The Lies Never End | Reading Reddit Stories

5:46Shayne Topp:I mean, and, you know, I don't know where these people are from too, but also from a cultural standpoint, especially from an Indian household. Like, my mom is like, if you're stepping into the house, you're eating food.

5:58Trevor Evarts:Right. And it is seen as being extremely disrespectful to not eat the food. Yeah. I get that. And I think that's a lot of cultures. So I would place bets that the mom, no matter who she is, would probably be.

6:12Shayne Topp:Yeah. I wonder, too, if the misfire was maybe that he didn't let his girlfriend in on what he was going through. Because she wasn't cooking the food. And maybe she would find it. I guess she would be a little insulted if he told her. But it sounded like the family wasn't at all offended or worried. It was just the girlfriend who was like, you lied to my family. So maybe beforehand he should have been like, hey, just a heads up. Like, I don't really feel like all that excited about eating this food.

6:46Arasha:I'm curious what like the girlfriend's feelings are on the hair. Like if they've talked about it and he's like, God, there's like so much like hair in your place. Or if it's just something that he doesn't bring up or talk about because he thinks it would like offend her or something. because, yeah, I feel like if they've had a conversation before about it, it would have been very easy to be like, hey, I'm, like, going to just eat beforehand. I just really don't want to eat the hairy food. Right.

7:11Trevor Evarts:She may just have never realized because, you know, when you grow up around pets and stuff, you kind of, like, you just get used to the situation, right? Like, for so long, I didn't have cats. I had cats when I was a kid, but for so long, I didn't have cats. And when I would go visit someone who had cats, you kind of notice, like, cats shed. There's hair everywhere. where you kind of can smell the litter box sometimes. And then when I got cats, you kind of are aware of it for like the first couple weeks to months, but then you kind of start not always clocking it. You're like desensitized. I try to be extremely clean, and when I have people over, I try to really vacuum and clean it all up, but I'm still just like, I know that someone who doesn't have cats might notice it more than I do now.

7:53Arasha:Yeah, for sure.

7:54Trevor Evarts:I don't think, I know it would probably hurt her feelings, but he probably would have gotten off better if he just was honest with his girlfriend and was like, hey, like, look, I love your family. They're so great. Like, there's a lot of animal hair everywhere. And I don't know, I have a hard time. I don't really have an appetite when there's so much animal hair everywhere. Totally. Like, I'm not, no offense to their cooking or to them as people, but that's just the situation.

8:21Shayne Topp:I agree. I just, I can see, like, maybe from her standpoint, she's, like, you know, really zooming in on this and she's definitely evaluating, you know, what other lies are you telling that I'm not informed of? But also, like, maybe there's a layer or a lens of kind of, like, how she is wanting him to be around her family. Yeah. And she's probably also, like, I want you to engage and eat with everybody and be, like, in the mix of things. Yeah. And him not being as strapped in to really invest in, like, the food and, like, whatever their, like, kind of culture is in that household. I can see her also maybe feeling that like gap between them.

8:59Trevor Evarts:Yeah. Because is there like, I also understand, especially because she's not clued in. She didn't know that he was going to refuse the food. Him refusing the food, is there a way that that maybe puts pressure on her with her family?

9:12Arasha:Yeah.

9:12Trevor Evarts:Now of like, oh, my boyfriend doesn't eat your food. Yeah. And that's now like, is our questions going to come my way of why my partner's not? Like, now that's just been thrust upon her maybe. Not necessarily his fault, but the family.

9:28Shayne Topp:Yeah, I want to offer too, like, you know, again, we don't know where these people are from, but I've been in a couple of biracial relationships. and I know I've felt this before, like where I will want my partner, if they are not Asian or South Asian, I will feel like, oh, I really want my family to feel like, like we're all on the same page and it's really not that different and it would really help if you were like really immersed in our food and you can help like participate in it so I won't have to be like, sorry, I have a white boyfriend.

10:01Trevor Evarts:Right. You know? I get that.

10:02Shayne Topp:Yeah.

10:03Trevor Evarts:So the verdict was no verdict, Not enough info, but many comments lead towards not the asshole. I think a thing is we don't know if the girlfriend knows why OP won't eat at the parents' house. She might know. She might not know. But she brought up, like, that he, what else is he lying about? Yeah. That makes me lean towards she doesn't know about this. Yeah. He also went to a restaurant beforehand. I just think it's a lot where it's like, I get why that can feel hurtful. Yeah. It's just like, oh, you truly are disgusted. Yeah. And then that's tough of like, that's how you feel about my family.

10:40Trevor Evarts:Yeah. Totally. No matter how justified he is, because it was a secret and a lie, now it just has this burden to it.

10:47Arasha:Mm-hmm.

10:48Trevor Evarts:I wonder what the restaurant was.

10:50Arasha:Like, did he go, did he just like swing through a drive-thru or did he like go sit down at like a Red Robin?

10:54Trevor Evarts:I'm assuming drive-thru, but I don't know.

10:56Arasha:Yeah. It'd be hilarious if he just like went and sat at a restaurant and had like an hour-long meal by himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:01Trevor Evarts:He went to Checkers.

11:02Arasha:Yeah. We got a couple of the Wicked Margs from Chili's. We had some Wicked Margs at Chili's. That are currently available in the month of February. Good God. And now February is over.

11:16Trevor Evarts:Yes. We have a bunch of comments here. Info, you didn't explicitly note if girlfriend knows the real reason you didn't eat. If she doesn't know, it's no assholes here, OP versus girlfriend. In my honest opinion, she's acting reasonably if she only has the information she's been given. He snuck off to a restaurant, then lied to her family. If she knows the actual reason and she's still giving him crap, then yeah, you're not the asshole. Someone said, I mean, I get both sides. I'm not bothered by finding my own dog's fur in my food, but I can't say the same for my friend's dogs. Someone said, I have two Boston Terriers.

11:50Trevor Evarts:They shed, but not too terribly much. However, I am constantly vacuuming and wiping down surfaces because they do shed, and I don't want dog hair in my food, etc. Not the asshole. You lied, yes, but you did so in order to spare the feelings of your girlfriend's family. Is your girlfriend aware of the pet hair issue, or does it not bother her? It's gross to find hair of any kind in food, but pet hair is the worst. Lastly, someone said, if your girlfriend is a keeper, you need to come clean with her. If she already doesn't know, you are grossed out by her family home's hygiene. She clearly loves her family and is defensive about this.

12:22Trevor Evarts:I'm not sure why your girlfriend wants you to be honest with her parents. It will only hurt them and damage your relationship. but if you plan on a long relationship, she may not be the right girl. Talk to her honestly and see how to proceed from there. We don't have an update, so I don't know.

12:37Shayne Topp:Yeah, it sounds to me like in the best case scenario, OP is going to these great lengths to protect everybody involved. I would like to see it like that, that he's like, I just don't want to hurt anybody, his girlfriend included. I think it's like a tough situation when you're in a relationship to speak poorly on their family in any capacity. And if this is like a newer relationship, especially he's probably just trying to like save face and not insult anybody. But it also makes sense in that context of like, you're right, if she doesn't know and that is true and all she heard was, oh, I'm on a diet.

13:17Shayne Topp:She's like, that's not true. Why would you just make that up out of nowhere? Yeah. Yeah. And I also understand the concept of like, if it's your own dogs, like it's less, It's like, you know, like cleaning like your own baby's shoes or something. Just kind of the psychological aspect to it.

13:32Arasha:Yeah, yeah. I get a little napkin hair in my food every once in a while and I just take it out. But also he's like laying on my head in the morning while I'm in bed like licking my face. If someone else had a napkin hair in their food, I'd be like, yeah, I understand why you're grossed out by that. Of course.

13:44Shayne Topp:Napkin your dog. Napkin my dog, yes.

13:47Arasha:Sorry, my dog's name is Napkin. I could understand why that would cause some confusion.

13:51Shayne Topp:Well, we just started imagining what napkin hair would be.

13:54Arasha:Yeah.

13:55Shayne Topp:Napkin hair.

13:56Arasha:It's very light. I'll learn.

14:00Trevor Evarts:Well, damn, no updates, so I don't know. But that's tough.

14:04Shayne Topp:Yeah.

14:05Trevor Evarts:Those are kind of the lies that people are really on the fence of, of lying to not hurt someone's feelings.

14:12Shayne Topp:Yeah.

14:13Trevor Evarts:I don't know. That's tricky. Very tricky.

14:15Shayne Topp:It's hard for me to relate, too. I've never, ever had pets. So it's hard for me to find any of that appetizing.

14:23Trevor Evarts:Yeah, because have you been to people's places where they have a ton of pets? Definitely.

14:27Shayne Topp:Yeah, and I so hear what you're saying exactly of like a smell that I might have. Like everyone else is like, what are you talking about? I don't even smell that. Like everybody's home smells like something, but you don't know.

14:37Trevor Evarts:It is also just true that it's the weird thing of like your own mess in your own place. Like kind of if you know the origin of something, it's not as gross.

14:47Shayne Topp:Yeah.

14:47Trevor Evarts:Like weird. Like I've over the years had times where like my room gets messy or like I don't clean my shower enough or whatever. And it's like, okay, whatever. Like, it's not bothering me that bad. I'll clean it. But if I go visit somewhere else and it's in the same state as my own, I'm like, oh, gross. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:06Shayne Topp:Fucking nasty. I don't know the way I do this.

15:09Trevor Evarts:It's just because you don't know the origin.

15:11Shayne Topp:Right.

15:12Trevor Evarts:Something about it.

15:13Shayne Topp:Origins.

15:13Trevor Evarts:Our next story is a confession. Wow. This was posted in 2025, a year ago.

15:23Shayne Topp:Shut up.

15:26Trevor Evarts:2025. 2025. Last year. Last year. For sure. Come on. I faked a spinal injury to get out of paying late fees at Blockbuster.

15:37Arasha:A spinal injury? Yeah. Late fees at Blockbuster.

15:42Trevor Evarts:So they write, long ago. Wait, real quick.

15:45Arasha:Y 'all are so young.

15:47Trevor Evarts:Wait.

15:47Shayne Topp:Oh, we had Blockbuster. Into a Blockbuster. We went to Blockbuster. You went to Blockbuster?

15:52Arasha:Yeah.

15:52Shayne Topp:Yeah.

15:54Trevor Evarts:How old were you when you went to Blockbuster?

15:56Arasha:I wasn't... Nine? Yeah, I was going to say probably like eight or nine of the memories that I have of going to a Blockbuster. I remember going and then you'd go look through all the movies and then you'd get the candy up at the front.

16:09Shayne Topp:Yes, yes, that was the best when we were just young kids.

16:14Arasha:Is it crazy that we were nine years old in a Blockbuster?

16:18Shayne Topp:For me, it's like when all my friends were going to have a sleepover, we were like, oh yeah, Blockbuster. We were like, yeah.

16:24Arasha:I remember renting a video game there one time. It was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Yeah. And then I was like, this is so dumb because I played it for a few hours. I'm like, I'm not even gonna be able to beat this. I have to take it back now. Totally.

16:37Trevor Evarts:Okay. The final blockbuster.

16:40Shayne Topp:Yeah, because I do also remember it closing down in my hometown and driving by and being like, oh no, I'll miss that. But high school's next year.

16:52Arasha:The blockbuster. The Blockbuster in my hometown is now a yogurt. Oh. That's what it's called. It's like a frozen yogurt place. Just called Yogurts? Yogurts with a Z.

17:02Shayne Topp:No.

17:02Arasha:That's pretty rough.

17:04Shayne Topp:That sucks. Yeah.

17:05Arasha:They make great yogurt, though, so what? All right. Well, it's in the name.

17:09Shayne Topp:Wow.

17:10Arasha:Actually, it's not. Just yogurt is in the name.

17:12Trevor Evarts:Yeah. It's not great yogurt. Long ago, obviously, I rented a movie and didn't return it for a month, so I owed roughly$30. I wanted to rent another movie But I didn't want to pay the late fee So I started scheming My girlfriend at the time had been in a bad car accident And had to wear a big plastic splint That covered her whole torso for a while I devised the excuse That I had been in the hospital And therefore could not return the movie in a timely manner So sorry, please pity me I strapped that thing on Awkwardly got in my car And drove down to the movie rental To pitch my story and pick up another The clerk saw me walking stiffly up to the counter and bought it so holdheartedly that they gave me a free rental to take with me.

17:56Trevor Evarts:That movie was How High starring Method Man and Red Man. I remember because I never returned it and it sits on my shelf to this very day. That's incredible. God, what a, all that to get How High by Method Man and Red Man.

18:16Shayne Topp:Oh my God.

18:17Arasha:And well, you know,$30 back in that time was like$10 ,000. That's like$300 ,000. This is tough because these are the lies that are like karma is going to find you, you know, if you believe in that.

18:35Shayne Topp:It's just like this awful lie that's like, obviously you don't ever want to get into a car accident. So to pretend that you did. Or it's like, it's reminding me of like family emergency or like, oh, I have to go to a funeral. Like those kinds of things where it's like, you're really manipulating people. You're tugging at their heartstrings so that they give you some leeway.

18:56Arasha:It's true. It's true. Well, unfortunately, this guy is the reason that Blockbuster went bankrupt.

19:01Trevor Evarts:They needed that$30 really bad and now they don't have it.

19:06Arasha:That's what I was going to say. A lie at the expense of a large corporation, I'm more inclined to forgive. But he's the reason they went out of business now.

19:15Shayne Topp:Yeah. Lock their busters.

19:17Trevor Evarts:He's the reason we have Netflix now.

19:19Shayne Topp:Oof. Netflix. Yeah, because wait, what was the other? It was Redbox? Is that what it was called?

19:24Trevor Evarts:Redbox was also around, yeah. Yeah. Outside of grocery stores.

19:27Shayne Topp:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think we were 10 then.

19:30Arasha:I remember the original days of Netflix, though, when my mom would get them in the mail. I remember that. Oh!

19:36Trevor Evarts:I was a big Netflix person at the beginning where I was getting them in the mail every month and I was putting those suckers in watching them.

19:44Arasha:Yeah.

19:44Trevor Evarts:And I had the final one for like ever. I think it was what was it? What's the Kira Kurosawa movie? Yojimbo. I had that for like fucking five years. And I was like, I really need to cancel the subscription.

19:58Shayne Topp:I don't think I ever got Netflix mailed to me.

20:00Trevor Evarts:Yeah, because you were too busy at Blockbuster.

20:01Shayne Topp:I was too busy being born.

20:06Trevor Evarts:I agree though, Arasha, that it's like even though this is for$30, it's at Blockbuster, it's silly, you are still ultimately like pulling off a pretty bad lie here. And especially like it's one of those where it's like, hey, man, don't don't fake like things of that nature because that could potentially I know it's like such a silly small version of it, but it's like it's very serious when you lie about stuff like that because then it puts people who actually have those things going on in a position where people then don't believe them all the time. Yes. And you don't want to do that. His girlfriend.

20:41Shayne Topp:His girlfriend is the one that experienced that, and he's, like, recycling her brace.

20:46Trevor Evarts:Did he—we don't know if his girlfriend knew about it or not.

20:51Shayne Topp:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, he's like, let me just borrow this for a second. Here, let me take that off.

20:56Arasha:I fear I have a problem where if something like that is funny enough and also isn't at the expense of, like, an individual, I'm like, that's pretty funny, I'd like.

21:05Trevor Evarts:It's really hard when things are really funny.

21:07Arasha:Yeah. It's really tough. It's a problem. Totally.

21:10Shayne Topp:It's tough. It's bad. Listen, I'm all for avoiding late fees. I will do everything possible, but, like, talk to customer support. Like, do whatever you can. Beg. Like, make other excuses. It just feels like you went from A to Z real quick with the car accident.

21:26Trevor Evarts:Yeah. It's true. Faking any sort of disability is so bad. And it's so damaging for people with real disabilities. Comments. So, you're why the company tanked. Someone said, this guy is called Netflix? it's me Mr. Netflix someone said hey baby I know you got your shit crushed last month and you need this brace thingy but I owe Blockbuster$30 so you just lay there and don't move too much I'm gonna need this for an hour literally if she was still using the brace then he is an extra bad person

22:01Shayne Topp:that's so funny he's like why don't you just take a nap for a second just chill out

22:06Trevor Evarts:I got this

22:07Shayne Topp:just calm down

22:08Trevor Evarts:hey relax Just chill out, dude.

22:13Arasha:I gotta go to Blockbuster.

22:16Trevor Evarts:Our next story comes from Am I the Asshole, posted in February of 2024. Am I the asshole for lying to my girlfriend and inadvertently humiliating her on social media?

22:27Arasha:Am I the asshole for lying to my girlfriend and humiliating her? That sounds like a toughie. I think I'm gonna need some more context.

22:37Trevor Evarts:It's a 22-year-old man. My girlfriend, who's 23, is a very artistic person who loves trying new things. Her most recent obsession is songwriting. About two months ago, a friend of hers got her to attend a beginner's workshop for it, and she's been hooked ever since. She's signed up for guitar and voice lessons and writes whenever she has a moment of free time. When she finishes something, I'm the first person she shows it to. I love seeing her so excited about something, and I'm glad she feels comfortable enough to share her art with me. She is, however, terrible at singing, like truly awful. And to be fully honest, she's not that good at guitar either.

23:15Trevor Evarts:Buddy, she just started.

23:17Shayne Topp:Sorry, do you like her?

23:20Trevor Evarts:She picks up a guitar for the first time and he's just like, you're not Willie Nelson. But obviously, I never wanted to tell her that. If she asked me how something sounded, I always said it was beautiful. I didn't think there was anything wrong with this kind of lie since it supported her and made her feel more confident. She disagrees. To give some context as to how she found out I was lying. A few weeks ago, she asked me if it would be a good idea to start a TikTok page for her singing and songwriting. I could tell she was excited about it, but was nervous about putting her work on the internet.

23:51Trevor Evarts:I told her she was crazy talented and should go for it. She lit up after I said this and in the following days worked really hard to make videos of her original music. They didn't gain much traction, but she seemed to be having fun being a content creator. So I felt like I'd made the right decision in encouraging her. But yesterday, she walked into our bedroom sobbing and demanded to know why I told her she could sing. I asked her what she meant, and she threw her phone down for me to look at. On it was one of her TikToks. It was one of those trends where you duet another musician by singing color-coded lyrics.

24:24Trevor Evarts:Her video had been reposted to a cringe meme page and had blown up overnight. The comments were all horrible, truthful in some cases, but really mean about it. She asked me again through tears why I'd never told her she was bad. I told her she wasn't bad. People were just mean. If hundreds of comments say I can't sing, then I can't sing, she snapped at me. So stop lying. Okay, I said fine. You're definitely no Beyonce. Nobody's Beyonce.

24:55Arasha:There's only one! There's only one Beyonce! Only one Beyonce!

24:59Trevor Evarts:You have a really unique sound, though, and I love that you share it. I thought she'd feel encouraged by this, but it only made things worse. She started crying harder and insisted that the only reason she posted things in the first place was because I told her she was talented, and now she's been humiliated in front of thousands. She's deleted her TikTok account along with all her videos, and hasn't stopped crying or talked to me since. I feel like she's blowing this out of proportion. I was just trying to do a nice thing by supporting her. And it's not my fault the internet is what it is. I don't think I should have done anything different.

25:30Trevor Evarts:But since the internet put me in this position, I'm curious if it will think I'm in the wrong. Am I the asshole?

25:38Shayne Topp:This is tough.

25:39Trevor Evarts:This is a tough one. This is one of those stories where I'm a little bit biased because I am a person who puts all my stuff on the internet.

25:49Shayne Topp:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I feel a lot of different things about this.

25:55Trevor Evarts:Mm-hmm.

25:56Shayne Topp:We've all been on cringe memes. Yeah.

25:59Trevor Evarts:I mean, yeah. Not me, but you have. I've seen one.

26:03Shayne Topp:I think we've all.

26:04Trevor Evarts:I think there's one that's dedicated to Arasha. I think we've all. But last week we were talking about this because we did cringe for the last episode of Reddit. And I was talking about how just like I'm kind of sort of immune at this stage to feeling it. because after 10 years, we've posted so many videos that have definitely ended up on places where they're just getting made fun of, where all the comments are like, this is fucking cringe. Unfunny, bad.

26:28Shayne Topp:I mean, there's plenty of times

26:30Trevor Evarts:where I do a joke on Try Not to Laugh, and I'm like, they're going to say I'm a cringe millennial. And it is what it is. It is what it is. But the internet's really tough. It's a tough place. It's sad that it's just like, this is just everyone. When they're anonymous, they become horrible people. Yeah. Yes. But is he an asshole is what he's asking. And the verdict was that, yes, he is the asshole. I think a lot of that might be about how he wrote this. Sure. He did not write it in a way that makes me want to be on his side. Totally.

27:03Shayne Topp:But I do understand where he's coming from. And that's a very real situation that you could place on lots of other experiences too. Right? Like, it's kind of like when somebody, like, has a dress on and they're like, what do you think? Like, you don't want to insult them. Right. But at the same time, I think if he used language that misguided her and genuinely made her think something that was more than support, you know? Like, if he used the word talented, that's like, okay, maybe we reel it back. And in forms of support, maybe we encourage classes, more training, coaching, stuff like that.

27:43Trevor Evarts:He wrote, I told her she was crazy talented and should go for it when she talked about putting her work on the internet.

27:49Arasha:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Saying crazy talented is insane.

27:51Trevor Evarts:Because to be clear, there was someone who pointed out, I think it was a stand-up comedian, I saw this, that Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, one of the greatest symphonies of all time, has tens of thousands of downvotes on YouTube. There are haters for everything. I mean, true, like, earnestly, people are going to laugh at this. Look at Taylor Swift, right? biggest artist on the planet, also probably has some of the most haters on the planet. You can be also talented and posting online, you're going to have tons of people saying, you suck, I hate you.

28:23Shayne Topp:Major fame is going to ask for polarizing views, especially because a lot of those haters are just hating on the fact that you're finding success.

28:32Arasha:I want to look at the funniest people probably on the planet, and so many times I see people making comments like, oh, Trevor's not that funny. I don't think it's jokes.

28:39Trevor Evarts:And then you look over and you realize it's not a comment. It's just me and Ian off to the side.

28:44Arasha:Yes. No, no, no. It's like at Ian at Smoke. Wait, that's just Ian's account.

28:51Shayne Topp:There's a blue check mark on that one. What the fuck?

28:54Trevor Evarts:That's my dad, bro. I'm like, oh, fuck, I forgot to switch accounts. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. But then there's also the fact that like, yeah, if you are also, if you are genuinely earnestly trying something on TikTok, you're gonna get made fun of.

29:08Arasha:Yeah.

29:09Trevor Evarts:And that's not indicative of if you're good or not. That's just how social media works. People are just extra mean there. Now, this is also a thought that I have. She is freshly beginning something. I think there's definitely hubris to when you are a month into anything and to go, I'm going to post this online and everyone's going to think I'm great. It's like you're just starting out. You might have the potential to do great things with this, but you're in the first month. Even if you are talented at singing, you're not going to know.

29:41Shayne Topp:Totally.

29:41Trevor Evarts:You don't do it. Yeah. It's just like give yourself like time.

29:45Shayne Topp:You can even market it as like day one of like starting my singing journey, you know? Absolutely. Like making it sort of the focus of it rather than like, oh, this is something I'm an expert at. Right. Every skill, every new skill you're going to suck at. That's how you get better.

30:03Trevor Evarts:And there's been a lot of that. I've seen a lot of that on TikTok and that stuff is great. Yes. I love that because what is amazing about picking up a new hobby is not if you're good or not at it. It's seeing progress. Like that's such a beautiful thing to experience. And kind of the worse you are at the beginning, the more satisfying it is a year from then or two years from then. I think a lot of people do this with like drawing and sketching. Yeah. Because it shows like day after day you get to really see your progress. But people do it with stretching. People do it with working out.

30:35Arasha:Yeah.

30:36Trevor Evarts:That's like the joy of it. But when you start and you're expecting positive, that's going to be really, really tough.

30:43Arasha:I think like in, and maybe, yeah, this is because we're on the internet and we see so many things, but I feel like if I'm talking to anyone who doesn't post a lot on the internet and they're asking me like, oh, should I like put this thing up? My first piece of advice, no matter how good they are to think, is like be prepared for people to be just shitty. Like there are shitty people on the internet and they say really mean things no matter what. So like you totally should, you should do the things that make you happy but just like be prepared for there to potentially be just really mean people.

31:11Arasha:Yeah, I'm kind of curious

31:12Trevor Evarts:and I'm not blaming her here but I'm curious if being on TikTok, if she's seen other comments on other people singing.

31:23Shayne Topp:Yeah.

31:23Trevor Evarts:I'm like, you've definitely seen it. It's such a vicious place. Now, obviously he's asking if he's the asshole. He really, it sounds like he really dug in on, no, you're amazing.

31:34Shayne Topp:Yeah.

31:35Trevor Evarts:Post on there. And there's the aspect of, like, as a partner of being super supportive. There's also the aspect of being, like, a teammate and being, like, the confidant and being the, like, trustworthy source. And being, like, finding that way to be positive but also honest. It's just like, hey, should I post something? It's like, you're just starting out.

31:54Shayne Topp:Yeah.

31:55Trevor Evarts:Like, you are a beginner. Like, I think you're amazing. Yeah. And also being, like, honest about being like, hey, but I'm biased. Yeah. I'm your boyfriend. I'm biased. Yes. I love everything you do. I would maybe sing for some other friends and maybe like build up a little bit more and then put it online.

32:11Shayne Topp:Totally, totally.

32:12Trevor Evarts:Or at the very least, like my view is put that shit online, like embrace who you are, have fun. But you're going to get the comments. Yeah.

32:21Shayne Topp:I got this piece of advice a while ago that was super helpful as well that, you know, if you are posting it and you're being vulnerable and just starting out with something, Nobody that is like better than you or has found success is going to be hating. It is only people that are afraid to post themselves or, again, just like hiding behind the Internet. But nobody who has perfected a skill will be doing that because they know the grind. They know the hustle. And on top of progress, I think the other thing is also passion. As long as you're having fun and you're into it and you're energized and stimulated, it's a great hobby.

32:58Trevor Evarts:Yeah. Yeah, and I think what I think is sad about that we've lost in social media is the social aspect, which is that it is a platform where people are supposed to find community and sharing things with each other. It's like, yeah, you're posting online singing. Hopefully you'll find other people who are posting their songs and singing. And then like you're meeting each other and working together and making songs together or making content together, talking. Like that was kind of the point of it all. Right. But now it's become this weird place of like, oh, get up there and do your thing and everyone's going to make fun of you.

33:33Trevor Evarts:Sad. Super sad. Comments. You're the asshole. She asked me if it would be a good idea to start a TikTok page for her singing and songwriting. I could tell she was excited about it, but was nervous about putting her work on the Internet. I told her she was crazy talented and should go for it. She lit up after I said this and in the following days worked really hard to make videos of her original music. You deliberately encouraged her to embarrass herself publicly instead of being at least somewhat honest. You lied to her repeatedly, telling her what she wanted because it was easier for you in the moment rather than respecting her enough to have a serious conversation about something she was very passionate about.

34:07Trevor Evarts:How difficult is it to say that whilst she sounds good to you, perhaps she should get other opinions or ask the voice trainer that she sees for a more professional take on what your girlfriend can do to maximize her talent. Instead, you threw her to the wolves after over-encouraging her to believe something untrue under the guise of caring. Be supportive. Do not routinely lie and knowingly cause someone you purport to care about to humiliate themselves. Could you not foresee this outcome, if not the scale? Someone said, my husband told me years ago, I can only hit a note on accident. Thank goodness I don't want a career of it and enjoy my off-key singing at home.

34:45Trevor Evarts:To be fair, he also said my voice was good. It did hurt to hear, but thankfully I never embarrassed myself in public. Someone said, not being a dick, this is a genuine question. How does someone think they're good at singing? Ears? Can you really be that clouded by one other person's opinion? Someone responded, it's actually called being tone deaf. You basically more or less hear what you want to hear. I know I can't sing, but when I was younger, music was an escape for me, and I would constantly sing. I thought I was going to be a pop star until someone had me listen to a recording one day. It was awful.

35:16Arasha:Dude, honestly, knowing someone who is genuinely tone deaf, my friend Elias, I love him to death. Damn, out of him. Exposes shit. He's one of my best friends. I've known him since I was in first grade. And that man cannot sing. And I tell him every time. And I love him so much because he does not care.

35:36Trevor Evarts:That's so great.

35:37Arasha:He just, from the heart, he's just himself. And it's so beautiful.

35:42Trevor Evarts:Yeah. And those are the main events at karaoke bars. Yeah. they're like, oh shit, Elias is about to go up. Everybody get their shots ready.

35:51Shayne Topp:If you sing well, do not show up at karaoke.

35:54Trevor Evarts:It actually kind of cringes, I'm gonna be honest, it kind of cringes me out when a really good singer goes up at karaoke and they pick the song they're really good at. And I'm like, okay, pal, okay. All right, awesome. Okay, we get it. Get Elias back up there. He's gonna sing one week. Yeah, that's bad. They're like, hell yeah. But that's what you want.

36:18Shayne Topp:You want, like, because you're all going to be partying. So you're like, that guy sounds fucking amazing right now. And if you actually sound amazing, it's like, shut up.

36:25Trevor Evarts:It's like, it goes back to your point. There's nothing better than passion. And I'm always envious when someone's in flow state. I'm like, that's awesome. Yeah. Like, no matter what. Yes. It is, I will say, I agree with these comments. It is also, as a perfectionist, as someone who's very, like, self-conscious, I am amazed at just you needed one person's approval. No matter, even if it was your partner. Yeah. I'm like, no, I need 20 people's approval before I'm posting that online.

36:53Shayne Topp:I mean, again, if he really came in with that much positivity, though. I know. Because I imagine the conversation where she's like, I don't know, should I? And he's like, yeah, you should. Yeah. And she's like, oh, okay, then I, yeah.

37:05Arasha:Hey, I'll make your TikTok page for you. I've got it typed in right now. You're locked. Okay, get the profile picture. Okay.

37:12Trevor Evarts:I'm like, I'll blow the nail. He becomes a full cowboy. He's like, yeah, let's go. It's flip seven energy right now. Okay, last comment. Part of being supportive of someone's dreams is actually being honest, which he refused. Someone wanting to be a professional chef being told their burnt chicken is heavenly isn't going to help them achieve that goal. At best, you've refused to help them, and at worst, you're helping push them to a point where their spirit and will to try are too crushed to chase said dream. Being supportive means that sometimes you're slapping the shit out of their ego and helping them see how to change and make it work.

37:53Arasha:Yeah, I mean, it's true. I believe that no matter how talented you are at something, seeing someone do something with true joy and passion, it's like, I don't care how good you are. That's beautiful to me. That makes me so happy. but unfortunately people on the internet don't think like that and they just love being mean

38:09Shayne Topp:totally i'm also i'm also thinking like in terms of you know this specific post maybe op i mean definitely op didn't have the tools to navigate a serious conversation like that what i'm thinking of as well is like uh with acting right it's really hard to give uh like notes a lot of times fabian and i will do our self tapes together and it's like you can't just be like, that was the take, that was it, let's send it in. But it also can be very touchy to be like, I think you should do it like this, or, you know, let me do this. So we kind of implement this thing where we're like, are you open to notes?

38:44Shayne Topp:Or like, would you like some feedback? Like that kind of thing. And almost like prefacing before you're about to say something that could be misconstrued.

38:53Trevor Evarts:Right. I also think, I think when it comes to the work we do here, you know, it's a very vulnerable thing that we do as a team. and we do a lot of writing together. We do a lot of creation together. And I think where I've gotten nowadays is that I treat each individual thing as a separate thing from them. It's where it's like, we might be in a writer's room and you pitch something and you go, oh, I think this is really funny. And if I don't think it's funny, I'm like, well, I'm just saying that I think this isn't funny. That has nothing to do with you. Like, I think we all know and we all work together and trust like, oh, we're all really good at this.

39:27Trevor Evarts:We're professionals at this. Especially in creativity, it's a fluctuating thing. Totally. And like, I think it's important to have creative hobbies because I think it humbles you in a way where it's like, oh, I can make something amazing one second and something so dog shit the next. Oh, yeah. And that's just human nature. Totally. LeBron doesn't shoot

39:47Arasha:100 % from the field. Greatest basketball player of all time.

39:50Trevor Evarts:Exactly.

39:51Arasha:He doesn't shoot 100%.

39:52Trevor Evarts:But if I started to play basketball right now, I think within like 30 days I'd be shooting like 100 % though.

39:59Shayne Topp:Hey, you should get a TikTok.

40:00Trevor Evarts:I think if I got like a basketball coach, I think I would, I would think I would get there really quick. You should put that all on TikTok. And I'm going to put it on TikTok. Me just shooting for you. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, honest to God, a TikTok of me missing basketball shivers every time is kind of incredible. Just day one, don't make a single one. If I had a basketball hoop and every single one was just one shot and I miss and I just miss it.

40:24Arasha:I never make it. Do it like every day for a year and never make one.

40:28Shayne Topp:But that would be awesome.

40:30Arasha:Well, that's funny.

40:31Shayne Topp:Because all the comments are like, you suck. I'm like, thank you.

40:36Trevor Evarts:But no, I get it, though.

40:39Shayne Topp:It's just the words that you really have to be careful about.

40:42Trevor Evarts:But I think it is a respect thing when you can give honest feedback to people. Because it's respecting them as a person and going, I know you can handle this. I'm not worried about saying this to you.

40:51Shayne Topp:But you know what? We've had this conversation, too, where it's like, you can't be on the other end of being like, I'm just being honest. You suck. Of course. I'm just like, I'm just going to be forward. I'm going to be blunt. You're ass at that.

41:02Trevor Evarts:There's a disrespectful level on that. I think it's also the notes that whenever we give notes to each other here at Smosh, it's always more of like, oh, I don't think that works, but here's how, like, I believe you can make this work.

41:14Shayne Topp:Or like, I'm failing to see the connection here. Like, can you draw that out for me a little bit? Like, instead of just like, I don't get it. I don't like it.

41:21Arasha:Absolutely. There's a level of trust, too, of like knowing like, hey, I am going to say something that might not just be the super nice, positive thing, like giving like a critique on something and trusting that your coworker, partner, friend, whoever it is, is going to be able to receive that. And then if they aren't able to receive that, then that's on them. Like you've been honest with them. You've tried to like, as long as you're not being mean about it, like you have to have that trust of like, no, I can take kind of like honest feedback. Absolutely.

41:47Trevor Evarts:Our next story comes from true off my chest. This was posted in December of 2024. I edited a K-pop idols Wikipedia page with wrong information as a joke and accidentally contributed to a massive spread of fake news. Oh, God. I was reminded of my shameful past yesterday while talking to a friend. When I was a teenager, probably 14, I thought it was hilarious to edit Wikipedia articles with random incorrect information. I was also a huge K-pop fan, so a lot of my victims were K-pop idols. Well, one day I thought it would be funny to edit artist Joe Kwan's Wikipedia page to say that his former stage name was Sacre Bleu.

42:31Trevor Evarts:That's pretty funny. That's awesome. Why? I have no fucking idea. I guess I thought it was a funny expression and I was deep in my lols so random XD phase. XD. Raw XD. No. I was expecting the mods to correct my dumb joke within a couple of hours, but to my surprise, it didn't get removed. In fact, it spread like wildfire. News articles, fan pages, K-pop profile sites, famous birthdays, all started including fucking Sacre Blue. Confusion spread among the fandom, but most just ran with it as a fun Joe Kwan fact, despite zero proof to back it up. Because it literally just came from my stupid 14-year-old mind.

43:12Trevor Evarts:I have compiled a small collection of Sacre Blue here to show just how bad it got, but all you have to do is Google Jo Kwon Sacre Blue and it shows up. I was mortified watching this happen in real time, but instead of coming clean about my wrongdoings, I decided to completely disengage because I was 14 and scared of the life consequences. I never told anyone until now over 10 years later. Jo Kwon's English Wikipedia page has since been cleansed of any mentions of Sacre Blue, but the damage has been done. His wiki pages in French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and probably more have never corrected the misinformation.

43:46Trevor Evarts:Wikidata still has Sacre Blue stated as his former stage name. To this day, several K-pop profile sites have Sacre Blue stated as his nickname. 2024. I feel awful that I did him so wrong. I could have done him the courtesy of picking a cooler name, but I went with Sacre Blue. This is my dark past. Dude, that's hilarious.

44:06Shayne Topp:This is awesome. Wow. We have some photos.

44:10Trevor Evarts:Here it shows English Joe Kwon description, South Korean singer and actor, also known as Sakre Blue. No!

44:17Arasha:That's so good. Oh, my God. No, that's hilarious. You did nothing wrong. Oh, man.

44:22Trevor Evarts:And then we have a couple tweets. Someone says, why does Kwon's wiki say Joe Kwon commonly known as Sakre Blue? Quotations. Joe Kwon, formerly known as Sakre Blue. I'm screaming his pre-debit name. Why? I like bad spelling. Joe Kwon, formerly known as Sacre Blue, trained at JYP Entertainment seven years after joining the company. Wow. Oh, that's brutal.

44:48Shayne Topp:And there's never been any direct interaction with his team or anybody.

44:53Arasha:Yeah, I was gonna say, it feels like a pretty simple thing to clear up of just asking the guy and him being like, no. Right.

45:01Trevor Evarts:What's that interviewer who knows all the information about our music artists? The guy who wears the, like, what? Nardwar. Yeah. Nardwar's talking to Jay Kwan. He's just like, he's like, hello, it's interesting to talk to. Sakre Blue. And he's just like, what?

45:16Shayne Topp:What did you say?

45:17Trevor Evarts:He's just like, well, I have to know. You're Sakre Blue.

45:21Shayne Topp:That is so awesome and funny how much traction it got.

45:25Trevor Evarts:And it was just a 14-year-old. A 14-year-old. Isn't it so scary how much power people have from their computers now? Yes. Like, you just lie, and that's all it takes.

45:37Arasha:And, you know, Wikipedia, generally speaking, is really good about if something gets edited, it's immediately, like, fact-checked, reviewed, whatever, find the source. Yeah. That's so funny that that's one of the things that slips through the cracks, though. Right. It's just such a funny, dumb little fact. Yeah, and then everyone picking it up.

45:54Shayne Topp:Why was it believable?

45:56Trevor Evarts:Hilarious. I think 14-year-olds should have their own internet. And I think just 14-year-olds. For one year, you go off and you have to have your own internet. It's called 14-year-old internet and you have to be 14. Oh, my God. And if you're 14, you have to be there because 14-year-olds are too smart and too devious for the internet.

46:19Shayne Topp:That's a lot of people's personal hell, actually.

46:22Trevor Evarts:Just like go off, do your thing. You come back at 15, you're like, that was crazy. Yeah, yeah. We were really diabolical in there.

46:30Arasha:Accidentally being like 20 years old and put into 14-year-old internet. No, no, no, no. No, no, no!

46:38Trevor Evarts:Your RuneScape character accidentally enters 14-year-old internet? No! Gets killed immediately?

46:44Shayne Topp:Again, upon hearing the title felt a lot more damaging, other than this man's career and reputation.

46:53Arasha:No, because I don't believe that that's on the 14-year-old. I think the 14-year-old did nothing wrong. I think what they did is really funny. And I think the thing.

47:01Trevor Evarts:This is on all those news outlets that were just using Wikipedia? Exactly. The hell?

47:06Arasha:Not cross everything sources. You're a journalist. Call the guy. Call his team. It's that easy to clear up and you didn't. Yeah. Yeah.

47:13Trevor Evarts:Unbelievable.

47:14Shayne Topp:No, yeah. Let's blame the media on this one. They're the asshole.

47:18Trevor Evarts:Yeah.

47:18Shayne Topp:14-year-old was funny.

47:20Trevor Evarts:Comments. I know you feel awful about it, so I'll start saying I'm sorry, but this is the funniest shit ever. Someone said, this is hilarious. Did he ever address it? someone said, I don't think it ever reached Korea, thankfully. My biggest fear would be someone asking him about it. Someone said, you can't be held responsible for other people's stupidity and lack of fact-checking. You are a dumb teen doing dumb teen stuff. The main lesson from all this is to not take internet slash wiki slash chat GPT as the final and absolute truth. Bailey, you wrote in, when I was in sixth grade, I broke up with my middle school boyfriend and I logged into his Facebook account and made it a Justin Bieber fan page.

47:56Trevor Evarts:That's hilarious. Whoa.

47:57Shayne Topp:And speak on that. That's hilarious.

47:59Trevor Evarts:Sixth grade Bailey is awesome. All right. Our next story. This was posted in 2023. Am I the asshole for avoiding my parents after discovering they were spreading super inappropriate lies about my husband and I?

48:15Shayne Topp:Oh, shit.

48:16Trevor Evarts:So their parents were spreading lies about them.

48:20Shayne Topp:Super inappropriate ones.

48:22Trevor Evarts:Last year, my husband, H, and I met my parents, aunt and uncle, for Thanksgiving. They had been vacationing together a few days prior. As we were leaving, my aunt, who was visibly upset, pulled me aside. I need to talk to you. Can you call me in a few days? I asked if she was okay. She said, yes, I just need to ask you something, but not now. When I called to ask what was going on, my aunt said, I heard something that seems very out of character for you, and I want to see if it's true. Evidently, a few days before Thanksgiving, my parents told her an untrue story about how my current husband and I met.

48:54Trevor Evarts:To note, I was separated at the time from my now ex-husband when we met. She explained, according to my parents, I met H while online soliciting for a proposed threesome with my ex-husband as a last-ditch effort to salvage my then-failing marriage. However, during this tryst, H and I supposedly realized we had a connection which led us to be together while choosing to dissolve my previous marriage. My parents shared more gross details, but I'll spare you. I was shocked as none of this was true. We met at work through mutual friends and our romantic relationship developed slowly over a period of time.

49:33Trevor Evarts:I had repeatedly told my parents how we met and even introduced our mutual friends to my parents at our wedding as the ones who got us together. So I FaceTime my parents and ask them why they're lying about us behind our backs. They look me dead in the eyes and say, because that's what you told us. Excuse me? When I refuted this, my dad proceeded to get angry at me, saying that I must have amnesia as my mom stormed off refusing to discuss the issue. The rest of the call is me sitting in silence while he attempts to gaslight me. I'm dumbfounded. A few days later, I got a call from my cousin. She explains that my dad had told her husband the same story almost eight years ago, which they had believed until now.

50:17Trevor Evarts:My cousin apologized for not saying anything sooner, but the story made them so uncomfortable they didn't know what to do. H and I wrote my parents an email explaining what we had discovered and asked them some simple questions like, why did you make this up? Who else have you told? Et cetera. We've been emailing back and forth for almost a year and gotten nowhere. Their story keeps changing. The blame keeps shifting, and they have continuously tried to diminish the seriousness of this issue, even saying, no one thinks any less of you because of it. What? It never happened. Period. The only apology we've gotten is, we're sorry for upsetting you.

50:52Trevor Evarts:You mean you're not sorry for lying about your daughter for 10 years? Most recently, they have almost demanded that we forgive them and move on. Since we haven't forgiven them yet, we're responsible for my mother crying all the time and essentially breaking the family apart. So am I the asshole for wanting to continue to avoid my parents even though I'm tearing the family apart?

51:12Arasha:Yeah, she should have forgiven her parents.

51:14Shayne Topp:I'm sorry, can you go back for a second? Yeah, yeah. So how did they discover that what they were saying wasn't true?

51:21Trevor Evarts:The aunt, their aunt, after a dinner, walks up to her and goes, can I call you in a few days?

51:28Shayne Topp:No, no, no, sorry. How did the parents, like, and they still believe that that's true.

51:32Trevor Evarts:They're saying that, well, details are changing and stuff. But they're saying, no, they're saying you told us.

51:40Shayne Topp:And they're sticking to that.

51:41Trevor Evarts:They're sticking to that. Source, I made it up. Source, yeah, Dr. Manhattan. They're saying she told them 10 years ago or whatever that that's what happened.

51:52Shayne Topp:And they're asking for forgiveness but still sticking to the story.

51:55Trevor Evarts:Yes. They've said, I'm sorry for upsetting you.

52:01Shayne Topp:That's crazy.

52:03Trevor Evarts:There is so many. This is a lasagna of insanity.

52:06Shayne Topp:Right. Like they had to have just this like, they both had the same dream.

52:12Arasha:Yeah, no, that's, I was literally just about to say, this feels like something that happens in a dream that you wake up. And then like a couple days later, you're like, was that real? Like, did I just dream that? Was that real?

52:22Trevor Evarts:Did they watch like a porn together? And they were like, wait, I'm sorry. I'm getting mixed up. I thought that was our daughter's story. No, that was a porn we watched.

52:32Arasha:Right.

52:32Shayne Topp:They're watching the porn and they're like, I'm thinking of my daughter right now.

52:37Arasha:Yeah, I'm like, how did this happen?

52:39Shayne Topp:Watching porn?

52:40Arasha:This is really giving my daughter. This is giving kids.

52:43Trevor Evarts:What if the parents were like, oh wait, no, that was us. Back in the 70s, that happened to us.

52:48Shayne Topp:It has to be an intricate lie. It has to be that they are committed to following through with. I don't understand. But for why? Like -

52:58Trevor Evarts:And like, do they lie about a bunch? Are they pathological liars? because it doesn't seem like that's tracking.

53:03Shayne Topp:I would say if, for an explanation, yeah, maybe it is their story and they're trying to keep the attention off them so they're like, we're just gonna plant it on our kids. But nobody knows! They're like, listen, just in case.

53:18Arasha:I'm like, even if that is the story, on behalf of my children, I'm probably not, if they're asking how they met, I'm like, oh, it was like, what? You should ask them. Yeah, if she told them that story,

53:31Trevor Evarts:They shouldn't be telling other people that story.

53:34Shayne Topp:100%. You know? Yeah. Also, not the focus, but who says we need to talk, call me in a few days?

53:42Arasha:Yeah. No, if my aunt said call me, we need to talk in a few days, I'd be like, what? Yeah. Is something like, what?

53:49Trevor Evarts:Like, tell me right now, you back. What is going on? Yeah. Verdict, not the asshole. Duh. Comments, not the asshole. I think they've earned a nice long time out. Ten years seems about right, doesn't it? 12 ,000 upvotes. someone said not the asshole I literally laughed out loud at no one thinks any less of you because of it about something that is made up lol it's so ridiculous that it's funny have they always been this way I mean making up stories for no reason no accountability OP responds yes but never towards me my dad would always tell crazy stories most weren't bad or weird but they were about people I didn't know so there was no way to prove they did or didn't happen plus he's my dad and I was a kid, you just believe.

54:30Trevor Evarts:My mom can't be wrong ever about anything. Someone else asks, are they slash were they on good terms with your ex? Is it possible he told them this story and they believed it?

54:42Shayne Topp:Oh. Oh, shit.

54:44Trevor Evarts:That's huge. We forgot about the ex.

54:46Shayne Topp:The ex, always the ex.

54:47Trevor Evarts:The ex, but the parents also sound awful.

54:49Shayne Topp:But the mom's never wrong.

54:50Arasha:I just don't understand if you're the parents and you're like, that didn't happen? Holy shit. And like immediately apologizing. Yeah. The fact that they're doubling down on it, Like, I'm pretty sure it happened that way.

55:00Trevor Evarts:So this person asks if the ex told them the story. OP says, no, not at all. They hate him more than us. We were married young and mutually decided to end things. It wasn't overly dramatic. Divorce sucks regardless. But generally speaking, it went smoothly, in my opinion. At the end of the day, he's happily remarried, as am I. However, my dad still has a lot of issues with it. For example, I had to reprimand my dad last year because he kept bringing up my divorce and how bad it was, which it wasn't. or my ex in general around my husband, H, and I. I told my dad to stop because it makes me and H uncomfortable.

55:32Trevor Evarts:It's been 10 years. Let it go and move on. And then whenever he caught himself bringing it up around us, he'd say snarky comments like, oh yeah, I'm not supposed to talk about it. Yeah, why are you? Someone lastly commented, what the, I want so badly to believe this is fake, but unfortunately I do know people who would absolutely do this. Well, firstly, they made up the story and got themselves in this whack-ass dilemma. so the responsibility is on them for a start, and who in their right mind makes up stories about their kid soliciting three ways, even a grown-up kid. What does H think of all this?

56:04Trevor Evarts:Is this on par with your parents' personalities? Can I ask what the hell again? The biggest mystery of all is how can you possibly be the asshole here, not the asshole OP? So if the parents, if it tracks, it sounds like the dad's a pathological liar. He gets a kick out of telling wild lies.

56:20Shayne Topp:Yeah, and probably was still upset about not being able to discuss the previous divorce, so maybe in a weird, twisted way, was like, well, then I'll make a lie about you and tell the family. I'll get vengeance on you, yeah.

56:32Arasha:I'll have to judge someone I don't know, but the dad just kind of sounds like an asshole. Just like, oh, I'm not allowed to talk about your divorce. Yeah, just shitty.

56:40Trevor Evarts:I don't know the studies or anything behind it, but I have heard, and I might be doing the thing, but I think it's also very true anecdotally that if you tell a lie enough, you do start to believe it. I mean, our memories are fickle, right? And our memories change over time. So, like, what we tell ourselves, you can make a memory. And so this dad, if he just spends 10 years convincing himself of this thing she told them.

57:06Shayne Topp:Yeah.

57:07Trevor Evarts:And they're so in denial, so staunch in it. That's exhausting. I think, clearly, like, she can't talk to her parents.

57:15Shayne Topp:Totally. Because there are people like that that just like blatantly lie about things that can so easily be disproved. And they'll do it like right in front of the person who like knows the truth and they will still stick to it.

57:28Arasha:Yeah. I had a friend one time that like came in like up to me and handed me a fully fake like save the date because she was lying that she got engaged. That's crazy. And I was like, and I held it and I was like, oh, incredible. Congratulations. and I swear the whole time I thought she was actually engaged and gonna get married and it turned out to be this whole bit and prank

57:49Shayne Topp:and it was like the craziest thing ever

57:52Arasha:and it literally made me feel like shit.

57:54Shayne Topp:What a disgusting. Seriously, she sounds hot.

57:57Arasha:Despicable.

58:04Trevor Evarts:All right. Our last story.

58:08Arasha:Buck.

58:09Trevor Evarts:Buckling up.

58:10Arasha:Click, click, click, click. There's only one click.

58:17Trevor Evarts:You're not moving around that much if you clicked in that much. Yeah. Our last story comes from Off My Chest and best of Redditor updates.

58:27Arasha:Holy shit.

58:28Trevor Evarts:So, you know this is going to be good. My wife is addicted to making up Reddit stories for TikTok and it's ruining this marriage. Oh.

58:38Shayne Topp:This is meta. Yes.

58:42Trevor Evarts:So the OG post and account have since been deleted, but the original title was I caught my husband with my daughter. So this is a comment on a fake Reddit post that the wife had made titled I caught my husband with my daughter.

58:57Shayne Topp:Gross.

58:57Trevor Evarts:Liz, what the actual fuck is this story? You showed me that you were posting this right before you went to bed. I hope you wake up and see this. This is not healthy and I've been telling you not to post stories on Reddit anymore. It's a new throwaway, a new fucked up nightmare scenario that you keep creating so you can get some chuckle fuck on TikTok to make a video about it while playing Minecraft parkour. I'm taking your ass to therapy, and if you refuse, it's over. I'm tired of it. I cannot reach you like I have been as you shut down any attempt to talk about this issue so everyone here deserves to know the truth.

59:31Trevor Evarts:This is a 100 % completely fabricated story. Another comment down the thread. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I see your phone light on from the guest bedroom since you chose to sleep in there tonight. An additional comment down the thread. Yeah, now you go to sleep after I catch you. Just know if you get fired from your job for this and you still can't quit, it's over for us. I hate to shame you publicly like this, but you won't listen to me or anyone else.

59:56Shayne Topp:I'm scared.

59:58Trevor Evarts:Damn. The Reddit divorce.

1:00:00Arasha:The live update Reddit divorce thread.

1:00:03Shayne Topp:I see you sleeping over there.

1:00:05Trevor Evarts:Um, me-leaving.

1:00:08Shayne Topp:Oh, my God.

1:00:09Trevor Evarts:That's really good. Update. Husband then posted a day later in off my chest. My wife is addicted to making up Reddit stories for TikTok, and it's ruining this marriage. Hello, Reddit. Longer-term lurker and first-time poster here. Need some advice. My wife of three years, age 25, has been constantly on Reddit and TikTok for the past eight months, to the point where both take up anywhere from 9 to 13 hours of her battery usage. She got into them heavily after I sent her one, and it just spiraled to the point where she is writing her own for clout, I guess. Two of them that I know she wrote herself were about a man whose dad thought he was cheating on his boyfriend and cut him off for a year, then coming back begging to reconcile.

1:00:54Trevor Evarts:One that she showed me she wrote earlier tonight before bed was where a 43-year-old woman found her husband cheating with their 20-year-old stepdaughter. What the actual fuck, by the way. That one she posted, and it's already gained so much traction that it'll probably be on TikTok by morning. We work at the same company, and she has gotten written up for being on her phone multiple times to the point where she might get fired. I've tried to get her to go to therapy because a lot of these are disturbing scenarios she's writing about, but she says it's just a creative outlet. I'm worried for her, and honestly, if she doesn't quit, I'm most likely going to separate from her as she's shown me such a dark and twisted side of her mind through these.

1:01:30Trevor Evarts:From the twisted mind. Yeah. Wow. I've always wondered when there's so many fake stories on Reddit, I'm like, who's writing these? Her. And it's all her. Turns out it's her.

1:01:44Shayne Topp:I mean, I wonder what the gratification is.

1:01:48Trevor Evarts:I think there's probably something similar to the lying. It's like an attention. You make up a big fabrication. You get all this attention. Like that's a very.

1:01:59Shayne Topp:All these people like angry for you or like advocating for you.

1:02:03Trevor Evarts:And there's something very, it's deep within like the id of human behavior of like we do anything and you get a big positive or a big reaction. Our brain is like, oh, like I'll do that again. Yeah. Like I think there, and you don't want to get caught in that loop with something bad.

1:02:22Arasha:It is, and I mean, when she says it's a creative outlet, like, yes, it is a creative outlet, but one that you're using in a very toxic way. Like, write, write, write, like, creative stories, do creative writing, like things that aren't weirdly harming or making people uncomfortable or just straight up lies that you're posing as truth.

1:02:43Shayne Topp:Right, she's already creating fiction, just make them other characters and direct a short.

1:02:49Trevor Evarts:Literally hop onto, just hop over to a different subreddit. Yeah. There is a subreddit for everything. Go there and get that affirmation of people know that you're making it up, but they're appreciating what you're making up. Yes, I love that idea. Look, and what she's writing is a little pretty far. But I think posting these on places where it's like, oh, this is real. Like, that's so dangerous. Totally. Because people are reading these as real. And I think having done this show for so long, I take everything with the caveat of like, it's a hypothetical. Totally. It's an anonymous story. I don't know.

1:03:24Arasha:Yeah.

1:03:25Trevor Evarts:Could they be real? Yes. Every type of scenario happens in the real world. So I kind of take it from that angle. But I still get really frustrated when I'm like, hey, man, like. Yes. Don't like this is an outlet for people to try to really get a genuine response when you make stuff up. Yeah. Especially, I mean, I don't hate it as much as the people who run things through ChatGPT. I'm like, come on. Like, at least make it up yourself. Yeah. Like, good God. Yeah.

1:03:53Shayne Topp:No, but you're so right. There's been a handful of times where, like, certain stories actually stick with me. I take them home with me. And I'm like, I heard this crazy story. And this happened. And, like, gosh, I really feel for this person. And it's like, you're actually doing with people's feelings. and what you're writing is just gibberish that you've made up.

1:04:12Trevor Evarts:And it sounds like this is really dysfunctional to their personal life and their relationship and her job. So there's problems on several layers. And I think he is right to look at these stories and go, hey, the content of these is disturbing. Where is this coming from? You're doing this for fun? Yeah. We have some comments here. I never thought I would have read about a relationship between two grown adults ruined by Reddit. My God, we've come a long way. OP responded, it's actually fucking appalling. I only ever use Reddit for news or stocks and junk. Meanwhile, she's actually seriously addicted.

1:04:47Trevor Evarts:Someone responded to that saying, if she's that addicted, she's going to find this if it gains traction. How do you feel about that? OP says, I hope she does. I hope it's a wake-up call. She brushes it off whenever I try to make conversation about it. One of those stories I mentioned is already locked and deleted, so it's a start. Someone said, or is this the wife and a new wave of stories?

1:05:06Shayne Topp:Oh, my God.

1:05:07Trevor Evarts:The plot thickens. So Liz, the wife, found this post and commented, but it's been deleted. OP responded to it, though, saying, go to bed.

1:05:20Shayne Topp:He is my hero.

1:05:22Trevor Evarts:Go to bed. Update.

1:05:24Shayne Topp:Oh, yeah.

1:05:26Trevor Evarts:Hi, guys. Long story short, we're getting marriage counseling and therapy. As far as I know, she hasn't made any new accounts and hasn't posted any other stories on here other than her last one. Her boss came to me and commented after her third day post-Reddit fight and commented on her work ethic, stating that she has improved. Not remarkably improved, but it's a good start. I did get Liz's permission to make this update as I want to be as fair as possible, but just know that she said herself that every one of your comments gave her a brutally fair reality check. I tried telling her what some of y 'all told me in that if she wants to write horror, go do it in one of the horror story subreddits, but that the R off my chest one wasn't a good spot for that.

1:06:07Trevor Evarts:Anyways, we're slowly getting better and I'm spending more time with her. I've also come to realize that I haven't been a perfect partner to her and I've started packing her lunch as well as buying her flowers every day after work. I've realized how much I truly love this woman and I do not ever want to push her away or lose her. So yeah, thanks to everyone for their support. Also making an edit here, please do not harass anyone posting any stories on the pretense or feeling that they might be Liz. She has given me zero reasons to not trust her as she's had less phone usage time both at work and at home.

1:06:38Trevor Evarts:And it's also discrediting other people who are experiencing in real life events and venting to Reddit about them. I know I am to blame for part of that and I deeply apologize to anyone who has been falsely labeled as Liz. My coworker just showed me that the post I made did in fact get made into a few TikToks. Oh, the irony. Oh, boy. Well, that seems like a happy ending.

1:07:00Shayne Topp:Yeah.

1:07:01Trevor Evarts:I mean, hey, I'm glad. I hope it was a wake-up call for her. But you know what it makes me think of is, like, how many people like this there are on the Internet. A countless amount. And what's crazy is, like, there's, for most people, we have two selves. Our self and our Internet self, right? And it's just, like, isn't it scary to be, like, I don't know what people are doing on the Internet. They could be making a fake account. Yeah. Because there was another story, and I can't remember if we read it on an episode or not, where a woman found out that her husband, who is a sweet, loving, great guy, she found out that he was a horrible, horrible internet troll.

1:07:38Trevor Evarts:Like going on subreddits where women were posting and just talking horribly about them. Like any photo of a woman, he would go on and just discredit her looks and just rag on it. And she was like, she found this out like, oh, this is what you're doing anonymously on the internet.

1:07:54Shayne Topp:Oh, man.

1:07:55Trevor Evarts:And it's just like, it's kind of the same with this where it's scary, where it's like, hey, just because you're making a throwaway account doesn't mean that's not you anymore. Yeah. It is who you are.

1:08:06Shayne Topp:Totally. But, you know, I want to give him a lot of credit for the empathy that he's showing, though. Yeah. Because it's such a real thing. You're talking about with these two selves, that internet self. It sounds like she just got lost in that, you know? And 9 to 13 hours is a lot. It is a significant amount. And I'm sure if you are constantly just like scrolling and reading and writing and just like really, really getting immersed in that. Like I just feel like, again, it's not an excuse, but it's just an explanation that it sounds like she really did become addicted. Yeah. And found herself maybe making choices that she wouldn't otherwise make.

1:08:45Shayne Topp:Especially now through therapy and counseling, it seems like she actually is reeling back. She's taking the opportunity to right her wrong. And that progress, I feel like, should not be going under the radar.

1:08:56Trevor Evarts:I do agree. Her behavior was so interesting, so extreme, that I really hope a therapist can, like, dig into it and get to the bottom of it. Because it might be symbolic of something going on deep down.

1:09:11Shayne Topp:Yes.

1:09:12Arasha:It's scary, like, because obviously, like, very grateful that she had a husband who was, like, wanting to hold her accountable. It scares me the amount of people that could be like that that are just alone and doing these things and don't have anyone to hold them accountable. So true. Or hope for them to be a better person.

1:09:29Trevor Evarts:Yeah.

1:09:30Arasha:Which is like, unfortunately, I think the reason there are so many awful people on the internet. Because they don't have people to hold them accountable.

1:09:37Shayne Topp:But I think this is like even just a testament to relationships, right? Of like nobody's going to show up perfect. Sure. But if you're willing to grow with people and see their flaws and be able to be like, hey, like we're going to work on things together instead of just expecting them to be this like flawless human being. I feel like that really does show how much he actually cares about her. He's able to sort of put that to the side and be like, let's work on it. Let's make sure that we get you to be the best version of yourself. Yeah, absolutely. Really honorable.

1:10:09Trevor Evarts:What a ride. Wow. Well, I had such a great time reading these stories with you guys.

1:10:16Arasha:Liar! Hey, guys.

1:10:19Trevor Evarts:All of these stories were fake. I wrote all of these stories. Every single word. False. Not true. Lies. Thank you both for being here.

1:10:32Shayne Topp:You're welcome. And thank you for listening and watching this.

1:10:38Trevor Evarts:Let us know what other themes and subreddits you'd like to see on this show. We'll see you next Saturday. And that's the truth.

1:10:44Arasha:Or maybe we won't. Bye. Or not. We're sticking around for more stories. Another now or not.

1:10:51Trevor Evarts:Can you imagine? Lie. Lie.