Public Displays of (my) Ridiculousness...Naty shouting in NYC coffee house & the barista's reaction.

This blog and its commitment to dares has already ‘forced’ me to do some really ridiculous things in public places.  For example, when wearing oven mitts for 24 hours straight, I couldn’t help but take my crazy mitted-existence out into the world for others to see.  When I think about the idea of daring someone to wear oven mitts for a day, it has two primary motivators:

• A desire to see how I navigate various daily activities and the frustration that results from the hassle.

• People also want to see how I respond to the public humiliation of wearing oven mitts in public in 90-degree heat. Thank you to my friends, family, and some complete strangers for jumping on the humiliation bandwagon so quickly!

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I have to admit the public-humiliation-bandwagon-riders are onto something here.  If I stayed in the safe confines of my house during the challenge (which I could have chosen to do), it would be disappointing for darers and readers of this blog alike… not to mention how boring it would be for me.

Why would that be disappointing to all of us?  Because we all love to see how people react when they watch or unwittingly become a part of unusual and awkward situations.  (I already wrote a post called People Fell Down… So I Laughed at Them.  Check it out.)  Society, nor our parents thought to train us how to react to someone wearing oven mitts in Target.  Our brain has no set behavioral pattern of response.  Naturally, people have a wide range of reactions: laughter, question asking, staring, or wondering if I have an infectious disease… the list goes on. 

When one of my friends dared (See New York Dares...& Blogs that Poop post) me to reenact popular movie scenes during my trip to New York City, I was totally unsurprised to see that ALL of the proposed movie scene reenactments involved me doing something completely idiotic and unexpected in front of large groups of strangers. 

As follows, I'll show you the scene I reenacted (along with a link to the original) and then I'll tell you a bit about how New Yorkers and NYC tourists reacted to me. 

World’s Best Coffee: Elf - Watch the original movie scene if you haven't seen it.

I actually love doing things like this and I often find myself purposefully creating awkwardness just to spice up life. But, in my most vulnerable moments (such as this) I have to admit to some extreme nervousness right before doing something crazy.  #worththerush  Nervous I’d screw up the lines under pressure, I must have watched the original scene 20 times trying to memorize the lines in the correct order. #harderthanithought  Here’s the result…

My Scene: 

Reaction:  Lots of people stared.  The coffee shop was very large and filled with ambient noise, but everyone who could hear me stopped once they realized what was going on.  Why wouldn’t they?  It’s unusual for people to walk into a coffee shop, shout, and then walk out.

My favorite part of this dare is that we recorded the reaction of the barista.  His reaction is pretty great… I think I may have made his day.  Watch it…

Barista Reaction Video:

Riding the escalator: Elf  (This was the most popular movie to mimic.) - Again, watch the original movie scene if you haven't seen it. 

My Scene:

Clearly, Will Ferrell is way more flexible than me

I did not include a video to this challenge.  I think you get the idea from the photo. 

Reaction:  The reaction to this scene was minimal and not funny. Why?  Because I chose an out of the way escalator in Rockefeller Plaza, and the majority of people who saw it (my friends with me) knew what I was going to do and why.  It just didn’t end up being all that funny… hence sparing you a complete video.

Running like a lunatic in Central Park: Friends - Here's Phoebe in the original scene.

My Scene: 

Reaction:  This was a stop and stare moment for everyone who saw it.  As you can see by the expression on the tourists’ faces, they didn’t expect this to happen.  I was trying not to laugh the entire time.  We passed this group later in the day and I sincerely hoped they didn’t recognize me. 

Endless Revolving Door Ride: Elf - As seen in the movie.

My Scene: 

New Yorkers and tourists alike just went around me to another set of doors.   They just wanted to get out of Rockefeller Center.  My friends’ reaction (as you can hear on the video) was to make me keep acting ridiculous for as long as they possibly could.  Thankfully I was hip to their game and stopped myself.

New York Dare accomplished.  And yes, I looked completely ridiculous in public… mission accomplished faithful readers. 

A couple of quick things...

1.  I'm still looking for submissions for the "Obeying Signage" Contest.  (See original post)

Photograph yourself ‘obeying’ signs and email them to me (naty.severson@gmail.com) within the next two weeks.  If you make me laugh out loud I will put your picture up on this blog and you may be awarded a (yet to be named) prize! Seriously, I will give out prizes… and you can take pride in your ability to be funny. 

2.  I'm looking for new dares... preferably ones that don't involve eating unhealthy amounts of food in short periods of time.  Send them my way by leaving a comment below. If you have problems leaving a comment be sure to switch to the full web version.

Looking forward to hearing from you!