FunnyOCT 20, 2022

Ridiculous Backhanded Compliments Mean People Come Up With

What is a backhanded compliment exactly? Ever heard those weird compliments where it sounds like the person said something nice about you, but for some reason, you actually feel insulted? Yeah, that would be it.

A backhanded compliment is that weird interaction when somebody gives a nice comment about your appearance or achievement, or anything else about you — for example, “I really like your hair color!” — but then adds something that implies that up until this moment, this feature of yours was really not up to standard, something along the lines of “It is so much better than the color you had before!” How does that sound? Exactly. Like until now, you were walking around with really ugly hair. Not much of a compliment, is it?

There are two main reasons why people might give you backhanded compliments. One is they don’t know any better. They genuinely want to praise you, and to show you how much they appreciate your new look or achievement, they compare it to a time when — in their opinion — it wasn’t as good. If that’s the case, just accept the compliment and ignore the rest.

On the other hand, there are instances where people actually want to be mean to you but, for whatever reason, can’t do it directly, so they resort to insulting compliments. For moments like this, you need to be ready and know how to respond to insults. In my opinion, there is no need to get angry and annoyed; instead, a returned funny compliment with a double meaning will do the trick.

For this article, we have collected some backhanded compliment examples. What was the most ridiculous one you have ever received and how did you respond to it?

#1 "I Wish I Was As Smart As You Think You Are"