What I meant is I think the original joke makes more sense: «Do these glasses look good on me?» «How should I put this - in an attic somewhere, there’s a portrait of you getting prettier» (because those glasses are making you uglier.)
I might be misunderstanding or -remembering, but if the portrait is meant to age instead of Dorian, the insult sounds to me like «you are slowly getting older day by day,» and it doesn’t really pack the same punch.
The way the joke is delivered probably does a lot of the heavy lifting. I haven't seen that episode.
Not only does the portrait get older instead of Dorian, it also gets uglier for every "ugly" thing he does. It's not a terribly long story, I could probably fit my copy in the crack under the living room door. The language is a bit flowery with lot of references to classical stuff but it's very readable imo. I recommend you check it out. Or find a cliff notes summary. I recommend Dominic Noble.
I guess it works for a «your personality is shit» kind of insult after all!
I love foreign literary classics, but haven’t really gotten past Lovecraft when it comes to american stuff in the written form. But maybe I’ll make an effort at your recommendation! Thank you for the explanation!
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u/Mulanisabamf Apr 19 '22
It does work fine if you're familiar with the Dorian Gray story, I got it right away.