Was in a " The Hobbit" marathon yesterday (second one showing at midnight release) with my girlfriend.
After the first movie started, my girlfriend leans over to me and tells me that the person behind her is constantly rocking her chair, putting his feet against it and taking them off again, visibly shaking it.
So I turn around smiling, asking them friendly "please, it is bothering her, could you not do that, thanks" . The guy, (one of a group of 3 guys and a girl, probably students) gives me an odd smile and mumbles "sure" . After that, I can hear them asking " what did he want?" and laughing about it. They still put their feet against the chair afterwards, maybe because they do not care, and maybe because of some male bravado thing (these were not teenagers, they must have been about 20-25).
After the break and the second movie is about to begin, I switch chairs with my girlfriend, hoping that they would stop it if I am sitting there. But not only do they continue rocking the chair, they have now also taken their shoes off and have put their feet on top of the empty chair next to me (I constantly have their feet in my peripheral vision). I tap their feet and tell them " Come on man, I asked you nicely....". They take them off , but sure enough, 15 minutes later the feet are there again (I almost could have accepted it if they would not move them all the time).
At this point I become really annoyed, but am unsure what to do. I do not want to get mad and spoil both their and my own evening. So instead I address them very loudly, hoping that when I alert others of their behavior, maybe a slight sense of shame will stop them from doing it again. So I say, not whispering, but pretty loudly, " Come on man, I just want to see the movie, why are you guys rocking my chair and putting your dirty socks next to my face, "dat doe je toch niet?" (Dutch for " have some common decency", though a much stronger expression). So the guy leans over, and very quietly whispers "why does it bother you?" . I tell him (loudly again) it bothers me, and regardless, I asked you not to do it, so why would you? At this point people started looking at us. On the one hand I feel guilty because now I am bothering other people. On the other, I can tell they are uncomfortable, which is what I intended to do, and sure enough, they did not do it afterwards.
After the movie is over and we stand up, a couple behind us (sitting next to them) told my girlfriend " What a bunch of jerks" , which kind of makes me feel better about addressing them so loudly. Still, even though it should not affect me, it kind of made the whole experience a lot less fun for me, because I spent so much time being annoyed and distracted by them. And being a typical male perhaps, scenario's of them telling me to go "F" myself, and popcorn and fists flying all over the place in a fight to establish theater hierarchy had already taken place in my mind.
Ever had a situation like this? How would you deal with it? It always catches me of guard when people behave like this, and I never really have an answer for it. Other situations like this I have been in was when a girl refused to take her bag off a chair in a full train where people were standing ,and when my dad asked someone in a waiting room for a restaurant not to smoke (my dad is a really, nice guy and asked in a more friendly way than I even would be able to) the guy just flat out ignored him... ( I let it slide, knowing that we would only be there for a minute or so )
