Dec 12 2008
How to Annoy People
John Cleese is apparently an expert on how to annoy people. He had an entire hour and a few minutes film about it. The first step in being irritating is to be a British comedian and actor. There are some parts of British humor that are understandable and there are other parts that are just downright aggravating and unintelligible. I suppose different cultures are just that: different.
My favorite part of “How to Irritate People” is the skit where airline pilots mess with the minds of the passengers and have them go a bit spastic by telling them not to take their seat belts off, but that they were to observe emergency procedures that were explained using nonsense words and voice-induced static. Now, that was funny.
Apparently the keys to annoying people are to make them think that you are simply being polite by asking them fifteen times how they are and what they are feeling. The idea is to push them as far as they can go without making them blow up in anger. The minute they blow up, the gig is up. The goal is to make them keep the irritation inside so as to eventually produce some kind of reaction like, say, a nervous breakdown.
