When someone tells you the same story for the second time!

Brid Hegarty

It's not just old people who do this. Are you ever able to say "you've told me this before"?, and does it sound rude to say that? I'm sure many of are familiar with the experience of saying this only to realise that the person feels so strongly about the story that what you said doesn't even register to them, and they just keep telling it. When this happens it's kind of like they're saying "I don't care if you heard it already, you're going to act as if you haven't whether you like it or not"!

So is it appropriate to say "I don't mind listening to the story again, but just to be clear you have told me this one before". All I want to know is whether they remember or not. Because if they do remember telling it, then they get to watch 'pretending' that you didn't hear it, and therefore they get to see how fake you are.

Jequ0n

Why would you not be able to say it as it is? I never get this roundabout way of saying something for the fear of "offending" someone.

I also tell people when I am not interested in the story without meaning it to be rude, and others have told me the same to my face. No need to be offended.

blade1

They are after telling it to so many people they can't remember who has/has not heard it.

Housefree

I reckon I do this a lot, half way through I might vaguely remember telling em but it's to late to stop so I motor on

J. Marston

I have a boss who has told me the same sporting story at least 10 times now over the years. I can finish his sentences for him at this point.

PsychoPete

I wander off into so many tangents telling a story, it's never the same story twice

The Continental Op

The problem is when the story grows legs and is modified by the teller each time. Then it gets embarrassing as you can't always point that out.

odyssey06

Maybe next time you're telling an anecdote to them start it with "Did I ever tell you the story of X, now stop me if you've heard this before..."

They might get the message.

Black Swan

The Big Lie across the pond has been repeated so many times since the November 2020 election that some fools are beginning to believe it. Then again, is this similar to product and services advertising campaigns? Repetition sells, and because it does, it is continuously repeated.

Time for a station break.

I just cut them off , it's worse when they they start telling you a story that you told them as if they are telling you some massive revelation, then I straight out say I told you that and sometimes they'll carry on.🙄

TomSweeney

Depends if it's a good story and they tell it well like a good joke, I let them continue...

Gregor Samsa

My Dad was terrible for this. Constantly telling the same stories over and over and over, word for word. If I visited him for a weekend, I could hear the exact same 10 stories about things that happened 40 years previous three times over my stay. You'd try to stop him half way though - or even after the first sentence - but he'd just keep going. It used to drive us nuts, but as he got older, we just went with it and nodded along. He's dead now, and I wouldn't mind hearing them all again.

Mad thing was, he would't put up with other people boring him with stories at all. I remember my uncle (his brother-in-law) visiting once. I walked into the living room when my uncle was in the middle of some long drawn out story from his time in the RAF. My Dad was sting stretched out on the sofa facing away from him, eyes closed, pinching the bridge of his nose and whistling the Elvis song "Please release me, let me go" as loud as he could. My uncle clearly didn't get the message and kept going with the story even though there was no-one else in the room.

HildaOgdenx

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117629021#Comment_117629021

I worked with someone who did a variation of that. If you told her something, next thing you would hear her telling it as 'her' story. It was strange.

fryup

this guy....