People often have no idea how irritating they sound until they hear their own words echoed back.

After weeks of unnecessary TV shaming by her roommate, one teacher was determined to show her just how hurtful her behavior really was.

Read on for the full story!

I impersonated Roommate to herself- and she hated it/herself!

Back in the 90s, we were two young teachers sharing an apartment. The apartment offered free aerobics workout classes, so I would come home from work and change.

Watching TV was one of the ways she unwinded after work.

While I was putting my shoes on, I would turn on my little TV (no cable, just 3 channels plus HSN), so Judge Judy would be on. Then I’d head out. I didn’t care that much what show was on, I was just unwinding from work.

But her roommate hated what was on.

My roommate would rant and complain the entire time JJ was on—about JJ. “This is such a terrible show, how can you watch this crap? Blah blah blah.”

When she was complaining to a friend about it, they hatched a plan.

I explained the scenario to my friend/neighbor, and we came up with a plan.

I would note the exact verbiage and tone that my roommate used, and do the exact same thing to her, and ruin her experience of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the show that she loved.

We could both have a laugh when my roommate caught on.

But the plan didn’t go as intended.

So her show comes on. Here I go: “This is such a terrible show. How can you watch this crap? Blah, blah, blah.”

But my roommate didn’t catch on. She didn’t recognize her own words being spoken back to her.

She looked taken aback, because I’m a positive person—my nickname at work was Smiley.

She said, “Why are you acting like this? You’re so mean!” Etc. etc.

So once she explained it, she, of course, denied all culpability.

Finally, I said, “Didn’t you notice I said the same words that you said earlier about Judge Judy?”

She said that she never says that, I’m just making that up because she called me out for being mean.

I was like, “Ask Tracey then! I told her how grouchy you are and we decided that I would say your exact words during your show.”

She still denied it.

But still, it seemed like the intervention finally got through to her.

But she was quiet during Judge Judy from then on!!

After all, no one likes the sound of their own voice — or words!

What did Reddit have to say?

Judging someone for their interests is more hurtful than you might think.

Some people just live for putting other people down.

This commenter had almost the exact same experience.

A fellow Judge Judy fan emerges.

Her roommate may have denied everything, but her sudden silence was about as close to an apology as this teacher was going to get.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.