Working cashier tonight. A girl’s order came to $13.35. In my deluded state of joviality, I quipped, “Two cents more there would have been cause to celebrate.”
“What? Why?”
Thus followed a two minute long explanation on the relevance of the number 1337 that fell on confused but probably completely apathetic ears that had me regretting ever saying anything. It was horrible. I was hoping for an armed gunman to end the conversation.
Tommy: It’s a really nerdy joke from the internet.
Girl: *confused stare*
Tommy: Just ask any nerd …or computer science major. There’s probably one in here.
Girl: *confused stare*
Tommy: See, it’s this language where every letter is replace with a number. 1 for L, 3 for E, and 7 for T. 1-3-3-7? L-E-E-T? It’s just a really nerdy- I’m a big nerd, okay?! I got a tattoo of pi! I-
Girl: *confused stare*
Tommy: Would you like a drink with that?
No! You must never give up the fight! Think of the nerds that came before you!
Something similar happened to me at Borders actually. A customer asked me why the LOLcats book was funny. I thought about it and I couldn’t explain it. Eventually I just concluded “it was an Internet thing” and left it at that.
Ok. This is now my favorite!