Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re searching for a simple word to finish a phrase or sentence, but it just won’t come? For some reason, your mind randomly decides to forget that an apple is an apple or a horse is a horse, so you have to start using other words to try and get your point across, looking a little like a crazy person in the process?
It’s something that seems to happen to all of us at some time or another, and it often has hilarious results as we scramble for weird words to desperately try and explain what we mean! Here are 75 people who had major brain farts and did the best they could to handle the situation.
1) We Wonder What She Would Have Called A Spoon
A curvy metal scooper? How about a knife? A long pointy stabby thing? It’s no wonder the waiter looked at her so strangely.
2) It Happens To The Best Of Us
When you forget a simple word, you can often feel a little silly, but it helps to know that these little mistakes happen to the best of us. Even highly qualified and trained lawyers can forget simple terms now and then.
3) That Is A LOT Of Traveling
Wow, you really must have been traveling an awful lot to forget where you just flew from. This girl must have quite a nice life, even if she does forget things from time to time.
4) Arctic Cabbage Sounds Pretty Delicious
Kudos to this guy’s wife for never letting him live this down! ‘Arctic cabbage’ is something that should never be forgotten.
5) It’s Like A Riddle
Items of food tend to appear often in these kinds of stories. It’s so strange! We see them and eat them every day but somehow manage to forget what they’re called.
6) Can I Get A Pizza With Extra Hairy Pear And A Ponytail?
Bilingual people are lucky enough to be able to speak two languages, but that skill can come with some problems as they often confuse words between the two languages or struggle to remember the right word in the language they need to speak at the time.
7) Well, That’s Not Wrong
Even when you’re a total expert in your field with decades of experience in one particular subject, your brain can still prank you with these silly, forgetful moments! Technically, “a white one” is a perfectly suitable way to describe a computer.
8) Just Start Singing “I’ll Be There For You”
Is that really the best definition this guy could find for ‘friends’? It definitely says a lot about how he views the world.
9) Oh That’s So Good!
Sometimes, these random forgetful moments produce absolute gold. This is one of those times! Behold, the ‘how far machine’! This sounds like what they would have called it in medieval times.
10) Really REALLY Wet
The next time you forget a simple word, just remember that someone with an actual PhD in neuroscience once called a soup a “really wet salad”. You’ll feel a whole lot better about yourself.
11) Ouch!
Now that’s what we call an awkward moment. It’s one thing to make a silly mistake while you’re chatting with friends or family, but to do it during a live radio broadcast is on a whole other level. It’s enough to make you just want to disappear!
12) Something On Your Mind?
Really, how can you make such a weird typo that many times?! Well, we’ve all done it. Responding to this tweet, one user shared the story of how he wrote “pubic health” instead of “public health” dozens of times in an essay and had to go back and change it.
13) It’s Official, We’re Changing The Name To That
Duck billed platypus is already an awesome name for an animal, but flat foot duckapuss might just be even better. What do you think?
14) That Works
Well, at least if you say “small dog baby” to someone, they’ll know exactly what you mean. It doesn’t make you stop looking silly though.
15) What’s Your Favorite Remembrance Thought?
Do you have any awesome remembrance thoughts from your last vacation? Our lives should all be filled with as many lovely remembrance thoughts as possible.
16) That’s Embarrassing
That must have been so awkward! If you just forgot the word ‘photon’ in most situations, people wouldn’t really mind. In fact, they’d probably understand you better! But when you’re talking to fancy physicists and forget such an important word, they might look at you a little funny.
17) That’s So Cute!
First we had small dog baby, now we’ve got horse puppy! It’s certainly a lot more adorable than the word ‘foal’ anyway.
18) Not The Best Interview
Imagine an interview where you seem to forget every important word and have to use simple alternatives. “I’m good with words. I’m good at saying things. I’m good at doing stuff. I’m very good with small dog babies!”
19) Ew
Somehow, calling boogers “protein gum” just makes them sound even more disgusting! Seriously, why does anyone eat those things? It comes out of your nose, people!
20) The Worst Possible Word At The Worst Possible Moment
This has to be a nightmare for almost every biology teacher out there. Organisms and orgasms are so easy to mix up, yet have such drastically different meanings!
21) Quite A Surprise!
Imagine getting a call from someone claiming to be your husband’s wife, or your wife’s husband! It would definitely come as quite a shock, but this woman seemed to take it well.
22) Now We Can All Understand!
If you aren’t familiar with classical music, a tremolo is a kind of trembling effect. So the idea of describing it like a ‘nervous chihuahua’ isn’t a bad one!
23) Two Meat Pickles, Please
Okay, since the little girl responsible for this one was only two years old at the time, we can definitely forgive her! We’d love to hear what funny names she invented for other foods though!
24) Curse You, Brain!
There are some moments in life where you just want to teach your own brain a lesson for letting you down so badly. This was one of those moments for Ken. There’s nothing worse than forgetting someone’s name when they’re standing right in front of you, especially when you’ve been working together for 10 years!
25) How Fancy
How can our brains come up with a phrase like “pictographically describe” but forget a simple word like “draw”? It really doesn’t make a single bit of sense.
26) An Out Pouch!?
It sounds like this friend had been drinking from a few too many ‘out pouches’ with some very alcoholic ‘fluid’ before coming up with this crazy phrase.
27) So Gross
“Sneeze paper” is such a gross phrase. It’s just lucky that this guy wasn’t in the bathroom and forgot the word for “toilet paper”.
28) Sometimes, We All Want To Be Wood Livers
Heading out into nature, away from all the noise and traffic and pollution. Oh, what a wonderful life those wood livers have!
29) Wilmaaaaaa!
This is what happens after a lifetime of your brain forgetting things and making dumb mistakes. You start writing your own name down in speeches because you’re scared of forgetting it! Poor Amy.
30) Aw!
What is it with people forgetting baby-related words? First puppy, then foal, and now actual ‘baby’! The fact that Rachael remembers the word ‘puppy’ but forgets ‘baby’ shows that she must be a pretty big dog fan.
31) Google’s Always Got Your Back
Luckily, thanks to the power of modern technology, even when our brains freeze up and forget things, it’s still easy enough to find what we were looking for. Google has always got us covered!
32) Mom Must Have Had A Laugh At This One
You’ll definitely need a knitted head holder and some knitted hand warmers to go along with that knitted neck bracelet. Maybe even a pair of knitted ear coverers.
33) Forgetful Minds Think Alike
This was one of those rare cases where the other person knew exactly what this one was talking about. That’s the sign that you found a true friend.
34) How Cute
There have been some pretty cute little mistakes throughout this list, but this might be the sweetest one of all! A “teapot rooftop”! Sitting on top of a little teapot house, with teapot people inside.
35) Hesitation Can Be Deadly
This is a perfect example of how bad things can turn out when you hesitate too long between two different options! Just pick one and commit, people. Still, you know what they say, you should always start a speech with a joke!
36) And Again
Here’s another prime example of hesitation ruining the moment and creating a whole new nonsensical word! Clobbage totally does belong in the dictionary though, but it sounds more like what a caveman might do if he caught you sneaking around in his cave.
37) Hand Me That Digging Implement, Would You?
It’s always the worst when you forget something that you really should know, based on your profession and qualifications. Imagine being a doctor and forgetting the word for stethoscope, or a teacher forgetting the word for detention.
38) Teachers Aren’t Supposed To Do The Bullying
Kids have enough problems trying to avoid dumb nicknames from their classmates. And poor Chris Dixon ended up being bullied for years because of a principal’s silly mistake! Brain freezes can have big consequences.
39) Hang On, We’ll Send Tom Up
The hotel workers must have been howling with laughter once they got off the phone to this guy. But, in his defence, they probably knew exactly what he was talking about.
40) That’s Deep
We all need to follow a strict money diet if we ever want to be able to afford nice things!
41) Homo Racism Needs To Stop
Well, at least this brain fart only lasted for a second and the person quickly remembered the word they’d been looking for just a moment later. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.
42) Gremlins!?
Sometimes, our little mistakes can reveal what we’re really think
43) The Number Alphabet Is Long
It just goes on and on and on and on. You definitely don’t want to try singing the number alphabet.
44) How Do You Feel About Eyelid Hair?
Everyone has their preferences when it comes to eyelid hair. Do you prefer it thick and bushy or thin and almost invisible?
45) Food, Food, Food
Technically, bread is still food, so if you really wanted to break a sandwich down like that, you could just call it “food, then food, and then more food”, but that would be pretty hard for anyone to figure out.
46) That Makes A Lot Of Sense
We never thought of it that way before, but bagels pretty much are just savory donuts! Or maybe donuts are just sweet bagels.
47) At Least He Has An Excuse
It’s okay to forget words sometimes when you don’t even speak the language natively, but it was quite mean to point at your own daughter’s face when trying to find the word for pimple. Have a little tact, dad!
48) Always Stay Safe
If you can’t even remember the word for ‘condom’, you should definitely be using one. Who knows what other crazy mistakes you could make!
49) That’s Pretty Vague
Pretty much anything can be described as ‘not breakfast’. The sun is not breakfast. A cat is not breakfast. Going to the movies is not breakfast.
50) Sea Pancake?
Why pancake? Just because they’re quite flat? Or do you like to drizzle maple syrup on manta rays whenever you visit the aquarium?
51) Someone Give Them A Home!
What a cute comment to make. We never thought about it that way. Aw, poor little slugs, slithering around without any home! Someone should make a little slug city for them to live in together.
52) Bird Leaves Are The Sexiest
Firstly, why are you even posting something this personal on the internet? Secondly, if you’re going to post something this personal on the internet, always remember that ‘bird leaves’ are actually called feathers. That’s F-E-A-T-H-E-R-S.
53) Rudolph The Red Nosed Llama?
Now all we can picture is Santa Claus riding on his sleigh with a whole bunch of fluffy llamas flying through the air. What a sight that would be!
54) Feels Bad, Man
It really sucks when you forget a simple word while chatting to a friend or co-worker and have to embarrass yourself saying something as ridiculous as “black and white fart squirrel” instead.
55) So That’s How Ponies Are Made
Once again, we’ll give this guy the benefit of the doubt since English isn’t his first language. Compressed horses sound pretty funny though.
56) We’ve All Been There
Okay, maybe not all of us have Googled “fire on a stick” before, but we’ve all found ourselves in situations where the simplest words just seem to vanish from our minds.
57) No, Water Hungry!
This one is amazing because even when the person got corrected, they carried on using the phrase “water hungry” to describe what they were talking about. Be sure to eat plenty of water, kids!
58) There’s No Time For Sexiness!
It must be hard for non-English speakers to try and remember all of the different phrases and expressions we have. We feel sympathy for this boss, but we can’t help laughing at what she said.
59) Nope
A pee machine? Really? That was the best your brain could do in that situation? Wow.
60) One Pizza, Extra Meat Sprinkles
The phrase “meat sprinkles” sounds more like something that should be tossed over a weird flavor of ice cream.
61) They Exist Already
“Feelings hookers” are basically therapists, although they probably wouldn’t appreciate being called “hookers” after spending years training up to do a very important job.
62) And Another One
The last person forgot the word for therapist, and this one forgot the word for psychiatrist! At least they didn’t call him an “advice hooker”.
63) Sure, That’ll Do
Albino broccoli is actually a pretty good way of describing cauliflower. So are parsnips just albino carrots?
64) Christmas Jester!
Santa needs all the help he can get from his Christmas Jesters to make all the toys for good girls and boys around the world.
65) Worms With Legs Are A Thing, Dude
Centipedes, millipedes, worms with legs already exist. It’s like if someone said “Imagine a snake with legs”. That’s just a lizard.
66) Accurate
Tea just comes out of the faucets in England, right? That seems to be how it works over there. They just can’t get enough of the stuff.
67) Oh…
We were joking before about someone saying “What if snakes had legs?” but here we go! Someone actually did say it. Luckily, they corrected themselves, but the world had already seen how dumb they had been.
68) Oh Dear
You don’t want to do what to a pumpkin!? Wow! How could you forget such a simple word as “excited”?
69) Sign Of The Times
This is a sad sign of the modern world we live in. People know all about Netflix and other streaming services, but they’ve forgotten all about libraries!
70) A Tall, Cool Glass Of Cereal Water
Cereal water goes great with cereal, obviously. But cereal water shakes are pretty nice as well. Sometimes, we like to dip cookies in our cereal water.
71) Arm Knee…
Arm knee? Arm knee!? This might be the worst case of forgetting a word we’ve seen so far! It’s right there on your body, dude! You have two of them!
72) So Sophisticated
This is probably how they call tater tots in those fancy 5-star restaurants. Lightly Battered Chicken Breast Segments with Potato Cylinders = Chicken Nuggets and Tater Tots.
73) It’s Just A Camera
We feel like this guy just had the ultimate revelation. Like his life completely changed as he realized that cameras were the ‘life screenshot machines’ he’d been searching for all this time.
74) Very Clever
This one is actually pretty impressive! She forgot the English word for chicken and needed to think fast to figure out a way to get her point across. We’d say she did a pretty good job.
75) Too Much TV, Not Enough Shakespeare
Hamlet is just the Prince of Denmark. The ‘Fresh Prince of Denmark’ is a very different thing. It probably stars Will Smith, or the Danish equivalent of Will Smith.
We rely on our brains to keep us alive and get us through hard times, but when they can’t even remember a simple word like pepperoni or excited, it becomes a little harder to trust them! What was your favorite brain fart moment from this list? Have you had any terrible memory lapses yourself? Share the list around with friends and family!