15 people share the weirdest thing they've been recognized for.
We've all imagined the intoxicating feeling of being a famous person who constantly gets recognized for their body of work. The idea of having a stranger know your face because you created a movie that changed their life, or wrote a song that helped them through a breakup, is pretty remarkable.
But there are a lot of other reasons to be recognized out of fame and glory. In fact, many of us have been recognized in our daily lives for much more absurd or mundane reasons.
In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared the weirdest things they've been recognized for, and the truly run the gamut.
1. From OP:
I was in a club bathroom last night talking to my mates, and some guy recognizes my voice and me, turns out he works at the local McDonald's and recognized me as the 'guy who orders big macs - no cheese.'
2. From delicious_tomato:
I did a horrible, 30-minute infomercial that aired exactly once -- at 3 AM -- in my local town. I was recognized for almost two years thereafter by all the old people in town.
3. From XPostFacto1776:
When I was 4, I was very sick. I was hospitalized and out of preschool for a month. It was bad but, in the end, everything was fine. Shortly after, my family moved so I never returned to that preschool. 12 YEARS LATER and I'm visiting some friends at their high school.
A girl comes running up to me and goes 'Oh my god! You're XpostFacto1776!' To my knowledge, I had never seen her before so I simply responded 'Yeah, I'm sorry do I know you?'
She looks at me and says 'We went to preschool together. I remember when you were in the hospital, the entire class made Get Well Soon cards. I didn't fully understand so my parents sat me down and explained to me then what death was. I was so scared for you that I cried for days. I'm so glad you're ok!' Then she hugged me.
Apparently, because I inadvertently introduced her to the concept of death and survival, it allowed her to deal with other tragedies she came across early in life.
TL;DR Inadvertently became the embodiment of Death for a preschooler.
4. From Caiopia:
I do body percussion for an acappella group and people know me by 'the guy who hits himself.'
5. From corndograt:
I was in my home town during a break from college and a guy recognized me for giving a power point presentation at a school board meeting 5 years earlier. It was about thylacines (Tasmanian tigers.) He told me he had really enjoyed it. Apparently so.
6. From fiveFive5five:
This girl I've never met follows me on Instagram. Just a week or so ago, she happened to see me on the street, came up to me and said, '(my username), is that you?' Was pretty weird.
7. From chrisncsu:
In my college dorm, I was walking around and a random group of guys recognized my voice from playing Halo 1 on the dorm LAN. It was very random, but also great, haha.
8. From gstudent:
I got recognized from being in a reenactment on America's Most Wanted. But they didn't quite get the reenactment part.
9. From salivagirl:
Girl stops me on street and screams out 'OMG you're that girl from YouTube!!!!!' referring to Natalie Tran from community channel. I awkwardly told her she was wrong and she walked away with her friends leaving the both of us thoroughly embarrassed.
10. From BrooksConrad:
Someone once yelled 'You've the EXACT same walk as your brother!' at me from across the street. No clue who they were.
11. From allie_cat_attack:
I was sitting at a bar one night and these two girls come up to me and one says to the other, 'Omg! It's that purple girl! What did I tell you huh?'
I turn aground with a serious wtf look on my face and she explains to me, 'You always wear purple. Every time I see you you have on a purple shirt and it's always a different purple shirt.'
I go home that night a take a look in my closet and lo and behold 95% of my shirts are some shade of purple. Weird.
12. From Cantras:
Nude posing for an art club. I would have people spot me on the bus sometimes and tell me I should come to their art shows, or ask me if I knew when the next figure drawing session was.
13. From ilestledisko:
I have very small (like 4'' by 2'') picture of Serenity cut out and taped to my door, right above the handle. My name is also on the door.
This week I was walking back to my dorm when three girls ran up to me and said, 'OH MY GOSH...ARE YOU ILESTLEDISKO?!' and I said, 'Uhh, god. Yeah?' and they proceeded to gush about how much they love Firefly and how awesome I was. And then they all complimented my attire. It was awesome.
14. From Sarcasticallysmooth:
When I go to parties and all I'm recognized as the Russian kid. I'm not Russian. I have no idea how it started.
15. From drsuperfly:
'Hey, aren't you that mime that came to our church once?'