介绍:
非常感谢热心听众【卷卷-Cecilia 李文娟】和【Maggie-吕欣欣】对本文稿的贡献
Heyang: If you have had a bad day, a one-upper has the absolute worst day of their entire life and possibly the worst in recorded history. If you met a hot guy on vacation, the one-upper is dating Brad Pitt or Hu Ge or Huo Jianhua right now. The one-upper is the most obnoxious and hateable person you’ve ever met, but they probably are really proud that they have one-upped everyone else you ever thought you hated.
Victor: Everything is a competition for these people.
Heyang: I guess so, and the reason why I s ound a little bit angry is just the thought of dating Hu Ge and Huo Jianhua. It’s something you just can’t bear it, and also Brad Pitt. OK guys, so how would you define a one upper, and have you ever encountered one?
Victor: Well, I don’t think I’ve really encountered anybody like that. But I think one would define a one-upper as a very annoying person who always wants to be better than everybody else. If you have achieved something, they want to achieve something plus one.
Heyang: Or they’re just saying it sometimes. They have to be at the upper level of everything. (Luo Yu: Or lower level.) Oh, how does that work?
Luo Yu: It really does depend on the competition. For example, if you say I go to Hainan this Spring Festival, I booked a very nice hotel—in Sheraton and it was a suite, right? And another people would say, reply to you: ‘I have a very wonderful holiday there in Maldives, and we had this beautiful Sunset Villa.’ (Heyang: Okay. Victor: Or the presidential suite. If you had a suite, I had a presidential suite.) Right, and this is trying to top your stories. Another one probably is like this, you know, I work very hard. I’m a workaholic. I have one paper due tomorrow. The other one replied to you, you know, I have four papers due tomorrow and let’s just hang out.
Victor: It’s about attention. Grabbing attention. The attention always has to be on that person.
Heyang: Yes, and the part that I can’t really agree with you, Luo Yu, is, after having a conversation like that, how could you hang out? It’s like I don’t want to be with this person for even one more second. And there’re just so many jokes as such about one-uppers online. I’ve looked at a few, and the one that really got me was this one. Here I’m air quoting it: I found twenty dollars in the street the other day and I was feeling pretty lucky about it, until that one-upper told everybody on that very day he discovered that Donald Trump was his uncle. If we turn it into Donald Trump, well, I suppose Donald Trump, you know, with presidential campaign and all that, he is probably not as rich right now. But we can turn it into a Chinese version, so he discovered that Ma Yun, (Luo Yu: Jack Ma) Jack Ma, was his uncle or his dad or whatever. God! Don’t you hate that guy!
Victor: Donald trump is still probably very rich, but I would never want him to be my uncle.
Luo Yu: Why?
Victor: Because have you heard any his speeches lately, I mean he’s a little bit crazy, I think. This is just my personal opinion, but I’m not a huge fan.
Heyang: That’s true. And Luo Yu and I had a discussion about Donald Trump a couple of days ago. And Okay, Luo Yu, I’m gonna say this, he thinks Donald Trump is pretty amazing. So yeah, you guys have some very different views on Donald Trump, but that’s not gonna be the topic of discussion for today, maybe for another day. (Victor: Once again, he dominated our conversation, so I give him full points for that.) I refuse to give him any more publicity, not like he needs it.
Heyang: Not like he needs it. Did we mention how this term was derived in the first place?
Victor: Well during the break we did have time to look up the origin of the concept of one-upper. I don’t know if this is the real origin but there’s a picture we have posted on News Plus Wechat account that listeners can follow. It’s a picture I think I’ve seen this before. It’s Sophia Loren at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival at a party. She is looking at the bosom of Jayne Mansfield who looks like Marilyn Monroe in this picture and her eyes are just focused on her body and it’s quite a funny scene.
Heyang: It’s quite a funny scene especially Sophia Loren, she is so gorgeous and when she’s in the room, how could one person not be looking at her except for in this circumstance so…
Victor: They are both wearing low-cut dresses (Heyang: Yeah) so when the eyes of Sophia Loren are focused on the other person and it’s quite funny.
Heyang: Yes, so she has been one-upped. And there is our Wechat listener Apple says that kids try to do this all the time. I wonder if it’s just that they want attention and yeah you see that amongst kids a lot that they’re always in this competition like “My dad rides a bicycle”, “My dad owns a car”(Victor: Or my dad can beat your dad up) Yes! And that’s the ultimate trophy. There’s also Han, oh thank you Han, he’s sending multiple messages today and said some people can impress others without speaking too much; the one-uppers impress others by speaking a lot. In some cases being a one-upper is better than staying low key, especially when you’re dating someone or you’re in a group interview, kind of a session, then sort of making yourself stand out is really important. But through this way? Guys, what do you have to say about that?
Victor: Probably not by putting others down. I can see in a group setting for example, in a group interview, you do want to be impressive. But if you are always trying to put other people down, I think that also shows you are a horrible person to work with.
Luo Yu: I don't like those people at all, always want to be dominate person, controlling the whole group.
Victor: Like Donald Trump? Donald Trump? Probably.
Heyang: Yes, he’s the king of one-upping everyone else.
Victor: There we go we have a theme in the show today.
Heyang: Yes and I’m sure Donald Trump is not listening. He doesn't need to say anything, just look at that I call it a squirrel setting on top of his head. He’s got gigantic hair, I mean, just the presence of him has one-upped everybody else. That’s what I think. Well if you’re so unfortunately been caged in a room with a one-upper and he or she is doing all these dramatic things and how do you deal with a person like that?
Victor: I’ll probably just laugh. I mean that’s probably the best way. I don't want my mental health to be affected. (Heyang: Okay.)So I just gonna stand there and smile.
Luo Yu: I’ll give him or her a very nice nod and try to deflect and change the subject.
Heyang: Alright, and what if she spins back?
Victor: They’ll just follow you to the next subject.
Heyang: So ignoring that person is… Well, I think you need a big heart.
Victor: Just walk away. Just walk away. And also don't engage. It takes two people to fight always, so if you don't fight then there could be no fights.
Heyang: I was really hoping you guys will put up a fight but you guys are both gentlemen.
Victor: What you resist persists, right? So just let it go, that’s probably the best way. I just got really Zen there for a second.
Luo Yu: Oh that’s a very good one.
Heyang: Yes yes and also a little bit of a massage in the soul. Thank you for that.
