Okay, now I'm just confused

Apparently, I'm having a completely different experience here than some of the other grad students. The grad students had a holiday get-together, and it was going fine until it devolved into a gossip-fest. I just hate gossip so much. It does nothing productive but make people feel better about their position by denigrating others.

Anyhoo, two other grad students thought that Fav Prof has an extremely big ego. But, I was completely taken aback because I thought that Slightly Egotistical Prof had a bigger ego than Fav Prof. They were insistent that Fav Prof has a big ego. Gah! I don't understand! Has their experience with Fav Prof been so different than mine? I think that I interpret Fav Prof's comments as jokes, whereas the other students interpret them as egotistical statements. I do the same thing, so I though Fav Prof was doing that as well. I make all kinds of egotistical statements, but I'm essentially making fun of myself. The problem is that the other students don't get the part where I'm making fun of myself and they think I'm serious when I never am.

I really enjoy talking with Fav Prof and when I talk with him, he doesn't seem egotistical at all. But, perhaps what's going on is that the other students don't have such strong "ego resilience" (Fav Prof's catch phrase) as I do. So when they talk with him, they express less self-assurance and he reacts by talking down to them. Fav Prof does like to use the phrases, "No!" and "You're wrong!" all the time. But, I refuse to accept that and push at Fav Prof until he explains his reasoning, while they defer to him instead. Sigh. I just want to defend Fav Prof, because, well, he's my favorite professor.

The other thing was that these same two grad students really liked the prof that I was having so much difficulty with a couple weeks ago. I was once again taken aback, but I decided not to express my distaste for him to the other grad students. The prof and I just seem to clash, but yet they think that he is incredibly nice and helpful. What?!?! Argh! I just do not understand how our experiences have been so different, and how we have all come up with such different impressions of people.

Anyways, clearly, my impression is the only valid one. (Okay, that was a joke. I'm making social commentary on how egotistical people think they are right and others are wrong by expressing it myself in a facetious manner. I'm beginning to think I need to provide parenthetical commentary in my everyday life so that people will understand me.)