Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1299, Trading Insults.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1299.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful and I do mean beautiful Los Angeles, California.
This episode is all about insulting or saying bad things about other people.
This is going to be fun.
Let's get started.
Look at you.
Did you get a haircut or did your head get stuck in a weed whacker?
Look who's talking.
Maybe you should do something different with your hair, like wash it.
Oh, burn.
That would have been a nice comeback if it weren't so dumb.
Who taught you your one-liners?
A friend?
Oh, I forgot.
You don't have any.
I think you've confused me with someone else.
You.
You couldn't come up with your own put down, so you had to borrow mine?
How humiliating for you.
Not as humiliating as having to walk around with that face.
I have something that'll improve it.
A paper bag.
Oh, clever.
I knew better insults when I was six years old.
You mean the same mental age you are now?
Give it up.
Nobody can one-up me in trading insults.
Your brain is no match for mine.
You're right.
You're a person of rare intelligence.
You rarely show any.
We begin our dialogue with Alan saying to Doris, look at you.
Look at you is used when we are trying to say something about someone's physical appearance, about the way he looks.
Alan says, look at you.
Did you get a haircut?
Or did your head get stuck in a weed whacker?
A haircut.
H-A-I-R-C-U-T is when, you can probably guess, the length of the hair on your head is made shorter by someone cutting it with a scissors or some electronic device.
We would call it a razor, R-A-Z-O-R.
I don't need to get a haircut anymore because I shave my head.
I use a razor on the top of my head to get rid of the little hair I have left.
But enough about me.
Back to our dialogue.
Alan asks Doris not seriously but as a way of insulting her or saying something bad about her if she got a haircut or if her head got stuck in a weed whacker.
To get stuck.
S-T-U-C-K is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to be put into a place or a position and unable to move or to get yourself out of that position or situation.
Here in Los Angeles, we often talk about getting stuck in traffic.
That is being unable to move very fast in our car because there are so many other cars on the road or the freeway.
You could get your hand stuck, for example, in...
A small jar.
Let's say you are putting your hand into a small container or jar to get something out.
And then you can't get your hand out of the jar or the container.
Your hand is stuck.
You're unable to move it.
Alan is jokingly asking Doris if her hair got stuck in a weed whacker.
Weeds, W-E-E-D-S, are small plants that grow that you don't want, that you want to get rid of.
A weed whacker...
W-E-E-D hyphen W-H-A-C-K-E-R is a machine that is used to cut grass, especially at the end of a.
It's a machine that is also used to quickly remove tall grass from an area in your lawn or outside of a building.
The verb to whack, W-H-A-C-K, here means to cut.
We sometimes use a weed whacker for small areas that we need to cut off the lawn or to cut weeds down where we can't use a regular, what we would call lawnmower, which is a machine you use to cut grass.
I should mention that you should be careful with this word weed.
Weed in the singular is sometimes used informally to mean marijuana, that kind of plant that you smoke that can cause you to change your attitude or mood.
That is illegal in many places.
A weed whacker has nothing to do with marijuana.
Now why is Alan asking Doris if she had her head stuck in a weed whacker?
Well, he's saying that her haircut isn't very good.
It looks as though someone did it as if they were cutting a lawn or cutting down weeds.
Doris responds to Alan by saying That expression look who's talking is used to say that another person who is criticizing you actually has the same problem or the same situation.
So if someone says to you, for example boy, you are looking very tired, and the person is saying that as a way of insulting you, you might say well, look who's talking.
You look even more tired than I am.
Doris, in other words, is insulting Alan right back by saying that there is a problem with his hair.
She says, maybe you should do something different with your hair, like or such as wash it.
Doris is saying that Alan hasn't washed his hair, and so his hair doesn't look very good either.
Alan responds by recognizing or acknowledging that Doris has insulted him in a clever or funny way.
He says, oh, burn.
Burn, B-U-R-N, here means insult.
Words that you used to insult me.
But he's using it in a funny way, to be funny.
He says, however, that would have been a nice comeback if it weren't so dumb.
A comeback.
C-O-M-E-B-A-C-K is something you say right after another person insults you or says something bad about you.
A comeback is supposed to be funny.
Or we would say witty, w-i-t-t-y.
Witty is funny in an intelligent way, in a clever way.
Alan doesn't think that Doris' insult to him was very clever.
It wasn't a good comeback.
That's why he says that would have been a nice comeback if it weren't so dumb.
He's saying that it was a dumb comeback.
A one-liner. hyphen liner l-i-n-e-r is a joke that is only one maybe two sentences long technically a one-liner should just be one sentence but it is often two or maybe even three sentences alan is saying that doris isn't very funny He says, who taught you your one-liners?
A friend?
Then he says oh, I forgot, you don't have any meaning, you don't have any friends, which is, of course, another insult.
Doris says, I think you've confused me with someone else, you.
Doris means here that Alan is really talking about himself.
Alan says, you couldn't come up with your own put-down so you had to borrow mine?
Doris didn't come up with a very good comeback, and Alan recognizes that.
To come up with something is a phrasal, verb or expression meaning to invent or to think of something, especially in a creative way.
A put-down is another word for an insult or another term for saying something bad about another person.
Alan says, how humiliating for you.
To be humiliating, H-U-M-I-L-I-A-T-I-N-G, means to feel ashamed or embarrassed.
Doris is not as humiliating as having to walk around with that face.
I have something that'll improve it.
A paper bag.
Alan says it's humiliating for Doris to not be able to be clever or original.
Doris responds that it's more humiliating for Alan to be so ugly.
That's what she means by saying walking around with that face.
She says she has something that will improve Alan's face, a paper bag.
Doris is saying that Alan is so ugly he should put a bag over his head.
Alan says, oh, clever.
Clever, C-L-E-V-E-R, means funny, creative person.
Very smart in an unexpected way in this case.
But Alan here is being sarcastic.
That is, he doesn't really think Doris is clever.
He's saying that to mean the opposite, in fact, that she isn't very clever.
He says I knew better insults when I was six years old, meaning he was better or could do better insults, funnier insults, when he was a child.
Dora says, you mean the same mental age you are now?
Your mental M-E-N-T-A-L age is is how old your mind is, which really means how intelligent you are.
Your body can be a certain physical age, but if you have problems in your brain, your mental age, that is, your intelligence, might be much lower.
That is, you're not as smart as your body age, I guess you could say.
Alan then says to Doris, give it up.
The expression to give it up means to stop, especially to stop trying when something is too difficult.
Alan then says, nobody can one-up me.
To one-up someone means to do something better than another person.
Usually right after that person does it.
So you, for example, make a wonderful meal.
And then your friend decides to one-up you.
He's going to cook a meal even better than you did.
Alan tells Doris that no one can one-up him in trading insults.
To trade, T-R-A-D-E, here means to exchange something.
So I insult you and you insult me.
Alan says, The expression Not to be a match M-A-T-C-H for something or someone means it's not as good as something else or someone else.
If I say, your team is no match for my team, I mean that my team is better than your team.
Your team is worse than my team.
Alan says that Doris's brain is no match for his brain.
Doris says, you're right.
You're a person of rare intelligence.
Intelligence is how smart you are.
Rare, R-A-R-E, means unusual or not very common.
Doris then says you rarely show any meaning, you very infrequently or not very often have any intelligence.
So Doris is trying to insult Alan back by saying that he is not very smart.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look at you.
Did you get a haircut or did your head get stuck in a weed whacker?
Look who's talking.
Maybe you should do something different with your hair, like wash it.
Oh, burn.
That would have been a nice comeback if it weren't so dumb.
Who taught you your one-liners?
A friend?
Oh, I forgot.
You don't have any.
I think you've confused me with someone else.
You.
You couldn't come up with your own put-down so you had to borrow mine?
How humiliating for you.
Not as humiliating as having to walk around with that face.
I have something that'll improve it.
A paper bag.
Oh, clever.
I knew better insults when I was six years old.
You mean the same mental age you are now?
Give it up.
No one can one-up me in trading insults.
Your brain is no match for mine.
You're right.
You're a person of rare intelligence.
You rarely show any.
Our scriptwriter is a woman of rare intelligence.
I speak, of course, of the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say, who always comes up with wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
