It Happens All The Time: Captain Obvious
Alright, show of hands on whether this happened to you:
You're with some friends on a day out and just having fun. Let's say you're at the park.
The sky is a cheerful blue and the sun is shining. The birds are singing and you're having a great time right now. Nothing is going to go wrong this time! You're not going to go into a sudden shift of emotions or accidentally say something perverted. Nothing can go wrong at all today and tha-
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE STAIRS!
HOLY SHIT!
Whether you couldn't stop in time or you were surprised by my shouting, you fall down the stairs in a series of ridiculously hilarious barrel rolls and stumbles. You finally get to the ground after that horrific incident, in pain and damning the existence of stairs.
You hear your friends coming down the stairs and surrounding you as you get on your feet. Your body feels battered, you're pretty sure your bleeding somewhere and everyone's voice is giving you a headache. Can it get any worse than this?
It does. One of them says 'You're hurt!'.
You're hurt!
Now you have the urge to punch your friend and say 'no shit' now for saying something so stupid and so obvious. Just NOW they observe that you're injured? Why?
Well, my dear read, your friend just happen to do a Captain Obvious!
Tvtropes explain:
"Most of the time, whatever he has to say should already be obvious - both to the viewers and to any other character with half a brain."
Basically: Someone says something we already know about it.
Whether it's from your parents ('you're failing!' as they point at your F marked paper), your friends (look at the example already given) or yourself (don't deny it now), someone is going to make a painfully obvious statement that everyone else has noticed within a second they see or learn about it.
Like this.
Worse of all? They seem to be everywhere now and days! You go to the restaurant, someone will comment 'this is a restaurant'! A hot day in the neighborhood, someone will go 'it sure is hot!'. Spill something on your outfit and someone will brilliantly point out 'your outfit is ruined!'.
Hell, T.V shows/games/radio are getting into this act as if to send someone into insanity. The main character needs to comment on a dead body and say 'he's/she's dead'. Someone needs to shout 'FIRE!' when the fire can be easily seen by the other people. Another person needs to say 'we're in trouble' when they have a gun faced at their faces/facing a huge monster.
This doesn't look too good.
Often times when I watch/play/hear that scene, I just wish that the monster/person with the gun would shoot that person, just so our gene pool will be safer.
Off the train tracks here. Let's get back to the topic:
Now, why are some people like this? Why do the say or ask things that should be easily noticed at first glance? Or make a comment that already should know about and act like what they said is worth listening to? Surely they aren't like this all the time. Heavens forbid!
Thankfully, it isn't all the time that I can assure you of. We don't always blurt out useless information or attempt to chip in by saying utterly unneeded. But why do we do it? Even though we know it'll piss someone off because of it?
My reasons behind it are these: Communication, lack of consciousness and attention.
Communication:
We still wish to interact with people even when we say we don't want to. We want to say something even when we don't know what to say. Like, say, during a situation of anything (be it stress or comfort) and we simply wish to make an observation. No matter how simple it is, we just want to say something in order to start a conversation with one another.
I'm sure you've done that before. Went to watch a movie with some friends and you liked it? You most likely said 'it was awesome'. Or went to a game that your side was losing and exclaimed 'this sucks'.
This will take a while.
Lack of consciousness:
Or, to be more grammatically correct, lack of self-awareness. Remember the example I gave you? Where you got hurt in the park and your friend commented stupidly that you're hurt? Most likely in the example your friend was simply worried for your health and was just worried. Emotions and coherency never go hand in hand as we all know in our past experience.
When we're worried, stressed, or freaked out we don't think what we'll say and just blurt out what's in our mind. Screw the need of making sense when you're freaking the fuck out. If you're in pain you'll scream 'I'M IN PAIN!', or you'll find someone crying and unhappy and you say in awkward concern 'you're sad'.
You're having a bad day.
Attention:
In some subconscious level, we know what we're going to say will be annoying and thus piss some people off but that's okay because that's what we want. We want to say something stupid because someone will notice it and in return notice you. Or, flat out, know they're going to get attention with what they're going to say and do it in order to do so.
I'm sure you, my dear readers, have done that. You were with friends and feeling kind of left out by the others. Maybe they were having a serious discussion and didn't let you in so much. Maybe just a casual conversation with one another. You want them to notice you, damn it. So you say something obvious and that garners their attention, positive or not.
What a fatass.
What I'm trying to say in these half-billion and twenty-eight words is this: Captain Obvious doesn't mean to be an annoying douche. They just want to be part of something. And whether it be attention, emotions or companionship, we will say it out loud. And we shouldn't be too hard on the poor bastard since we also do this at times.
The best we can do is simply nod at their comment and make notes on not doing this in the same situation one day. Or, at best, learn to carry Valium if you have anger issues.
You're with some friends on a day out and just having fun. Let's say you're at the park.
The sky is a cheerful blue and the sun is shining. The birds are singing and you're having a great time right now. Nothing is going to go wrong this time! You're not going to go into a sudden shift of emotions or accidentally say something perverted. Nothing can go wrong at all today and tha-
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE STAIRS!
HOLY SHIT!
Whether you couldn't stop in time or you were surprised by my shouting, you fall down the stairs in a series of ridiculously hilarious barrel rolls and stumbles. You finally get to the ground after that horrific incident, in pain and damning the existence of stairs.
You hear your friends coming down the stairs and surrounding you as you get on your feet. Your body feels battered, you're pretty sure your bleeding somewhere and everyone's voice is giving you a headache. Can it get any worse than this?
It does. One of them says 'You're hurt!'.
You're hurt!
Now you have the urge to punch your friend and say 'no shit' now for saying something so stupid and so obvious. Just NOW they observe that you're injured? Why?
Well, my dear read, your friend just happen to do a Captain Obvious!
Tvtropes explain:
"Most of the time, whatever he has to say should already be obvious - both to the viewers and to any other character with half a brain."
Basically: Someone says something we already know about it.
Whether it's from your parents ('you're failing!' as they point at your F marked paper), your friends (look at the example already given) or yourself (don't deny it now), someone is going to make a painfully obvious statement that everyone else has noticed within a second they see or learn about it.
Like this.
Worse of all? They seem to be everywhere now and days! You go to the restaurant, someone will comment 'this is a restaurant'! A hot day in the neighborhood, someone will go 'it sure is hot!'. Spill something on your outfit and someone will brilliantly point out 'your outfit is ruined!'.
Hell, T.V shows/games/radio are getting into this act as if to send someone into insanity. The main character needs to comment on a dead body and say 'he's/she's dead'. Someone needs to shout 'FIRE!' when the fire can be easily seen by the other people. Another person needs to say 'we're in trouble' when they have a gun faced at their faces/facing a huge monster.
This doesn't look too good.
Often times when I watch/play/hear that scene, I just wish that the monster/person with the gun would shoot that person, just so our gene pool will be safer.
Off the train tracks here. Let's get back to the topic:
Now, why are some people like this? Why do the say or ask things that should be easily noticed at first glance? Or make a comment that already should know about and act like what they said is worth listening to? Surely they aren't like this all the time. Heavens forbid!
Thankfully, it isn't all the time that I can assure you of. We don't always blurt out useless information or attempt to chip in by saying utterly unneeded. But why do we do it? Even though we know it'll piss someone off because of it?
My reasons behind it are these: Communication, lack of consciousness and attention.
Communication:
We still wish to interact with people even when we say we don't want to. We want to say something even when we don't know what to say. Like, say, during a situation of anything (be it stress or comfort) and we simply wish to make an observation. No matter how simple it is, we just want to say something in order to start a conversation with one another.
I'm sure you've done that before. Went to watch a movie with some friends and you liked it? You most likely said 'it was awesome'. Or went to a game that your side was losing and exclaimed 'this sucks'.
This will take a while.
Lack of consciousness:
Or, to be more grammatically correct, lack of self-awareness. Remember the example I gave you? Where you got hurt in the park and your friend commented stupidly that you're hurt? Most likely in the example your friend was simply worried for your health and was just worried. Emotions and coherency never go hand in hand as we all know in our past experience.
When we're worried, stressed, or freaked out we don't think what we'll say and just blurt out what's in our mind. Screw the need of making sense when you're freaking the fuck out. If you're in pain you'll scream 'I'M IN PAIN!', or you'll find someone crying and unhappy and you say in awkward concern 'you're sad'.
You're having a bad day.
Attention:
In some subconscious level, we know what we're going to say will be annoying and thus piss some people off but that's okay because that's what we want. We want to say something stupid because someone will notice it and in return notice you. Or, flat out, know they're going to get attention with what they're going to say and do it in order to do so.
I'm sure you, my dear readers, have done that. You were with friends and feeling kind of left out by the others. Maybe they were having a serious discussion and didn't let you in so much. Maybe just a casual conversation with one another. You want them to notice you, damn it. So you say something obvious and that garners their attention, positive or not.
What a fatass.
What I'm trying to say in these half-billion and twenty-eight words is this: Captain Obvious doesn't mean to be an annoying douche. They just want to be part of something. And whether it be attention, emotions or companionship, we will say it out loud. And we shouldn't be too hard on the poor bastard since we also do this at times.
The best we can do is simply nod at their comment and make notes on not doing this in the same situation one day. Or, at best, learn to carry Valium if you have anger issues.