Insults are interesting things.
Most of the time they are made in fun when you are busting peoples balls. NdSpinelli and Peter Bella and you other guys that are neighborhood knockaround guys know what I am talking about. It is all in fun. You call out physical characteristics or personality traits or tics or whatever will get under the guys skin. You know when your buddy is busting on you and you give it right back.
But other insults are more studied. More thought through. It's like the situation where you have couple over your house and you serve them food and drinks like they were you own family.
And then when you go over to their house they don't even give you a glass of water. That's an insult.
Teresa of the Real Housewives of New Jersey is great at the studied insult. With a side of "Hey it was only a joke." She used the introduction of her new cookbook to slam some of her co-stars. She said that Caroline Manzo was only 1/16 Italian and that she was an "Olive Garden Italian." That her sister in law kept copying her and her cousin was always passing smart remarks. She even took a shot at Carolines son for something that happened during the season. Now these are your studied insults. She took the time to write them out so they will be out there for all eternity. She is trying to deny it and say it is all a joke but it is not. It is an insult.
Sometimes you can appolgize for an insult. Even if you meant it at the time but changed your mind later. You can think better of it and ask for forgiveness. Sincerely. Or you can be so sure that you are right that you don't care that you insulted someone. You just shrug it off and go "Oh grow up...I don't care what you think." Of course when you do that you have to take the consquences. You lose a friend. A family member won't talk to you anymore. A customer won't shop in your store.
So if you are serious in your studied insult, you have to be willing to face the consequences.
Just like Teresa will on the Reunion show next week.
7 comments:
Blogging Cockroach??
Poor little guy's been dead a year and a half. Tom (he no longer wants to be called Tommy) slammed a laptop lid on him by "accident." Or so he says. Anyway, I hope he's reborn in a better state, like maybe a rat in the D------ House kitchen. He'll get closer to Harvard that way.
He never said he was original, and didn't particularly care what people thought. He was, like his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great, etc. grandfather, only seeking self-expression. He was grateful, though, for Althouse's attention and encouragement.
But, in the end, he told Tommy (er, Tom) to stop sending his stuff to Althouse, as it seemed she kept more of a fight club than he was comfortable with. All that stomping and shouting made him nervous, which you can understand if you're an inch and a half long. He was afraid someone would get jealous of the attention he was getting and come to Cambridge and squish him.
But it turned out to be Tommy (dammit, TOM) who got him in the end.
Which proves you can't trust anybody.
Wise words. And, along these lines I got a good insight into the pc nature of young people. We were in Vegas a couple months ago and went to the Brad Garrett Comedy Club which is a revival of Rodney Dangerfields club in the same ballroom of the Tropicana.
Garrett is a Jew[who knew Robert Barone was Hebrew]. He went on a riff attacking pc and doing a litany of racial and ethnic jokes. My daughter and 3 of her friends[mid 20's] were there. Now..my daughter was taught to be non-pc; her friends knew this shit was funny but felt embarassed to be laughing. Then this Mexican woman comic came on pushed the envelope even further. By then, these younger folks were in full belly laugh. Both of these professionals made it a point to attack pc..very heartening!
Drunken insults are the worse because they are the meanest.
You talkin' to me, shilho?
You are not welcome here J. Your posts will be deleted.
Please post your insightful comments over at Althouse as she values your viewpoint much more than mine.
Love Rickles, I guess he's dead?
How about this for a series, Troop...highlight old-time stars so we can reminisce about thim.
Rickles is very much alive and still performs sometimes. He does voice work for animated movies like Cars.
Post a Comment