The Art Of Misinterpretation

A few months back I met up with a few friends at a bar. I didn't know everyone there, so I was introduced to some new people.

This night I was wearing a particularly ridiculous outfit. Ripped jeans and shiny leather shoes with a vertical striped pink, red, white and black Liz Claiborne shirt. Completed with a red tie and a black vest. I may of had sideburns at the time too.

It was bad.

I like wearing silly stuff out to bars and clubs because bars and clubs are pretty silly places. And when in Rome, do as the Romans.

I get introduced to an attractive brunette. Nothing special about her, run of the mill average hot chick.

She leans over to me and says, "You look very debonair tonight."

Full well knowing what debonair means, I crunch my brow and say, "Do you normally insult people when you first meet them?"

"Uh, but..." she backpedals and tries to explain that debonair is actually a compliment, all the while I jokingly act offended.

We continue to talk for the next half an hour or so with her the whole time still trying to make up for the imagined insult. Me just making fun of the whole situation. And her getting increasingly lame until I leave.

But it was still a fun conversation.

And the technique I used - one of the many you'll find in Legendary Life www.mohawkgringo.com/legendarylife.htm - was a type of banter called misinterpretation.

Misinterpretation is so much fun and has so many uses. It's probably the funnest form of banter that I know of.

It can turn a mind numbing conversation into a gut buster in seconds.

I've used misinterpretation to get a better deal on buying a new car, land a job, get into college, etc...and in the above example, getting a random bar chick to apologize to me for half an hour straight.

How do you feel that using misinterpretation would better your life?