People are sharing their most embarrassing misunderstandings – 17 favourites

It all started when comedy writer Ariane Sherine went on Twitter to confess a misunderstanding (or three) and asked people to share theirs (the one about the KFC logo is an absolute zinger).

I used to think chocolate truffles were snuffled out of the ground by pigs. My friend John asked the barber for a ‘short back insides’, and another friend thought the bow under Colonel Sanders on the KFC logo was his arms and legs!

What’s your most embarrassing misunderstanding? pic.twitter.com/QKb45A7rUZ

— Ariane Sherine (@ArianeSherine) May 13, 2020

And it turned out there were lots of people keen to get their own entirely incorrect assumptions off their chest, and it’s both very funny and entirely reassuring that other people do this sort of thing.

Here are our favourites.

1.

I thought Sinn Fein was a person till I was 25..

— Innes Brechin (@TheRealInnes) May 13, 2020

2.

I used to think colour was invented at the same time as colour TVs and that everything was black and white before it

— Gordon Jackson (@nobodys_biz) May 13, 2020

3.

My little brother thought that when they referred to a ‘non-mover’ in the chart show it meant no one danced to it.

— Duncan Smith (@Busquets99) May 13, 2020

4.

As a 10 year old I didn’t understand why the house, in Our House by Madness was in the middle of their street.
I’d worked it out by the time I was 30, they meant the middle of a row of terrace’s.

— AMW (@AMarkW1973) May 13, 2020

5.

My colleague (she’s 25) thought the name Geoff was pronounced GEE-OFF and had been calling a contractor that for 2 years. 🙃

— Hannah @ Home (@hesaw_) May 13, 2020

6.

When I was about 5 I thought all calendars were made by the Smitwifts company because it was always written across the top.

SMTWTFS

— Señor Hijas (@TedDaughters) May 13, 2020

7.

As a kid, I never understood why “youth in Asia” was so controversial.

— Soccer Saber (@SoccerSaber) May 13, 2020

8.

Thought the phrase prima donna was pre-Madonna. As if she was such a pioneer and megastar that she redefined what it meant to be a demanding idol with super-diva personality

— David Inglis (@dinglis100) May 13, 2020

9.

For years I thought that “Parking limited to 2hrs. No return within 1hr” meant that I couldn’t come back to my car and leave if I hadn’t been gone for an hour.

— HristianHel (@HristianHel) May 13, 2020