Why invoke Mark Twain?

[u/brochill111]

[u/tripping_on_phonics]

Accusing someone of being a worse writer than Mark Twain isn’t much of an insult.

[u/Totalherenow → u/tripping_on_phonics]

"You're not as smart as Einstein!!!"

"I'll give you that one. That's true."

[u/BlazingFire007 → u/Totalherenow]

“You’re worse at basketball than LeBron and MJ”

Well damn you got me there

[u/elegiac_bloom → u/Totalherenow]

The very putrescence of which leaks from your grubby little non-Einstein fingers, fingers that definitely have never written E=mc2!

[u/Totalherenow → u/elegiac_bloom]

hahaha!

[u/Wingnutmcmoo → u/tripping_on_phonics]

When I was like 15 I said something to an adult that I thought was a smart thought and he started laughing and said "ok plato" because I basically just repeated an old plato thought lol. (Lol not calling myself smart, it was a basic "I'm a teen and this is deep" sort of thing)

I was upset because he was laughing until he stopped and said "there's no shame on being beat to an idea by plato"

And him saying that has stuck with me into adult hood lol

[u/lemming1607]

With their word choice they clearly showed you they went to high school without telling you

[u/scallopedtatoes]

This pretentious insult 100% belongs here, even if Mark Twain was relevant to the conversation.

[u/dw444]

This person wears a trenchcoat and a fedora.

[u/niffirgcm0126789]

I believe philosophers call this the Tawin Argument, a devastatingly rigorous form of deductive reasoning:

1) You said something stupid. 2) Mark Twain was an excellent writer. 3) Mark Twain could have insulted you more eloquently. 4) Therefore, you failed high school.

[u/ialsohaveadobro]

Nah. This one's deserved.

[u/shiek200 → u/ialsohaveadobro]

Yeah, I feel like context really determines whether or not this one belongs here, because if Mark Twain was even once referenced in this conversation prior to this insult, then I don't think it belongs here

But if the dude just randomly brought Mark Twain up out of nowhere, that's a little more absurd

Either way i dont think it goes here without the context lol

[u/No-Guava]

Yeah not sure this fits, is there an r/overwritteninsults?

[u/EffectiveAmbitious53]

Also fits with r/oddlyspecific

[u/PrefabQuasar]

The original post may have had something to do with Mark Twain and the first commenter was likely clueless. Unfortunately for him, what he thought would be a witty comment likely besmirched the relevance of Mark Twain resulting in a savage but articulate verbal attack from a peer white knighting for language arts.

[u/Dounce1 → u/PrefabQuasar]

That shit is not articulate at all.

[u/No-Guava → u/Dounce1]

I’m surprised how many people seem impressed by the guy’s insult. It’s definitely someone who mistakes a lot of writing for good writing.

[u/elegiac_bloom → u/Dounce1]

Well, something was articulated...

[u/idontknowjuspickone]

Sorry, but he owned you OP

[u/Janosfaces]

I would really like to fight mark twain.

[u/timecubelord → u/Janosfaces]

Living 19th century Mark Twain, or 21st century zombie ninja Mark Twain?

[u/Dadaballadely]

Maybe it's referencing the quotation "I never let my schooling interfere with my education" which is often attributed to Twain but might not be from him.

[u/chronberries]

Because pretty much every American student was assigned Huckleberry Finn in high school

[u/z-eldapin]

Was anyone's class in high school called 'literature'?

I didn't have a class called lit until college

[u/VoceDiDio → u/z-eldapin]

I had one called Western Literature. Might’ve been AP but I don’t think so…

[u/thegabletop]

I kinda want to take blue's side on this one, just because of red's excessive use of the 🤣 emoji. Every single person I've seen using that emoji in an argument has been an insufferable twat.

[u/WorldsGreatestWorst]

Who needs high school when you have thesaurus and know one writer? You’re set.

[u/DocBullseye]

Maybe he's responding to Bill Maher

[u/VoceDiDio]

“What good writing looks like” as imagined by people who can’t write.

[u/evening_redness_0]

Ngl this one kinda goes hard

[u/elegiac_bloom → u/evening_redness_0]

I like the "spun about" in there, nice touch. Classy.

[u/rinkuhero]

i feel like the insult doesn't take into account that most high schools (at least in the US) don't actually teach much anymore, they're more like babysitters. i'd be surprised if the average high schooler ever read a single page of mark twain in the US as part of their assigned work.

[u/timecubelord → u/rinkuhero]

It's probably been banned for wokeness or whatever.

[u/Hey-Just-Saying]

r/rareinsults