Internet Culture

People are talking about their favorite ways to insult someone politely

The Twitter hashtag is all about plausible deniability shade.

Photo of Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball

insult someone politely bless your heart

From the exquisite to the absurd, #InsultSomeonePolitely is the new trending hashtag on Twitter. Started yesterday morning by @WildTaggers, working with the @HashtagGame, makers of a Twitter app of the same name designed to help people lock on early to trending tags, it’s full of inspiration for those times you desperately need to be rude to someone but maintain plausible deniability.

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User @WildTaggers got it started and included this adorable picture to take the sting out of it a little bit.

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There were some old classics.

https://twitter.com/PolarBearNCC/status/1155565070614704133

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https://twitter.com/Diabolical13/status/1155482827842052096

And some that are definitely going to become classics in the future.

https://twitter.com/FreezinTaunTaun/status/1155478207254192128

https://twitter.com/EvolvedGuppy/status/1155479757754003456

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https://twitter.com/Diabolical13/status/1155482827842052096

Some were truly harsh.

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There was some disagreement over what makes an insult polite. Quite a few felt that all it took was the insertion of some polite or formal language next to the swear words.

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https://twitter.com/UnitedFan1977/status/1155478405401497606

People brought in real-life examples.

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Insulting someone politely is claimed as the regional specialty by several different places and they all came out to stake that claim. We had the Brits.

https://twitter.com/edw_perry/status/1155519078838263812

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https://twitter.com/joedrawing3/status/1155669579689054208

The Canadians.

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And of course, the American South, wheeling out that old classic “Bless your heart”.

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Honestly, some of them aren’t necessarily insulting, even if the speaker meant them to be. The insult is all in the eye of the receiver.

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If you’ve got some great polite insults up your sleeve, it’s not too late to join in. The hashtag is still going strong on Twitter.

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The Daily Dot