont want you in
5. Flipflops and Crocs

Will stop there but could come up with more

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

5. Timetables with random incursions to the regular interval for no obvious reason

Thats a significant chunk of rail freight gone then

 

[D821]

Hayfever.
It doesn't affect me as much now I'm older but I've had a miserable couple of days with it.

 

[Ostrich]

Supermarket self-service tills that argue the toss with you.

I had one the other day that said: "Are you sure this item costs £1.75?".
Completely flummoxed me, I had no idea, it was on the shopping list so I simply picked it off the shelf. There wasn't an option for "I think so".
Even the "till minder" assistant conceded he'd never seen a message like that before.
I said to him, "It's me, isn't it? The machine hates me."
He didn't demur .....

 

[MotCO]

Now we're entering the tennis season, I would ban tennis stars from grunting every time they hit the ball.

Also people starting emails "Hope you are well". Does it make any difference to your response? Are you meant to respond asking after their welfare?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 10 Jun 2022 ==

BT around here quite a few years ago, mistyped some guys phone number with one of a local restaurant in the telephone directory. Poor old chap was getting 100's of calls a week.

Something slightly different. Some BT technician replugged my mother-in-laws phone into the wrong socket in the green street box, such that she got someone else's number (and calls) and her phone calls were going elsewhere. It confused the BT help desk until we twigged what had happened!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

3. TOCS where the catring trolley does not stop in First Class (you know who you are!)- they assume you only want the freebies, but all you really want is to buy a Mars bar

Some of TPE's Trolley folk seem to be trying to "speed-run" through all five carriages at times. If you aren't facing the direction they're coming from, you've no chance!

 

[Runningaround]

Can we just ban all so called "Reality" TV?

Honestly, who watches this utter pile of garbage?

Those sycophantic Railway Channel Five fly on the wall docs are a form of Reality TV should be banned, the ones that show how great the poor hardworking revenue staff are who are never wrong and how bad passengers are. They should have a warning ''We are promoting -name of TOC- so expect a one sided view''.

 

[krus_aragon]

See also:
People who request a receipt at a cashpoint, but then walk off leaving it behind for the person following them to dispose of.
Cash machines that ask you if you want to check your balance, when you've already selected "Cash Only". If I wanted to check, I'd have picked that option. Apparently this is because balance checks generate revenue for the operators, but something so counterintuitive really gets my goat.

Related:

Cash machines that (having selected " cash, no receipt") ask you "would you like a receipt?"

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Similarly.... Cash machines that (having selected "cash with receipt") then tell you that there aren't any receipts available!

 

[Pinza-C55]

Personally I think any adverts that are a bit "close to the mark" shudl not be shown on YT, primarily because you don;t know who is actually watching that video, if you were showing something to one of your children, for example, would you want them to see an advert like that .
I have ad personalisation turned off and get some real wierd adverts, a lot of them clearly for products that are crap or from health companies I've never heard of, I'll get my medical device from a doctor no a salesman!

The sexualisation of Youtube ads in the last couple of years has been quite surprising. It makes you wonder what the motivation is.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The sexualisation of Youtube ads in the last couple of years has been quite surprising. It makes you wonder what the motivation is.

"Sex sells" has been a motto in the advertising industry since at least the 1950s.

 

[Calthrop]

Now we're entering the tennis season, I would ban tennis stars from grunting every time they hit the ball.

Though I have approximately zero interest in tennis; I seem to remember that that practice? -- mannerism? -- got much attention some decades ago: with especial focus on a particular player, one Monica Seles: whose "grunting at every stroke / hit", was a focus of obsession in the media for a while (her being an attractive young woman, likely had something to do with that). A spell thus, of unending media "burble" about Monica and her grunting; I recall one particular piece, a rather entertaining flight of fancy taking off at a tangent -- imagining, way back, grumpy conservative Neanderthals decrying the new, ultra-"woke" invention-type fad: of language, and having conversations. "If grunting was good enough for our forbears, it's good enough for us ... ".