"He Looked So Confused and Then So Angry" Says Woman Who Shut Down a Catcaller

Mister Rogers famously said, by way of his mother, "Always look for the helpers." When you're in the thick of it and it feels like there's no way out, find someone who's willing to lend a helping hand. Sometimes that helping hand can look like a series of TikToks labeled "How to upset men."

When TikToker Brydie Monaghan (@brydieannm) was catcalled while walking down the street, she looked to a helper by the name of Kyle Prue (@kyleprue). He's the person behind the TikTok series that aims to give folks the tools needed to ruin a man's day. His suggestions are equal parts comedy plus practical, and Brydie put a banger to good use. Read on for her experience and more delightful tips from Kyle.

Brydie is clearly the kind of person who knows how to handle herself. According to her Instagram, Brydie is a presenter and voiceover artist living in England. On Saturdays she co-hosts a radio show on Riverside Radio called "Saturday Breakfast," which undoubtedly involves handling the occasional unruly caller. As a former disc jockey myself, I can attest to this.

This is someone who once asked actors Javier Bardem and Melissa McCarthy to name all seven dwarves in an interview. It may sound silly, but chatting with famous people can be intimidating and getting them to be a little goofy requires a certain kind of courage. All this to say, I'm not surprised Brydie was able to handle this catcaller with ease.

It began as most catcalling begins, with a woman walking down the street absolutely minding her own business. On this occasion, Brydie had on her catcalling armor: a pair of headphones. Sadly, they don't usually work.

One time while working out at the gym, a man walked up to me and stood in front me until I dramatically removed my earbuds. "You've lost weight," he said to me. I did not know that man. "I don't think so," I said. "I'm currently on my period and am wearing a bloatation device."

Like Brydie's catcaller, the gym man didn't appreciate my answer but her exchange was more lecherous than mine. "This guy walked past me with his dog," she explains. "He literally looked me up and down and went, 'Helloooo,' and tried to start talking to me." In my opinion, men should always have to look at the ground.

This is when Brydie conjured up a tip from Kyle, our "upsetting men" expert. "I went 'I'm sorry I don't have any change.'" As she laughed, filled with joy and the knowledge that she won, Brydie noted that he looked "so confused and angry." She kept on with her day and hopefully that man went home and stared at himself in the mirror for a good five hours.

Kyle Prue is an actor, author, influencer, and gentle destroyer of men. On his TikTok, which has amassed over 1 million followers and nearly 43 million likes, he has 31 posts under his "How to upset men" playlist.

This is where Brydie got her weapon of a-- destruction when she was eye boned by a strange man in the wild. To pick a favorite TikTok of Kyle's would be like asking a parent to choose a favorite child or if you're me, landing on the best Nightmare of Elm Street movie in the franchise. Controversially I always say it's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

The TikTok that spoke to me the most uses the hashtags men, Jonah Hill, Christianity, short kings, tmg, and crossfit. It's a real buffet of options. He provides sentences for specific occasions but honestly, these feel evergreen. The first one hits the hardest for me. He suggests saying "Oh trust me, we've talked about it" when a "man reveals a personal detail about himself." As Kyle smartly points out, "Men hate being discussed because it's how they get caught."

The rest are equally as wonderful and are what I call "winsults." They aren't terribly mean, but they can feel cutting. These are winsome yet devastating, a winsult. Sadly I do feel compelled to urge folks to be careful when responding to a catcaller because the situation could escalate. I would do so in an environment where you feel relatively safe. Does such a thing exist for women? We're laugh-crying because it's true.