In inpatient psychiatry I tell my coworkers “I hope your shift is mind-numbingly boring” or something similar (keyword being boring) because in my line of work, interesting (usually) = bad.
What’re yours?
In Quebec French, instead of saying “Break a leg” you say “merde” which literally translates to “shit”
“Keep the shiny side up” is a nice thing to say to a motorcyclist.
Keep the rubber side down, also.
In the helicopter world is “keep the spinny bits up”
“Merde”. As in, the french word for “shit” - or, should we say, “horseshit”. Why? Well because at the time of horse-drawn carriages, a successful play at the theatre would leave a lot of horseshit in front if the theatre from the many, many coaches awaiting their fares.
Same in Spain: mucha mierda.
ah yes ! and it’s customary to not reply “thanks” to that
'Xactly. You say “je prends !” as in “I’m taking it!”
I didn’t know that one
“Bless Your Face”, I borrowed that one a long ways back, it seems to make people smile.
Ship it
“Shoot yourself in the head, asshole!”
That’s one I get a lot. The most positive one anyway.
parking inspector?
Law enforcement?
In the burlesque world, it’s “Pop a pastie!”
“Jump before the plane hits the ground!”
LOL “Abandon sheep! Abandon sheeeep!”
In the South they say “bless your heart,” which is kind of the opposite. It’s like calling someone a simpleton.
I really dislike that the internet took this and turned it into an insult. It was never meant to be hateful.
That’s not what my southern mother-in-law tells me.
I think there’s room for a little bit of nuance here
It’s pretty much always going to mean you’ve been a little dumb, or naive, etc. so it’s an insult in that sense.
But I tend to hear it used by southerners in sort of a “aw, they know any better/can’t help it” sort of way.
So more like when I call my dog an idiot because she got her leash tangled around a street sign again. There’s no malice in it, she’s dumb, but she can’t help it, she’s just a dog.
Not like if I call my coworker an idiot because he’s continuing to fuck up the same basic shit no matter how or how many times you explain it to him, he should know better and can help it.
Now, there’s arguably another level of insult/disrespect implied because they are talking about you in the same way they would a dog or a small child. I don’t think that’s really something they usually intend, but of course the intention isn’t really as important as how the target actually feels about it. You can also probably get really psychological about it and dig into how their word choice reflects how they view others in relation to themselves or something, but I’m neither interested in nor qualified to go down that rabbit hole right now.
Disclaimer- those are just hypothetical examples I gave, both my dog and my coworkers are actually pretty pretty smart and capable. She’s actually the first dog I’ve ever had who actually seems to understand how to not get tangled on a street sign, so I mean no disrespect to her, or to my coworkers either I guess.
Well put bro.
I’d suggest it can be used even more lightly than that, to express that someone is pitiable in some way. My boss, who is from the Carolinas, was talking about her mother who had just had a stroke, and said “my momma, bless her heart”.
As you say, there are shades of meaning, and context is sorry important.
Oh, bless your heart
It’s always been an insult.
“Fuck shit up, man.”
may your pillow be warm on both sides
You’re a monster
Well sure, the partner goes on one and dog on the other.
“May you live in interesting times.”
I said blessing, not curse, lol but maybe that’s just my perspective.
Misread, but I’m leaving it!
In french we tell people “je te dis merde !”, it’s the equivalent to break a leg, literally just means “I’m saying ‘shit’ to you!”.
In Czech we tell actors to break their necks rather than legs. Sounds safer to me.
Us Germans are extra thorough. We wish both, breaking neck and leg.
“I hope you have the day you deserve.”
My version is “I hope your day is as pleasant as you are.” Said mock sweetly to asshole customers.
“Don’t let the magic smoke out!”
In electrical/computer/embedded engineering, we have a running gag that microchips work by trapping magic smoke inside, and when you do something wrong, you “let out” the magic smoke.
While I was learning to solder I definitely let the magic smoke out a few times, and I can confirm that those boards no longer worked!
‘Let’s smoke test it’ is still a common phrase in electronics.
Different origin though. A smoke test is more like if you try running something and you see smoke then you haven’t fixed it yet
And that smoke is exactly the magic smoke the original comment was talking about…
Ah, I see. Didn’t make that connection