Don't know about you, but I was on a "mission trip," as it's called in church code, over spring break--doing good deeds aplenty. I must have been unintentionally pointing this out too often to random people, since I was reminded at lunch on Sunday that the true mission-trip spirit is one of more humility than I was able to display in my ever-so-slight, holier-than-thou table chat. This is so rare for me that I actually felt a little pride, which is not of course going to make things better. But the real holier-than-thou people know that I never show up at the meetings, so I'm cool with that faux insult, dude (a word I picked up hangin' out with all the guys over spring break).
It got me thinking, though. Everyone has a bit of snobbery in them, meaning everyone is a littler "something-er-than-thou" when you start looking. When I was asking around for an air mattress to borrow for the mission trip, I encountered a number of "outdoorsier-than-thou" people ("You don't own an air mattress!"). At my school there are jacket-and-tie people who are "more-business-formal-than-thou," bean-counters who are "seriouser-than-thou," churchy types who are "jollier-than-thou," or the occasional smiley-face colleague who is "gladder-handed-than-thou" or maybe "fellowshippier-than-thou." Did I mention that I was on a mission trip? Well, prior to that I would have said that I was "anti-snobbier-than-thou" (proud of not being snobbish), but now I have to wonder, given my shameless halo-polishing.
How would you describe yourself in filling in the blank? I am ________er-than-thou." Or--what kind of "______er-than-thou" behavior do you especially find annoying?
Comments (21)
I always have to be wittier-than-thou, I guess. The person who's got the snappiest comeback or funniest reference. It's not too bad a fault, until you get to the bit where I'm the designated person to make fun of everyone, and there's a fine line between funny and genuinely wounding someone.
i think i am...
bossier-than-thou.
dangit.
Smarter-than-thou.
More fucked-up-than-thou.
More cultured-than-thou.
I have a better boyfriend-than-thou.
I have to be craftier than thou. Luckily, I really am so it doesn't constitute snobbery but truthfulness, lol. ;)
Righter-than-thou gets me goat every time. I have some family peeps who have to be right on every single topic, even stuff they know nothing about, or the world will end.
I'm sure I suffer from wittier-than-thou, but if I try to curb that I'm probably going to get that I'm boring-er-than-thou--so what do you do?
Oh, I have to agree with SuzieHuitt. "Righter-Than-Thou" really irritate me. It didn't use to, and then I married one. Even if he is completly incorrect, he always has to be right. ARRRG.
I usually err on the side of being amusing. Okay, I take that back, I have a wit tic- if an aside comes to mind I normally can't stop it coming out. Does get me into trouble. Mostly I just try to mollify my listeners by being an equal-opportunity mocker. If worse comes to worse and I can't get away with making fun of everyone else, I'll go to ground and rather than get boring, start making fun of myself all day.
I tend to exemplify the one that drives me the most crazy (which might explain why it drives me the most crazy). I am...
Sassier-than-thou.
And I point that out to my students all of the time. Apparently, they believe me because they are aware.
I am fatter-than-thou!
I'm totally smarter-than-thou, but I'm also a bit kinder-than-thou. I hate meanness at other people's expense (real meanness, not good-natured character-bashing), and when I'm in a full kinder-than-thou mood, I won't even pretend that I find the meanness amusing or true. Even if it is, and even if I'm secretly thinking that it is. Hypocriticaller-than-thou?
I am annoyed by and suffer from both smarter-than-thou and righter-than-thou, which probably go hand-in-hand. However, I'll proudly claim geekier-than-thou any day.
Any humbler-than-thou people out there?
@Yufae - up with good-natured character bashing.
@CoffeeInAStraw - I think humbler-than-thou people are by nature probably unaware of their condition. They can seem more-self-effacing-than-thou, revealing it by claiming instead to be any number of the things above.
I am a "wittier-than-thou" type too, and I'm ashamed to say it, but sometimes I am "classier-than-thou" too. Do you still get to be classy if you think you are?
i am:
"greener-than-thou"
"more musical-than-thou"
"blonde but more intelligent-than-thou"
and
"more willing to work for what i want-than-thou"
shameful, really.
My biggest -than-thou crime is likely more-cultured-than-thou, possibly with a bit of smarter-than-thou and more-liberal-than-thou mixed in. I'm trying to purge more-indignant-about-this-BS-circumstance-or-practice-than-thou (aka gripier-than-thou) from my system, as well as more-discontent-than-thou. More-obsessive-compulsive-than-thou is a thorn in my side, as is more-anxiety-stricken-than-thou.
On the side of annoyance, I really, really despise more-moral-than-thou, which tends to be little more than a weak shield for bigotry.
I always have to be calmer-than-thou. I used to think this was a virtue, but my wife has told me it can be highly irritating.
I tend to be most prideful about being "less-critical-than-thou", or "less-gossippy-than-thou" meaning that my biggest annoyance is people criticizing and gossipping about other people, and then not only do I find myself doing the same, due to some cultural addiction we have to such conversations, but also I find myself criticizing people for criticizing people. It's a vicious cycle.
I'm really enjoying Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon lately. Mind telling me your favorite Wilder pics? I'll put them in my rental queue.
@CoffeeInAStraw - wow, well The Apartment is my favorite favorite of all favorites, and I also really like Some Like It Hot, Ninotchka, Sabrina, The Lost Weekend, The Major and the Minor, Double Indemnity, A Foreign Affair, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard, Witness for the Prosecution, Stalag 17, Ball of Fire, and I guess The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Some of the others are really good but have some sort of noticeable drawback for me, such as that Gary Cooper seems too old for the part he plays in Love in the Afternoon (and everyone is too old in Fedora), or that the dialogue plays too fast in One, Two, Three (and too slow and non-overlapping in The Front Page), or that James Stewart's bad toupee weakens The Spirit of St. Louis, or that Franchot Tone is not as good as Cary Grant would have been in Five Graves to Cairo, or Tom Ewell not as good as Walter Matthau would have been in The Seven Year Itch, same for Ray Walston in Kiss Me, Stupid, etc. Stuff like that. I have mixed feelings for some reason on The Fortune Cookie, but it is really interesting how the friendship between the two men crowds out the husband/wife reconciliation story. Irma la Douce is hard for me to like, as are Buddy, Buddy and The Emperor Waltz. Midnight's really interesting if it's available. I'm probably leaving out a few here and there.