Toward a Finer Insult ...

by Cliopatria

Browsing in a catalogue yesterday, I found a book that reminded me of the comment boards at History News Network. It is Jack Lynch, ed., Samuel Johnson's Insults: A Compendium of Snubs, Sneers, Slights, and Effronteries from the Eighteenth Century Master (2004). Really, we've much to learn from Johnson. I've yet to see anyone called a bubbler, a clotpoll, a jobbernowl, or a moon-calf at HNN. The best I recall was when Derek Catsam called me a"slackjawed lackwit." Its only other use on the net seems to be by Obnoxious Bitch in reference to George W. Bush, but I absolutely reject the widespread rumor that OB is Catsam's sock puppet. In fairness, he was good enough to put a"Don't be a ..." behind it. Where was Johnson when I needed him?"You rakehel"* is probably too recondite, even for Catsam."Don't be a buffleheaded clodpate!" should do.

It's disappointing that we've not been more resourceful on the HNN comment boards. The net offers aides to the learned insult. There is the Shakespearean Insulter, for example. How many times might you have used"Thou pribbling fat-kidneyed horn-beast!" or"Thou dankish full-gorged moldwarp!" or"Thou lumpish fen-sucked canker-blossom!" I suppose they could be used in the right context. For the professors, there's always"Thou villainous abominable misleader of youth!" That's from Henry IV, Part One.

There's also Elizabethan Insults. In case your vocabulary suffers from the wild proliferation of the"f" word, it offers both a bibliography and a useful mix ‘n match. Begin with"Thou" and add any two adjectives, one from column a and one from column b. I rather like" cockered" and"fly-bitten." End with a noun, say:" codpiece.""Take that, Thou cockered, fly-bitten codpiece." Memorable, I think.

There's also this on-line guide to the dozens. It's sometimes known as the snaps or signifying. Henry Louis Gates gave the dozens academic respectability in his book, The Signifying Monkey, an interpretation of African American vernacular literature. Doing the dozens may begin with a simple insult, like"You're so dumb, if you spoke your mind you'd be speechless." But it is likely to escalate and becomes serious when the reference is to yo' momma:"Yo' momma's so fat, she broke her arm and gravy poured out." There's long been a complex relationship between Jewish-American comedy and African-American comedy. We'll miss Rodney Dangerfield, who turned the dozens on the self and made us laugh with him when he said:"I was so ugly when I was born that the doctor slapped my momma."

*Rakehel: a wild, worthless, dissolute, debauched, sorry fellow.

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mary lili jory - 8/17/2009

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Maarja Krusten - 10/8/2004

Dr. Luker, can you or anyone else offer some insights into how ritual insult became so engrained in blogs and message boards, even here on HNN?

What I know about ritual insult derives from books by Deborah Tannen (_Working From 9 to 5_) and from reading articles such as "Working with insults: discourse and difference in an inner-city youth organization," (das.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/10/3/317.pdf ) . Tannen mentions in her book a study, "Serious and Playful Disputes: Variation in Conflict Talk among Female Adolescents." Tannen explains that the study "shows that some of the junior high school girls in her study who came from working- or lower-class backgrounds engaged in a kind of ritual insulting that was competitive in the sense that they tried to top each other's insults but was not a means to maintain or subvert status hierarchies, as was the boys' characteristic use of ritual insults."

In looking at the workplace, Tannen generally explains that men often use ritual opposition (although I remember that more from hearing guys talk while hanging out in the hallways in high school than from more recent observation in my workplace, which admittedly is very "buttoned down." All the employees I know are judged on "collaboration and teamwork" and would torpedo their careers if they engaged in ritual insult.) Tannen believes most women bond through "rapport talk." She explains dominance hierarchies, the idea that some men are very conscious of status (are they one-up or one-down from others), how this affects offices, the effect of dominance hierarchies on teamwork and colloboration, etc. I don't agree with all her views--she relies way too much on gender stereotypes for my taste--but her books are interesting to read. She even includes some Presidential anecdotes about Lyndon Johnson, Ramsey Clark, and Thurgood Marshall.

When I see the use of insults by HNN posters, I have to remind myself that it probably derives from the sorts of things that Tannen describes, rather than from the things that naturally come to mind (Do some of these people have self esteem issues? What don't I know about past run-ins among the disputants? ) Because HNN's are the only blogs I read, I'm interested in anything the rest of you can tell me about why the use of insults has become so common. My frame of reference is waaaaaaay toooooo narrow for me to assess this style of discourse properly. I mostly read traditional hard copy newspapers which, of course, take a different tone with their op eds, editorials, and letters to the editor. So I need help from you more experienced bloggers.

I should add that I have a strong aversion to bullying as a tactic in workplace relationships. Some of you may have read of studies that show that people who are under severe stress sometimes flood their systems with fight or flight responses. Too sustained a response like that can lead to damage to the immune system. I know of a person who was harrassed severely in another workplace, not at my agency. That person developed cancer and died young. The doctors mentioned specifically an unusually weakened immune system in a person who until the cancer diagnosis had been very healthy. I've always wondered about the weakened immune system and the connection to workplace stress. Apologies for ending my post on such a downer when Dr. Luker's article actually was funny and enjoyable. Just thought I'd mention why I shy away from using ritual insult myself, I guess we all view stuff through the prism of our own experiences, however flawed or inexplicable those reactions may seem to others.

Derek Charles Catsam - 10/7/2004

One could read this to be calling me a sock puppet in the breach. Good stuff!
dc

Ralph E. Luker - 10/7/2004

Aren't quotations wonderful things! It's just amazing what _other_ people will say.

Sharon Howard - 10/7/2004

‘[Elizabeth Addison said that] Susan Hartnes was a whore and a pocky whore and a burnt whore, and Mr George Lamploughs whore and that he had her at his comaund five yeares together at the stayres head or foot or where he pleased’. (York, 1661; 'pocky' and 'burnt' both referring to venereal disease. See also: 'Burnt-arsed whore'). The opening lines of a chapter of my MA diss. I loved writing that diss; the things I could get away with putting in it because, well, it was just quoting the sources... When I can find my old files, I plan to blog about it some time.

Richard Henry Morgan - 10/7/2004

I'm just disappointed I didn't get any credit from Tom Palaima for deploying 'Abderite'. There seems to be a cultural (or class?) dimension to insults. My friend who attended Cambridge on a Kellet was introduced to the British practice of hiding insults, rather than shoving one's nose in it (the American preference).

David Lion Salmanson - 10/7/2004

Ralph you schnorrer, Dangerfield said "mother" not momma. (Really I'm jsut looking for an excuse to use schnorrer).

Tom Bruscino - 10/7/2004

Thanks Ralph, I laughed so hard my coffee nearly came out of my nose.