There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing an arrogant person get put in their place.

And, let’s face it, some college professors can be pretty obnoxious and full of themselves.

In this story, a college student talked about how they maliciously complied with their professor’s directions and taught them a lesson.

Read on and find out what happened.

My professor said any source is valid as long as I cite it properly. So I cited him.

“This was junior year, research methods class.

Our professor, I’ll call him Dr. K, had this thing where he would make bold claims during lectures without citing anything and then get annoyed if students pushed back on it.

Classic “I have a PhD, so my word is the source” energy.

At some point he made a sweeping statement about consumer behavior that directly contradicted something I had read in two separate peer reviewed papers.

I raised my hand and mentioned this, and he said, and I quote, “in this class, any source is valid as long as you cite it correctly. the quality of your argument is what matters.”

Gotcha!

Okay.

I wrote my next paper arguing the opposite of his claim. my primary source for the counter-argument was a transcript I had made of his own lecture from three weeks earlier where he had said something that, read carefully, actually undermined his newer position.

I cited it as: [Last name, First initial. Class lecture, Course number, University name, Date.] formatted exactly according to the citation guide he gave us on day one.

He handed back papers with written comments. mine said “interesting argument, strong structure” and then at the bottom: “this citation is not acceptable, please see me.”

Well, look at this…

I went to see him. I brought the citation guide. I showed him the format. I showed him his own quote.

I asked which part of the citation requirements I had failed to meet. There was a long pause. He changed my grade from a B+ to an A- and told me the citation was “technically valid but in poor taste.”

I have never felt more seen by a grade in my life.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This Reddit user had a lot to say.

And this reader spoke up.

This is some seriously satisfying malicious compliance!

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about an IT worker who was told to “stop thinking and just do his job,” so he did, creating a backlog the manager never saw coming.