40 Fallon Fans That Learned The True Cost Of Free Advice
By Abigail T
#Hashtags, the long-running segment on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, allows the eponymous host’s Twitter followers to share their best, worst, most awkward, and embarrassing moments with the world. From kooky roommates to hilarious teachers, car fails to mom quotes, Twitter joins in on the fun every time, even sending the hashtag for the week into the trending stratosphere. And the fun continues on Jimmy’s show when he reads out the best stories to his audience.
On one occasion, Jimmy asked his followers to tweet him the worst advice they’ve ever been given, or that they’ve ever given, using the hashtag #Badvice. The result is a bunch of chaotic energy bouncing around the Twittersphere. Here are just some of the best submissions of lousy advice we ever did hear.
Skincare advice
Between moisturizers, micellar water, jade rollers, and sheet masks, there are way too many skincare products being slathered on our faces these days. It seems it used to be much simpler to keep our faces clean, back when our grandparents were our age.
Okay, Grandma was probably only trying to help. But we don’t know where the logic of slapping bacon on a pimple to get rid of it came from. We can only assume the grease and fat on a slice of bacon would make any acne worse!
How to not get a girl
There are many people who will claim they know how to help you make your way into a girl’s heart. We’re here to tell you now that you should take every suggestion with a grain of salt. Especially if someone tells you to pull an Edward Cullen.
This Twitter user needs to evaluate his choices. To anyone who might think that girls like it when a man appears in their bedroom window, they don’t. Safe to say @paharitto probably had an uncomfortable chat with his dream girl’s mom.
The right way to drink hot chocolate
Anyone else here let their hot chocolate sit for a while before they start drinking it? It’s the worst thing when you burn your tongue drinking something that’s supposed to be sweet and decadent. So @SamanthaW42’s sister tried to help her avoid that.
Unfortunately, Samantha here was a little too trusting for her own good. Her sister was probably out to play a trick on her. We’re guessing it’s an older sister. We don’t want to imagine the pain when the scathing hot chocolate hit her tongue at full force.
A matter of taste
Everyone eats sushi in their own way. Some eat it without condiments. Some only dip it in the soy sauce while others drench their sushi in it. Others enjoy the fresh spiciness of wasabi. When it comes down to it, it’s all a matter of taste.
Sure, @LjdubAAL’s friend might like having sushi with wasabi. But “that green stuff” is not for everyone, especially not those who can’t stand the heat. While everything tasted better for him, it did not do the same thing for Lucas.
Banana peel
Older siblings are always trying to fool you into doing the most ridiculous things, often unknowingly endangering your safety. Twitter user @tiya_ivy is one of them, and look what she made her little brother do for weeks. We’re surprised he liked it enough to keep doing it.
While banana peels are edible, you do have to prepare them properly. It’s not recommended to eat raw peels! You can, however, wash it and put it in a smoothie. We hope Tiya’s brother didn’t contract any illnesses from eating raw banana peels.
Breathing underwater
Have you ever tried to breathe underwater? If your curiosity got the better of you as a child, you probably know that unless you’re in diving gear, breathing underwater doesn’t work, and it hurts. We don’t know who convinced @adryanbarrera5 to do it.
Whoever came up with this lie deserves whatever karma came their way, especially if this tweeter was only a child when they told him about this. Also, out of all the fruits, why cherry? We’re flashing back to those scented markers we had as kids.
Driving advice
Okay, this is terrible advice and is super dangerous. We know for certain that our dads would not have made this suggestion, even jokingly, when we were just learning how to drive. If we know dad humor, that’s what was really going on here. A poorly timed joke.
It still fits the #badadvice theme, because he did supposedly say it. But we think we can all agree there was no way this dad was being serious. Like, what else should we do? Wave out the window to other drivers?
Ever heard of metabolism?
Some people are just lucky enough to have a fast metabolism. This allows them to indulge in almost any amount of food they want without gaining weight. But this isn’t the case for everyone, so people with fast metabolisms can’t give blanket dietary advice.
Yes, it might seem unfair that someone can eat a lot of food and still remain thin without so much as an exercise routine. But remember that size shouldn’t be the goal! What matters is that you’re happy and healthy.
Unrealistic beauty standards
Girls are told from a young age that “pretty” means that they fit a specific type and have certain features. Barbie has been passing on this subliminal message to girls from a young age, which is probably why @duck1517 did what she did.
It’s not exactly great that Katie’s mom advised her to do this. But Katie had the power of choice. The fact that she did it means that either she was genuinely curious, or she really aspired to look like Barbie.
Survival mode
Joining a Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts group is a great way to make friends, learn new skills, and engage with nature. Everyone knows that the scout leader can make a huge difference in your experience during your time in a group.
Based on all his training, we would assume this scout leader would have known that the leaves nearby were poison ivy. What do you think? Do you blame the scout leader, or @ChrisDrewDavis for not paying attention? It could be the leader was completely joking.
Misdirecting
Have you been living in the same place your entire life, but you still get your locations and landmarks mixed up? If this is the case, you probably shouldn’t be giving other people directions. Let them follow their Google Maps.
Whoever this Twitter user gave directions to must have been so confused once they reached their destination and realized that it wasn’t the place they were looking for. But by that point it would have been too late for @enfys852 to do anything.
How to stop dizziness
Kids will really believe anything, won’t they? We are realizing that a lot of these bad advice were given to children who were too young to know any better. Just like the way @jonstamm’s brother taught him this next advice.
It’s a silly prank to pull on a little kid who just wanted to stop feeling like his head is spinning. But if it provided a bit of entertainment, any older sibling would have done it. Jon can now confidently say that this was bad advice.
Pass off a fart
There are many ways you can disguise passing gas when you’re in the presence of other people. Sneezing or coughing as you fart is one of the most common things people do. But @AbbieDean1’s brother has a much cooler alternative.
Instead of sneezing or coughing and making people think you’re contagious, why not beatbox? You can impress people with your talent and disguise the sound of your bodily function. What could be bad about this advice? The beat is too hot?
The worst advice
Yes, some of these bits of advice are pretty helpful. But nothing can prepare you for just how ludicrous this next one is. We’re not sure whether this dad was being serious or if he was just trying to see if his kid would do it.
Why? Out of all the liquids? We’re not even sure filling your ear with liquid while a bug lies inside there is a good idea. We would like this dad to please explain to the internet how @bbmaya333 “did it wrong.”
Blinker fluid
Here’s proof of the dangers of not knowing everything you need to know about your car before you start driving. If your car suddenly goes haywire, it would be really great to at least know the basic steps of solving the problem.
While “blinker fluid” might seem to make sense, it does not exist (in case you were panicking about never hearing of it). The blinker going out has nothing to do with fluid! This person would not have wasted time if they had thought about lightbulbs.
Dad prank
Older siblings aren’t the only people who trick family members into looking stupid in public. Sometimes, parents get a kick out of doing the same thing to their children. Take this bad advice from @timdrake’s dad as inspiration for your next prank.
To other visitors at the mall, this might have looked either strange or hilarious. Some random kid standing at the bottom of the escalator, yelling “go up!” to himself. Then again, it would have been way weirder if it was an adult doing this.
Disposed memories
In a world where people are so fixated on sharing photos and videos instantly, disposable cameras are a great way to make memories while also staying in the moment. You can relive the memories later on, as long as you remember to develop the rolls.
Technically, @CoboKH’s friend was not wrong. It being disposable is the whole point of one of these cameras. But with the roll still in there, you’re not only throwing the camera away. You’re also throwing away all the photos you took!
More bad dadvice
It’s starting to look like all advice from dads is #Badvice. A lot of the tweets about bad pieces of advice so far have come from dads! Take this other seemingly intelligent counsel from @Haz_Mattie’s father. We feel like he totally made this up.
Of course, curiosity got the better of his daughter! We hope this Twitter user didn’t get stung too often. If we were to guess, we’d say her dad didn’t realize this would be the result of his whimsical science “fact.”
Dangerous advice
The amount of times we’ve seen bad driving advice throughout this thread has us scared to even get in our car. Can you imagine that drivers who believe in things like @OhGodItsAvery’s brother here are out on the road every day?
Now, this is something we’ve all heard, but most of us didn’t take it seriously. Or if we did, and drove at whatever speed our hearts desired and got caught, we would have known better than to use that as an excuse.
Sushi butter
Here’s the thing. We know that this is not a good idea. But sometimes the only thing worse than someone giving bad advice is someone taking said advice. At least now we know if we’re taking someone out to sushi for the first time, we can’t assume they have heard about wasabi.
Whether it’s through movies or cooking shows, we thought it was almost impossible to not hear about wasabi. We were obviously in the wrong there. Also, we need to ask, what does he mean that he “could taste feelings afterwards”?
It’s called hairspray
There are products specifically designed to set your makeup these days. And no, it is not hairspray, which does exactly what it says on the bottle. What you were looking for before your friend gave you this advice is setting spray.
Almost every makeup brand has its own version of setting spray – which has become super popular in the last few years – and some even claim to make your makeup last for 24 hours after spraying. We can’t attest to this, but it must work better than hairspray.
Can we trust this nurse?
Apparently, you can’t trust people who are supposed to know what’s best for you. Not your dad, not your older sibling, not your scout leader, and definitely not this school nurse. We’re not doctors, but we’re pretty sure this isn’t how you stop a nosebleed.
We all know what happened when a young @DJ_crafter06 followed this advice, and it was probably quite painful for him. Also gonna make the leap and assume he got to go home that day. And he hopefully found some other way to stop the flow.
Just keep swimming
Yeah, this advice may work for Dory from Finding Nemo. It will not work for someone who is having an asthma attack while in the water. Who knew anyone would need to write that down. Once we read the first line, we already started cringing.
Sometimes you need to know when to listen to your body and take breaks. We don’t want to think about what this user must have looked like struggling in the water. Take note of how she said her “old” coach.
How to build rapport
We’re beginning to think that all dads have inherent chaotic energy in them that makes them give out advice like this to their kids. We just imagine her dad watching TV, cold one in hand, telling her to go “give ’em hell today.”
Just don’t go around punching people, that’s our sound advice. But this is the millionth example of a dad pulling out that classic dad humor. And it gave @missford306 one of the best pieces of bad advice to post for our entertainment.
Bypass embarrassment
We’ve all been there—camping trip, no toilet, in desperate need of relieving ourselves but too stressed out that someone might see us. Well, @jrpinedasanchez’s mom had a way to avoid being embarrassed as you go number 2 behind the bushes.
We’d say this advice is about 80% sound. It does prevent you from seeing anyone who might then run back to the group laughing. But it also means you can’t see any wild animals that might be lurking behind the trees, or have a good look at the leaf you’re using as toilet paper.
Not like that!
Okay, this might not necessarily be bad advice. It might just be a case of plain old brain fart. We’ll let you take a look at the advice that @sweettoothcfl’s friend gave, and tell us whether this person understood correctly.
See, the only logical explanation is that the soup is meant to be eaten, right? Next time you give someone advice like this, spell it out for them, no matter how smart you think they are. We all have days like this.
Make it work
Cars spaz out sometimes; it’s only normal. But you can’t wait too long to get the parts fixed because it can endanger both you and other drivers on the road. Alternatively, you can also try to make it work for as long as possible.
This isn’t exactly sound advice, but it’ll have to work until there’s time to bring the car to the shop. Imagine having to pick your routes so that you only make right turns. You’d take twice as long to get to your destination.
Common sense
See what we mean? Sometimes the advice was given out of concern, care, or just sarcasm. It might be good-natured advice, but the person receiving it is just not in a place to think with common sense. Exhibit A: @huntergrose.
Based on his post here, even Hunter seems to understand that, of course, the grill would be hot. And yet, there he was, putting his hand on it anyway. Not sure what he thought would happen there, but he has a funny story to tell.
How to make ice cream
Wouldn’t it be nice if ice cream was exactly that — plain frozen cream? If that was the only thing it took to make ice cream, we wouldn’t be spending tons on store-bought ice cream. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
Points to this Twitter user for trying though. We also wish we could just put milk in a container and freeze it. How cheap and easy would that be? The reality is, ice cream takes a lot of effort, including an ingredient called Xanthan gum.
Don’t take this advice
Whatever you do, don’t take this advice, even if you’re desperate and out of options. If you are suffering from a terrible sunburn, you gotta just grin and bear it. Wearing clothes will hurt. Not wearing clothes will also hurt.
The best and most well-known cure for sunburn is aloe vera gel. Whether you buy a leaf at the grocery store, or buy that glorious gel in a tub, give this cure a chance before you try out that friend’s advice.
The party floor
There’s a reason why the emergency button in elevators exist. It’s exactly what it says on the tin — to press in case of an emergency. But what if the emergency was that somebody needed to let loose a little?
Whoever gave @LeahBale21 this advice was obviously playing, but it is a hilarious thought. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a secret party floor in every building? We’d be pressing that emergency button non-stop! Just picture it, you guys.
Fake tan fail
This next one might only make sense to die-hard fans of the TV series Friends. It might also make sense if you saw Bride Wars. But basically, this Twitter user got an ill-advised fake tan and regretted it basically immediately.
Getting a spray tan before going to the beach isn’t such a bad idea. But you should be mindful of getting a very light color, because you’ll tan up even more at the beach. Sadly, @ItsJessMe2 went with the completely wrong shade.
A little too late
The advice that @amelianmd received from this college advisor wasn’t necessarily bad advice. It just came about four years too late. If Amelia had gotten this advice when she was still applying, she might have taken a completely different major.
Well, there’s only one thing to do now — soldier on. There are a lot of things you can do with an English degree. You can teach. You can write your own novel or write for a publication. A business degree doesn’t guarantee work straight out of college!
Not that kind of heat
There are so many other things you can do to get warm before you start desperately munching on jalapeños. You can put on more layers, you can turn the heating up or turn the air conditioning down, you can move around.
Once again, this tweet shows that the fatherly chaotic energy can make life more entertaining. Biting into a jalapeño pepper probably traumatized this Twitter user. They wanted to get warmer, and instead, they got a completely different kind of heat.
How are you alive?
Before reading this next tweet, we need to warn you not to tell anyone in your life to participate in this, in case you are so inclined. This is another one that got a physical reaction from us, Cringe and shudder.
How @AndreaGau survived this, we have no idea. Her actual head was under that chair, crushed by the weight of her brother jumping on it. Bet it wasn’t so “fun” going to the hospital and getting berated by their parents afterwards.
Dodging raindrops
Now, this is actually a piece of dad advice we can get behind. It by no means helps anyone in any way, but who doesn’t enjoy running in the rain, even just a little? Check out the advice @AlexTyburski’s dad gave her.
The only way we can see this tip working is if Alexandra were The Flash. Otherwise, she probably just got drenched trying to get from the car into the house. Bad advice, but arguably less endangering to one’s safety than all the other pearls of wisdom we’ve seen so far.
Headphone jack hack
Did anyone else groan in annoyance when Apple announced they were getting rid of the headphone jack on iPhones, but then proceeded to buy the newer iPhones anyway? Yeah, that’s us too. We do miss using wired headphones, but not enough to try out this advice.
The transition to Bluetooth earphones was seamless, but there are some people who are just desperate to keep using wired earphones. We don’t blame them. Airpods could cost you a kidney and a half. But it’d probably be cheaper to purchase Airpods than to have to buy a new phone because you drilled into the old one.
Unhealthy avoidance
Objectively, avoiding something bad doesn’t mean it goes away; it just means you don’t have to deal with it for a minute. While this next advice is a temporary fix, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still going to have to face the music.
We wish this was the way life worked. But we also laughed at this one because it is really cleverly hilarious and sarcastic. We are seeing that many of the best responses to this hashtag are stand-up-worthy bits of comedy.
Packing hack
This advice is just unsanitary. Please don’t take a page out of this guy’s book! If you’re traveling for any occasion, just make sure you pack enough underwear. It’s not that hard, just consider how many days you’ll be away for.
Also, depending on where you are staying, there might be a washing machine or laundry facility you can use. Flipping your underwear inside out is not something we like the sound of and we are not here for it. Dad’s at it again!
Skincare advice, part 2
People really shouldn’t be giving skincare advice unless they heard it from a legitimate source, but they will anyway. We’ve heard all kinds of advice for getting rid of acne, from bacon to cheesy broccoli soup. But this one is by far the worst.
Why on earth would sticking urine on your face work? This isn’t a jellyfish sting at the beach, you know. And we can just imagine the mortification of getting this advice as a teen in church. Like, thanks, but no thanks, Karen.