Perhaps it goes without saying that some people on internet forums can be rather dumb.  You might also hardly find it surprising that this is especially the case for Japanese import car forums.  I knew the facts, but I had never quite taken them to heart until a recent first-hand experience with the sheer neanderthal-esque level of language comprehension some of these people possess.

I had a rather funny experience recently with my turbocharged vehicle being accidentally filled with 87 octane gas, due to a miscommunication on my part (for those of you who don’t know, this is rather a bad idea; the engine really needs to run on 91 octane).  I thought I’d share the story, but being the pretentious jerk I am, I wrote the narrative in a slightly more tongue-in-cheek fashion than the infantile construction “LOL a family member filled up my car with 87 octane WHAT’S UP WITH THAT?!?!11 :S”.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the previous sentence, replete with excessive emoticons to provide cues as to precisely how the reader is supposed to feel at a given point in the text, is written roughly at the common level of literacy on this particular import car forum.  I merely intended to post a humorous retelling of my experience, not even trying to be particularly funny.  The reactions elicited left me dumbfounded and rather amused.

I was going to write a post-by-post commentary on the thread, but honestly the hilarity writes itself.  Between the people who completely misread my post, to the people who obviously didn’t read it at all, to the people at a paroxysm of righteous glee at their chance to correct me for a factual mistake I didn’t make, to the people who simply can’t seem to make sense of any sort of sarcasm or satire which is above third grade reading level, there are several good chuckles.

Here’s the thread, and here are image captures of the thread I made: page 1, page 2.  I do find it a rather sad commentary on society that it took anywhere from eight to sixteen replies to my post before anyone seemed to actually read and comprehend it (I’m not sure about the eigthth, but the sixteenth guy IMed me to express his bemusement at the others’ inability to get the joke).