How to get yourself out of an uncomfortable conversation

Have you seen the move The 40-Year-Old Virgin? It is a 2005 comedy movie in which Steve Carrell gets his big break in movies.

There is one scene in particular that I find quite interesting. The one below:

Admittedly it is a movie so we should take it with a grain of salt but I'm sure that every introvert has been involved in this kind of conversation. Steve Carrell's character (Andy) is a virgin so he is naturally uncomfortable with the conversation but he is also uncomfortable because it is basically locker room talk and Andy as an introvert is more comfortable with conversations that with a bit more intelligence and depth to them. Not how many women you have shagged or what a woman's breast feels like.

What can you do if you find yourself in this situation?

In one word, NOTHING. Shut your mouth, say nothing and if you are asked a question change the subject or ignore it.

Of course that is easier said than done. So lets see what we can do.

"Andy do me a favour, would you help him redeem himself by telling him a real sex story. Nastiest s**t you've ever done? I'm talking about nasty."

OK, so how do we change the subject here? Good question, isn't it?

Andy decided to lie about his sexual experience and that didn't end well for Andy.

Maybe Andy could have said:

"Whatever nasty stuff I have done, I'm sure that it isn't even as close to what you have done Jay. So did you see the game last night? The Rams should have won easily but they don't have a running game and that is costing them."

There you go. You should know if your friends and acquaintances are interested in sport or not and if they are they are going to want to speak about football and if they insist then do the time-old toilet run. It never fails.