Small talk is one of those instances with no grey area, people either love it or hate it.
But no matter where you fall on the scale, one Uber driver has prepared their passengers with a “menu” of conversation topics that riders can choose from when they enter the car in a post shared to the “Mildly Interesting” forum on Reddit.
The post shows a photo of the laminated menu in the car labelled “Guy’s Rider Menu”. But before getting into the conversation options the driver let people know to wear a seatbelt and that he has a charger adapter for anyone looking to charge their phone.
The first option on the menu was the “awkward ride” where the passenger simply ignores the menu entirely and both of them sit in silence until the ride is over.
Passengers can also pick the second option and do the exact opposite, which is the “deep questions ride” where they will talk about questions like “what is the meaning of life?”
The options continue including: the analyst ride with the driver acting as a sounding board or therapist, the karaoke ride filled with singing, the French ride where the rider only speaks in French, the cliché ride, the small talk ride, and the ME ride with the driver spending the entire trip only talking about himself.
Some of the other options appeared more useful with one being the “restaurant ride” as the driver provides the passenger with recommendations and figuring out where to eat as well as the “tour guide ride” as he gives general recommendations for activities to do in the area.
After posting, many people turned to the comments section of the Reddit post to explain what selection they would make in that position and why.
“I’d want the 1, but I’m probably too awkward to ask for the 1. Growing up, there wasn’t a place, time, or individual that my dad wouldn’t strike up a conversation with. Now, even though it’s not, it feels almost rude in my head not to talk,” one comment read.
“I’m giving this thing a loud chuckle, and then very sharply going ‘I choose 2. You know we’re all gonna be dead soon, right? Like dead. Forever. How do you DEAL with that?!?’” a second commenter jokingly wrote.
“Since I haven’t ever rode in an Uber and I am socially awkward, I’ll have a number 8 so I can run my mouth and regret everything I say right after I get out of the Uber but leave a big tip and hope they use that to judge me less on my ability to be normal,” another comment read.
“One always with an unspoken specification that you do not look at me even once, even accidentally in the rearview mirror,” a commenter explained their ride preference.
One commenter even explained that the concept of an Uber menu isn’t as uncommon as it may appear.
“My favourite ‘Uber menu’ has to be the time I rode with a guy who offered to completely fabricate his life. He had a ‘me’ option and a ‘cooler me’ option, with the cooler me option being complete lies but entertaining ones,” they wrote.
