Silliest / Most Annoying Questions / Comments You Got This Year

[Randytenn]

I'm sure we're aren't the only ones who have gotten some really silly questions and annoying comments.  Here are my top 3.

 

1.  "Hey, I saw a thing at Home Depot that does this.  Is that what you bought?"  

 

2.  So, you just load a song, and it flashes the lights for you, like the old color organs in the 70's, right?  

 

3.  I wouldn't want your electric bill.  

 

What were yours?

[Don]

The frequency I used for my display was/is very close to a local Dallas station that plays Christmas music from mid-November through Christmas.

 

I was asked once, "How did you get the radio station to play the music you need?" Except they used the station call letters when asking the question. They really thought I had the radio station playing music just for my display.

[ItsMeBobO]

2011  A couple were watching and I noticed they had other music playing.  I said tune to 90.1 to hear the music sync'd with the lights.    "We like our music better" the guy said.  There was nothing else to say so I walked away. 

[habmann]

The number 1 comment I got from people was "This is great, but how much is your electric bill"

[Aaron Maue]

The dozens of people who wanted to know where they "...could buy a tree like that..."  Talking about my 2700-pixel DIY megatree.  Ummmm....

[Tim Fischer]

The electric bill question is really the only one that annoys me.  I don't know, I don't care, and it's none of their business in any case.  How would they like me to ask "so how much is that country club membership you have?", or "Ooh that's a nice Mercedes, did you buy it new or used?"

Other questions I get a lot and am kind of tired of are "How long does it take to set up", "where do you store it all", "have you seen <some Christmas lights show on TV>", and "here let me forward you this video/picture that you've already seen 10,000 times of <the latest viral video>/<picture of house with DITTO sign>/picture of santa peeing off of roof>/<picture of guy who put the box of lights in the front yard with 'honey I put out the lights' sign>/etc

Oh one more question I absolutely hate:  "So what do your neighbors think about this?" To me, that's a thinly veiled way of saying "we like coming over to your neighborhood to look at this, but we sure the heck wouldn't want it in OUR neighborhood"

[George Simmons]

Must be a Minnesota thing...  The thing I'm also most tired of hearing is "When do you start setting it up?"  And #2 is the electric bill question.  They don't know what to say when I tell them that the electric bill for the display is lower this year than any display I've done since 1992.  Some even argue when I mention that every set of lights spends the overwhelming majority of their time OFF.  I had one young lady challenge that, so I told her to select any single set of lights in the yard and watch that set for a whole song.  "Oh wow" was the reply at the end of the song... 

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

About 2 years ago ,in the first week on November I had just finished putting c6 red lights on my Pindo Plams, when a lady stopped by and ask me " what kind of palms are those?" I said "those are Pindo Palms" her remark was " well, I have Pindo Palms in my yard and they don't have the little red berries on them like yours"  I said " I know, mine are special" as I turned and walked into the house.

[plasmadrive]

1. The electric bill question

How much does it cost?

How long does it take to put this up?

How did you get that radio station to play your songs?

Do you pay someone to put the lights way up in those trees? (40' redwoods)

[TGabriel]

And we are the ones that put a light show on for these people.

[Tony Shepherd]

• The electric bill question
• How much does it cost?
• How long does it take to put this up?
• How did you get that radio station to play your songs?
• Do you pay someone to put the lights way up in those trees? (40' redwoods)

So how much do you pay someone to put the lights way up in those trees? (English sense of humor!)

[wbaker4]

"Is that a TV on your house?"

 

I built a Video Display consisting of about 10,000 RGB LEDs, that I put in the middle of the wreath that hung on my house.  The Video Display showed various videos that were related and synced to the songs/sequences I was running.

 

It would have been a lot cheaper to put a TV on the house, but I never found a square LED Monitor!

 

Walt

[SparkDr]

For some reason, "Do you do requests?" seems to bother me the most.

[rjmcmasters]

I had one friend of mine who just got back from Disney World, ask me if I had ever been to DW at Christmas. 'No'  Oh you need to go, they have an awesome display and she proceeded to pull out her phone and show me a video. Really?  You are standing in front of my house and you want to show me DW's display. Give me a break - mine is free!  Ha ha

[shakeonit]

Worst one:  After getting our Mega arch up, which is a beast, and feels like it almost costs us our lives every year, we had just gotten down off the roof for several hours, and a lady came by to drop something off for my wife, and she comments, "nice arch, where does the 2nd one go";  exasperated and dumbfounded (and pissed), I said, "second one?"  She replied, "oh", and quickly scampered off.

 

One of the best comments this year: a little boy watching the show asked his parents, "can we have a sleep over here?"

[1983ss454]

This past year around mid October we were putting the lights on the 2nd story of the house and someone was driving by and stopped, they were like "putting up Christmas light?", my brothers comment was "nope, getting ready for 4th of July early" lol

[Gary Blair]

I had my first synchronized show in 2007 and before that I probably would have asked all the above questions.

 

The three questions I get most are the electric bill, how long to put up and the radio station question.

 

The best comment of the year was one coupe I know did not stop by one night because they tried to get my frequency at their home (several miles away) and could not and assumed I was not up and running.

[Softball Shawn]

I'm sure we're aren't the only ones who have gotten some really silly questions and annoying comments.  Here are my top 3.

 

1.  "Hey, I saw a thing at Home Depot that does this.  Is that what you bought?"  

 

2.  So, you just load a song, and it flashes the lights for you, like the old color organs in the 70's, right?  

 

3.  I wouldn't want your electric bill.  

 

What were yours?

Holy crap did you ever hit the nail on the head. 

[Little_b]

This thread made me laugh, I love it.  It's amazing how no matter where you live the questions are the same.  Here are my most common I get:

 

1. Where do you store it all?

2. How long does it take to put up?

3. How much is the electric bill?

4. How much did the radio station charge to let you broadcast?

5. I don't know how you do it.  I only put up 1 or 2 strands and I hate it.

6. I love those "Drippy Lights." Where can I get them?  Referring to the Meteor Rain Lights.  I put 22 strands of 8 in my front tree.

 

It also amazed me as to how many people thought I just popped in a CD and the music and lights magically did their own thing. 

[Ken Benedict]

There are some people that print up a little info sheet that answers most of the above questions.

People seemed to be happy to read about it and get their questions answered without even asking them.

Food for thought.