What are some PG boomer/silent gen insults?

November 18, 2024 5:05 PM

E.g. “clown”, “chump”. TIA
posted by cotton dress sock to Writing & Language (51 answers total)

My dad likes to use "Bozo".
posted by hydra77 at 5:16 PM on November 18 [17 favorites]

Donkey
posted by unreasonable at 5:19 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Nudnick
Goof
Ding-dong
posted by tristeza at 5:29 PM on November 18 [7 favorites]

Doofus
posted by potrzebie at 5:33 PM on November 18 [4 favorites]

cow
dill
drongo
droob
galah
goose
nitwit
nong
pig
silvertail
posted by flabdablet at 5:34 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Blockhead
Nincompoop
posted by Eyelash at 5:36 PM on November 18 [6 favorites]

Dingbat.
posted by SaneCatLady at 5:49 PM on November 18 [4 favorites]

Nimrod
posted by Citizen Cane Juice at 6:02 PM on November 18 [11 favorites]

Turkey
posted by Dolley at 6:12 PM on November 18 [7 favorites]

Ninny
Goober
Twerp
posted by EvaDestruction at 6:16 PM on November 18 [3 favorites]

Nincompoop
Nitwit
posted by toxic at 6:18 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

cretin
drip
posted by seemoorglass at 6:23 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

rat
snake
weasel
posted by flabdablet at 6:23 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

drip
posted by catquas at 6:24 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

palooka
posted by SPrintF at 6:31 PM on November 18 [3 favorites]

Knucklehead and similar (viz chowderhead and chucklefuck) or, my preferred variant, chucklehead,
posted by kate4914 at 6:33 PM on November 18 [10 favorites]

Ya mope.
posted by Czjewel at 6:37 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Mod note: One comment removed by poster's request.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:41 PM on November 18

Galoot
posted by briank at 6:43 PM on November 18 [5 favorites]

Geek
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:48 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

in sports, "Maroon" and my (75yo) dad calls people Losers but he might have gotten that from us in the clueless years.

my grandma was fond of "ragamuffin" and my grandpa called people Hippies and Beatniks and Peaceniks as insults but in a gentle way because my parents were hippie-adjacent and he loved them.
posted by euphoria066 at 6:49 PM on November 18 [3 favorites]

Jamoke, mook, schlub
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:52 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Dingus
posted by ActionPopulated at 6:55 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Phony, usually in the plural, is a favorite of my 94-year-old grandfather.

“Maroon” is a mispronunciation of “moron,” which is ableist, so maybe questionably PG.
posted by Just the one swan, actually at 7:03 PM on November 18 [3 favorites]

good-for-nothing
posted by dum spiro spero at 7:08 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

My silent generation dad uses numbskull a lot.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:17 PM on November 18 [5 favorites]

Milquetoast
Sop
posted by coldbabyshrimp at 7:43 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Jerk
posted by Toddles at 8:17 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

candy-ass
posted by Rash at 8:19 PM on November 18

Space cadet

Putz
Schmuck

Birdbrain?
Turd?

I was going to say buzzkill but apparently that was first used in print in like 1993.
posted by vunder at 8:20 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Yutz
Dimwit
posted by vunder at 9:05 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Dumb bunny
Joker
Dork
Nerd
Twerp
posted by gryphonlover at 9:37 PM on November 18 [2 favorites]

Meathead.
posted by ponie at 10:00 PM on November 18 [5 favorites]

No-goodnik.
posted by socialjusticeworrier at 10:29 PM on November 18 [1 favorite]

Jamoke
Jagoff
Putz
Half wit
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:53 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

I'm 42 and feel like "wuss" predates me (and the Internet seems to confirm that it arose in the early 80s) but I'm not sure if it was coined by cruel Boomers in their late 20s/early 30s or cruel Gen X children.
posted by saladin at 3:50 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

I first heard 'wuss' in 1975.
posted by Rash at 7:41 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

And a third vote for twerp (its equivalent 'nerd' wasn't part of the vocabulary until the 1980s).
posted by Rash at 7:43 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

Dope.
posted by emelenjr at 7:53 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

'nerd' wasn't part of the vocabulary until the 1980s

That's how I remember it, but this Slate article from 1998 (Nerd vs. Nebbish - Who's the bigger loser?) claims the former was in use earlier:

Whatever its origins, the appellation rose to prominence in the 1950s, the High Age of Conformity, when boomers employed it to condemn the most conformist of the conformists, the squarest of the squares.

Yeah, square. There's a put-down I still use, for somebody hopelessly uncool.
posted by Rash at 7:59 AM on November 19 [2 favorites]

will always remember my friend’s stoic dad muttering, “IDIOT STICK.”
posted by changeling at 11:28 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]

Perhaps you didn't get/hear the whole joke: a shovel is a tool with a blade at one end and an idiot at the other, hence 'idiot stick' is another name for a shovel.
posted by Rash at 1:35 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

Dweeb
posted by heyforfour at 2:07 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

I forget where I heard "Lame" as an example of semantic drift - calling somebody "lame" back in the day was a Big Deal, and now it's less so.
posted by adekllny at 2:17 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

"Ditz" and "flake" were two my father used for women. For a fellow, "a real piece of work."
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:57 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

Nutcake.
posted by bluesky43 at 4:35 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

Knuckle dragger
Mouth breather
posted by forthright at 5:49 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]

My mom calls people “turkey” when their driving displeases her.
posted by exceptinsects at 7:17 AM on November 20 [3 favorites]

My silent gen mom would sometimes describe someone as being "a little lunchy", as in "out to lunch". Also calling someone "a stoop" as in stupid or gullible.
posted by Billy Rubin at 1:25 PM on November 21

Jerk
Numbskull
Peabrain
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 4:06 PM on November 22

boofhead
posted by flabdablet at 6:23 PM on November 22