Don't get mad or overthink it, just make a joke out of it.

Because that's what it really is, right? A joke?

i think congratulations are in order for dealing with such a stressful situation with such dignity and elegance. Oscar Wilde could have learnt a thing or two off you, eh?

how the fuck would you have reacted if the poor youth had been abusive? visions of intestines, teeth and eyeballs flying through the air as the youth is pounded into a fashionable jelly.

MrFood wrote:And the chick I was with is a touch, um, uptight at the best of times.

sorry but she's uptight. pots kettles glasshouses etc.

It's his hobby. Just like <whatever your hobby is> is your hobby. What if you are at a show and see a guy in one of the bands is playing with an Electrical guitar or TB or whatever it is you're goofy over and you go up to talk to him about it and he says FUCK OFF. Just think about it for a minute, please.

Yellow shirt? That's very fashion forward! Kudos

please don't hurt me

The proper response if you want to be polite but still project the "i think you are a tool" vibe:

Doude comes yammering up to you, "OH MY GOD YOU HAVE THE BEST LOOK!"

You look bemused, give him a half-giggling "i 'have the best look?' What does that mean, i 'have the best look?'"

Doude explains something, you giggle a little more and say "uh...o-kay, dude. Um, thanks i guess." And then walk away while looking at your ladyfriend and mouthing "wow."

You are polite, yet if this doude has any sense of perception, he'll know he was being patronized, and will be left wondering what he did that was not only not cool, but merited ridicule. If he doesn't catch onto that, he was stupid and beyond hope and you're wasting your time thinking about him.

Yes, this makes you come off as a patronizing cock, but fuck it, it's better than coming off as a screaming psychotic and either way you'll never see him again, so whatever.

Kayte wrote:It's his hobby. Just like <whatever your hobby is> is your hobby. What if you are at a show and see a guy in one of the bands is playing with an Electrical guitar or TB or whatever it is you're goofy over and you go up to talk to him about it and he says FUCK OFF. Just think about it for a minute, please.

You know what any rational adult would?
They wouldn't come back over a second time.

MrFood wrote:

Nina wrote: Look at how much time and energy you have wasted on this now. Seems kind of pointless.

Uh? It's a discussion board. I'm bored. I thought I'd gauge people's reactions on it. I'm not gonna go find the guy and apologise to him based on the outcome of this thread or anything.

Um, ok.

Did you not say that you had seen your friend who was with you that evening and she was still kind of pissed off at you?

Was it worth pissing her off and causing hard feelings in your friendship? That kind of tension in friendships suck, in my opinion.

Just sayin.

Christopher J. McGarvey wrote:You know what any rational adult would?
They wouldn't come back over a second time.

Some people are so devoid of self-confidence that they need approval from everyone, all the time. This person obviously was devastated that he was not greeted with fawning thanks for his compliment, and thus became obsessed with smoothing things over lest some stranger he'd never met before and will never see again thinks he's an asshole.

Mind you, none of this is meant to stick up for this kid. What he could have done was be a little taken aback at Mr. Food's initial reaction, thought to himself, "wow, that guy's a dick," and walked away. This is what i would have done, had someone said "fuck off" after i complimented them. (Actually, had he responded to my compliment with the bemused patronization i suggested in my last post, i also would have thought, "wow, that guy's a dick," and walked away.)

You know, I think telling this kid to fuck off is completely fine, the more I think about it.

It's an overreaction, but sometimes people need to learn the hard way how not to talk to people. You may have done him a favor.

H-GM wrote:

tmidgett wrote:Saying "you look great," this is a much different thing than "you have a great look."

Exactly. And what guy at a DEVO show would approach another guy to tell him "you look great?"

It's obvious the offended was trying to garner a positive response by complimenting someone on their "uniform." Ick. If I were Mr. Food I would've responded in the gayest way possible. Freak him out real good.

Yes. This is why anyone criticising Mr Food for being unable to take a compliment is off the mark. This person was congratulating Mr Food on how well he had adopted the 'look' of whatever subculture they assumed Mr Food to belong to, something that Mr Food had not done at all. That's not actually all that great a thing to hear.

(Imagine you went out in your normal clothes and someone came up to you and said, "OH MY GOD! That's like the greatest juggalo outfit I ever saw!")

The only question for me is how Mr Food should have measured his response - and that's what he was asking about. Barry, I think you could have nicer. Dr Awkward seems to have it about right.