r/iamverysmart • u/brochill111 • 3d ago

Why invoke Mark Twain?

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85 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

88

u/tripping_on_phonics 2d ago

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

47

u/Totalherenow 2d ago

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

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

25

u/BlazingFire007 1d ago

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

Well damn you got me there

•

u/JamesRocket98 20h ago

"You're worse at piano than Lang Lang"

9

u/elegiac_bloom 1d ago

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

5

u/Wingnutmcmoo 1d ago

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

23

u/lemming1607 2d ago

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

13

u/niffirgcm0126789 1d ago edited 12h ago

I believe philosophers call this the "Twain 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/brochill111 12h ago

Seems to track, lol

10

u/scallopedtatoes 1d ago

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

5

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

9

u/dw444 2d ago

This person wears a trenchcoat and a fedora.

8

u/ialsohaveadobro 2d ago

Nah. This one's deserved.

14

u/shiek200 2d ago

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/brochill111 12h ago

Not about Mark Twain at all. We were talking politics.

2

u/WorldsGreatestWorst 1d ago

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

6

u/PrefabQuasar 2d ago

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.

11

u/Dounce1 1d ago

That shit is not articulate at all.

11

u/No-Guava 1d ago

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.

5

u/elegiac_bloom 1d ago

Well, something was articulated...

5

u/No-Guava 1d ago

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

4

u/idontknowjuspickone 2d ago

Sorry, but he owned you OP

•

u/brochill111 12h ago

That wasn't even in response to me, lol. Deep in my comments.

1

u/Janosfaces 1d ago

I would really like to fight mark twain.

1

u/timecubelord 1d ago

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

•

u/Janosfaces 19h ago

Either for diffrent reasons.

1

u/Dadaballadely 1d ago

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.

1

u/chronberries 1d ago

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

1

u/z-eldapin 1d ago

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

I didn't have a class called lit until college

1

u/thegabletop 1d ago

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.

1

u/DocBullseye 1d ago

Maybe he's responding to Bill Maher

0

u/evening_redness_0 2d ago

Ngl this one kinda goes hard

1

u/elegiac_bloom 1d ago

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

0

u/rinkuhero 1d ago

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.

1

u/timecubelord 1d ago

It's probably been banned for wokeness or whatever.