How do you feel about people referring to themselves in the third person?

I have never gotten the opportunity to know someone who does this yet. I imagine myself just playing along and referring to him in the third person as well. After a while, yeah it would get annoying.

Buster says he don’t really sweat it when people do it as long as they are a rockstar or serial killer.

Facebook forces users to refer to themselves in third person when entering status, “Holly is…,” ugh, another reason I left.

Frankly it bothers my alot whenever someone does it, even for a quick statement.

You mean like when Joe says something like “The Kid is slowing down” (referring to himself as “the Kid”) or Kathy says “Time for Kathy to go on a diet”? Ugh, I always feel kind of embarrassed, as if I were being forced to eavesdrop on their self-talk. They may be the celebrity stars in their own internally narrated shows, but unless they are my children, they don’t star in mine.

Suede on the most recent season of Project Runway did that. Every episode he would say “Suede’s gonna rock it!” and it would drive me crazy.

It also bugs me to hear a parent (usually a mother) speak to her children that way: “Give Mommy the hand grenade, darling.” “Stop that. You don’t want to make Mommy sad, do you?” “Please be quiet while Mommy has a nervous breakdown.” Makes me gag. And what kind of speech is Mommy modeling for Junior? Maybe Mommy is the one who taught the Kid to speak of himself as the Kid.

I teach with a woman who always refers to herself in the third person, but what’s worse is that she refers to everyone else she speaks of as if you share a common relationship with that person. Statements like, “Kathy is wearing the new horse sweater mom and dad bought for Christmas.” Um, I happen to know that my mom and dad didn’t buy Kathy a freaking horse sweater because that’s just not a fashion statement a 60-year-old woman needs to make!!

I did it for a day once, annoyed the hell out of some people ;D
A friend referred to herself as “one”, e.g. One must queue up to buy food at the canteen.
We both had great fun :)

@mrdh: For a day, my best friend and I ended every sentence with “in accordance with prophecy” and it drove everyone crazy but it was fun. :)

What about the royal “we,” used by Queen Victoria? (“We are not amused.”) Maybe you need to be in black bombazine and corsets to make it work.

@gailcalled – That cracks me up, if used sparingly. Overuse it and it’s just like the third person thing, highly annoying.

There was a guy in my office that referred to himself in the third person, when telling his stories about what he did over the weekend. One day he asked why he was still single, since he was such a catch. He was serious, too. I suggested that referring to himself in the third person and exhibiting such a high level of self-importance could be part of the problem.

He disagreed. He was convinced that it was the women.

@cak: I think all men go through that phase. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that all women are crazy/evil/toying with men etc. because they can’t get a date. Thankfully, most outgrow it. Most.

Sometimes we can’t get a date because we lack the confidence—opposite of your men who are overly confident. Sometimes we can’t get a date because we’re ugly or inept or a geek.

I never had a date. I figured out a way around it. And I would never call myself “the kid!”

Asmonet finds it frightening, sometimes endearing.

Definitely annoying.

Lisa says, “We are not amused.”

@augustlan – hehehe!!

Yeah, haha…except I just used my real name on accident! Not that it’s a big deal, I just didn’t even realize I’d done it!

I was wondering about that, but it was late and I was falling asleep! Just tell anyone that asks that they are hallucinating! :)

Perhaps I was hallucinating! Who is this ‘Lisa’ you speak of?

Knot knots naughtily! Not.

There is <jedi mind-control hand wave> no Lisa here. Move along.

Did you hear daloon calling on the lake last night? Eerie, isn’t it?

la lachusa is effing eeire i’ll tell you fing what