‘What’s the worst compliment you’ve ever received?’ – 21 plaudits that were so bankhanded they came out the other side

Receiving a compliment is always a good thing, right? Well, perhaps not, if you walk away from the experience with the niggling feeling that actually you’ve been very subtly thrown some shade instead.

User Admirable-Repair4094 has experienced this, and posed the following question on the AskReddit page:

‘What’s the worst compliment you’ve ever received?’

And lots of people who suddenly realised they’d been insulted rather than praised chipped in with their own experiences…

1.

‘Not me, but one of my children’s school reports: ‘Kay is helpful, whether it’s needed or not.’

‘Still makes me laugh, 20+ years later.’
–Andyetnotsomuch

2.

‘When I was 20, I sat in a hotel lobby with my legs outstretched. A cute grandma (the ‘fairytale’ type) emerged from the elevator, looked at me and said in a warm, praising way: ‘Wow, what long legs! That will be a long coffin one day!’

‘OK, thanks …? It happened in Brno, a Czech (Moravian) city with some reputation for weirdness…’
–DefenestrationPraha

3.

‘It’s a shame you’re just a little girl. You’re smart enough to be a boy. For clarity, this was in 1963 or 1964 at the arsenal in Huntsville Alabama where my parents worked and I was allowed to spend some time with one of their geniuses. My mom told me he meant it as a compliment because that didn’t occur to me.’
–SeaSense3493

4.

”Your teeth are so fucked up it’s so cute!”
–DrBlaziken

5.

‘I got my driver’s license as a teenager and showed it to some girls. They looked at the photo and exclaimed, ‘Oh, that’s an improvement!”
–TheSanityInspector

6.

”She looked really great from the neck down.’ Said by a guy I had a first date with to a mutual friend.’
–Equal_Commission881

7.

”You look great, for your age’. Please leave the ‘for your age’ out.’
–ExpensiveShallot7990

8.

‘A female friend said to me one day, ‘I don’t understand why girls think you are cute’.’
–mrtzjam

9.

‘You are so kind, I am very happy that we are ‘just’ friends!’
–MrStruggleOverHere

10.

‘Someone said I looked pregnant. I’m a dude.’
–PhantomBanker

11.

”You are a little overweight, but I think you’re perfect the way you are!’ I’ve never had whiplash so hard from a compliment. They double down on it being a compliment, but how?’
–030117