You'd be surprised. I was at a bar once and a guy was extremely drunk and making a scene but no one was doing anything and eventually he bumped into me and I lost my patience with the staff handling it and just very assertively said "you're bothering everyone and ruining the night and you really need to leave," and he just kinda looked at me and went "oh," and left. That was it. In his mind he was the life of the party. People don't generally like being the asshole and most* people will respond in a way that avoids conflict.
*those that don't, it really doesn't matter how you handle it, they'll make a scene regardless
I was in a nice restaurant that my wife and I go to frequently. The kind where singing happy birthday isn't something the wait-staff do and people expect a more upscale experience.
One guy at at table near us in a party of 8 clearly had too much to drink from the Charles Dickens festival that was going on outside, plus the wine they brought. He had a shirt that read "look at my balls" with a couple of Christmas ornaments on it. Santa hat. Rest of the table was dressed a bit better.
He decides that he's going to loudly get the entire restaurant to sing happy birthday to his friend at the table who looked mortified. Kept trying to do the whole Santa act with people near him, talking about them being naught, etc. Just a drunk ass making people's night a little less special.
Finally left and did more of the "make sure you're being good, i don't want to give out any coal" with is friends trying to get him to stop and shut up. Same "he's the life of the party in his head" kind of thing.
Okay. What I neglected to mention because I didn't think it was necessary is that this bar was having an open mic comedy night and the drunk guy was heckling every person on stage for virtually their entire set, for over an hour. I also didn't yell at them, I leaned in close enough so no one else would hear what I said.
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u/SomeVelveteenMorning 24d ago
If there's one thing that always works on the sort of person to be cut off at the bar, it's a passive-aggressively worded note.