If you know you come from a crazy family, normalize not having to introduce your partners to them
Feat @Ianlaralive
Summary
A rider admits his family is "on the spectrum" and sparks a debate about whether you're obligated to introduce romantic partners to truly unhinged relatives. His aunt gets possessed by the Holy Spirit at Red Lobster, not church. One cousin hijacked his mom's funeral to deliver an antivax rant. Another volunteers as an auxiliary police officer, showing up in uniform with no pay and mysterious income. Kareem counters that people want to meet the kooky uncle, but the rider insists they'll hold it against you, convinced you've got "that gene." He's dated into weird families too. A girlfriend's grandpa once asked if he grew up wearing shoes in Minnesota, earnest racism that was somehow funny. The take holds: if your uncle doesn't believe in dinosaurs or money, maybe skip the family dinner.
Full Transcript
So, what's your take? If you know you come from a crazy family, normalize not having to introduce your partners to them.
100% agree. Actually, 100% disagree. I think you have to.
You come from a crazy family. My family's—they're on the spectrum.
They're on the spectrum for sure. If you have an uncle that doesn't believe in money or dinosaurs, I think you don't have to bring your partner into their life.
Don't you think they want to meet the kooky uncle? I think they do, but I think they hold it against you.
Yeah. Because then they're like, "He's got that gene." Like, I have an aunt who gets possessed—
By what? By like the Holy Spirit.
That's sick. Not in church though. Like at Red Lobster.
So you don't want to bring someone you're dating to meet that often? Well, I think I would just run a couple questions like, "Are you—have you seen The Exorcist? Like, are you comfortable with exorcism? Are you okay with a therapist?"
These are like the questions that I ask to gauge if you can come into my family.
Is that the worst you've got? I have a cousin who at my mom's funeral decided it was the time to make a speech about antivax and how the vaccine is destroying America.
That's possessed. I have another cousin who's an auxiliary police officer.
What's that, man? It's literally people who are like, "The cops need help. I want to volunteer." And then the police department like gives him a uniform so you can come volunteer, but you don't get like a gun and stuff.
So you can hang out. No one knows how he pays any bills or he has kids. He puts on the uniform and goes like to volunteer.
It's kind of nice of them. Yeah, yeah. But like, you know, to like a girl you just met, a white girl from like Bushwick, you introduce her to that. She's like, "So this guy volunteers for like the police department? It's not going to be good," you know?
I guess my family's pretty chill.
So you got to know where you come from. But I've met some weird families.
Can I ask what is the weirdest? One of them is just like, just straight up racist.
That's not even weird anymore. That's like normal. I was sitting at dinner and her grandpa was like, "So, did you grow up wearing shoes to you?"
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. There's shoes in Minnesota.
I liked him though. He sounds like a nice guy.
Nice guy. He was actually pretty funny. Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. It's funny like, "Did you grow up with shoes?" That's a very funny question cuz I know he meant it earnestly.
Yeah. He wasn't even being mean. Yeah.
I love slime.