Most of the time, you get what you expect. If you order a certain dish in a restaurant, you get what you expect. Generally, when you buy a product, it is exactly what it you are expecting.
Once in a while, though, you are surprised, and you are not always pleasantly surprised. For example, I went to see a horror movie in the theaters recently. I was told by people who review movies that it was one of the scariest movies ever made. I actually went with my mother, as we are both horror fans. She pretty much introduced me to the genre. Furthermore, two of my best friends in high school were huge horror fans. It is fair to say I get a big kick out of scary movies.
The surprise was that the movie sucked. I am not going to say what movie it was, but I will say that it was terrible. There were two genuinely scary moments, maybe, and one of them was extremely predictable. I had very high hopes for that movie, but it definitely wasn’t what I expected.
I really hate it when products make promises, but don’t end up delivering on them. Recently, I purchased a product that should make it easy to enjoy hard-boiled eggs—it was supposed to easily peel them.
It didn’t work at all—I ended up having to throw it out. That’s a shame, too, because I love hard-boiled eggs. I would eat them every day, except peeling them is a huge pain in the rear, and I really am quite lazy.
I really expected that product to work, sadly. It shouldn’t be so hard to peel hard-boiled eggs.
Here are nine examples of situations and products that really didn’t turn out as people expected.
1. The Tiny Rug
This is a perfect example of a product that appeared a whole lot better online than it turned out to be in person. It looks like a decent size in that one picture; it clearly, however, is not. The person who purchased this rug was clearly expecting something else. That said, what was the purchaser really expecting for less than twelve dollars?
That thing isn’t even big enough for my dog to rest on, and he’s one of those tiny ones that barely qualifies as a dog. You should see him when he is wet. There is nothing to him.
I watch a lot of television early in the morning because a lot of great old sitcoms air then. The advertisements are really weird. When they’re not advertising rehab services, they are advertising products that look really interesting—in the commercials, anyway. For example, there are sunglasses for sale that are supposedly the kind used by the armed forces. When you check out the online reviews, though, you come to learn that they’re basically no better than the average pair of polarized sunglasses, but they are a lot more expensive. There are also a couple of products you can supposedly run over with your car. Something tells me that, if I were to purchase one of those products and run it over with my car, I’d be sort of disappointed with the result. It would probably give me a flat tire, too.
2. The Trip To Massachusetts
I don’t know why this guy was going to Massachusetts, but I am relatively sure he wasn’t expecting to see a police officer arrest Spider-Man. Why would anyone arrest Spider-Man? He is a good guy.
You really have to wonder what the guy dressed as Spider-Man did wrong. I am guessing he had been drinking—or something of the sort. He also might have been insane. Not many people walk around dressed like superheroes. If I was walking down the street and saw someone dressed like Batman, for example, I would probably be pretty concerned.
I will always be partial to the “Batman” television show that came out in the 1960s—long before I was born. My mother watched it as a child, and she introduced me to it as a child. I thought it was great. Adam West, who you probably know best as the voice of Mayor West on “Family Guy”, played Batman. He wasn’t in the sort of shape actors who portray superheroes these days tend to be, but he definitely made the part his own.
Sadly, West died in 2017. He was a pretty funny guy. He played himself, or a fictionalized version of himself anyway, on several television shows, including Newsradio.
3. The Error Message
I would be kind of worried if I saw an error message in the sky. It wouldn’t surprise me, though.
I have often wondered if we’re all some sort of computer simulation. I think that comes from the movies I watched as a kid and growing up playing “The Sims” and its many, many sequels.
I have a copy of “The Sims 4” for my XBOX. I don’t play it much, because it is kind of hard to stop once you start. Hours can go by without my even noticing. Furthermore, while the base game is cheap, the expansion packs cost a small fortune. You can easily spend hundreds of dollars just buying expansion packs and other “stuff” for the game. If you want your “sim” to have a pet dog, for example, you’re going have to shell out thirty bucks or so—in addition to the cost of the game itself.
The ability to make a vampire will cost you $20 or so.
“The Sims 3” came out in 2009 and was similarly expensive. People crunched the numbers and figured out that buying all of the expansion packs and downloadable content cost over $400. That is a lot of money to spend on fake lives. Like “The Sims 4”, it was a fun game, and a lot of people spent that much on it over the years.
I remember the good old days when there was no downloadable content for video games. It isn’t that I mind expansion packs, per se, it is just that owning a “complete” game now can cost a small fortune. Honestly, it prevents me from buying video games that I’d like to try out when they first come out. I just know that I’ll eventually have to shell out thirty dollars in a few months if I want “the complete experience”. It is very frustrating.
4. The Typo On the Street
This is sort of disappointing, but not at all unexpected. I have seen pictures like this one before, and I’m sure I could find many more.
It really isn’t surprising to me that someone that worked for a city goofed like this. What does surprise me is how much some people who work for cities, counties, and states earn in the United States. You can make a very good living, at least around where I live, being the person who stands by the side of the road and directs traffic when “road work” is being done. It is an important job, I suppose, but is it really that difficult to hold up a stop sign once in a while?
In their defense, the people who hold up the signs that read “stop” and “slow” often work under the most miserable of conditions. I have seen them out there in the middle of January when it was below freezing outside. Furthermore, they are often required to work in the middle of the night, which isn’t a very pleasant experience. They also have to be on their feet all day, and I guess there is a pretty good chance they will be hit by a car. It is not the safest job in the world.
I really do wonder if cities and states create road projects because their workers would have nothing else to do otherwise. They are doing roadwork on a highway close to where I live. I don’t understand the purpose, and it is going to take two years. It’ll really mess up traffic for a very long time.
Naturally, it will cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.
5. The Butt Milk
I think everyone looking at this image is way too old to find the concept of “butt milk” funny. If you can access the internet and you can read, you are probably too old to be laughing at “butt milk”.
Darn it, though, it is kind of funny. If you are anything like me, you probably started wondering under what conditions you would drink butt milk. For example, what if you were abducted by aliens and the only alcoholic beverage available came out of their butts? Would you drink the butt milk after a long day of doing whatever it is you do on alien planets after being abducted?
I probably would, as I can’t imagine the aliens treat their abductees pretty well. I would probably need a couple of shots of butt milk to help me get to sleep at night. They would probably make me work in a quarry, which is problematic; I have a bad back.
6. The Sign About Columbus Day
I am not going to go on too much regarding Columbus or the holiday. I recently watched an episode of a television show that suggested he was sort of an evil buffoon. That may have been the case; I have no real way of knowing. I do think Columbus Day is sort of a stupid holiday, though. Why do people in the United States have to make up so many ridiculous holidays? As I write this, it is “National Dessert Day”. What does that even mean? I did not eat a dessert-type food today. Should I feel like a bad American?
What’s next, I wonder. Will there be a “National Toilet Paper” day soon? Frankly, that is one worth celebrating. I don’t know what I would do if I had to live in a world without toilet paper.
I really wish people were better about using turn signals. Technically, it is illegal not to use them, but they are nonetheless ignored most of the time where I live. It causes me a great deal of anxiety at stop signs. I have no idea what the other drivers are going to do.
7. The Firefighters Saving the Police
This is a picture of firefighters saving a bunch of police officers. I bet they weren’t expecting to have to do that.
Everyone looks pretty happy, so I am going to assume the situation turned out well.
You have probably heard about a “rivalry” between police officers and firefighters. Based on what I have read, there actually is one, but it is a very friendly rivalry. I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be a friendly one. Both groups risk their lives every day to keep people safe. I wouldn’t want either job, personally. For one thing, I am sort of afraid of fire. Even lit candles spook me a little. I would have made an awful caveman. I am also quite afraid of getting shot, which I think is understandable.
8. The Bunny at Lowe’s
That’s a smart bunny. I would like to think that, if I just happened to be a bunny, I would do similarly. You have to get your food somewhere, right?
I didn’t realize how powerful Lowe’s was as a brand. It also astounds me that the company employs over 300,000 people. There are over 2,000 stores. I was also surprised to learn there aren’t any Lowe’s in Europe or Australia. I thought they could be found all over the planet.
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