People In Your Group: The One-Upper
We’re kicking off a new feature here on the ol’ Surly Birds – detailing different kinds of people that both you and we know you hang out with. Today will go over everyone’s favorite story-topper, the One-Upper.
You just got back from a vacation. It was crazy – with a capital C. I mean it was super awesome. You meet all your buddies and they want to hear the story. So, you happily indulge them. Slowly, you notice something. After each cool thing you did, your friend comes up with a competing story that is just that much more intense. And, if it wasn’t your friend involved in the story, it was his “buddy”.
You see – this is more than just trading stories. Everyone likes trading stories. There is a little showmanship involved. No. This is a classic one-upper at work.
I understand that we all have a little one-upper in us. We all like to top stuff when we can. But the one-upper is about stealing the spotlight. It’s about shifting the focus. You’ll know when your around yours because people dismiss their stories. People don’t seek out their stories. People don’t like their stories.
Yes. We know your buddy drove a car into the ocean before getting rescued by the Coast Guard then stealing the helicopter. I mean… I was just trying to tell a story about how I accidentally backed too far down the ramp when dropping of a boat at the marina. But thank you. Thank you for your incredible story.
The worst part is, there is no filter on this guy/gal. The one-upper literally works in every situation. Oh, your cousin died? Well, this one time my buddy’s whole family died then came back to life four days later and he ran into them at this old Diner in the country, they had all ordered country-fried steak – can you believe it!
Thank you. Thank you one-upper.
But I think the best part of this ridiculous story-topper is that he/she has NO idea that everyone else in the group is annoyed. I mean, I’m no genius, but I was raised in society. I’m pretty aware of others around me and their reactions to my actions. I simply can’t imagine telling a story where not a single person is making eye contact. In fact, we’ve all done it. Have you ever been with a big group where everyone was laughing, and you started to tell a story and realized no one was listening yet? You kind of trail off to nowhere really embarrassed, and wait for everything to die down so you can start up again.
Well one-uppers keep going, every single time.
There is nothing you can do about this guy/gal. Just gotta hope each story is brief so you can move on to the things you were actually interested in.
you couldn’t think of an image for this post? see, if i was going to do a post about one uppers…….