Great news for the kids who used the “You call me a bitch? Well, a bitch is a dog, dogs bark, bark is on trees, trees are part of nature and nature is beautiful so thanks for the compliment” as their playground retort of choice: It seems a good chunk of common insults aren’t really insults at all.
Earlier this month, Redditor u/Addwon took to r/AskReddit with the inquiry: “What is used as an insult despite not actually being a bad thing?”
The answer it seems is quite a lot. Alongside the classically ambiguous usage of the word “f***” — “‘Get f**ked.’ Yes please lol,” wrote u/Greenbudhaa — the concept of what, exactly, it means to be a pussy came into question.
“Same thing with people calling someone a pussy…. Like that’s one of my favorite things and the insult is a huge misnomer,” wrote u/WorldRunnr. “Tough as hell and life-giving.”
But it’s not just moms that are getting in on it. Fathers, too, also emerged as a common meaning to one of the most common insults. “Mother-f**kers are just dads, really,” OP Addwon mused.
Beyond the intentional vagueness of these terms, it seems sex isn’t the only topic covered by this notion — just ask u/pm_a_stupid_question. “Nimrod. It was meant as a joke when it was first used in WB cartoon,” they wrote. “Nimrod actually refers to a mighty hunter, but now it is commonly used as an insult.”
Other common insults included "pretty boy" which is more a compliment than an insult and other phrases like, "bless your heart" which is one that does cut deep, depending on how and by who it's being said.
So next time someone pissed you off, reach for an insult more cutting than mfer, and call them an idiot, that one isn't open to interpretation.
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