Stealth Insult/Quotes

Film

Atticus Finch: Good afternoon, Miss Dubose... My, you look like a picture this afternoon.
Scout: [hiding behind Atticus whispering to Jem and Dill] He don't say a picture of what.

—To Kill a Mockingbird

Live-Action TV

Doctor Cox: Who can tell me what this patient's symptoms mean? Mister Murphy?
Doug Murphy: Actually, sir, it's Doctor Murphy.
Doctor Cox: ...uh-huh.

—Scrubs

Uncle Phil: Geoffrey, bring me my tools.
Geoffrey: Do you mean your knife and fork, sir?

—The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Theatre

George: Good night, Prometheus.
Walter: Who's Prometheus?
Ruth: I don't know, honey. Don't worry about it.
Walter: They get to a point they can't even insult you man-to-man. They got to talk about something nobody ever heard of.

—A Raisin in the Sun

Polonius: Do you know me, my lord?
Hamlet: Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.

—Hamlet

Web Original

Multiple anuses appear in the ceilings of every room in 10 Downing Street. They all seep blood onto the furnishings below.
The Prime Minister orders hundreds of corks to plug the anuses, but none of them arrive as the people who were meant to deliver them can't be bothered.
"I can't bear this any longer!" says the Prime Minister's wife, sheltering underneath an umbrella.
The Prime Minister does not reply. Instead he stands and stares upwards, transfixed by the apocalyptic messages that the anuses are transmitting into his brain.

—The Golden Age of the Low Countries

...all I'm saying is that if I was a Korean animator, drawing this nonsense is exactly how I would tell an American cartoon writer to fuck himself.

—Seanbaby, 6 Super Friends Villains That Didn't Give a @#%* (from Cracked.com)

Western Animation

Megatron: ... yeeesss.
Blacharachnia: Why do you always talk to yourself?
Megatron: I merely have a penchant for intelligent conversation.

—Beast Wars

Real Life

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."

—William Faulkner, on Ernest Hemingway ^[1]

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↑ Hemingway's famed response to this was "Poor Faulkner... Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

[1] Hemingway's famed response to this was "Poor Faulkner... Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"

[1]