A former student sent me a message today. I had a feeling I shouldn’t open it because he’s known to send those stupid memes that end with a scary face jumping out at you. I don’t think those things are funny. I’ve told him this more than once, but there’s something about scaring other people that seems to hold an appeal for some.
I have arachnophobia. I have this to the point where if I see a spider, I will run screaming from the room before I realize I’m gone. I then shake uncontrollably and normally cry for several minutes. I think this started when I was a little kid, I have a vague memory of my oldest sister putting a spider on me and then calling me a baby when I screamed.
I guess this sort of thing was always considered funny.
So in spite of my gut feeling, I opened the message. Two young boys, sitting in front of a cabinet, slowly opened the drawer and out jumped a huge spider. Realistic enough that it seemed to be jumping at me, and my phone flew across the car seat, landing face down, as I screamed and then began to cry. In my car. At the park.
He knows I have arachnophobia and he knows it’s bad. When I calmed down, several minutes later, while praying that this image wouldn’t haunt me all day (and yes, that sometimes happens), I messaged him. In caps. If he ever sent me anything with a spider again, I would unfriend him and never speak to him again. His response – “hahaha, I just had to.” My response was not fit for virgin ears but since I know y’all don’t fit that description, it was “no, m*****f****r, you did NOT HAVE TO.”
Then he was sorry. I said not to apologize, just don’t ever do this shit again.
All of this got me thinking. Why do people think it’s funny to scare people? Do they like it when they’re on the other end of it? I have a happy, everyone loves me, puppy, who thinks that every person – almost – in the world has been placed there simply to pet him. I, however, know that there is the odd person who fears dogs. (One of my sisters is one of them) (She won’t admit it but she is) So if someone doesn’t appear to want to pet him, I ask if they would like to, and if they say no, I walk him away. We’re all afraid of something,
I could say it’s just boys being boys but I’ve had women do this to me, as well. Grown women, who should know better, cackling with laughter when I threw something across the room because they had hidden a rubber spider inside.
These are not people who don’t know about my fear. I just don’t get it.
And if anyone posts a picture of a spider in the comments, you will immediately and irrevocably be banned. Momma ain’t playing here.
Suziecreamcheese Sings the Blues 
Thanks for the spider info. That will be very useful in the future. 😈😈😈
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don’t even think about it, I will ban your ass so fast you won’t even see it coming
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Well, not to be pedantic but my ass is behind me so of course I wouldn’t see it coming. What was that old Jim Stafford song? Oh yeah, “Spiders and Snakes.”
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You’re so cute when you’re pedantic
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I feel your pain. The memes with the scary faces jumping out ARE NOT FUNNY!
I am not a fan of spiders either. When I see one, it will be flattened into some in discernible blob as soon as I can get my shoe/sandal off. Mr. Aitch put one of those huge rubbery things in the washing machine many, many years ago as a joke. Not funny. Let’s just say it NEVER happened again.
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I almost crashed my car on the way to visit a friend – i had a bag of magazines on the front seat and a “friend” had put a rubber spider in the bag, i swerved and it slid out and I ended up in a field. No, it’s not funny
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I’ve never understood how scaring someone is funny. Nor those “pranks” where a person can suffer serious injury. I wouldn’t want people like that in my life either. ☹️
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Yeah, that too. Like, how is that funny?
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Meanwhile Tobey is taking notes…
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That is really cruel, actually. Not very funny at all.
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Thank you
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I hate those stupid things, spiders! I mean literally and also visually, whether they are real or not! I think it’s intentionally cruel to pull that kind of joke on anyone, since you can’t know the level of anxiety another person feels when seeing it. Just what this world needs – more intentional cruelty!
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It is cruel, and I think it’s made worse by people saying, “oh get over it, it’s just a joke!”
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My daughter has the spider thing really bad. She used to scream when she’d see one and my husband had to run and dispose of it.
I have a snake thing. Not as bad but they give me a visceral fear feeling like nothing else. I’m sure it’s a self preservation evolution thing.
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I’m not a fan of snakes either. I once ran from a room screaming when there was a spider on the ceiling – I had sprained my knee earlier that week and realized when I was halfway down the hall that I left my crutches behind
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So rude and not cool.
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If I have a spider encounter, it will haunt me in my dreams. It’s true. I will dream about it that evening and it terrifies me.
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These memes will suddenly reply themselves in my mind at random moments. It’s truly horrible. I never dream of them, though
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I can’t fathom why people think that stuff is funny. It really is on a cruelty spectrum and you have to wonder what fears they are running from.
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I guess I was on the recieving end too many times being the youngest of a very large family, and being told to stop being a baby when I cried from fear and shock, to ever find this stuff amusing. And you know, when I call people out, they STILL think I’m a killjoy. No, there are things that are funny and things that are cruel and people need to learn the difference
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