Critical Mass

While going to lunch with a friend today, I noticed something. Obnoxious seems to have a critical mass. Two seemingly normal people stepped into line just ahead of us, and the obnoxious just seemed to explode! They were just plain stupid. First, they completely blocked the entrance into the cafeteria. Next, their vapid conversation had to be so loud that those of us around them could not have a conversation because we couldn't hear each other. My friend's order almost got messed up because the person taking it couldn't hear us. In addition, they felt the need to try and order their meal in Spanish because the persons working behind the counter were darker complected and spoke with an accent. This turned into a quiz session: "How do you say broccoli in Spanish?" "How do you say garlic in Spanish? El Garlico?" They laughed loudly at their own "jokes" and went in different directions. As they separated, I happened to follow one of them. (She was going in the same direction I was) The obnoxious demeanor completely evaporated. She was quiet, normal, and no longer acted as if she were drunk at a teenage party.

What the hell happened? My conclusion is that we need to be able to quantify obnoxiousness, figure out at what collective quantity obnoxiousness erupts as in my aforementioned example, and then make people wear their quotients on a badge so that we can quickly do the mental math and evacuate an area if we so choose when it appears an obnoxious critical mass is about to be achieved.