Loud and Obnoxious People.....

I've been wondering......do loud and obnoxious people not KNOW they're loud and obnoxious? Or do they KNOW it and thrive on it?

I can't decide.

I had occasion to sit at a poker table recently with two very vocal, loud, obnoxious guys. I don't know if the alcohol had anything to do with it, but they got on my very last nerve. Particularly the one immediately to my right, who felt compelled to shout everything into my ear. Every time he did that, I found something exceedingly interesting on the LEFT side of the room. They told very lame jokes (very loudly) and laughed uproariously (and loudly) at them. The jokes weren't funny. The MEN weren't funny.

That same night Hubby and I sat at the table with one of his golfing buddies (?) who Hubby says may be the most annoying man he's ever been around. I didn't find him THAT bad, but I do think he's missing some social graces. Maybe all of them. He's one of those people who cannot let a statement go unchallenged, and God forbid a short silence should fall upon any gathering.

Just for example, they were calling out ticket numbers for door prizes. Only the women had received these tickets, and each one got a $50 bill. Yeah, I failed to win. Again this year. Last year every woman in the room got $50 except me and one other woman. Therefore I refused to be disappointed when I didn't win this year.

Someone asked my ticket number, to which I replied "727."

Hubby: "You know, like the big old airplane."

Obnoxious Guy: "Well, it isn't THAT big."

See, that's just unnecessary. So I had to challenge him back.

Me: "Compared to a Cessna 182, it is pretty big."

Obnoxious Guy: "Oh no, they've got you doing it too!"

It's not that his comment was THAT obnoxious. He just made lots of them. To be fair, the other guys ganged up on him and teased him mercilessly. But the safest thing to do in that case is just surrender, hold up your hands and say, "I give."

But Obnoxious Guy had to keep arguing with them. Not only was he outnumbered because he's a Yankee and these are all Southern boys born and bred, but he was trying to use REASON on a bunch of drunks who had been playing golf all day. His reasoning was not just lame, it was illogical. They may be drunks, but they're not stupid. They pounced on him like a gazelle on a zebra carcass. Or something. I finally just started playing Brickbreaker.

What brings me to this post, however (I know you're amazed that there actually is a point), is that at some point when all the other golfers were lamenting to Obnoxious Guy just how obnoxious he is, he said, "Do you think I don't know how annoying I am? I know me better than you guys."

First of all, he didn't say "y'all." He was just setting himself up to be a target.

I don't think many of Hubby's buddies heard the comment, because they were all talking at once about how obnoxious Obnoxious Guy is.

But it made me wonder: If he KNOWS he's annoying, why doesn't he do something about it? Is he the rule or the exception? Do all loud and obnoxious people share that self-knowledge and they just want to torment the rest of us?

What if I'm one of the loud and obnoxious people and I just don't know it?