Writer and illustrator Aubrey Hirsch jokingly asked her followers on X (formerly Twitter) what’s a “universal thing that most men like?” because she was writing a comic and “just realized I don’t actually know any men in real life.” The tweet inspired an avalanche of funny responses.
Hirsch is the author of “Why We Never Talk About Sugar,” a collection of short stories, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Vox, American Short Fiction and TIME Magazine.
The interesting thing about the responses is that they weren’t the typical stereotypes about men. She didn’t get a ton of people talking about sex, sports or toxic masculinity. Instead, there were a lot of folks that mentioned very specific male behaviors as if they were talking about a bizarre species they discovered in the wild.
The two things that dominated the thread
There were, undeniably, two things that got the most comments on her post. First, men enjoy watching construction sites. Evidently, the phenomenon is so popular in Italy that there is a specific word for this type of person in Italian.
When asked why men enjoy watching construction sites so much, a poster on Reddit had the perfect response. “I just find it really satisfying and interesting to see the process behind things being built,” he wrote.
The other beloved male activity is throwing heavy objects into bodies of water. Preferably, as large a rock as possible, and as deep a body of water as possible, and getting to throw from the highest vantage point possible.
Gotta say, as a man, I have seen dudes do this and I have done it plenty of times myself.
A few more that rang true
Here are some more fun ones:
(When we do this 99% of the time we’re pretending that the sign is 10 feet high and that we have the ability to dunk a basketball. There are two types of men, those that can dunk and mere mortals.)
This one is near and dear to my heart. I can’t tell you the number of hours I have spent with my friends just throwing lines from “The Big Lebowski” back and forth.
“Nice marmot.”
“The Dude abides.”
“Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, Dude. At least it’s an ethos.”
Another dude buddy pic that has cemented its place among the most quotable is “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.”
“All right, that’s too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?” … “Rick, it’s a flamethrower.”
Lastly, we’ll never pass up the opportunity to say hello to a complete stranger wearing our exact same hat, or re-live some sports-related glory days.
Okay, everyone is an individual human. but there is certainly a lot to laugh at, and connect to, with this list.
This story originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
