Based on an actual typo I saw in the dining hall. Ranks right up there with the likes of “Tomato Soup, Serving Size: One Fist.”
Is it true that guys don’t talk in bathrooms? I… really can’t imagine that. That’s gotta be such awkward silence.
Also, this is probably one of those “Differences Between Guys and Girls” strips that I *won’t* do a gender reversal on.
Guys nod at each other in a masculine feline when we walk into the bathroom but thats it.
*Fashion not feline
Save for when guys are drunk. The bathroom becomes a chatroom then
While you think it an awkward silence, most guys (myself included) think the idea of having a conversation in the bathroom is the really awkward thing. Part of it may be the fact that most of the time guys are in the bathroom, we aren’t in stalls, and there are many unwritten rules about urinal etiquette that talking gets in the way of (like the fact that it is good to make eye contact if possible while talking, but very, very wrong to look at another guy while he is using the urinal, because that’s creepy).
If eye contact is made on entering/exiting you’ll get a nod of acknowledgement. We go in, do our business then leave. From our point of view we’ll never understand how/why you girls go in groups.
Yeah, when a group of guys go to the bathroom, the conversation stops once into the urinal area, then resumes once they reach the sinks. Guys who were part of the conversation but didn’t need to go will wait by the sinks (If the number of guys going was greater) or outside the toilet (If the number of guys who didn’t need to go was greater).
It probably has as much to do with concentration as it does awkwardness. Guys have to aim and a conversation would distract from that.
@Netherlolz: That Gravatar is so awesome.
A lot of the issue has to do with the fact that our “equipment” is on the outside. Normally, we have it tucked away in a somewhat protected state, so when we go to the bathroom, we are feeling somewhat vulnerable. This may not be on a conscious level. By formally ignoring each other, we are trying to reduce the threat level.
“Private” is how I think of the silence I expect to find in a men’s room. Public men’s restrooms aren’t very physcially private, so we keep our eyes and everything else to ourselves. That’s why guys talking on their cell phones in the toilet seems SO WRONG to me.
for a good discussion on this read Asimov’s “The Caves of Steel”
That doesn’t even cover the whole “one urinal gap” you always try for. If two guys enter together (even if friends and in the middle of a conversation), they will not stand at neighboring urnials.
Urinals fill in the following order:
furthest from the door (only has one side that can be filled)
other “corner” urinal
any urinal with a gap on both sides
urinal next to a “corner” urinal and a gap on one side
urinal next to the guy that looks like he’ll finish first and a gap on one side
a stall over a urinal between two guys
check yourself out in the mirror over a urinal between two guys
if sober and desperate, the urinal between two guys
if drunk and desperate, the drain in the floor
The correlary is that to optimize the number of guys that can use urinals at the same time you need an odd number because guys will use 1,3, and 5 while 2 and 4 will always be available. If you have an even number, they fill 1,4 and then either 2 or 3 depending on who looks like they will finish first…..and then it gets all messed up.
For added amusement, watch two guys simultaneously enter a men’s room with two adjacent normal-height urinals and one of those low-rider urinals (presumably intended for children, little persons, or the wheelchair-bound) on the end of the row. One guy will take the normal-height urinal on the one end, leaving the other to figure out whether to take the normal-height urinal adjacent to it, the low-rider, or the stall. Both guys know there is no good solution to that dilemma, which is why the guy at the normal-height urinal looks so happy to have gotten first choice.
Actually, no, don’t watch that. Watching anything that happens in a men’s room is creepy. With the exception of the very brief eye contact that is permissible upon entering and exiting or at the sinks, keep your eyes to yourself at all times.
And the rule for conversation seems to be that it is permissible only among guys who have their pants entirely fastened and zipped up; guys not in that state may neither speak nor be spoken to. Chrystoph may be right about the reasons, but it probably is an unconscious thing. For most of us, it’s how we act in restrooms because it’s just how guys act in restrooms.
Men in the restroom are like professional Hitmen.
Avoid eye contact, stay silent, do your business, avoid leaving any traces, wash your hands and exit before they find the remains.
@Andy4hire: They actually did that in an episode of ‘My Wife And Kids”. Complete with kiddy urinal.
A mildly creepy comic this time around.
…I think this has gotten more comments faster than any other comic you’ve ever made. What does that say about your readers?
It’s not impossible for guys to have a conversation in the bathroom, but the right circumstances aligning is like one of those old spells where you have to hold a bottle of wolves’ tears up to the full moon and walk around the house backwards.
If you’re already having a conversation with another guy *as* you both happen to need to go to the toilet at the same time, and you’re both only going in there to pee, and the room is empty or has only a couple of people in it who aren’t having a conversation of their own, and nothing about the room layout or other occupants forces you to stand next to each other, and you don’t make eye contact, and the conversation isn’t about anything too personal or awkward, and you never acknowledge that you’re in the toilets: THEN it’s okay to continue your conversation.
But… the dialogue in this comic suggests the girls are not urinating. Talking to a friend under the cubicle door while you’re both pooping? For guys, not unless you’re saying “could you pass me some toilet roll.”
Reason one why I never talk in the bathroom: It’s extremely awkward unless it’s at the sinks.
Reason two: Chances are good that every other guy in there is a complete stranger.
lol, we are having a convo on toilet rulesof conversation. What is wrong with us?
@ MrGBH: Thanks, you have a nice one too
This is supposed to be a private time in people’s lives; using the toilet. But Santa knows, I see you when sleeping, I know when your awake.
Then Santa knows too much…
How would one go about inhuming such an individual?
@AndyForHire I always take the low-rider in that instance and make a joke about finally being able to have some “room”…..
You mean girls TALK while in the stalls? That’s just so weird.
Really talking outside the stall is something mostly reserved to (afaik) 12 to 16 year old boys that have found a way to escape the classroom and regroup before launching their next education disruption.
The only talk I do in bathrooms is quick greetings, and exchange of the status quo if I meet someone for the first time that day in the bathroom. Any real conversation is quickly taken outside.
Now if we’re talking about other sounds in the bathroom… I do that a lot.
(Including but not limited to donkey impersonations. It’s really funny when you see a startled guy at the urinal trying to look behind him without losing his aim.)
P.S I forgot the urinals. No talking, no eye contact, no movement and no excessive sound of fluids at the urinals.
Or just do as I do, forget about them and always use a stall. Having two sisters and no brothers taught me to always use a stall and sit down. Having rather rotten intestines always helps to provide an audible excuse, so nobody questions my behaviour.
I think a lot of the problem is that a lot of guys can’t go with someone paying attention, so convo makes the whole thing take longer.
Also, yeah, eye contact is important when talking, but if you make eye contact while you both have your junk out…