Monday, November 28, 2011

How to insult people... without really trying

Have you ever read Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Do you remember Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, who was overcoming the boredom of immortality by working his way round the universe and insulting people in alphabetical order? (Arthur Dent? Arthus Philip Dent? You're a jerk. A complete asshole).

Well I've just found something that would have helped Wowbagger enormously. On a blog that  I (used to) read regularly there is an opportunity to tick one of a set of boxes to give instant feedback on the post. I can only asume that it's for Farcebook or Twatter or one of these social networking things.

What are the choices I can tick?  In the order they appear on the page they are:
Gay
Shiny
Meh
Oh dear.

I have to say that I'm appalled at the choice and sincerely hope that my (former) bloggy contact didn't actually choose those options herself. I think someone's trying to be funny.  BUT IT ISN'T.

And if you don't know why it isn't funny, I suggest you rethink your standards.

7 comments:

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Morning AJ .. I haven't read Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - but for some reason I think I have it here ..

What terrible choices and I do hope the blogger won't be over to visit this blog?

What a prat, I'd say .. Hilary

Sandra Davies said...

My (limited) understanding is that it IS possible to choose the categories which appear on a blog, but I might be mistaken. None of which detracts from your reaching 48k+ - well done!

Unknown said...

Sometimes a saying can catch on and become popular without meaning. Those words are very popular in America at present and I know people that use them. When confronted with the "that's so gay" thing, I simply retaliate with "No, actually that's pretty straight" I'm not really trying to say that all straight people are a certain way. Only that the assumption that gays are all the same is wrong and a stupid or odd thing, is not gay at all. After all, who designed your cloths or your hairstyle? A little stereotyping when used against people is fun. You can't hurt me, only degrading yourself.

snafu said...

My problem is the English language I learned as a child seems to have gone away.
Gay was happy, shiny was.. well shiny like silver. The next one is unintelligable to me and 'Oh dear' I do understand, but shouldn't it have an exclaimation mark?
I suppose this comment gets an Oh dear! (without an exclaimation mark) from those whose vocabulary contains Meh and who apparently are on a very different wavelength to me.

MorningAJ said...

Hi all and thanks for commenting.
As you proabbaly know if you read my blue post, I'm a little sensitive to people who use descriptive terms as insults. I think that anyone who sinks to the level of using medical terms, religious definitions, size, colour, gender or sexual orientation (etc) as a weapon is wrong and cruel. And I try to point that out.
Stew - I LOVE your approach to life and I wish I could be as calm and measured about the way things go as you are. :)

MorningAJ said...

Just to say that I CAN spell probably. I just don't type too well in the mornings. :)

snafu said...

Ironic that on a post about insulting people I mistakenly assumed you had written the list of options as seen and had missed the ! on purpose. I did not intend to insult your writing skills, which are immensly better than my own, I intended to insult the shallow person who wrote the list of options.