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Humans just love a good tale of revenge. There is so much inherent drama, wrongs being righted, betrayal and catharsis. So it stands to reason that throughout human history, there have been many cases of people taking matters into their own hands to resolve their differences.
Someone asked “What was the biggest "[s***w] you" in history?” and netizens shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you read through, if you happen to have a nemesis, perhaps take some notes, upvote the best ones and be sure to add your own thoughts and favorites in the comments below.
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#1
Mother Nature's big FU to the Chinese in response to the Great Sparrow Campaign. The campaign encouraged the Chinese to k**l sparrows by the truckload because supposedly they were eating seeds from planted crops. Well, the campaign was such a success that plant eating insects that the sparrows also ate were able to thrive and totally ruin crops which lead to famine.
Green Tree 1 day ago
The law of Unintended Consequences and why it's a bad idea to mess with ecosystems in general
RELATED:
#2
Olga of Kiev. Some jerks called the Drevlians killed her husband and tried to have her marry their Prince. She fooled them into sending their most important men to prepare for the wedding and trapped them in a building and burned them alive. When they tried to apologize she requested pigeons from the citizens and *rigged the birds with sulfur bags*. The birds flew back to their original homes and when they roosted it burned down all of their houses. The official bad b***h of the year 890. She's also a saint.
Jrog 1 day ago (edited)
Sooo... a few things to set straight, I'll split in multiple comments. First: Igor of Kiev was the son of Rurik, the semi-mythical guy who founded the Kievan Rus, a loose aggregate of warrior tribes -formerly Viking- from northern Europe that congregated under the strong arm of a warlord. The state survived by collecting tributes from subjugated tribes. At some point Igor -we don't know why, Varangians kept very few historical records- decided to turn tyrannical against a specific tribe, the Drevlians, taxing them to death and subjecting them to raids. Possibly it was related to the fact that they were a cultural minority, being Slavic instead of Baltic. This just to say they were probably not 100% in the wrong and the guy was kind of an assh*le.
#3
Ferruccio Lamborghini was a rich man owning his company that built tractors, he talked to Ferrari about the imperfections of his car and how to improve them and they basically laughed at a young tractor mechanic trying to tell them about sport cars, so he decided to start making luxury sport cars to compete with Ferrari and thus, the rivalry was born. So i'd say the middle finger of this guy to Ferrari was pretty noticeable.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
Supposedly, it was over the price of the replacement clutch. The story goes: Lamborghini wasn't a great driver and kept burning out the clutch on his Ferrari, so he had to keep buying replacements. Then - the story goes - he found out that Ferrari charged 1000 lira for each replacement clutch, the same clutch Lamborghini's tractor factory bought for 10 lira. And there was an argument with Ferrari, and... https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a25169632/lamborghini-supercars-exist-because-of-a-tractor/
#4
The Rats of Tobruk.
An Australian garrison in Tobruk during WWII that became infamous during an 8 month siege against an armored German/Italian Afrika corps.
The tactics of the soldiers surprised the Germans in that usually when the lines are pieced by armored forces the enemy retreats. Not so the Tobruk Garrison, who instead advanced and attacked the infantry running behind the tanks while letting the armored division over-extend itself without support.
>" I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland , France and Belgium once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry keeps fighting."
Eventually they got a N**i war propaganda specialist to broadcast radio messages in Radio Berlin in an attempt to lower morale and deride the defenders, calling the soldiers in Tobruk 'cornered rats' because of their tactics in using tunnel networks to flank and steal supplies, and their supply ships 'floating scrap iron'.
But rather than be demoralized the Australian's started calling themselves Rats and their supply ships 'the scrap iron flotilla'. Because in typical Australian dry humor they figured it is more insulting to the Germans to be beaten back by a bunch of rats. They gave themselves unofficial rat medals with metal from a scrapped German bomber shot down with stolen German guns.
I like to think it was a long 8 months of Australians and their allies holding a giant middle finger to the Axis.
Smeghead Tribble Down Under 1 day ago
One of our favourite things is to give the middle finger to authority :)
#5
George Bernard Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend—if you have one.
Winston Churchill: Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second—if there is one.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
Yeah, but they were both just massively taking the p**s out of each other. I don't think there was any actual malice involved.
#6
Queen Gorgo of Sparta when asked why only Spartan women were equal to their men:
"Because only Spartan women give birth to Spartan men.".
#7
The invasion of Belgium during WW1 comes to mind.
Basically, the Germans were on a strict timeline and needed to move their massive army through Belgium in order to flank the French defenses along their own border. In order for this to be successful, they were counting on the Belgians kind of just stepping aside and letting them use their roads and rails and bridges and such. After all, the Germans could destroy Belgium in a war with relative ease, but they didn't have time for that. The Germans asked the Belgians not to sabotage any of the infrastructure so they could pass through and leave them alone.
In response, the Belgians gave a resounding "f**k you". They blew up the bridges and the tunnels and the rails, and they gave a fantastic resistance against the Germans at a series of forts along their border with Germany. They really f****d s**t up.
Jrog 1 day ago (edited)
Eh, kind of misrepresented. Germany proposed a treaty (i.e. a full surrender) to Belgium to keep them under relatively light occupation if they did not oppose resistance to the army passing through. They needed to rush to Paris, and the German plans -that were outdated and incredibly optimistic- called to cross Belgium while they could have just made a short detour. Belgium had already standing agreements with France and the UK, and did not want to give up their independence, so acted reasonably like any invaded country. Also their agreed role in the defensive alliance was to slow down the enemy to allow French forces buildup.
#8
Not the biggest, but:
Molotov said he wasn't bombing Finland, he was bringing them food. In actuality, he was bombing them. Finns got cheeky and called the bombs "Molotov Bread Baskets." Finns made the Molotov Cocktail as "a drink to go with the bread."
A Molotov Cocktail is p much flammable "poor man's grenade" meant to set someone on fire rather than just flat out k**l them.
It might not be a huge f**k you, but it's one of my favorite historical facts.
GenuineJen 1 day ago (edited)
Umm... The designers of THAT "bomb" knew exactly what they were doing.
#9
Singapore getting kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, making it the only state in the world ever to gain its independence involuntarily.
There is a video of Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew crying on TV right afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj6iKXMIiOg
The reason Singapore got kicked out, was that then governor, and ethnic Chinese, Lee Kuan Yew did not agree with the racially discriminating policies put in place by the mostly Malay government. These policies grant Malays significantly more rights than any other of the many ethnicities that live in Malaysia, in an apartheid like manner.
Of course, we know that it went very well for Singapore from then onwards, but back in the day virtually everyone thought that this decision would be the country's death penalty. I mean, it really wasn't much more than a Malaria infested swamp in 1965...
The even bigger "f**k you" is that history in Malaysian school books has been rewritten to say that a mutual understanding had been reached and that Singapore left voluntarily. What's more, historical facts have been "amended" gradually, in order to justify the special rights that ethnic Malays get.
While I am not a Malaysian myself, I have lived in the area for several years now and it griefs me to still see ethnic Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who are forced to keep quiet over political and personal issues, in order to avoid serious consequences.
Nils Skirnir 1 day ago
It’s a rare month too that some church or ashram isn’t firebombed. Xtians, for example, keep religious gatherings pretty quiet.
#10
When Julius Cesar was kidnapped by pirates and his men paid 50 talents as a ransom.
He went back home , took his time to raise a fleet and go after his kidnappers. He crucified them and got his 50 talents back.
Kelli Wilson 1 day ago
He also said their original ransom was much too low, they should ask for more.
#11
Republicans refusing to hold a hearing for President Obama's supreme court nominee with nearly a year left in his term.
#12
The Greeks saying a huge resounding "No" to Mussolini's ultimatum to allow the axis forces to enter the Greek territory in 1940.It forces admiration,it takes a special kind of badass to say the equivalent of "f**k you " to Hitler's minions at that time of history.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 day ago
Mussolini also screwed over Germany with invading Greece, since he didn't tell his allies of his plan the Wehrmacht had to delay their invasion of the USSR to assist him
#13
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Famous German general from World War I.
From his Wikipedia article:
Later, when Hitler offered him the ambassadorship to the Court of St James's in 1935, he "declined with frigid hauteur."; the suggestion for the nomination as ambassador to the Court of St James had come from retired Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen during a visit to Berlin. During the 1960s, Charles Miller asked the nephew of a Schutztruppe officer, "I understand that von Lettow told Hitler to go f**k himself." The nephew responded, "That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely."
Very few people lived through telling Hitler that. But he was a decorated, historic officer. He survived, taking no part in the 2nd World War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
And they say Germans don't have a sense of humour? "I understand that von Lettow told Hitler to go f**k himself." "That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely." 🤣
#14
Henry VIII created his own church when the Catholics told him no for divorce.
Tucker Cahooter 1 day ago
Hence why the Church of England allows married couples to divorce, although it is discouraged. They do however draw the line at beheading your spouse
#15
Winston Churchill, in the face of what appeared to be utter and inescapable defeat only briefly delayed through the largest evacuation in military history.
*Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.*
*We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.*
edit: [Here is the audio of his parliamentary address](http://audio.theguardian.tv/sys-audio/Guardian/audio/2007/04/20/Churchill.mp3) Above quote starts at 10:30.
EDIT: TLDR; "F**k you Nazis, we'll sacrifice EVERYTHING to beat you -- our lives, our country, our empire, and even if we fail our valour will inspire future civilizations to rise up and defeat your descendants.".
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago (edited)
The audio is from the BBC broadcast, actually voiced by an actor (ETA: not - see my follow-up post below). Parliamentary proceedings weren't recorded by audio until, if I recall correctly, the 1980s. One thing about Winston Churchill: people believed what he said in part because he'd actually fought in war himself, having taken part (e.g.) in the British Army's last serious cavalry charge. There's much to criticise about Churchill, but he was intensely loyal to his wife, king, and country; and personally highly courageous - rather unlike one recent Churchill-aping British PM I can think of. Yes I do mean that *&%! Boris.
#16
Not the biggest but still a great "F**k you" was delivered by Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. His invention was copied all over the South and 20 years of lawsuits all failed in the Southern courts. He wound up broke. The new south became incredibly wealthy from his invention. That new "empire" felt itself put-upon by the North and decided to become an independent "empire". Eli Whitney then went and invented inter-changable parts for weapons with assembly lines and allowed the North to quickly arm hundreds of thousands of men with which to crush that would-be empire. He created and crushed an empire.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
Don't forget the Lancashire cotton mill workers who embargoed US cotton. It hurt them badly, but they did so to end slavery, on the urging of Abraham Lincoln. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/06/06/role-british-workers-abolishing-slavery-winning-american-civil-war/. The mill workers drove the embargo - against the wishes of the bosses, who just wanted profit at any cost.
#17
The Mongols were essentially the Borg of the middle ages. They would show up at your city gates with a massive, stinking army of hardened killers and demand that you surrender, be integrated into the Mongol empire and pay tribute. If you didn't do this immediately, they would simply k**l every person in the city, relentlessly and brutally. The Mongols actually had quotas for how many people each member of the army was responsible for killing. It's believed that the Mongol Conquests were responsible for the death of over 5% of the world's population. If you did join the Mongol empire, they were actually pretty tolerant as far as the Middle Ages go.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 day ago
Killed so many people, entire forests grew back, the Mongols were enviromentalists....
#18
America taking over a huge chunk of Mexico and then naming one of that states New Mexico.
#19
Hannibal crossing the Alps. Rome was not expecting a Carthaginian army to come from that direction especially with elephants. So I guess it's also the biggest "SURPRISE M**********R" of history as well. Bringing elephants didn't help much in terms of military might, but it did show Rome that Carthage could deploy it's most intimidating weapons wherever they damn well pleased.
Jrog 1 day ago (edited)
Historically, elephants did jack s**t in military terms, but were an amazing psy-op. It was like bringing a bazooka to a bank robbery... That said, Hannibal lost most of the elephants on the way, well before reaching Italy, and more so on the mountains. The trick effectively worked out only on the Trebbia river, where the few remaining elephants caused commotion. By the battle at Zama during the counterattack, the Romans already had spearmen and trap tactics in place to slay the Punic elephants as soon as they came close to the line.
#20
Arlington National Cemetery sits on what used to be Robert E Lee's estate.
#21
Anthony McAuliffe was the United States Army general who was the acting division commander of the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, famous for his single-word reply of "Nuts!" in response to a German surrender ultimatum.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
""General Mac was the only general I ever knew who did not use profane language. 'Nuts' was part of his normal vocabulary."" The German ultimatum was quite wordy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe#%22NUTS!%22
#22
During the Siege of Tobruk, the Australian soldiers would listen to German propaganda they would pick up on their radios, especially someone they named Lord Haw Haw.
At the start of the siege, he called them to surrender because they were "caught like rats in a trap" and living in the ground, so the Aussies started calling themselves the Rats of Tobruk. As well, the ships that were supplying Tobruk were old at the time and were described as "piles of scrap iron" so were named the Scrap Iron Flotilla.
The Aussies also pretty much said f**k you to the whole being in a siege thing. They would often have games of cricket going that would only stop during air raids, but keep going during shell fire. They would also go out of the perimeter and sneak into German and Italian camps and steal their artillery and other weapons and would use it against them, becoming known as the "bush artillery"
The Aussies and Brits then went on to deal the Germans with their first defeat on land and by holding Tobruk, allowed Montgomery to stockpile the tanks and weaponry required for the Battle of El Alamein.
#23
The reply of the Cossacks, though it is most likely legend. Below is the original response and reply.
Sultan Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:
As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians - I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.
--Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV
Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan:
O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked a**e? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shallt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons; we have no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, f**k thy mother.
Thou Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f****r of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our d**k. Pig's snout, mare's a**e, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw thine own mother!
So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our a**e!
- Koshovyi otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.
Janissary35680 1 day ago
There's a great painting (done 200 years later) depicting this event at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks
#24
After years of his fathers torment, Joseph Stalin's son tried to k**l himself in Stalin's house. When Stalin's wife informed him of his son's attempted s*****e by gun, Stalin's comment, loud enough for his son to hear, was "He can't even shoot straight!!"
Afterwards his son, who was lieutenant in the red army, got captured by the German army in 1941 and when they tried to trade his release for a field marshall of their own. Stalin responded "I won't trade a marshall for a lieutenant.".
iseefractals 1 day ago
When i was in 5th grade, it was the first leg of learning about WWII, which encompassed an entire semester of class. For our big report at the end, we had to pick a prominent figure of the war, write a 5 page report, and also had to dress up as whomever we picked as part of an event for the parents. Parents would then come around and ask the kids questions about who we were supposed to be, what they did during the war and what interesting tidbits we found that weren't common knowledge. I chose Stalin. That was among the tidbits i recounted, dressed as Stalin, complete with russian accent and fake moustache. Stalin....was kind of a d**k, and he hated his kids almost as much as they hated him.
#25
In 1347 the port city of Kaffa in the Crimea was under siege by the Mongols. The Mongols were forced to end the siege when their forces were depleted by the Bubonic plague. Before withdrawing the commander, Jani Beg, ordered the corpses catapulted over the city walls. The plague spread westward across Europe eventually killing 30 to 60 percent of the population.
#26
Roman Emperor Caligula, reportedly had a favorite saying (Oderint dum metuant), which roughly translates to:
"Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.".
Kiki Likes Sweets 1 day ago
But we are talking about someone who once declared war against the sea and made his horse a senator. His biggest FU was against sanity.
#27
When Australians declared war on rampaging emus and slaughtered thousands of them in trench warfare style.
Srinivasan S 1 day ago
Still the result of the war is declared as Australia lost. So the FU was delivered by emus
#28
When Arminius led Varus into the trap at Teutoberg forest in 9 A.D. and defeated three roman legions.
Jesse 1 day ago
It's Teutoburg forest, or Teutoburger Wald in German. His German name was Hermann der Cherusker and he's got a big monument in the middle of said forest. hermannsde...n-oben.jpg 
#29
So - France basically won the American Revolution against Britain. The best selling APUSH book puts it this way:
To say that America, with some French aid, defeated Britain is like saying, "Daddy and I killed the bear."
So - we had promised France that we would not betray their friendship by making a separate peace with England. BUT! England was so eager to undermine the territorial ambitions of France in North America after France had so deviously denied them 13 of their own North American colonies that England offered the new US all the land from the sea to the Mississippi. We took it, and in doing so, helped our enemy (England) screw over our most important ally (France).
You'd think the Philippines would have seen it coming when we did it to them later.
C Hendrix 19 hours ago
Then there's the famous anecdote about when Philip II of Macedonia (Alexander the Great's father) called on the Spartans to surrender by sending the message: if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city”. The Spartans sent back a reply of one word: "If".
#30
After 100 years of fighting the Carthaginians for dominance of the Mediterranean, the Romans finally conquered Carthage and then evacuated and enslaved the entire population, burned the city to the ground, and plowed over the fields with salt to ensure that no civilization would ever arise there ever again.
Note: this post originally had 51 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
What do you think ?
Gavin Johnson 1 day ago
A funny FU from WWII, the Germans started to construct a wooden base for the Luftwaffe, it was spotted by the Allies and they left it alone, the construction continued until there was a complete base, wooden aircraft, wooden billets, wooden hangers the whole schebang, all built to distract Allied forces and to waste munitions and surveillance on. The R.A.F. completed the job by dropping wooden bombs onto the wooden airfield. No harm done just wasted war effort by the Germans and a cheeky FU from the R.A.F. 😀
Mike F 23 hours ago
That's what happens when there is a lack of "fact" checking. It's good for entertainment though.
Load More Replies... Gavin Johnson 1 day ago
A funny FU from WWII, the Germans started to construct a wooden base for the Luftwaffe, it was spotted by the Allies and they left it alone, the construction continued until there was a complete base, wooden aircraft, wooden billets, wooden hangers the whole schebang, all built to distract Allied forces and to waste munitions and surveillance on. The R.A.F. completed the job by dropping wooden bombs onto the wooden airfield. No harm done just wasted war effort by the Germans and a cheeky FU from the R.A.F. 😀
Mike F 23 hours ago
That's what happens when there is a lack of "fact" checking. It's good for entertainment though.
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