Okay to strangle gunner classmates?

[MoCookiess]

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At this very moment, I'm sitting in one of my bio classes, repressing the urge to get up and strangle two of my classmates. This sounds harsh, but they're driving me crazy!

Its a mid-sized class (for my school anyway) and has about 100 or so people in it most days. The material is pretty darn interesting (its Evolution) and really makes you think about it. The thing is, there are two people in the class who feel the need to raise their hand and interject their comments about every damn topic every few minutes. Not a class goes by without getting to hear their opinion. In fact, it seems like they are in competition. Every time the girl says something, its not 4 minutues later when the guy says something... I get the feeling that they're in competition, trying to one-up the other -- because they take turns!

At any rate, is there anything I can do? Its it really rude to go up to them and ask them to save the questions and comments for office hours? I don't think I'm the only one, do I pass around a petition? Can I talk to the professor about this? I may freaking lose it if one of them inturrpts the professor again to let us all know what their thoughts are on a subject.

What does everyone else do to deal with these people???
I don't think that the ad com will think highly of me capping these two cretins

 

[Rose122]

I know exactly the type you're talking about. Those kind of people make me refrain from asking "real" questions because I am hesitant to interrupt the lecturer any further, or disturb my classmate's concentration any more. Although I never had the guts to do it, I'm sure that the best route is not to have a lynch mob confront them in the hall but maybe take them aside and kindly, gently let them know that they are disrupting the "flow" or "continuity" of the class and politely ask them if they could abstain from asking so many questions. Hopefully they'll honor your sincerity. Best of luck.

 

[ZekeMD]

Okay to strangle gunner classmates

Last time I checked, it was illegal to strangle someone. 😀 Although I know it's hard to restrain yourself sometimes, you'll have to learn to deal with these people. You will encounter people like these two throughout your career, and everytime you won't be able to run to the professor. I think you should just learn to deal with them. Ignore them, or maybe speak to them and ask them personally to limit their comments because they are distracting you. If they refuse, then maybe you can rephrase your comment along the lines of, "listen you !@#@$#$!@%#@%! (Insert random scary threat here)" I dunno, it seems like they should be reasonable people. If they aren't then, just ignore them, they're not worth your time.

On a side note, many of these people may get a kick out of you approaching them. This may boost their "imsmarterthanyouandyouknowit" ego....

 

[OB1🤙]

Gunner Bingo, my friend. Get a few like-minded people that sit around you, and bet on the number of times Gunner X and Gunner Y will pipe up in class. Side bets on anything else. Presto- what was once incredibly annoying is now amusing and profitable.

Enjoy.

 

[MoCookiess]

I just wanted to add that it seems like the primary motivation for these twits is to show the rest of the class how smart they think they are.

The comments are phrased as a question, but they really are only masks for their intention of hijacking the lecture for their own nefarious and ego-stroking intentions. I hate people who do this. I've noticed reporters at press-conferences doing this too -- it seems like a question, but is really an excuse to yak for awhile with everyone listening.

An honest question is one thing, but.... grrrr

 

[menemotxi]

These are the type of people I taunt mercilessly. One thing that worked for me was to take a water gun during class and firing when the teacher turns around. If you're in an auditorium it should be easy to pull off without getting caught.

Throwing small objects such as M&M's works well too. If you don't feel like being childish like me, then I second the gunner bingo. Betting on people is always a good time. Beats paying attention anyway.

 

[avicoo]

One of my professors used to give a certain gunner (constantly asking questions and talking) a really hard time everytime he spoke up. Even when his questions seemed like good ones. I even kind of started to feel sorry for him *gasp* because many classmates joined in to berate him each time. However, he never stopped, and actually I don't think it even slowed down his rate of question firing. So blatant attempts to end this behavior by classmates or even the professor may not succeed.

 

[Cerberus]

Originally posted by menemotxi
These are the type of people I taunt mercilessly. One thing that worked for me was to take a water gun during class and firing when the teacher turns around. If you're in an auditorium it should be easy to pull off without getting caught.

Throwing small objects such as M&M's works well too. If you don't feel like being childish like me, then I second the gunner bingo. Betting on people is always a good time. Beats paying attention anyway.

Now this is someone i would be proud to have as a classmate

Coincidentally we are classmates...sort of

 

[avicoo]

It is even worse when people behave this way at professional conferences.

 

[Brickhouse]

I am also a big fan of throwing things, and gunner bingo - good times.

I also suggest that maybe every time they are called upon, you let out a grunt of disgust, or an "ayy yay yay!" It might also help to roll your eyes and slump back loudly in your chair. They might pick up on this passive aggressive act and become annoyed, and eventually shut up.

In all honesty, these people have a hard-wired insecurity that you probably won't undo by asking nicely for them to shut up. The only consolation you might have is knowing that we all know exactly how you feel.

 

[umass rower]

Originally posted by ZekeMD
Last time I checked, it was illegal to strangle someone. 😀

Are you sure? Because if you consider gunners not to be humans, but rather, let's say, parasitic insects (and can you really prove that they're not?), it would be perfectly acceptable to crush the life out of them. However, you might want to consult a lawyer before taking my advice. It would be preferable to find a lawyer in your family, so that he or she will be more likely to side with their family rather than their species.

 

[Rose122]

Originally posted by Cerberus
Now this is someone i would be proud to have as a classmate

Coincidentally we are classmates...sort of

I totally forgot about "gunner bingo." Those were some of my best times in O-chem. The over/under on "Big Forehead Susan" and "The Crazee Portugee" was 15 needless comments so, naturally, they matched up even money. 👍

 

[Brickhouse]

LMAO! You're hysterical.

 

[meanderson]

I never really classified the students who raise their hand and ask questions a lot during lecture as gunners. I think that for many, that's just their personality. I haven't noticed that these students tend to score disproportionally high. Most gunners are silent assassins. They don't do ridiculous things like messing other cadavers up or stealing resources from the library. I've never really had a problem with gunners.....it's the wannabe gunners that I dread.

 

[Amy B]

I know exactly what you are going through. I knew a girl exactly like the people you have in your class. She was always trying to ask big, important sounding questions that really weren't related to the subject we were discussing. It drove us CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!

Finally even our prof had enough and called her on it during class. He embarassed her and suggested if she needed extra time to discuss things that weren't class related, she could make an appointment to come and see him. After that she curbed her questions to things she really wanted to know for class, rather than things that were asked merely to help her look smart so she could get a recomendation.

 

[woolie]

Well, I don't know how you feel about doing this but whenever I have been struggling in a class to actually hear the professor because two people have decided they absolutely MUST discuss their life's important issues RIGHT now, during the lecture - if the don't cut it out after a decent interval of time I just get up, walk over to them and ask them to STOP TALKING. 🙂

I've only done this twice in my life but it was after really prolonged agony and maybe even a couple of days worth of constant chatter. Usually the offenders are just stunned, as if they didn't realize that anyone else - never mind the whole lecture hall - could hear them. But it definitely worked.

So, maybe you could speak to the perps and ask them: "do you mind holding your questions until after the class? It really disturbs the flow of the lecture." Something like that.

 

[irie]

I push the ignore button when someone in a psychology starts off a question with, "I read an article that said..." or "I saw a tv show that said..."

other classics for psychology classis start with "I'm on antidepressants..." or "my son has ADD..."

These invariably lead to a long, pointless story that just wastes everyone's time.

 

[Cerberus]

I've had two separate guys in math classes that felt that they needed to argue absolutely every goddamned thing with the professor. Example:

Professor: The Determinant of Det(AB) is equal to Det(A)+Det(b)

Student: No Way! That cant be possible, how could that be possible? That doesnt even make sense!!!!

This happened nearly every class. In one of the classes the professor was basically like "You are a *****, now quit annoying" but the other always answered the ***** and ended up wasting like 20 minutes of our time

 

[musiclink213]

Gunner Bingo!!! i love that game!!! play it all the time in my orgo class. good times my friends, good times.

as far as what you can do, borrow some ninja stars from the local martial arts school, and in class, when they raise their hands, throw them. alternatively, a woman's stilletto shoe also work very well. but make sure you wear gloves so there are no fingerprints.

 

[felipe5]

I, like everyone here, feel your pain. One extreme gunner-chick comes to mind who was in my molecular biology of cancer class.......everyday she'd attempt to show her intelligence by asking many (and often random) questions, until one day she asked a dumb question (although there are no 'dumb' questions, this question was super-obvious and even caused most of us to laugh)

I agree with some of the previous posters and suggest that you just grit your teeth and bear it.....i bet you everyone in the class hates these people, and from my experience, they will eventually make a fool of themselves somehow (moreso than they already are). So, just sit back and wait for the moment to come, for it will be sweet

 

[MoCookiess]

Today was really a red-letter day for gunner bingo. Thanks guys

(bump)

 

[Amy B]

Gunner bingo is one of the funniest ideas I have seen on SDN. I wish I had been able to play as an undergrad.

 

[TheRussian]

I have discovered that almost every class I had where the proffesor allowed questions there has always been at least one person that felt the need to relentlessly ask stupid and annoying questions. I think that the dynamic of a class is such that if there is no natural "gunner" then someone will morph to become a gunner so that the dynamic of the class does not get disrupted. I am so good at this now that I can differentiate between a natural gunner and one that has been forded into the role.

One good way to cope is to make up stupid nicknames for the gunners and make fun of them behind their back. And take pleasure in the fact that they probably don't have any friends.

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by Rose122
I totally forgot about "gunner bingo." Those were some of my best times in O-chem. The over/under on "Big Forehead Susan" and "The Crazee Portugee" was 15 needless comments so, naturally, they matched up even money. 👍

I MISS SCHOOL!!!!

 

[DMBFan]

What a great thread. I experienced a gunner in my organic chem class last semester. This girl would ask SO many questions during the review session. The class had 300 people and she would repeatedly ask questions like "do we need to know this for the test?" and not let anyone get a word in edgewise. At office hours, too, she would dominate and ask like the DUMBEST questions .

I also had one in my English class and we would be talking about Wordsworth and she would just be annoying and be like, "HEY COOL TIE" in the middle of class. Or she would be like "hey, that character is annoying" and when the teacher would be like uhh why, she would say "JUST BECAUSE"...UGH

 

[matthew45]

I would like to submit a new sort of annoying questioner, not a gunner per se. I'm actually a history major so this has to do with humanities. I'm in an honors history class where basically we are all working on papers and we pass them around. There is a girl in the class (a journalism student if that tells you anything -- it should) who is a total Political Correctness drone. Now keep in mind, it isn't that the PC drone points out things that are incorrect, just that their total devotion to PC makes it obscure their ability to see anything else. Cases in point...

One guy's paper is about the role of the Irish in the New York City draft riots during the civil war, think about the end of Gangs of New York. Part of the reasont the Irish were upset was because of Nativists in America that didn't want the Catholic immingrants coming in. PC drone: "Don't you think you need to say how the nativists were big hypocrites since we stole all of our land from the Indians anyway?"

Another girl is writing about the dueling in 19th century England. PC drone: "Don't you think you need to talk about the role of women and about the duels they fought?"

Arrrrggggghh!!

 

[MoCookiess]

I think you're right to make the distinction between "annoying questioner" and "gunner." I think there may actually be more of these "annoying questioners" in liberal arts, as opposed to the sciences. Most of my friends aren't in the sciences, and they have some of the funniest stories about some of these twits trying to distinguish themselves.