Being asked obvious questions gets annoying at times, right?
There is a bit of an unintentional joke right there by asking you that – because if you’re here, you get annoyed by being asked obvious questions.
Don’t feel bad.
Many people – myself included – get annoyed by being asked questions that the person asking clearly knows the answer to.
It’s a waste of time and energy if nothing else.
The best comeback I’ve found is to respond with a sarcastic answer.
This always seems to get the message across and make the person think twice about asking silly questions in the future.
To help you out, I’ve put together a list of the best sarcastic answers you can use to obvious questions to get the point across yourself:
Sarcastic Answers to Obvious Questions
- Do I really need to answer that?
- Is this some sort of test? Because the answers are way too easy.
- You could have answered the question yourself in the time it took to ask it.
- I’m trying to figure out what you want to hear me say to that question….
- Are you actually looking for a truthful answer?
- Do you always ask people obvious questions?
- I’m going to give you some time to figure out the answer to that one.
- Weird, I was going to ask you the same thing.
- Haven’t you asked that before?
- Is it really worth me spending the time to answer that?
- Are you looking for reassurance?
- I’ll give you a minute to figure it out first, let me know if you’re still stuck.
Related – 65+ responses to annoying everyday questions!
Examples of Some Obvious Questions and Sarcastic Answers
A lot of questions are going to be specific to something that requires a quick-witted, sarcastic, and even savage answer sometimes.
I think some of these will be familiar:
When someone can clearly see you have a pen and asks, “Do you have a pen I could borrow, please?”
Your answer – “Yes, I do.”
When someone is watching what you’re doing and asks, ”What are you doing?”
Your answer – “Why don’t you tell me?”
When someone can see you’re clearly leaving a room and asks, “Are you leaving?”
Your answer – “Nope, just putting my coat on because it’s cold in here.”
When someone asks you, “Are you ok?”
Your answer – “What do you think?”
When you’ve just done something that was clearly fun and someone asks, “Was it fun?”
Your answer – “Nope.”
Why Do People Ask Questions They Know the Answer To?
When someone asks a question they know the answer to, it’s called “rhetorical affirmation”
Rhetorical questions are questions that are asked merely for effect. Something like someone asking themselves, “why the heck did I just do that?”
It’s not like you’re asking yourself that question to find the answer, right. It just comes naturally to say it out loud if you’ve done something you wish you hadn’t.
Rhetorical affirmation is when someone is looking to express themselves, validate what they’re asking, and dig for a little more information
Taking one of the above examples, if someone asks if you’re leaving when you clearly are – they want you to affirm that you’re leaving and tell them why.
It’s likely that the person asking feels as if asking “why are you leaving?” would be too direct and confrontational.
Related – Awesome comebacks to use in an argument.
Should You Get Annoyed by Being Asked Obvious Questions?
The simple answer to this question is “no”, ideally you shouldn’t get annoyed when people ask you obvious questions.
This is easier said than done, however, so don’t feel bad if you find yourself getting irritated by obvious questions.
It also depends on how often you’re being asked questions that you don’t feel like you should be answering.
Everyone has a limit as to how much they can take.
If there are one or more people around you that are constantly asking irritating or obvious questions, I don’t blame you for getting annoyed.
This is why you need to arm yourself with plenty of sarcastic responses – it should soon put a stop to the onslaught of annoying questions.
Wrapping up
Good luck, I hope you’re now well equipped with witty and sarcastic answers to put someone in their place next time they ask you an obvious question.
If you have any good sarcastic comebacks that have worked for you or you’d like to share, please do and I’ll add them to the list – thanks!
Image credits – Photo by Bewakoof.com Official on Unsplash
Phil lives in England, UK, and has around 20 years experience as a professional life, career and executive coach. He started this blog to help others find and define their own self development journey. Blogging about a wide range of topics to help facilitate a better future.
Obvious question,”What are you doing?” Answer, “Taking a bath”