There’s a certain sense of satisfaction that comes with being proven right, especially when others doubted you. We dive into the delightful tales of individuals who seized the opportunity to say those triumphant words: “I told you so!” From hilarious predictions to vindications of wisdom, get ready for a dose of smugness as people share their most memorable and satisfying ‘I told you so’ moments. So sit back, enjoy, and relish in the sweet taste of being right!
I was a little kid, came home from school one day with the sudden urge to plant a tree. So, I took a lemon from the kitchen counter, cut it open, and extracted a couple of seeds. My mom finds out what I’m planning to do, and says, “That’ll never work! Lemon trees grow in the tropics, and besides, these lemons are genetically modified!”
~8 years later and there is a big*ss lemon tree that sits in the corner of my kitchen, I always point to it whenever my mom doubts me.
I went to my first baseball practice of the season at 10 years old. I played catcher most of the time so my father told me “If they don’t have catcher gear then do not play catcher. You’ll get a foul ball in the face.” Sure enough, they had no catcher’s gear yet. The coach told me to go play catcher and I refused. He got mad and yelled at me to get in there. I refused based on no gear. So the coach, visibly pissed, goes in and plays catcher. The very first pitch comes off the top of the bat and drills him in the eye. He was pouring blood everywhere. He looked at me and said, “Don’t even say it!”
I told my mom the ‘free puppy’ she was getting shipped to her was a scam, she didn’t believe me because ‘they have a website and I’m in constant contact with the breeder’
She thought that the breeder just had an overstock and was shipping a f*ckin teacup Yorkie to her for free because the breeder just wanted them to go to a new home. They kept asking for more and more money due to complications at the airport for vaccines/crate costs etc that they assured her they would reimburse her for. She even had the audacity to ask me to borrow money because she didn’t have any more cash to send them.
2 weeks later she called me crying and told me she should’ve listened to me. At least now anytime someone even remotely wants money from her she calls me to ask me if it’s ok first.
I told my (ex) boyfriend that the reason his car was shaking and making an awful noise was because he needed his wheels balanced. He told me over and over again “That’s not it, there must be a dent in the rim, the axle must be cracked, it’s going to cost me hundreds of dollars to fix, I’d rather just deal with the shaking, etc.” After months of me telling him that driving around like that couldn’t be good for the car, he finally took his car in.
Him: So how much is this going to cost me?”
Mechanic: Thirty bucks…. if you’d come in earlier. How long has the car been shaking?
Him: Uh.. about 3 or 4 months.
Mechanic: Well if you’d come in when it first started, we could’ve fixed it for $30. Now that tire is shot, and we don’t recommend just buying one new tire. Your alignment is also f*cked as a result, it’s gonna take some work.
Me: “You don’t need a smug ‘I told you so’ from me. And smug it would be, because tell you I most certainly did.”
In high school, I was at a party where everyone was getting drunk. I had come with two friends and near the end of the night this one guy there was losing everyone into his van to get late-night food. He swore he was not drunk and there were so many people in his car, including the two people I came with, it was not a battle I was going to win.
But it seemed like an obviously dumb situation; a bunch of underage kids packed into a van driving around in the suburbs at 1:00 in the morning. I told my friends that this wasn’t a good idea and they need to get out of the van and come back going with me (my house was within walking distance). They acted like I was a party pooper for a sec but then they got out.
The next day I find out the guy driving ran a red light and got t-boned by a truck. The one kid in the back almost died and everyone got banged up. The friends I pulled out of the van were in the backseat along with him.
Not saying I saved their lives but… I really may have saved their lives.
My newborn baby was projectile vomiting after every feeding. I took her to the doctor several times, and always ended up being sent away with suggestions to try a different formula. I tried like 4 different ones, no change. On the 4th or 5th visit, they sent me away again with the same recommendation even though I pleaded with them to figure out what was wrong with my baby. I left the office and drove to the ER instead. She ended up having emergency surgery that day. The surgeon said she would have starved to death (or maybe dehydrated?) had she gone much longer without the surgery. I gave the doctors in that office a piece of my mind.
Almost a decade ago I was with some friends at a restaurant where another friend of mine was a waiter. He came over and told us that Meryl Streep had a reservation and was going to show up soon. We were going to leave at the time but opted to stick around to see her (all of us big fans), but the time came and went and she never showed.
At some point in the night, we ended up going outside to smoke, and a guy in a cast and on crutches was obviously heading to the restaurant, but it only had stairs. I (possibly a bit silly after a few glasses of wine, I’ll admit) said that we should help him out, and my friends all laughed at me. Regardless, I helped him up the stairs, and then we went inside and had a few more drinks. As we were finally leaving (yes, one of those nights), the same guy was leaving and my friends laughed and asked if I was going to help him out again.
Regardless of their snickering, I did intend to do so. And as I approached him, it happened. Meryl Streep was right behind him, and he turned to her and said, “This is the guy I mentioned earlier.” She came over to me and said, “Thank you so much for helping my brother. There need to be more people like you in this world,” and gave me a big hug and peck on the cheek. My friends were all just standing and staring with their mouths wide open in shock.
A guy at my work devoted a lot of time to s*xually harassing me. One day, he got aggressive and started pretending like he was joking. I told him to stop and that it hurt. I told him if he ever touched me again I’d beat the f*ck out of him. He freaked out and said that I couldn’t threaten him and he was going to tell the big boss. Now, I’m a chick that will always put myself before anyone else. I’ll tell you what I did wrong and take my punishment. So, I beat him to the bosses and told them everything that had happened. Turns out I got written up for threatening him and apparently “leading” his harassment on.
Flash forward a month later. He harasses another girl and all his lies start falling apart and he was fired. I went straight to my boss and said “Well…I told you so.”
I never did get an apology.
In college (in the mountains) we were all drinking, the police came and the Freshman (underage) start to run the wrong way, I try to tell one of em, “You can’t go that way!”, to which he replied, “F*ck you man!” so I just shrugged and let his dumb *ss go. About a week later I saw the same freshman with his leg in a cast… He fell down the side of the mountain- where I tried to tell him not to go and broke his leg. Told ya so.
Since I was 14, my throat got itchy when I ate apples. I told my mom but she thought I just didn’t want to eat apples and forced me to eat them.
Went to the doctor’s office and got a test for allergies.
Turns out, I’m allergic to apples, peaches, and many other fruits.
I got hit in the face with a softball when I was 8. I told my mother that it really hurt and that I thought it was broken. But since I wasn’t crying enough, she thought that it must be OK and ice would be sufficient.
8 years later I was at the doctor’s office with my mother (new doctor) and he asked when I had broken my nose. My mother was horrified.
My partner and I were broke and struggling to make ends meet, but we always kept money in the budget for fun or takeout nights.
One night we decided to get fish and chips. My partner had never ordered from that particular place before, but it was my favourite so he knew it’d be good. We don’t have a lot of money to spare, so I know we had to order smart. “We’ll only order what we need.”
We start driving and I’m about to call, and my partner tells me he wants to order $10 worth of chips. For those of you who don’t know how much that is, a scoop of chips is usually about $2-$3. I tried to tell him that it was a ridiculous order and that this particular fish and chip shop was very generous with their portions, which is why it was one of my favourites. He was adamant about $10 chips, and that he was so hungry that it was not like any would be wasted. We had a mini argument in the car, and I finally gave up and said, “Fine, order your chips but you had better eat them all!”
We get to the fish and chip shop and we go to the counter to pay, and the old fellow who runs the shop comes over to serve us. We tell him what order we’re here to collect.
“That order is yours?” He goes. I start to shake my head and smile. “Yes,” my partner replies. “And it’s… just for you two?” The old man asks, looking concerned. “Ah… yes…” At this point, I start laughing. “I tried to tell him.” We both laugh and my partner realises his mistake when the old guy pulls out two huge parcels of chips. One of those alone would have fed a full family.
We all laughed our little hearts out, thanked the man, and went home to eat our fish and chips. And no, he didn’t eat them all. We didn’t even get through the first parcel!
Now whenever we need the other person to trust our judgement on something, we say, “$10 chips.” And the other person will always relent.
It still cracks me up every time I think about his face when the old man gave us our order.
My sister and I were out sledding when we were kids at this place with a really steep hill. I had unknowingly gone down a sled path that had a jump in it, and when I landed it really hurt my back. So when I got back up to the top of the hill I told my sister “Don’t go that way, the jump really hurts”. She called me a baby and didn’t believe me that it really hurt so she decided she would go down that path on her sled. Well, she hit the jump and didn’t get back up, turns out she fell so hard she had broken her leg. When we finally got her back up the hill and to the car, I got to tell her “I told you so”.
Lawyer here. Fired a partner who I found some real irregularities in their spending habits vs. what they were making after he couldn’t provide a good answer to where it came from. Other partner left and started a new firm with them because they disagreed with my decision and refused to look at the evidence.
Turns out he stole 500k of a clients money, got disbarred, and is now facing prison time. I told her to look at the evidence and she didn’t listen.
It’s Sunday in June, most schools in the area had just held their graduation ceremonies, and my family is going to celebrate for my brother.
Me: Did you make a reservation?
Mom: What do we need a reservation for? It’s three o’clock, there will be plenty of tables.
Me: I don’t think so…
Mom: Why do you always have to make a big deal out of everything? Just sit down and shut up.
Hostess: Did you have a reservation?
Mom: No.
Hostess: Oh, well we’re booked solid for the next four hours. Sorry.
I didn’t actually say it, I just make that smarmy face my mother hates so much.
I don’t eat vegetables – I don’t possess some enzyme or something (I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV) and thus greens do bad, bad things to my intestinal tract. Like cause excruciating pain. My then-missus doesn’t believe me and says that I’m a very unhealthy eater and that I should eat a salad. Months of this. Finally, I get tired of hearing about it and manage to choke down a salad, look her dead in the eyes and say, “You’re driving me to the hospital in a couple of hours. You’re not calling an ambulance and wasting money.” She looks all superior and assures me that it won’t kill me.
A few hours later, I woke up screaming from the pain. Doctors had to roto-rooter the crap out of me, which is not pleasant. I don’t know if that’s I told you so or not, but that’s the absolute furthest I’ve ever gone to prove I was right to someone.
I told someone not to use a drinking glass to make coffee in because the glass was not tempered and would probably shatter. They looked at me like I was an idiot, then while filling the glass said “I’ve done this a hundred times…” shatter. Glass shards and boiling water everywhere.
I once owned a dog who was very stubborn and independent. She lived a feral life in the mountains as a young pup, and I feel like that played a role. She felt more like a roommate than a pet.
She was having heart trouble when she got older so she had to get a chest scan at the vet. These two men came out to get her, so I gave them a heads up that she would absolutely dislike being flipped on her back and held there for the scan (flipping a dog on its back is putting it in a pretty submissive position).
One of the guys interrupted me and basically said they were professionals and I had to just let them work. They snapped a muzzle on her and took her to the back.
A few seconds pass, and then I hear a crash and a few yells. One of the guys who took her comes out and sheepishly asks for my help.
It turns out that as soon as they flipped her on her back she kicked out of their arms, unclipped her muzzle, removed it with her front paws, and then made a mad dash for freedom.
I caught her roaming around the back of the vet’s office and she was perfectly well-behaved while I held her for the scan. I felt bad for the two guys she escaped from, but I had tried to warn them.
My mom and I were driving from Minnesota to California one summer and we stopped at a gas station before we even left Minnesota. My mom bought one of those Java Monsters because she said she needed some caffeine. She got in the car and began shaking it; I told her not to or else it would explode. She insisted that it said “Shake Well” and just kept shaking it well. I convinced her to look for it and show me but she refused. After about thirty seconds of vigorous shaking, she opened it. It sprayed all over the car and got our clothes sticky. I looked at her and opened my mouth, before I could say anything she just said, “Don’t. Say. Anything.”
My then-boyfriend was driving me home. This was my freshman year of college, and I was still living at home with my parents, way out in the country. The road out to our house is very curvy, surrounded by trees, and at night it is very difficult to avoid hitting animals that leap into the road. I advised him to drive slowly. He was hurtling around the corners and I said,
“Hey, you should really slow down.” to which he replied, “I know what I’m doing.” “No, REALLY, slow do-” BAM. Deer leapt out, and we smashed into it.
Every time he tried to argue with me for the next several weeks, I brought it up as evidence of my superior wisdom.
My Dad and I were going camping over on a lakeside for the week of the 4th of July. As such, we needed to pack enough supplies for a full week. As the list grew, I took a quick look at the truck the night before and said plainly “Not everything’s going to fit.” Bear in mind, we were borderline Glamping with an extra large tent, inflatable beds, a full-size BBQ AND 2-burner gas grill, and a handful of other things. Practically the only things we didn’t bring were a generator and electronics.
He dismissed the notion, and I even suggested we start packing that night so he would see my point. Again, full dismissal. Come the morning of the trip, we start packing up, and we’re not even halfway through the supplies when the truck bed is full.
So, Dad spends the next 5 or 6 hours of the day fixing up our utility trailer so it was street legal (it was a cheap thing we used for quick daylight trips around town, but it was lacking a few things that my dad knew most cops would jump on to issue a quick ticket), all the while I’m trying not to say “I told you so” for fear of unleashing his wrath. We didn’t even leave until late afternoon, and we didn’t make it to the campsite until nearly midnight.
I still remind him of it every now and then when he starts trying to do luggage/grocery/package Tetris and I can see he’s about to miscalculate.
This would be my brother’s “I told you so” moment (when he was 10 and I was 8), but I was there to witness it in all its glory. We were up at the cottage and my dad was driving our fancy new boat when we get to a string of buoys. My dad’s cruising along at a pretty high speed heading for the center of this buoys when my brother pipes up:
Bro: “Hey Dad, there are rocks in the middle. You should probably drive the boat over to the right, where it’s deeper.”
Dad: “I’ve been driving through here since I was a little kid, how do you figure I need your advice?”
Bro: “Well Dad, you’ve been driving boats with outboard motors through here. This is an inboard-outboard, it goes down a lot deeper.”
Dad: “Ahhh, shaddap.”
Moments later: CLUNK
I stayed home sick from school and my stomach hurt. my mom thought whatever, it’s just the flu or something. (note, my mom is a nurse and has been for 20+ years)
I woke up that evening saying it really hurt more than normal and I thought something bad was happening. She shrugged it off and said to just stay in bed figuring I was faking it to get out of school the next day (I was ~15).
I woke up a few hours later in excruciating pain, like next-level pain. I couldn’t stop screaming/crying and she decides ok, ill take you to the hospital. I tried to get out of bed to walk to the car but I couldn’t stand up, she said to quit messing around. I crawled/rolled to the car and got in. When we get to the hospital they quickly took me in as I was screaming still, causing a scene. They ran some tests only to find my appendix had already ruptured inside me and was going to turn gangrene and kill me unless I had emergency surgery.
Needless to say, I told her so and had the surgery, recovered after 2 weeks in the hospital and now she doesn’t doubt me when I say I’m hurt.
Not me but my friend.
Playing a varsity football game and the dude got hit like a champ. He came up to coach and overheard him say I think I tore my ACL. I’m not sure tho. The coach said, “You’d be crying your *ss inside out and discover the lost city of Atlantis if you tore your ACL, now go back in and go do your job”. He finished the game and got 9 tackles and 1 Interception. One day later he came to school in a wheelchair. Came up to the coach and said, “Told you so”. Finished his career as a player in HS.
My husband and I had just started trying to have a baby. Our older daughter had been born six months before and lived six days before dying from trisomy. We were devastated and although it was the worst thing we had ever gone through it brought us closer together. I have bad endometriosis and was told that it was a fluke I had gotten pregnant the first time. I was in a lot of pain and I needed to make a choice. We decided we couldn’t imagine not having more kids and after getting the okay from my doctor and therapist we went for it.
About a week later we were out at a craft store and while looking at a yarn (I knit) I look at my husband and say, “I am going to pick up yarn for a baby blanket. I really think I’m pregnant.” It was too soon to test and while he told me not to get my hopes up too high he thought that being optimistic was a good thing. A week later we were going to my parents for Easter. I had not had a positive test, but I knew I was pregnant. I told my husband. He started to worry about me because he didn’t want me to spiral into a deep depression if I wasn’t pregnant. I thought I saw a line, but my husband didn’t see one, so we bought a digital test. The first was negative. That night, I told my husband it was just too early, I felt different and I was definitely pregnant. He smiled and told me we would see. I told him if I had a positive test he would have to get his butt out of bed and get me a McDonald’s breakfast. He agreed, but it was clear he was worried that I was losing it.
The next morning I was awake early because I had to pee. I took a test. I figured it would be negative because it was taking so long to register. I put it down on the tub and sat for a minute, a little disappointed it wasn’t coming up positive. When I picked it up the test read pregnant. I sat there and just let it sink in. I washed my hand, slinked quietly into the bedroom and got into bed. I propped myself up above my husband, put the pregnancy test right in front of his eyes and tapped him awake. When he finally opened his eye I told him he better get dressed if he was going to get me breakfast before he had to leave for work.
It was a great moment for both of us. We had our second little girl on 12/12/12 (the day my husband hoped for). She will be three months tomorrow and is healthy and beautiful. I was never so happy to be right in my life.
My parents were emotionally abusive and kicked me out, telling me I could never make it on my own. Seven months in I’m still finishing high school with two jobs and a place I rent. Life isn’t perfect but I’m happier than I ever was being screamed at on a daily basis.
So my mom used to carry this tiny leather backpack as a purse. She always wore it on her back and I constantly used to tell her how easy it would be for someone to steal her wallet without her noticing. One day we were at the mall and I decided to prove my point. Without even breaking the conversation I reached behind her, opened her purse, took her wallet, and put it in my bag. Again, I was right next to her talking to her. We got to the Godiva store (had to get my chocolate on) and asked her if she would buy me a piece of candy. She reached into her purse and freaked out. I calmly handed her wallet back with a huge smile on my face. That day she went and bought a normal purse 🙂 I love my momma.
My gf works at a place run by lazy morons (it’s Florida what are you gonna do?). She’s the type of person that does anything to please people, even sacrificing health and safety if it means giving them the slightest convenience. Needless to say, she’s easily the most qualified person there and has put herself into the position of a workhorse. I told her many many times that she’s slowly taking on everybody’s burdens for them and soon it will affect her job performance, her bosses’ trust in her and even the quality of gf that I get home at the end of the day.
Two years of this go by and suddenly there’s a big meeting at her job, everyone is in attendance. The point of the meeting is basically to call out my gf for never having any of her work done while all these other people get all theirs done with time to spare. She had taken on so many responsibilities belonging to other people that she was now teetering on losing her job and they were taking days off and leaving early because this had become so much the norm that they didn’t see it as their job anymore.
My wife of eight years decided to leave me for a cop she found on the internet. Within one week of being together, he told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her. When she told me that she was obviously love-struck and my retort was “He sounds like an Internet f*ck troll who will say anything to women to get laid” She thought I was bitter (ok, a little) and dismissed it. She found out three weeks later that was carrying on two other relationships and that he told them the exact same thing. I f*cking told you so.
Talking to my cousin on the phone one night. She was pregnant and her husband was out for the night. She kept making these weird sounds. When I asked her what it was, she said she didn’t know but that when she reclined back in her chair she was losing her breath. I asked if she wanted to go to the hospital she said no.
But after a few minutes of this, I told her I was coming to get her and if I had to pick her up and carry her to the car I would. I had my mom stay on the phone with her til I got there. My mom asked what was wrong I said I couldn’t explain the sound but I had never heard it before and it wasn’t right.
Got to my cousin’s house, and took her to the hospital. They moved us to a room and she kept making the sounds. It was taking the doctors too long to come. So I told the nurse she needed to get the doctor now that my cousin was dying. The nurse said to calm down or she would make me leave. I told her she better get the doctor or I would lose my sh*t on her and she needed to listen to me.
Shortly after the doctor came. Turns out my cousin was having a complication of her pregnancy and the sound? Each time she tried to lay back…she was drowning in her own blood.
The doctor told me she needed emergency surgery and if I hadn’t gotten her there when I did, she would have been dead in an hour. The nurse looked very sheepish, I didn’t feel the need to say…I told you so.
Three years ago, I got a pet lovebird. I was planning on waiting to bring him home until after we moved because three weeks after he did come home, we were going to move, but my mom wanted him to come home on my birthday. Not the smartest move, but she had good intentions.
He was doing really well for those first few weeks. We also have two dogs and two cats, and while I was at school, my dad was planning on moving all five pets over to the new house. I was worried about my bird, so I told my dad several times that he should take the bird separate from the other animals to minimize the stress. He assured me he would.
When I got to the new house after school that day, I found out from my mom that my dad had decided it would be more convenient for him to throw all the pets in the trunk of the car at once — two excitable dogs and two cats right next to a small baby bird in a travel-sized cage — and just take one trip. Of course, I was pissed when I heard that, but I was at least satisfied to find out that upon opening the trunk at the new house, my dad was assaulted by both cats simultaneously and one of the dogs, in a fit of nervousness, pissed on his foot.
Anyway, now the bird suffers from the birdy version of PTSD and bites my dad’s hand whenever he comes within reach.
My cousin wanted to invest in an obvious pyramid scam. I told him what he was doing and that he should get away asap, he got extremely mad at me for “belittling” his intelligence and that his business degree made him better at assessing stuff like this(I merely study law).
Well, he lost $ 2,000 and asked me for legal advice trying to get his money back. I tried my best not to laugh too hard when I said “I don’t want to say it told you so, but I told you so”. The best part was him trying not to get mad at me for laughing because he still wanted the legal advice.
I was working at a fast food restaurant. And my boss had put me in charge of interviewing a couple of applicants. One of the applicants, I knew, was just not going to be a good fit or keep up with the high volume of traffic that our restaurant had.
He really didn’t dress for the interview. He wasn’t very professional (I know it’s fast food, but I take pride in my work and know that you need good hardworking people to make everybody’s lives easier – so I cared about these things during the interviews)
One of the questions I asked him was, “How would you describe yourself?”
He leans back and puts a hand up to his chin – which had a poorly groomed beard – and thinks for a minute. Then he smiles and says, “Handsome.”
I told my boss that he would not be a good fit. My boss hired him anyways.
He was so slow and incompetent. He couldn’t even handle the easiest of jobs. He slowed everything down and made work harder for everyone else around him. Then he stole a car and got arrested. Also turns out, that he was a prior felon and that also did not deter my boss from hiring him.
The fun thing for me was that I quit not long before the guy got arrested. It was a pretty nice, “I told you so.” When I wasn’t having to deal with the repercussions of my boss hiring that guy and then dealing with being extra short-staffed after he stole a car!
I was working for a drug store in a small town in VA. One of my very annoying coworkers was bragging about how she used to live in California. I asked her why she decided to move all the way out to Virginia. She proclaimed “Well, because I couldn’t handle the earthquakes.” Our town is actually located near a fault line and I asked her “You are aware that this town has earthquakes too, right?” She laughed at me and walked away.
The next day our town was hit by the most powerful earthquake in recent history. Needless to say, I went to work with a pretty smug smile on my face.
I had just purchased an engagement ring for my wife, $2500(I know it is just a shiny rock); and I gave it to her right before we were going to see some of her friends for the 4th of July. We got there and they were organizing water skiing. My wife starts showing this ring around and another couple had just got engaged but her ring was made by a friend with a 1/2-carat diamond (no visible flaws even with a loop). I politely asked my wife to take hers off as when you swim in cooler water your finger shrinks a little and the ring could fall off. People looked at me like I was demanding and trying to control my wife but she said okay after some discussion.
Fun was had and we came in to change and the other couple was bawling their eyes out and going home. We asked why and her ring had fallen off in the lake and could not be found.
My biggest I told you so was when I was telling my boyfriend I’ve been having a migraine for a few days and each day it was getting worse. He thought I was exaggerating. I was 8 months pregnant, turns out my blood pressure was 180/120 and I had level 3 hypertension and also had pre-eclampsia. I ended up giving birth that day and then an emergency blood transfusion the next day because I was hemorrhaging into my stomach and lost 3 liters of blood. It was my biggest I told you so moment ever.