A friend has asked you to a party, where you wont know anybody. What a drag. At the last minute, you decide to chicken out—but how do you explain it?
Option one is honesty, tell them that it was rude to invite you in the first place.
Option two is to offer a plausible excuse. Let’s be real though, a plausible excuse, at this late stage, will seem like a fib.
So, permit me to suggest a third option: the implausible excuse.
It’s a bit of a gamble, but if you deliver it sincerely, your friend will appreciate your creativity.
Here are a few classic examples…
Got trapped under a fallen tree
Saving a wounded hedgehog
Abducted by aliens
Helping a ghost with unfinished business
Fell through a mystical portal
Feel free to add to the list in the comments.
Below: from last week’s New Statesman.
Yet More Excuses
A diversion in the New Yorker, 2019. Buy this cartoon.
Truth telling in the New Yorker, 2016. Buy this cartoon.
Unless I am lost in space, see you next week!