• dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee
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    4 hours ago

    “You […]” makes pretty much anything an insult.

    A positive word implies sarcasm. “You genius”. “You hero”.

    A random noun drags out the negative aspect of the noun or implies lack of a brain. “You french fry”. “You paper bag”.

    Adding a random adjective just strengthens the statement. “You british bathroom sink”. “You beautiful parking lot”.

    Of couse it depends on delivery, and using random words makes some strange insults, but I rarely see “you […]” turn into a positive compliment.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 hour ago

      “You genius” sounds like a compliment to me. A “funny” compliment. Would it be taken as sarcasm in the US? It really depends the tone I guess but in Australian english I wouldnt interpret it as sarcasm.

      • dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee
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        46 minutes ago

        I think that changing it to something gramatically correct would make it into a compliment. “You are a genius” would make it positively charged. However, I would expect “you genius” to be something that, for instance, someone would exclaim when someone cuts their hand when trying to open an avocado. Meanwhile I think it would be strange to exclaim “you genius” when someone solves a partial differential equation. But it probably does rely on the tone.

        • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          31 minutes ago

          “you genius” is what a lad would say when you’ve found a solution to a stupid problem you got yourselves into while drunk or something. A geniune compliment, but with some humour added in.