Generally speaking, it's hard to get a rise out of calm people. They typically have a lot of patience, empathy, and understanding. So when a calm person suddenly loses their cool, you know someone has done something awful. The reactions of calm people when they finally snap are often even grander than a person who has a short temper. That's because they've got all this emotion building up inside them and they don't know how to handle it.
That's when the real explosions occur, and they can be quite satisfying to witness, as in all likelihood. Enjoy these tales of calm people in their rare moments of rage. They are a pleasant reminder that it is not a bad idea to speak up once in a while when someone has wronged you.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 This Guy Has Some Seriously Bad Parents
I always felt like my parents never wanted me. I was a surprise honeymoon baby born nine months after their wedding, and growing up, I was regularly screamed at for anything I did. I was called "the practice child" my whole life, and my younger siblings got way more love and attention. In my teens, my parents even started taking in "strays."
If any neighborhood kids didn't want to go home, they were allowed to be at our house. Effectively, my mother would take my friends away from me and make them HER friends instead. One of the kids she befriended picked on me constantly in middle school. I guess they had that in common. That guy was kicked out of his parents' house when he was 20, so my parents took him in permanently. That destroyed me.
But I always wanted their approval, so I was always calm and agreeable. I desperately tried to figure out how to get them to love me. Years later, I got married and had a son. Believe it or not, the guy still lives with my parents. They continue to coddle and make excuses for him while criticizing me for whatever they feel like.
One day, we were all at my parents' house and my son was being a goofy two-year-old. The man-child living there started to get annoyed; so much so that he picked my son up by his ankle and spanked him. My parents claimed not to have seen it. We went home. I couldn't sleep that night because I was so upset. The next morning, I made sure to confront them with my wife.
I dumped everything that had been building up inside me for years on them in the span of an hour. I ended up crying because of all the pent-up emotion, so my fantastic wife took over. She said we wouldn't be coming back if the guy still lived there. He yelled back at her, saying that he would move out just so he didn't have to put up with us any longer.
My parents convinced him not to move out shortly after we left. My mother expressed how disappointed she was that I didn't come "to have a conversation," and only came to "dump" everything on them. THAT was her big takeaway from everything I said. That I wasn't being "fair" to them. We went to counseling with them later. It lasted for months. It validated everything I had felt, but they never stopped lying and being defensive.
One counselor said we should be on Dr. Phil. Another counselor said my mom was "incapable of empathy." Both counselors called my parents delusional. But of course, my parents didn't take any of that seriously. At one point, my dad asked me, "Who does he think he is to judge us like that?" I haven't spoken to them in almost a year, and my life is so much better.
#2 Don't Mess With This Guy's Brother Or Else
My brother and I played sports as kids. On one trip, I was at the pool with some of our teammates and we were messing around in the water. The coach's kid was being a jerk, as usual. My brother was one of the smaller kids on his team so the coach's son would mess with him a lot. Most of the kids on my brother's team disliked him but didn't speak up to avoid being his next target.
He thought it would be funny to pick up my brother's drink right in front of him and spit into it. My dad taught me from a young age not to let anyone mess with my brother or sister, so I got mad. I took a good running start and shoulder checked him into the pool. Since he had just gotten there, he hadn't taken his clothes off yet and cried because his phone and iPod got ruined.
He literally ran out yelling, "I'm telling my dad!" Well, that backfired, because everyone stuck up for my brother and the coach was not happy to find out what a bully his son was.
#3 Work Is Generally Not More Important Than Family
My grandfather passed away, so I told my boss that I had to take a couple of days off to be with my family. He had the nerve to tell me work was more important than family and he even threatened to fire me. I went off on him in the middle of the office for a solid five minutes before quitting and rushing home.
#4 She's A Hero For Standing Up For Those Cats
A lady came to the shelter to see the cats. She asked if she could give them treats and I said yes. When she got the bag out, the cats started getting wild with anticipation, yet she just stood there laughing and tempting them without giving them anything. She looked like she enjoyed their anxiety. Soon after, I lost it—I grabbed the bag out of her hands, gave treats to the cats and asked her to leave. Those cats are already stressed out, they didn't need more anxiety.
#5 Insurance Companies Usually Deserve To Be Yelled At
I lost it when my patient got her pre-authorization for a surgery involving a large grapefruit-sized pelvic mass but was still denied by the insurance company. When I did a peer-to-peer, the doctor working for the insurance company said I needed to have a psychiatrist rule out mental causes of her pain first. I had to walk away for 30 minutes before seeing another patient because had anyone given me any more lip, I might have gotten violent.
#6 Incompetence From The Government Is Not Easy To Deal With
#7 That's The Last Time She Does Him A Favor
My friend is bad at math. One time, it took me 10 minutes to explain a problem. He told me he didn't get it, so I sat there and explained the problem more deeply. After 30 minutes, he took out his in-ear headphones (he had been covering it with his hand), saying, "Oh sorry I wasn't listening to you. I found this amazing playlist." I lost it.
#8 Rude Customers Are The Worst
I worked at a diner with an open kitchen. I was the only cook during the lunch rush when I heard a lady shout, "Hey!" I looked over and a lady sitting in a booth pointed at me. She made a very condescending "come here motion" with her finger. I thought something was wrong with her food, so I decided to run out of the kitchen (leaving four orders on the grill) to see what I could fix.
She had no food on her table. She held her blue soda cup out to me and asked, "What is this? Why is my root beer in a soda cup and not a mug?" I replied, "I don't know I'm just the cook." Then, she had the audacity to say, "Oh great, another freaking idiot in this freaking place who doesn't know anything!"
We did have special root beer mugs, but the servers couldn't find them—someone had probably misplaced them. I apologized and headed back into the kitchen while she was loudly talking smack about me to the next booth. When I got back to the grill, I realized all of my orders were ruined. It was already stressful working in a kitchen and that was the last straw.
I went in the back, then started kicking the heck out of the walk-in cooler. When I went back out, everyone was quiet and avoided eye contact, even the lady with the issues. I rushed through the orders and thank goodness she left without saying anything. I didn't get in trouble since my manager was serving and had to deal with her as well. He understood.
#9 Unwarranted Parental Advice Doesn't End Well For This Lady
My son was maybe eight months old when he was diagnosed as profoundly deaf. Deaf kids will often inhale to make vibrations and noise that they can somewhat “hear” for stimulation. We were on pins and needles as I had just lost my job, so we had no insurance to cover the cochlear implant surgery. It cost $170,000...
We’d have to sell the house and one of the cars. We needed a break and our in-laws took us to the food court at a local mall. Our boy started to inhale and gasp. “He needs a beating,” a fat, twenty-something said not-so-quietly to her friends at the table next to us. I rarely curse in public and am generally non-confrontational, but a stream of insulting profanity flooded from my mouth for a good 10 minutes that would have put a sailor to shame.
I found I couldn’t stop. I insulted her, her mother, her weight, and her pinched faced friends. I launched into how fat she was, how she’d only be able to reproduce with a blind drunk moron with a deathwish as she was uglier than the devil’s rear end on fire. And it only progressed from there. Lee Ermy’s Marine Drill Sargent from Full Metal Jacket would have told me to tone it down a bit.
I told her he was deaf and that we couldn’t stop it and this was a goshdarn food court in a stupid Southern town filled with stupid mutant troglodytes that embarrass normal troglodytes. The food court was silent and all the eyes were upon us. And then it progressed from there. She got up and left crying. I can honestly say the whole rant was involuntary, like a puss-filled boil popping and draining in a torrent. I had never done anything like this before and have not done it since. I feel bad for her to this day.
#10 No One Likes The DMV
On my seventh freaking trip to the DMV, when I tried to reinstate my license, they scrutinized my paperwork. They always managed to find something “wrong” and would send me away to fix it. "You have no proof that you ever had a license,” they said to me, despite my piles of paperwork showing my driving record, among other things.
I refused to leave the seat and said, “You people are freaking monsters.” A manager was called. We argued, and he said he believed that I had had a license, but there was just no proof, and he couldn’t risk accepting my paperwork in case someone checked it. I said I refused to leave the seat until I knew exactly what was needed.
The manager said, “Tell you what, let me contact your state rep,” and get a verification that I had had a license there. It would take three minutes. That’s when I yelled in the DMV: “WHY WASN’T THAT THE FIRST FREAKING THING YOU SAID?” Anyway, I got my license back.
#11 "Cows Are Dumb"
#12 A Sixth Grader Takes Bullies Into His Own Hands
In sixth grade, a group of four kids took the monopoly of the back of the bus—a true power move. I always minded my own business and tried to sit away from them. For one, they all didn't understand basic hygiene and smelled even though they were older than me. Anyway, turns out the bus driver was their quiet, retired Grandpa, who would never tell them to stop bullying or doing dumb stuff.
So one time they were having a spitting war, spitting across the seats at each other as they jumped seats for cover. At one point, I was in the seat in the middle, and a giant wad of their disgusting spit hit me square in my face. I then proceeded to take my Pearson history book (one of those big heavy hardcover textbooks) and smash him over the head with it. Granted, this was after telling them to stop their nonsense several times. The spitting stopped after that. Anyway, the book cover cracked and I had to pay at the end of the year, but I regret nothing.
#13 The Man Just Wanted To Witness His Child's Birth
My wife was due to give birth on a date I had a trial. The state attorney's 0ffice refused to consent to a continuance, insisting they were going to be ready for a trial that day. The date arrived and I went to the courthouse to find out that the SAO didn't have one of their witnesses. They ended up asking for a continuance anyway.
Needless to say, I lost my cool arguing against. The judge, of course, allowed them to have a continuance. I swore I'd never practice in that court again (it's one known around here for being especially friendly to the prosecution, to the point of absurdity). My wife gave birth the next day, and I've never been back to the jurisdiction. The state ultimately dropped charges against my client because they didn't have a critical witness.
#14 Throwing Out Other People's Things Without Asking Is Just Wrong
#15 Never Lie To A Nurse
#16 Speaking Up Got Her Father The Help He Needed
I was home packing my stuff to get ready for when my husband was out of basic training. I NEVER yell or even raise my voice to anyone, ever. My dad always had a wicked temper, and my sister also had a knack for starting yelling matches with him. One night, she forgot to do something she was supposed to, and the yelling started again.
I ignored it up until he called her stupid. It got under my skin, so I spoke up a little saying that he shouldn't call her that. He hollered back, "You are MY daughters, I can talk to you however I want!" That's when I snapped. I saw red for the first time in my life, and I completely lost it. I screamed back at him, saying how I was tired of him treating us like garbage when he lost his temper, how we hid in the back room with my mom until he cooled off, and how all I wanted was to visit my family before I had to move 12 hours away from them.
I also threatened that if he EVER wanted to see me again, then he needed to shut up and sit in the corner until he was done throwing a fit. I yelled at him for the first time in my life for a solid 30 minutes. I didn't stop until everything I had to say built over the years was out, and I saw him go from red-faced angry, to what seemed to be guilt-ridden.
When I finally stopped, he was quiet. He didn't say a word and walked away. Shortly after I moved out, he went to a doctor and has been put on some medication to help with his anger issues. Now he's super friendly, and I haven't heard him throw a tantrum as he used to in over 10 years now. He has never spoken poorly to me or my sister since then either.
#17 Revenge Is Sweet
#18 Harassing People Will Get You In Trouble Sooner Or Later
I got harassed by an angry guy trying to do something sketchy with custody paperwork. The supervisor was aware something weird was going on. The guy escalated, disturbing other customers, and he eventually asked for my supervisor. The supervisor said he’d be out in a minute. The guy got impatient and started yelling at me. I repeated that he'd be out in a moment. The guy yelled something like, “Well, he can’t be that busy if he just has to supervise the likes of you!” So I picked up the phone and loudly told my supervisor, “Hey, you may want to hurry up because you can’t be that busy if all you do is supervise the likes of me!” The guy ran out the door at that point. Coward.
#19 Teachers Tend To Side With The Kid Getting Bullied
#20 Retail Workers Do Not Handle Misbehaving Kids Well
Back when I was working retail, I was manning the return desk when this woman came in to " return" two totes full of clearance clothes. She wanted to rebuy them all since clearance stuff was now cheaper. That was against the rules and I explained that to her, but as per usual, she requested for a manager and the manager caved.
Since she bought this stuff on three different receipts, the transaction was going to take 30 minutes at least to fix. I was frustrated but hiding it well. Fifteen minutes in, I heard some commotion off to the side. I turned my head and saw the woman's five or so completely unsupervised kids piled on to a flat cart, pushing it around.
I don't know why it set me off so bad, but I pointed and yelled at them, raising my voice for the first and last time during my 10-year stint. The entire place fell silent and the customer was so mad at her kids that she took her stuff and left. A couple of coworkers said seeing me get angry was really unsettling... a blessing and curse that comes with being the quiet one, I guess.
#21 Just Another Day In The Life Of A Nurse
In healthcare, you get yelled at a lot for stupid stuff. But one patient crossed the line. She didn’t like that I called the previous hospital she was at the night before to get her records so I could see what was done. It's a completely legal practice and it's done all the time so things aren’t missed or repeated unnecessarily. Plus, she signed a release so we could do it.
She then came out of her room and threw a full styrofoam cup of her #1 at me. I dodged it by a millimeter but it ruined a computer monitor. She then said, “Witch! I'm going to leave here and MESS UP YOUR FAMILY!” That's when I lost my cool. I screamed for security and personally put her back in her room with the help of every tech and nurse in the emergency department.
We four-point restrained her because she was out of control and her behavior was a danger to the staff. We also called the police. Once we got the records from the previous hospital, we found out she pulled the same act to a lesser degree the night before. After she was medically cleared, the police took her to jail and my final words to her were, “Good luck in the slammer!” She was charged with battery and given jail time.
#22 Sometimes Your Closest Friends Are The Ones Who Set You Off
My friend and I were walking home from high school. He kept lightly tripping me during the whole walk home and it was bothering me. I kept asking him to stop but he wouldn’t. For context, I did get picked on in high school, so maybe this moment just was the breaking point for some other incident. When we got near where we would separate, he did the tripping thing one last time and I lost it.
I swung my backpack at him. Here’s the part where he really messed up. He was carrying a balsa wood bridge home that he needed to complete for some class. When I swung the backpack he dropped the bridge. I ran directly at him but then saw another, better target. I could’ve kicked a 60-yard field goal. I grabbed my bag, turned and walked as he stared at his scattered work saying in a shocked voice “You broke my bridge.” I replied, “I don’t care,” or something to that effect. Fifteen years later and he’s still one of my best friends.
#23 Yoga Time Is Quiet Time
Two incredibly oblivious and annoying women loudly talked their way through a yoga class hosted at Red Rocks Amphitheater amongst 2,000 other yogis. They sat on their mats, talked and took selfies for the hour-long class. They talked their way through Shavasana—the end portion of the class that is silent and meant to be the ultimate reward for finishing a class. I thought maybe my proximity to them was the reason I heard, but when others around me made comments I went over and scolded these grown lady babies. One said sorry, the other didn’t acknowledge me.
#24 Timeshare Presentations Don't Have A Good Reputation In The First Place
#21 Good On Her For Standing Up For Her Mom
At the time of this incident, I was a generally quiet, respectful 14-year old girl. My mom had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and she was preparing to embark on a very tough six months of treatment. My dad came over for some unknown reason (my parents are divorced) and he lost his temper over something.
He started standing over my mom and yelling at her while she was crying on the couch. I'd never gotten involved in this stuff before, but I got right in his face and shouted at him to get out. I escorted him to the door, reminded him that my mom was dealing with way bigger stuff than whatever petty thing he was angry about, and slammed the door behind him.
#26 When The Quiet Kid Raises His Voice, It Can Be Startling
I'd been dealing with listening to my dad and his ex-girlfriend have screaming matches for like a year. They started again one evening and she addressed me, demanding me to fuel her argument against my dad. I was just trying to play a game at the time. I just snapped and screamed, "I don't know and I don't care. I'm tired of your fighting." It wasn't much, but I've never raised my voice ever and I think it just stunned them both into silence. She walked out of the house.
#27 He Probably Threw The Dress Away Specifically To Make Her Angry
#28 A Failed Attempt At Flirting
#29 Kicking Dogs Should Be A Crime
#30 Dads Have A Say About Their Children Too
#31 Shawty Snapped
#32 A Mother Ruins Her Own Son's Wedding
My mother spent my wedding reception complaining to my best friend, saying I should’ve married her. We had a dry reception, but she spent a lot of it out in the parking lot. The time came and went for the mother and son dance, and she was nowhere to be found. She came back in as we were cleaning up and getting ready to leave. She proceeded to complain that I ignored her and she felt disrespected. At this point, I couldn’t take it anymore. I threw a table against the wall, and my new wife and I left for our hotel. This is now a great joke among us and our friends, and we joke that it needs to become a tradition for our kids. I’ve not spoken to my mother in the 12 years since.
#33 It Was The Florist's Fault
I had things all set up to play piano with a string quartet for a wedding ceremony in a church. The grand piano was up front, near the couple, with the organ in the rear to be used later. When I entered the church, I found that the florist had placed a large vase of roses on the grand piano, using the sheet music for the string quartet underneath the vase to absorb water. Rarely do I lose my cool, but I did that time. And members of the string quartet told him in no uncertain terms where he could stick those roses as they tried to salvage their soaked music scores.
#34 This Surgeon Is So Calm His Loud Sigh Left People On Edge
As a surgeon, I try to remain calm and steady about almost everything. Even the staff comments about it; how I’m the calmest surgeon they’ve ever met. One time, while taking out someone’s gallbladder, the assistant needed to grab it and hold it up so I could free some stuff up. A newer person was helping me and moving a little too fast without seeing where their instrument was going. When the camera found their grasper, they ended up poking a small hole in the liver. I let out an audible sigh and a small grumble. It ended up not bleeding all that much and the rest of the surgery went fine.
#35 The Headaches Just Kept Piling Up
I was driving to work several years ago. It was about a 40-minute drive during winter in Minnesota. There was a small chip in my windshield. I headed to work at 5 a.m. First, my gas pedal froze down, so I was going 100 mph while trying to reach down and unstick my pedal. I got it unstuck and avoided a heart attack. I came upon stop-and-go traffic not five minutes later.
As I was sitting in traffic, I watched the aforementioned chip in my windshield start to spider. Slowly, a large crack moved across the glass. I could feel the rage building, the seething anger nothing could stop. I completely lost my mind with rage in the car. I calmed down enough to take my exit. It was about three miles from the exit to work. I got pulled over in the parking lot, at work, for a cracked windshield. I lost it for about 20 minutes in the parking lot after the officer left. Then I went to work.
#35 The Guy Crossed The Line By Pouring Beer On Him At A Club
This happened in some club ages ago. I was bouncing around on the dance floor with everybody else and accidentally stepped on some guy's foot who had been standing there with his posse of two or three other guys. I shrugged and apologized, then turned around to leave. Right then, "somebody" smacked me in the back of the head. Not hard, but too hard to ignore.
I turned around, still calm, and said something like, "Look, I'm gonna walk this way, you guys stay here and nothing more needs to happen." I turned back around and got smacked in the head again. I was very much angry at that point. It didn't help that they looked at me all innocent. I couldn't even tell which one of them did it. So I just stuck my finger in the face of the dude whose foot I allegedly stepped on and recommended he don't do it again.
Turned around once more, waiting to get smacked in the head again. This time they poured a glass of beer in my back. That's when I completely lost my mind. I threw myself around and went straight at the guy. I was in full rage mode. I didn't care what happened next as long as that guy suffered. I could tell by the terrified look on his face he realized he had gone too far.
His friends never stepped in to help him. After a while, people separated us and that was that. I have no sympathy at all for people who resort to violence for solving their problems, but I feel no shame for having snapped in that situation. I think I did everything in my power to avoid what eventually happened.
#37 The Detention Was Worth It
This girl viciously bullied me in school. She told everyone I was a lesbian (we attended an all girl's school, and that made you a social pariah). Even the foreign exchange students started rumors that my dad was gay. They threw paper at me during class and did other nasty taunts. In history class, she sat behind me and started kicking me through the hole in the back of my chair. I told her to stop it several times, but she kept doing it. I turned around and stabbed her in the leg with a pencil. I got detention but she left me alone after that.
#38 What A Quiet Kindergartner Will Do When Pushed To His Limit
I was always a really quiet kid, even as a toddler apparently. So one of the first times I remember losing my cool was when I got really tired of this third-grader picking on me on the bus. I was in kindergarten and this kid kept popping his head over my seat and poking me. I timed it out and the next time he did I slapped him straight in the nose. He immediately started bleeding and crying. I didn't know it at the time but apparently, the kid's parents tried to get some disciplinary action against me. That was until they found out I wasn't the same age or older. They just didn't want to make a big stink out of their kid getting slapped by a kindergartner.
#39 Perhaps His Ego Got The Best Of Him
#40 This Bully Made The Wrong Kind Of Joke And Paid For It
My dad was in the hospital after having a stroke. I was 14 at the time and still in school. This absolute little jerk of a kid kept going on about how my dad was going to pass, that he deserved it, etc. I put up with it all morning but at lunch he cornered me. Normally I took all the beatings and bullying, but not that day. I lost it on him and everything went black. I don't remember what happened, but apparently, it took three adults to pull my 14-year-old, 100-pound self off him. I regret nothing. He didn't mess with me after that.
#41 Who Shoots A Firework At A Young Trick-Or-Treater?
It was Halloween and I was sitting out in front of my house watching my sister take my niece, who was around four years old, trick-or-treating. The people who lived above us (we lived in a maisonette) decided to shoot a firework at them. This was the only time I ever lost my cool. I got them inside the house and made sure they were alright—sister had only a few non-serious burns on her arm and she had managed to shield my niece from the explosion.
At that point, I was just so angry, I went up to their door and started banging on it demanding they came out. They didn't answer so I started trying to kick the door in. My mom and brother dragged me away and back inside to calm me down. Half an hour later, the police arrived because the neighbors had called them about me. Luckily, after we explained what had actually happened, I didn't get in any trouble. But neither did they.
#42 Just A Brother Teaching Another Brother Right From Wrong
My brother can be disrespectful towards other people. He is a nice kid but he takes games too seriously. I called him out and he tried to justify his awful behavior. I got so angry I grabbed his arm way too hard and explained to him that was not okay to treat friends or anyone for that matter like that. He gave me a super angry look but then broke into tears when he realized I was right. Then we hugged it off.
#43 Don't Touch Her Pasta
I was having lunch at work and asked this guy to grab my pasta out of the microwave because he was already coming to the table. This guy is known as the scab of the company—always asking for everyone else's food during the break. I’m also a first-year apprentice and he’s a tradesman, so he makes a lot more than me and I’m expected to just do what he says, but it was lunchtime and this was barely even asking for a favor. Just pick up a small container turn around and push it across the table.
So he does it and says, “Okay cool, you owe me some pasta now.” I was like, “Nah, but really, no,” but before I finished saying anything he dug his nasty hands into my lunch, pinches a couple of pasta, and puts it in his mouth At this point, I just raged it. I told him he was a lazy jerk among some other choice words. He’s my senior at work but this was lunchtime and he crossed a line. He got shut down. Don’t touch my pasta.
