PeevePile • A Pet Peeve Archive » Media's referring to groups of people as "simple people" or "regular people."

Media's referring to groups of people as "simple people" or "regular people."

Isn't this insulting? Who is irregular, and what constitutes a 'simple' person? This is often heard in reference to people who are suffering or have endured some tragedy to insight pity.

— Biffy from Brooklyn, NY | Television | 6.26.2009 | Comments (4)

I wish they said, "This unfortunate young man" or "this wretched woman"

— Stu

"Driver's like you" I hate that. If drivers were like me they wouldnt be tailgating, would know how to use their blinker and would stay off their cell phones while on the highway instead of backing up traffic because of their desire to go 50 on the 65mph highway!! Arrgh!

— Jina

But you can get the irregular people at a discount! They're still perfectly serviceable! And Simple people are so much easier to use than Complicated People.

— Aj posted 6/26/2009

I also hate the idea of "real people," especially when opposed to the so-called "educated elite." So my degree means I'm no longer real?

— Acacia posted 6/27/2009

Being told other people have it worse when I talk about a problem I have. » Right, but some people can be really insensitive about this, like by complaining about a problem they have when you wish your life was that good. Like "my dad keeps sending me dividend checks from this huge stock investment in my name, but I am SO tired of living in his shadow and just wish I could cut him off totally but am afraid to not have the money, even though I make well over 60K a year and have no debt" when I am in the midst of unemployment and student loan drama. I think when people say "some have it worse" it's sometimes a very polite, gentle code for "do you have ANY respect for what I am going through at the moment?" – Diana 3/8

Being told other people have it worse when I talk about a problem I have. » Yes, I know that other people have way worse cancers than mine, but I'm still scared shitless. And no, I'm not freaking grateful. – Acacia 3/8

When people say "American" when they mean "White" or "Caucasian." » Yep, Nationality does not equal race does not equal ethnicity. Especially for somewhere like the USA where most places are pretty diverse. – Punky 3/8

Receiving an email regarding a phone call. » I hate that as much as I hate the 'email, then immediate phone call to ask "Did you get my email?!?!"' Yeah, I got it. Give me a damn minute. – Raj 3/8

When people say "American" when they mean "White" or "Caucasian." » way to miss the entire point of the peeve – wow 3/6

Being told other people have it worse when I talk about a problem I have. » Definitely. This is akin to the "everyone feels that way, Biffy" peeve. I'm no telling you my problems so that you can diminish their worth. – Biffy 3/6

02.11.10

Send in your mobile phone pet peeves for the week of February 15th! Perhaps the simplest and most common generator of peeves, the mobile phone prods and pricks us in all places, public and private. With skull phones just around the corner, it’s likely these peeves will soon become irrelevant—so let’s spray them across the galaxy while we still can.

01.18.10

For the next week or so, the pictures for peeves will be of Peeve Pile’s national spokesperson, Rob Grace, and his special person, Shana, enacting various peeves. Please feel free to make such pictures yourself. Just include a link to them when submitting a peeve.

01.02.10

Hello. I’ve added a voting feature, so you can vote as you assume that you would – just click on a one-to-five star rating (it will tell you your vote has been recorded); five indicating that you completely agree with, or find the peeve amusing, one meaning the opposite.

Once a bunch of ratings are in, I’ll add a worst, and best rated area to the right column.