Your father smells of elderberries.
“Your mother was a hamster!” is pretty self-explanatory though.
But elderberries smell rather nice. Or at least the last elderberry jam I had was quite lovely. So that certainly makes for a confusing insult.
Now go away, before I taunt you a second time!
Good booze, in fact… I’ve had an elderberry wine and it was awesome
Ohhhh… TIL!
I’ve had elderflower liquor (St. Germain is very nice) but not elderberry.
Non native here: I even saw the movie.
There are some southern or appalachian insults that I’m sure would confuse foreigners, even those who are functional in English.
Comparisons like “He’s twelve ounces short of a pint”, backhanded compliments like “I just love how you don’t care what people think”, idioms like “three sheets to the wind”. And then of course there’s “rode hard and put up wet”.
Non native here: “three sheets to the wind” “rode hard and put up wet” are totally unknown and over my head.
“He’s twelve ounces short of a pint” and “I just love how you don’t care what people think” I got them.Rode hard and put up wet is a reference to horses. Riding a horse hard and then not taking care of them after the ride can cause them issue, physically and mentally. It is usually used to say someone is tired or generally not well. Others, my mother included, use it to mean she thinks a woman has had too much wild sex, usually with too many partners.
Three sheets to the wind, means to be drunk. It is from nautical terms meaning the sails are not fastened.
On a ship, a sheet is a line made of rope, used to manipulate the angle of a sail, not a sail itself.
Correct, the sheets are trailing in the wind, meaning the sail is not tied down and it’s flapping all over.
TIL.
There’s also “bless your heart”. Around here if someone tells you that, it is not a compliment.
And each modifier between “your” and “heart” increases the factor of how insulting they’re trying to be by at least 2
Does your face hurt? Because my eyes hurt.
Non-native. I got this one.
Fucktard
“Bless (his/her/their/your) heart”
That’s not an insult as the internet has decided. It can be used sarcastically, but in my experience as a southerner it is more often a compliment for doing something nice.
It’s used both ways, it’s just context dependent.
You had a different childhood than mine. It was code for “they’re a moron”.
Context is king. Yes, anything can be said sarcastically. But when a child shares their candy with another child and 7 people are like “Aww bless his heart!!” It’s not fucking code. The fact that it’s usually used as a compliment is exactly what makes it so cutting as a sarcastic insult.
That’s why it’s so insidious. When used correctly you can throw people off because they have to question, “is this person grateful or do they hate my guts?”
When done correctly, this is always the outcome.
South Louisiana here. It can be used affectionately (seeing a sick child and saying Bless your heart) but I find it is more often used to point out someone’s lack of intelligence or bad behaviour (Karen is pitching an absolute fit in the checkout lane at Albertsons because she misread a price label…Bless her heart)
Maybe you’re from a more polite area of the south, but where I am we are heavily into calling out morons.
In Australia, being a total bastard is a good thing, while being a bit of a bastard isn’t so good.
Mad cunt = good. Shit cunt = bad, see image
Wow, I’m a native speaker and this confuses me.
“Crayon eater”, this one is specific to members of the U.S. Marine Corps, it can be used affectionately, but it’s very context dependent.
I like this one
He’d be a great snipe hunter.
Ya fucken mong
That man is onto something. God bless!
This one make me rethink how I insult people really.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Calling someone a Muppet. In NZ (and to a lesser degree, UK/Australia), it’s a common thing to call someone who’s being an idiot. Not sure why. I think as a nation we generally like the Muppets, but not someone who’s being a Muppet.
I think the connotation is that a Muppet is controlled by someone else. Their every thought, word, and action is the intent of their handlers.
I think it’s more that most Muppets are silly and not very intelligent
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen it most used to describe people acting ridiculous.
That’s a puppet. A muppet is someone being stupid
“You make a better door than a window.”
He’d peel an orange in his pocket
He has two brains cells and they’re both fighting for third place
He’s a face like he’s trying to eat an apple through a tennis racket
The tide wouldn’t take her out
Scarlet for your mam for having you
Your arse is jealous of your mouth
Snipers dream
Spanner
I am a native English speaker and had to Google “peel an orange in his pocket”. It does not mean what I assumed.
Non native speaker here and is the only of the 2 I didn’t get. Spanner is the other one.
Spanner is British/Irish means idiot or tool. See also muppet.
What did you think it meant?
I did have to think about it like, context helped.
You understood it? Are you Irish? I’m Murkin and I thought it meant running one out from his pocket or something.
Peel a banana in his pocket: Tight-fisted, cheap. Often the phrase is “peel an orange in his pocket.” The idea is that someone is so cheap, he will peel a piece of fruit inside his pocket so no one will see it and ask for a bite. - Don’t Be a Muggins: Learn Some Irish Slang
That’s what I thought, too*
running*rubbingIt helped that numerous “he’s tight fisted” type comments and insults had been made in the same conversation, before that was said.
No, not Irish.
I’ve never heard a single one of these
I’ve heard about half.
Dipshit. It’s my favorite insult. If you call a man an asshole or fucker, many take it as a sign of strength or say, 'i just tell it like it is." Dipshit is stupid and juvenile and naive and just perfectly describes so many people.
Oh, that’s why I like “dipshit” so much. Now I understand myself better, thanks!
