'A friend of a friend'

[mitchermitcher]

 

Here's a fun stupid thought.

 

Suppose you know someone who's essentially a friend of a friend of yours. And he or she has a fairly interesting situation that makes you want to ask for some advice around the internet, maybe from other people in that online chatroom you regular, or maybe from residents of a children's card game forum your regular activities have been dwindling in as of late.

 

Now, how do you ask for advice for a friend of a friend, without making people think you're obviously talking about yourself? 99 times out of a 100, someone asking for advice for a 'friend of a friend' is obviously talking about himself but on the rare chance that it actually is about a friend of a friend, how do you convince people without hiding that scenario? Obviously if you don't mention it's for a friend of a friend then you can avoid this conundrum but for argument's sake, what if you had to insist on that scenario? How do you do it convincingly?

 

Ah, asking for a friend of a friend of  course.

 

 

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

let's be honest, none of us have friends 

[mitchermitcher]

let's be honest, none of us have friends 

shhhhh

 

we can at least pretend

[Hallohallo]

let's be honest, none of us have friends 

Stop trying to make yourself feel better. Only you have no friends.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

let's be honest, none of us have friends

 

Yeah, but our friends have friends.

 

Wait...

[~~~~]

Personally, I'd lampshade it by recognising how overused "asking for a friend of a friend" or even just "asking for a friend" is when people are likely talking about themselves, so much so that it's become a joke. From there you can say that funnily enough you actually are asking for a friend of a friend.

[mitchermitcher]

Personally, I'd lampshade it by recognising how overused "asking for a friend of a friend" or even just "asking for a friend" is when people are likely talking about themselves, so much so that it's become a joke. From there you can say that funnily enough you actually are asking for a friend of a friend.

Yes but you see, that runs the risk of that being recognized as a setup to avoid the misunderstanding. The act of lampshading the 'asking for a friend of a friend' process is itself part of the process.

Stop trying to make yourself feel better. Only you have no friends.

no YOU stop trying to make yourself feel better, denial isn't healthy!!!!!!!!

[~~~~]

Yes but you see, that runs the risk of that being recognized as a setup to avoid the misunderstanding. The act of lampshading the 'asking for a friend of a friend' process is itself part of the process.

I think at that point you have to accept that it doesn't matter what people on the internet think of you.

[mitchermitcher]

I think at that point you have to accept that it doesn't matter what people on the internet think of you.

Then you're just missing the point of discussing this at all.

[Ryusei the Morning Star]

Stop trying to make yourself feel better. Only you have no friends.

Your left hand and enguin's dick don't count

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

One way possibly is to not use the common "asking for a friend" but instead "Somebody asked me..." because those words don't have a similar history. "Asking for a friend" has a history, mostly seen in media, of being a way to ask for yourself as you said.

 

So if you word it slightly different it doesn't give people the same feeling. Say the friend of a friend was trying to come out to their parents. Say something like "Someone recently asked me how to come out to their parents. I don't really know what to tell them and I don't want to give them bad advice."