Pardon my French: after (allegedly) showing up drunk at the G8 (Mefi), walking out from 60 minutes, and almost getting in a fight with angry fishermen (translation), French President Sarkozy, while visiting the Paris International Agricultural Show, snaps at a man who refused to shake his hand "Casse-toi pauvre con". But what exactly does this mean in English? He hasn't (yet) slapped a kid, unlike his presidential rival Bayrou, but he's still not in the same league as De Gaulle, who answered to a heckler shouting "Mort aux cons!" ("Death to the idiots!") the sublime "Vaste programme, en effet" ("Tall order, indeed").
posted by elgilito on Feb 25, 2008 - 57 comments

The Times reports: Lily-livered milquetoasts trying to suffocate the British insult. In case you illiterate turkey-buggering colonials have comprehension troubles, consult this handy glossary and usage guide.
posted by nasreddin on Jun 22, 2007 - 41 comments

Insults - they just don't make them as they used to.
posted by swift on Jan 4, 2007 - 38 comments

The French do some things well and, well, some things not so well. (see)
posted by pwedza on Oct 20, 2006 - 23 comments

The KCNA Random Insult Generator is a fine way to build up your vocabulary for political debates, north korean style, you shameless lackeys!
posted by pyramid termite on Aug 14, 2005 - 3 comments

Racial Slurs have been around for centuries, and this website attempts to collect them all (2,295 so far) and explain their origins. May not be SFW if someone is reading over your shoulder.
posted by whoshotwho on May 27, 2004 - 18 comments

"Oh, you're one of those sodomites," Savage said. "You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today, go eat a sausage and choke on it."

He was fired the next day.
posted by delmoi on Jul 7, 2003 - 57 comments

Shut Up! Due to a linguistic phenomenon called amelioration, we're losing a lot of those nice, bad words that are so useful for expressing anger. Nice once meant stupid and bad's good today. "Shut up!" increasingly means an affectionate "Get outta here!"; No is becoming Yes and even "Fuck off!", with the right intonation can mean something like "I don't believe it! How very interesting, Carruthers!" Where will it end? And it's not as if any good words are making the opposite journey, except perhaps "You can kiss my ass", which is easily imagined as a term of endearment back in old Babylon. What really bad words and expressions will survive the nicification onslaught? And what unnecessary good words could be put to better use as insults?
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 8, 2003 - 54 comments

Like a hole in the head, like an old Onion link, like an outburst of cholera, MetaFilter needs these custom-made Flames. But some of them are hilarious. And anyway, as has been posted before, we didn't start the fire. [Flash needed for this latter golden oldie. Via Linkfilter. NSFW.]
posted by Carlos Quevedo on Apr 20, 2003 - 8 comments

Playground law - a comprehensive (warning: pun) list of school yard insults. Beware - it sucks you in, I've been reading for an hour and I'm only on 'c'.
posted by Orange Goblin on Jan 16, 2003 - 9 comments

slurdb an interesting look into an often overlooked and ignored lexicon - even if it is an ugly one. jtx from hatesville is building a reference to the language of hate, but he needs your help.
posted by boogah on Feb 24, 2002 - 6 comments

Children can be cruel and remarkably inventive with it, as this directory of playground insults shows. It's the personal remiscences which explain each insult that make it worthwhile.
posted by MUD on Jan 30, 2002 - 20 comments

The Second Reincarnation of the Final Grandson of Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. For those of us in constant search of universally meaningful insults, wowbagger delivers. The program is based on a character in Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", a character who, after an incident involving a time traveling machine and a piece of elastic band, became so pissed off at the universe that he sought to insult every creature in it, in alphabetical order.
posted by samsara on Mar 15, 2001 - 5 comments

Has someone gotten you so mad you'd like to insult them? Are you the non-confrontational type? Well then, give Synge.com's Insulter a try. It's a totally anonymous way to get back at someone. Too bad U.S. Government officials don't like it...
posted by mathowie on Oct 29, 1999 - 1 comment