“Obviously you have never…”

Has any “rebuttal” opening with that phrase ever been accurate?

There are many variations on that phrase, usually amounting to “I don’t think you are taking X into account,” but the ones starting with “obviously” rarely seem to take the explanation much further than that unless it is to stack ad hominems.

: Zubon

11 thoughts on ““Obviously you have never…””

  1. I’ve always understood that as a sarcastic form of “I know you know that X applies here. How could you have forgotten to mention it?”

  2. It’s accurate when the person says something that indicates they never have done the thing they are discussing. Otherwise it’s used sarcastically to mean “You are missing something.”

  3. I have a theory that there are two phases of being new in MMOs.

    In the first phase you’re rather clueless and you ask random people things like “how do I open my bag?”

    In the second phase you become assured and assertive and scornfully tell other players things like “You can’t possibly run Wailing Caverns without a Mage”

    This phrase seems to fit the Second Phase Noob stage perfectly.

  4. Obviously you have never seen people discuss about things they obviously never have played. ;)

    But then again, you are responding with that line to someone who’s probably just ranting so… lost efforts… there’s just no use.

  5. If you want to annoy yourself and find a variety of people you want to punch in the face through your monitor, try Googling the phrase “obviously you have never” with your favorite keyword that restricts it to an area you know about (e.g. Warcraft, MMO, sandwich, basejumping, squeegee).

    2. Obviously you have never posted a suggestion to google something before, without first googling it yourself.

      Although for the record, my favorite of your suggested searches, “sandwich” turned up this quote,

      “Obviously you have never been mauled by a bear or a lion before”

  6. Obviously you have never heard my ‘obviously you have nevers’. They are always accurate!

  7. Obviously you don’t understand the value of some quality ad hominem attacks, but that’s just typical KTR for you…

  9. As a rule of thumb (that, so far, has performed far better than any heuristic ought), I assume any statement that contains the word “obviously” is false. Except that last sentence, obviously.

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