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Some people have such a way with words they can even make insults sound good. In reality, you don't even have to channel your inner Shakespeare to make an insult pleasant to one's ears. It just has to be clever enough to make the other person want to disappear inside their shell like a turtle.
We're fans of wordplay and justice here at Bored Panda, so, we've got a collection of the sickest and most inventive burns that people have dished out on the Internet. If you're looking for inspiration or want to see some cleverly-crafted justice where jerks got put in their place, check out these clever comebacks!
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#1
A Thread On Aposematism
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#2
A New Service For Beauticians To Offer?
#3
Blaming Young People For Being Triggered
Did you think Twitter invented people throwing insults at each other in a public space? Well, think again! Back in the olden days, poets would engage in insult rap battles referred to as "flyting." Today, we can find examples of flyting in classical works such as Beowulf and King Lear, but other cultures have their versions as well: the Japanese haikai and the Arabic naqa'id.
The most famous example of poets giving each other lashings in verbal form would probably be "The Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie." That medieval rap battle was the first instance a poet used an excrement-related joke and also used the now-ubiquitous curse that starts with an F.
#4
They Got That Johnny Bravo Aesthetic
#5
Very Funny Things Are Happening
#6
Degree Man Strikes Again
UndertaleLover (She/Her) 9 months ago (edited)
I friggin love this guy. He gives me the warm satire fuzzies
What was the point of these flytings? Not just to flex the poets' rhyming muscles, if you were wondering. Just like diss tracks today, they could make or break them: the poets' image, honor, and social standing depended on their performance. The poets performed the flyting to the royal court, but people outside the court could read their insults and boost their profiles.
Nothing was off-limits during flytings. As Christine M. Robinson writes, Dunbar listed many of Kennedy's defects: "his highland origins, begging, cowardice, treachery, ugly appearance, venereal disease, jaundice, and sexual activity." Well, at least he didn't accuse him of downloading PDF files.
#7
Due For Some Good Luck Eventually
Maria Maria 9 months ago
I had COVID-19 twice and I have never felt worse in my life. The first time I genuinely thought I wasn't going to make it.
quentariel 9 months ago
Mine was worse than a normal flu, but not worse than influenza. But I was lucky to catch it only after two shots of vaccine. And lucky that in my country almost everyone respected the limitations, so I actually had time to get my shots before catching it. I feel really sorry for people who did everything they could, but still got infected by other people's stupidity.
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Remi (He/Him) 9 months ago
First covid I had trouble breathing and was tired for months after. Also a member of extended family died of covid. Flu my aß
Alex Mosby 9 months ago
I had both. I definitely had the flu worse than covid... I was also vaccinated against covid but not the flu (procrastinating). I got the Covid vaccine because of how bad my experience with the flu was. I don't understand why people think the flu is a walk in the park. The flu kills. There are people in ventilators right now because of the flu. So yeah a lot of people got Covid as bad or worse than the flu. I don't wanna die from either.
Pamela Blue 9 months ago
Too many people think a tummy bug is the flu, or a cold is the flu. Neither one is the flu. There is generally NO mistaking it when you get the real thing. It is very unpleasant.
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Asher Tye 9 months ago
And now, because of these same ninnies, we have measles making a comeback
Kylie 9 months ago
Yep and we'll go back to poor little kids dying of it again.
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KrazyChiMama 9 months ago
I’ve had both…Neither one was pleasant…however, I recovered from the flu in about 10 days…I had long post-covid syndrome for about 3 months after…gut health was off and zero energy no matter how much I slept and periods of wheezing like an asthmatic…I don’t have asthma…yes I was vaccinated for COVID…I couldn’t get the flu shot that year because I had covid at the time the flu shots were being given…
DragonofMordor 9 months ago
My dad died of COVID. My mom had to be hospitalized. I was out of work for 2 weeks and had to use a nebulizer, which I hadn't had to use since I was a kid.
Riley Quinn 9 months ago
What do y'all think is Spencer's news source? Fox? OAN? Joe Rogan? Ben Shapiro?
lwolf1952 9 months ago
Maybe like trump he pulls his information out of his own @ss.
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Chris the Bobcat 9 months ago
He never met my friend either, and never will. Her experience with Covid ended with her death.
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 9 months ago (edited)
Dear Mr Spencer Morgan, every time that I have had covid it was most definitely worse than the flu. And and the fact that we have never met, is just the universe looking out for me. So that I do not wind up being arrested for throat punching you. You muck fuppet
Lara Verne 9 months ago
Covid almost killed me, but I was lucky enough and did not met this guy.Also, 7 million dead people would probably disagree as well.
kansasmagic 9 months ago
And I think anyone who dismissed COVID as "just a bad flu" hasn't actually had the flu.
Brian Droste 9 months ago
I had Covid twice. Wasn't pleasnt. Couldn't sleep. Lost my taste buds. Tired/wore down all the time. No energy to do anything. Coughing and hacking all the time. To get what sleep and rest I could, I had to sit up. Don't ever want to go through that again.
Tim Douglass 9 months ago
"No worse than the flu?" Do you mean that disease that in 1918-20 killed roughly 50-100 million people? That flu? Yeah, Covid19 isn't much worse than that.
Celtic Pirate Queen 9 months ago
My husband's co-worker lost his father and an aunt to Covid. It is definitely NOT like the flu.
Joanne Earle 9 months ago
Oh it was waayyyyy worse than the flu. I have NEVER had a cough like that in my life, and I am a lifelong veteran of yearly bouts of bronchitus and the occasional pneumonia since childhood. It hung on for over a month and my energy was sapped for over a month as well.
Zelda Sterling 9 months ago
My mom died of covid. I caught it in the beginning and never felt so sick in my life. For so long, too. My brother works at a hospital in NM and my son's gf works at a nursing home. Those of us who know, know and the amount of sheer disgust and hatred felt toward covid deniers is something that will take awhile to heal, as well.
Beth Wheeler 9 months ago
He obviously doesn't work in a medical office or hospital or know anybody that has it really bad or died.
LuisSD stuff 9 months ago
I've had covid 4x and each time it felt as if I was dying. The end result: I've lost my ability to taste food.
Raddhi Mutiara 9 months ago
Have you seen your neighborhood next to your house, somehow went empty? the whole family got covid and wipe out the entire house. No living family known until now, and the house stand empty until now.
Bored Trash Panda 8 months ago (edited)
I had covid February of 2023. Was worse than the flu for me, laid in bed for a week cause of it. I still have issues because of it. Pre-covid I could go on hikes and was super active, now I can barely walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. Makes it really hard to work out to get myself feeling better because I feel like I can't breath from going on a short walk.
Ryan Bogdansky 9 months ago
(this is not me trying to downplay it in anyway) When I had COVID, the issue wasn't that I didn't feel good. The issue was no one at school wanted to be near me, because I wasn't all that popular before it, and people thought I would give them COVID. I lost a couple of friends this way.
Caroline Seguin 9 months ago
I almost died of Covid also. I didn't but it left me with zero sense of smell or taste for a year. Horrible disease.
Sheena Leversedge Wood 9 months ago
AND they massively understimate flu. it's not just a bad cold. I spent 3 weeks not even able to go downstairs to watch TV. all I could do was lie in bed, and at times I wondered whether it was worth getting up and walking about ten feet from my bed to the toilet, or whether I should just wet the bed instead. I was literally weighing up which would be the most uncomfortable
S R Godwin 9 months ago
My husband has never been ill in his life. We always teased him about his Viking heritage (he is of Scandinavian stock) but he caught COVID and could not swallow, eat or drink and took to his bed for 3 days. We were totally shocked at how ill he was. And yes, we had all had our jabs. He isolated himself and it wasn't passed on to us, his wife and daughters.
Grace Note 9 months ago
Michael Rosen is a wonderful man and large numbers of us in the UK were wishing so hard for his recovery. I was so happy that we got him back.
somnomania (she/her, queer) 9 months ago
also flu doesn't generally have the potential to leave you chronically ill
Bryan Wright 9 months ago
I had Covid-19 once and felt off for two or three days. That was it.
rv branham 9 months ago
spencer has a very small cohort circle in his cult compound... or should we call it the fortress of idiocy...
Binny Tutera 9 months ago
I think ALL of the families that had a loved one die from COVID would disagree with this twerp.
Roland Nijveld 9 months ago
I've been lucky I guess. A few I know had it but was all very mild luckily. Also feel that COVID in the USA was way more severe as here in Europe.
Extinct Animal 9 months ago
Had covid 3 or 4 times now...Who knows cause I just stopped testing for it past a certain point. 1st time was over Xmas the very first year it was about and me and daughter were in bed for a few days, couldn't really move about, whole body hurt, tripping balls from high fever and a bit of trouble breathing. 2nd time it was like a cold 3rd time I didnt even know i had it. When I had the flu flu about 10 years ago I actually thought I was going to die...ended up in hospital on oxygen and my body wasn't right for a good year after. Everyone is different.
TotallyNOTAFox 9 months ago (edited)
I never had the flu so I have no point of reference, though my two Covid infections were probably on the level of that (Got two doses of vaccine beforehand)
Bi.Felicia 9 months ago
Somehow I've been fortunate to have never had Covid and I'm pretty sure I've only gotten the flu once in my life. I did get vaccinated for Covid, due to my job at the time and I also got 1 of the booster shots, in early 2022. Since then, I have chosen not to receive anymore Covid boosters and knock on wood, I've been good. 🤞🏻
Ralph Vanloton 9 months ago
Apparently "My body, my choice" works for abortions and not for injections.
#8
Lake Superior Hasn't Wrecked Anyone Like This Since The Edmund Fitzgerald
Most Old English insults would be borderline nonsensical today, but we can't deny they sound pretty fun. Let's take "Blowsabella," for example. Yes, it's an insult to women, but not what you might've thought. It's a comment on a woman's hair, most often about how disheveled and unkempt it looked.
#10
She Has A Beautiful Way With Words
keyboardtek 9 months ago
And Trump flies on Airforce One multiple times a week to go to Florida to play golf. In just a few weeks he has cost the taxpayers over $10 million!
#11
100% Pure Beef
michael Chock 9 months ago
The world would be a better place if our nuggets, burgers, sticks and ribs where shaped like the animals they came from.
#12
Then There Was Flood
michael Chock 9 months ago
Liberal media - lets expand privilege. Christian conservative media - we are the American Taliban, if it isn't Christian we will burn it.
Other old insults which might sound like they came straight from a five-year-old's vocabulary, are Gollumpus and Grumbletonian. And no, they don't have anything to do with The Lord of The Rings or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gollumpus was a "large, clumsy fellow," probably originating from the verb galumph (to move clumsily with a heavy tread). And a Grumbletonian was someone who complained all the time, no matter how good they had it.
#13
Great Reply
Remi (He/Him) 9 months ago
Good job on standing up for the delivery driver instead of cow towing to the customer like many companies do
#14
Aggressive But Relatable
michael Chock 9 months ago
The government can't force you to use your body to keep someone alive. Doesn't matter if it's blood donations, organ donations, slavery or being a human incubator.
#15
Blame Your Parents For This One
Lost Panda 9 months ago
At my high school graduation, we had a brain surgeon who was an alumni come and give the speech. He talked about becoming a surgeon, going around the world, climbing the himalaya, but the one thing he wanted us to always remember... and I quote "MOON PIES MAKE YOU HAPPY!" and he began throwing them into the crowd XD
Not all Old English insults sounded so nonsensical; some were worded quite normally. Like 'Afternoon Farmer', used to describe lazy people, perhaps because farmers would rise early and grind through the day. If people wanted to call someone emaciated or skinny like a skeleton, they would call them 'Death's Head Upon a Mop Stick.'
#16
That's Some Seriously Old Beer
#17
God Is Out To Get Her
#18
Died Of Hungry
General Anaesthesia 9 months ago
The surgeon went in for the lobotomy and came out empty-handed.
But how can we talk about insults without talking about The Bard himself whose put-downs were almost second to none? Truly, who else could come up with quips like "froward and unable worms," "fat guts," "clay-brained guts," "luxurious mountain goat," or "February face"?
#19
That’ll Show Him
Tobias Reaper 9 months ago
this makes no sense its like the people who bought Harry Potter books then burnt them to protest JK Rowling they already bought the books and made her richer so they are out of pocket not her
#20
"Why Doesn't My Kid Visit Me Anymore!?"
#21
Plot Twist: She Pays The Full Rent Now And Does Not Want Her Man To Build Up To Much Self Esteem
Tabitha 9 months ago (edited)
We’ve been married almost 24 years. We’ve always had joint checking and savings accounts, plus our own accounts. The joint accounts pay the living expenses we have in common, as well as save for common goals, and our own accounts are ours to do with as we please. I don’t know how Eden can’t understand that both people in a marriage have to contribute to the relationship. If she can’t contribute money, then she contributes in another substantial way (for instance, a SAHM may not contribute a paycheck, but she does contribute her 24/7/365 time and effort to keep the kids cared for, and whatever other household duties she can manage, kept up with). A marriage where one partner exhausts themself working long hours, keeping bills paid, kids cared for, and the house kept decent, while the other lays around not contributing anything but expecting everything to be done for them, will not last. No one is worth allowing yourself to be taken advantage of by them. I don’t care how rich, famous, good looking, or great in bed they are. Advantage-takers all come with a very short relationship expiration date.
Shakespearean insults aren't just for name-calling. He was also a master of witty retorts. In Henry IV, Chief Justice tells Falstaff: "You are as a candle, the better burnt out." Or how about this very politically incorrect observation: "No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip, she is spherical, like a globe; I could find countries in her."
#22
He Is Honest. The Best Kind Of Doctor
#23
Wow It's Like Makeup And Having Your Hair Down Makes You Look A Little Different
#24
This Is What This Type Of Parenting Leads To
ABC NrTen FCK CENSORISM 9 months ago
"we not friends" - yeah, because OP sucks bigtime as a father. The reply is spot-on.
The reality is that we don't live in a Shakespeare play. When someone insults us, we spend way too much time thinking of a comeback. A good retort only comes to us when we're lying in bed at night the following night. Psychologists say that's because the parts of our brains that are responsible for coming up with a witty remark turn off at that moment; they're sensing a threat.
#25
I Have No Idea Who This Man Is But I Love Him
#26
Maybe That Rat Makes A Nice Meal And You're Being Judgemental
#27
Incel Says What?
Psychotherapist Melanie Williams says that "Are you okay?" is the most universal response when someone says something wildly inappropriate to you. "There's so much packed in this short comeback," she told TIME. This flips the attention back at the insulter, not so much what they were talking about. Also, Williams notes, it invites the insulter to self-reflect.
#29
And The Most Hair-Raising
Susie Elle 9 months ago
In all fairness, I've made salmon in the microwave before and it turns out pretty great
#30
Cooking Together
Which of these comebacks did you like the best, Pandas? Do you think you will be using any of them in your own life any time soon? Let us know in the comments! And while you're there, don't forget to share with us the best witty retorts you have in your arsenal!
#32
Get In The Ball
Remi (He/Him) 9 months ago
And sending the extra ones off to be grinded to candy you can feed to the survivors so they'll get tougher :)
#33
It's So Simple
DennyS (denzoren) 9 months ago
Why didn't I think of this sooner, all I needed to do was take $3mil and buy a treasure bond? Silly me...
#34
Two Sides Of The Same Coin
#35
The Man Himself
#36
Nothing Is More Accurate
#37
Best Way To Respond To Threats
#38
Well You Can't Argue With That Kind Of Logic
#39
Bro Deleted His Account After This
#40
Is That Why There's So Many Of You 23 Year Olds Around?
m6nbtfpx7q 9 months ago
I was just young and uninformed of the effects of antibiotics on birth control even in the days after you’ve finished them. Imagine that, US public school had “health” classes one day in sixth grade and thought we were prepared for life.
#41
It's Always Broken
#42
Scientifically Wrecked
#43
Worlds Greatest Comeback
#44
Who's A Vet Here And Accepts The Challenge?
#45
Sitcom Bullying
#46
That Wasn't Just A Roast, That Was A Burn
#47
It's About Creating Something Better
#48
I'd Really Love To Know The Thinking Pattern Behind This
UndertaleLover (She/Her) 9 months ago
I think the guy was trying something along the lines of "did you know if you say the word gullible very slowly, it sounds like the word 'orange?'"
#49
Emotional Damage
#50
Food Standards
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 9 months ago
The two redeeming things about Wendy’s are the frosties and the social media.
#51
I Would've Called That "Double Tap"
#53
Grandma Got Absolutely No Chill
#54
First Date
#55
Destroyed
#56
Emotional Abuse Rule
#57
Welp, He Deserved It
#58
May Be The Best Response Ive Ever Read
#59
Homocide By Words
#60
A Hard Dose Of Brotherly Honesty
#61
Really Just Proving His Point
#62
We Were A Proper Country Then
#63
I’m Definitely Using This One
#64
Mad Lad Cares About No One
#65
Someone Doesn’t Get The Pickup Line
#66
I Feel Personally Attacked
#67
Bro Got Bodied By An Airline
#68
Creator Of Geometry Dash Has No Chill
cj be like 9 months ago
there are many shapes in the game, which have geometry, therefore it has to do with geometry
#69
The Internet Is Just Full Of Funny People
#70
Bully Getting A Taste Of Their Own Medicine
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Anony Mouse 9 months ago
I love when I’ve scrolled through like 50 posts, then the page freaks out for no reason and I get sent back up to the top because this site is sh1t on mobile devices.
Bookworm 9 months ago
This was happening to me frequently. Then I cleared my cache and cookies and it seems to have stopped.
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Dean H 9 months ago
BP doesn't thrive on anything original. They get their user engagement from stolen internet content.
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Anony Mouse 9 months ago
I love when I’ve scrolled through like 50 posts, then the page freaks out for no reason and I get sent back up to the top because this site is sh1t on mobile devices.
Bookworm 9 months ago
This was happening to me frequently. Then I cleared my cache and cookies and it seems to have stopped.
Load More Replies... Dean H 9 months ago
BP doesn't thrive on anything original. They get their user engagement from stolen internet content.
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