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Some people are very skilled at being passive-aggressive, with their greatest skill in life being the ability to deliver a biting backhanded compliment. U.K.-based scriptwriter Annalisa Dinnella recently asked people to share their “favorite nasty compliments” they’ve ever received. She went on to give her own, writing that a girl she hadn’t seen since high school once told her she had “really grown into” her face.
OK Twitter. I want your favourite NASTY COMPLIMENTS – ones that you personally received.
Mine’s from when I was 22 and bumped into a girl I hadn’t seen since high school and she informed me that I’d ‘really grown into my face’.
— annalisa dinnella (@annalisadinn) September 12, 2020
Ouch. After receving hundreds of replies, Dinnella followed her tweet up with another thanking folks for participating and saying she hoped their confessions were “cathartic.”
I have laughed so much reading this thread (and occasionally wanted to weep). Thank you, you generous lot. Hope it was cathartic.
— annalisa dinnella (@annalisadinn) September 15, 2020
1.
You’re actually quite pretty in real life. EVERY TIME.
— sally carman (@sallycarman1) September 14, 2020
2.
You’d be pretty if you lost weight.
That’s quite a moustache you’re growing. (I was 13 and it hurt…)
— Cath Sheard (@KiwiLibrarian) September 13, 2020
3.
Me and my best friend were getting ready for a night out round at another friend’s house, who’s quite an awkward guy, and when we were all dressed up and made uphe said to my friend, “oh Mel, you look nice.” Then he turned to me and said “ah Danielle, you look… ready.” 😆
— northern powerboat (@muddyasblood) September 13, 2020
4.
A colleague once said on a night out: You look nice, I almost didn’t recognise you.
— Laura Pearson (@LauraPAuthor) September 13, 2020
5.
Sat in a coffee shop with a friend. Another customer is leaving and approached me from behind, stops next to me “you have such beautiful hair, people must be really disappointed when you turn around and they see your face”.
— Clair Anne Cutler (@clairyland) September 13, 2020
6.
‘You’re quite funny for a woman’, ‘you’re not the best looking but your personality is good’, and recently when I pondered I could have spent the 80+ hours watching all the sopranos eps doing something more constructive, my date said ‘like sit ups’? 🤷🏼♀️
— Octavia Landy (@LadyOLandy) September 13, 2020
7.
I told a guy I was seeing that I was going to be interviewed on a national news programme. When it aired he texted me to say, “the camera really does add 10 lbs”.
The interview was about my experience with a severe eating disorder.
— Rebecca Graff-McRae (@PoliScIrish) September 13, 2020
8.
Oh where to start?! “It’s so weird I find you so attractive as all my girlfriends in the past we’re conventionally beautiful.” And one of my neighbours said “when I first met you (ON THE SCHOOL RUN) you looked like an alcoholic on Prozac but actually you’re really nice.” Fml.
— Jane Slavin (@JaneSlavin) September 13, 2020
9.
Years ago a man who was painting the outside of our house was talking about me to his colleague when I happened to be inside , just the other side of the window. He said “she’s not much to look at but a nice lady”. 🤦♀️🥴.
— Katharina Kubrick (@KCKubrick) September 13, 2020
10.
My gran once complimented my short haircut by saying “Looks much better, you never suit your hair long because of your horse face” 🤗
— Kathleen Nicholls (@kathfantastic) September 13, 2020
