People can be downright cruel when they want to be. Whether it’s because they truly want to be hurtful or because they just don’t realize who will hear what they’re saying, almost all of us have had the experience of someone saying something bad about us at some point in our lives.
Here are 42 cases of particularly awful comments that, for one reason or another, people have experienced others saying about them.
1. Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Shorts
I was at the birthday party of a super religious girl and I overheard her mom say "Who's the girl in the green shirt and immodest shorts?" while pointing right at me. I was wearing fairly short shorts, but it was 100 degrees and I was 14. That made me horribly self-conscious for a long time.
2. Everyone Needs Their Happy Place
My whole family claimed that I take too long in the shower. Screw you guys! I like relaxing with a shower beer and constant stream of hot water running down my back. Is that so much to ask??
3. Full Resume
Someone once told me I was an insufferable butthead who was too smart for my own good. Oh, and that I was fat! Definitely an unforgettable conversation...
4. Terms and Conditions
"Oh, I'd totally be willing to sleep with her if she would just shut her freaking mouth".
Nice.
5. Who Had the Last Laugh?
One of my teammates laughed at me and said that the world would be better off without me.
I turned around and continued to do my drills while crying. The captain of the team saw me crying, asked what was wrong, and got the coach.
The coach promptly kicked the culprit off the team.
6. Which Is Worse?
I always go by my initials, V.B., and I often joke about how I hate it because it sounds so close to "VD".
One time, someone in my office mentioned my name and I overheard my coworker say "more like VD" under her breath. Honestly, I was more angry she stole my darn joke than that she was trying to insult me.
7. Having Second Thoughts
I used to sneak out of bed at night and listen to my parents talk in the living room. One night, I heard them talking about how hopeless I was and how they sometimes wondered if adopting me was worth it. Definitely not something a seven-year-old should have ever heard…
8. And Why Were You Friends With This Guy?
This was back when I was in eighth grade. I had a huge crush on this one girl in my class and I told my best friend at the time about it. I remember 'til this day what he said: "I honestly don't think you have a shot with her or any girl. You don't look like you could ever be in a relationship". I cried myself to sleep that night. He was a complete jerk.
9. Off the Hook
Not about me, but I was once at a friend’s house and got a call from my mom. She asked whose house I was at, so I told her. She then said "Oh, the chubby kid?" and she said it loud enough for my friend to hear. I could tell he heard cause he was kinda sad looking for the rest of the day.
Darn it, mom!
10. Baseless Allegations
A paranoid ex-friend of mine accused me of talking smack about him behind his back with everyone. It wasn’t true, and the sad thing is that I was this dude’s biggest fan—almost the equivalent of a geek and quarterback being friends.
11. Follow the Leader
When I was 14, I overheard a conversation between my "friend" John and his new friends a couple towns over when I went to visit. I was in the other room, and one of his friends started making fun of me. The entire group of people (probably 10-12 people) continued with him and laughed.
John followed up the comments with sharing a really embarrassing story from our childhood and told them he doesn't even know why I still visit him.
12. Rewriting Personal History
I was a victim of abuse as a kid. As if that’s not bad enough in and of itself, someone once tried to tell me that I wasn't abused, but that I was to blame for what happened because I obviously must have chosen to go through with what I did or not done enough to stop it. I was ten years old when it happened.
I socked this guy in the face.
13. So That’s What You’re All About...
I overheard someone I was slightly more than friends with say this without realizing I was right there: "She's not much to look at, but she is great in bed!"
14. Investigative Journalism
A classmate of mine in middle school asked me, in all seriousness, why I had never tried to kill myself. She said it was surprising because "it's not like anyone likes you".
15. A New Low
I was bullied a lot when I was a kid by virtually every single one of my classmates. As a result, I was a shy and timid kid. I struggled a lot with depression, self harm, body image issues and eating disorders.
The one comment that stands out in my memory the most, though, was a classmate saying I should kill myself. They said that the world would be better without a loser like me. Some other classmates in the group agreed. I just stood there dumbfounded.
I spent several hours in a bathroom stall sobbing.
16. Don’t Bring Your Dog Into This, Buddy
I overheard my best friend from high school telling another guy that he thought I was brain injured because I talked slow and I'd regularly hit his dog. Both of these were lies.
17. This Friendship is Heading Towards Civil Conflict
I’m African American. I was walking past a group of people on my way to class, and I distinctly heard one of them who had always acted like a friend towards me say "I mean, yeah, Abraham Lincoln had the right idea, and I agree that slavery is horrible. But do you think he would've freed them if he knew they were gonna turn out like this?"
18. Crime Stoppers
The day of a majorly publicized school shooting, the "popular" girls at my school assumed that I could be the loser type who would someday do the same thing to our school. They asked me to please not shoot up the school and said they were sorry if I felt they were mean to me.
19. Break-ing Her Trust
At my old job, there were these two girls who befriended me. For some reason, they would ignore me for days and then be really sweet to me all morning.
One day, I had to cover for one of them at the reception desk. I wasn’t paying attention and thought I was signed in to my work account, but it was actually one of the girls’ accounts. I opened an email and saw my name, got confused, realized whose email I was in, and read it anyway to see why I was mentioned. The emails said, "be nice to [me] today, so she'll cover your lunch, so we can go together". Another one said, "IS SHE STUPID??"
That day didn’t feel very good.
20. Bathroom Talk Can Be Ugly
I overheard my "friends" talking about me in the bathroom in high school. Laughing at how fun it was to mess with me, how pathetic I was, how ugly, etc. I decided not to confront them then and there. Instead, I met them in the art room. When I told them I had heard all that, they proceeded to call me a creepy stalker and a freak who would never be fancied. They told me they had used me for schoolwork and played stupid pranks on me because I was clueless. They said they only ever spent time with me because they pitied me, and that I had no true friends.
21. Fake News
I overheard my friends saying that I wasn't wearing socks.
I was wearing socks. I was!!!
22. Quit Horsing Around
Background: When I was young, my family was in a major car wreck. A horse had gotten out of its pen and tried to jump over our car. It landed on my dad's side and broke his neck. He's fine now, but that really screws up a kid.
Fast forward: I'm a freshman in high school. The class idiot decided to start giving me heck about horses and how my dad should've died. I started across the classroom at him, for the only time in my life fully intending on ending someone. The assistant football coach tackled me while the idiot was pulled out of the room.
In hindsight, I'm really glad that the coach did that. Even though he had a beating coming, this guy was a lawyer's kid and it scares me to think how my life would have been wrecked by that outcome.
23. Unsolicited Life Advice
My father is a coke addict. At my great aunt’s funeral, my great uncle turns to my mother when he thinks I'm out of earshot and says "Have you gotten him drug tested yet? He looks like he's taking after his father".
Screw you, Uncle Steve! I've never had a drop of booze or done any recreational substances. I looked bad because I got no sleep—you know, because of the whole my great aunt just passed on thing! Idiot.
24. No One is Holding a Gun to Your Head
My "best friend" said in front of a whole group of people that she was only my friend "because I have to be". It hurt and when I confronted her about it, she just denied it.
25. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Diseases
I heard two of my female friends looking at pictures of me on Facebook and laughing about why I looked fat in the pictures when I'm not fat in real life. They decided it was my chest, and my face when I smile. Then they laughed at the pictures till they cried.
But one of them has herpes and I don't, so I WIN!!
26. Gimme Gimme Never Gets
I was called greedy and money-grubbing. This is from a friend who I let move in with me, and all I ever did was ask for his share of the rent. He actually didn't pay the last two months of it because I told him he could use it to help himself find a place. So yeah, feels bad man.
27. Short-Lived Reunion
I was visiting a friend I hadn't seen in years. I had a good time with him and his family, stayed the night, and everything was cool. I said my goodbyes to them, left the house and started driving back to campus.
In my car, I realize I had left my wallet on the table inside the front door. So I go back to the house and, instead of knocking, I just open the door and grab it real quick. As I do, I can hear my "friend" in the back kitchen hating on me to his parents. I was so shocked to hear this, that I was frozen for about five seconds just standing inside the door in their foyer.
That's when his family noticed me. All I could say was "forgot my wallet—thanks again for everything!" and I left quickly. My "friend" was now noticeably embarrassed. He followed me out the door to my car and was being overly nice, asking if I needed a drink for the road, or if I was hungry. Clearly, he was trying to make up for all the bad mouthing he knew I had just overheard. I don't think I ever hung out with him again.
28. Show Me Your Credentials!
"Are you even a real engineer, or is our HR department so bad they didn't bother to check?"
A boss I once had said that to me at a meeting with all the senior staff. The reason? Because I didn't include a slide in a PowerPoint that he had forgotten to send me. Fortunately, he was fired shortly after due to a bunch of accumulated hostile work environment complaints.
29. Money Makes the World Go Round
When I turned down an expensive invitation, someone said "I knew he wouldn't come anyway, his family has no money".
30. Say Yes to the Dress
My sister was getting fitted in my grandma's vintage dress for prom. I had mentioned how I would like to wear it when I went to prom someday.
My grandma replied, "This dress is too pretty for you!"
31. Vive La France!
I was doing a two-week study abroad vacation. Half the time was spent living with a family. We were invited to a girl's pool party/sleepover. I was lying on the floor among a group of French girls and a couple of other Americans. The French girls either thought we were all asleep already or that we were too stupid to understand them—so they just started ripping apart all of us American girls, calling us fat and dumb. Not all French people are arrogant jerks, but these three sure were.
32. Nothing to See Here
My ex told me in passing that her brother probably wouldn't like me because I'm boring. She didn’t mean it as an insult, but it hit me hard. It really stuck with me for a while, especially because of how casual she was about it. To her it was nothing, to me it was a big deal.
33. The Surprise Was On Me
I was 12 years old and was waiting to surprise my friends as a joke. I heard them whining about me, saying I was making up the fact that my grandmother was dying.
I ended up slapping that girl and had to go to the principal’s office.
34. Did the Teacher Get Fired?
During class, the students (and the teacher) openly discussed how they didn't want me to participate in the project our class arranged. I quit school and tried to kill myself.
35. Guitar Hero
I'd just started college and was getting along well with one girl in particular. She was smokin' hot and I thought I had a chance.
I had just gotten out of my heavy metal, baggy jeans and long hair phase and I was sort of awkwardly transitioning into being a normal person. However, I still carried around an acoustic guitar a lot of the time, simply because I didn’t have a good place on campus to store it.
Anyway, I finished talking to some friends in the cafeteria and headed to class, then realized that I'd forgotten something and went back. As I got back, I heard one of my other friends who knew I was into the girl ask her what she thought of me. She said "I don't like him. He's really creepy, the way he's always walking around with that guitar, and how he's always trying to talk to me".
It broke my heart.
36. Team Spirit
Here is a direct quote that a guy said to me in response to my cheering loudly during a university basketball game:
"I would rather go through the pain of seeing my father slowly die of cancer again than listen to your voice!"
37. Happy Birthday!
I once overheard my friends talking about the sweet surprise birthday party they were going to throw me. Sounds like a good thing, right?
Except there actually was no sweet surprise birthday party, and they were just building my hopes up for nothing!
38. His Moment of Need
My grandfather has always been a heartless jerk. After kid me told him that I was afraid of dying during a severe asthma attack, he said "You wouldn't do us a favor and die, would you?"
I didn't want to cry because I was in a hospital room with other people, so I was just kind of numb after that.
39. One Big Happy Family
My mother told several of my family members to cut contact with me because I was a "selling my body" and I had a substance use problem.
I was enrolled full time in college while working. And totally not working in that sense, or using what she said I was using. .
40. Changing Roles
My former best friend said the following about me to a girl when she thought I wasn't around: "Can you believe her? She thinks she's good enough to be my friend. What a loser!"
Thankfully, the other girl said, "No, she's too good to be your friend".
The other girl is now my best friend.
41. Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies in Your House
I once overheard my dad telling my mom that he'd rather go to jail than spend time with me. Later, he asked what I was doing and I asked him why he wasn't in jail. "Oh, you heard that..." Yes. Yes I did. Jerk.
42. Was That Really Necessary, Mom?
My first pet rat, that I had picked out, named, loved, and taken care of for years, had recently passed on. While he was dying in my hands, I was saying, "Please don't go" and other things like that. I was 15.
For some unknown reason, my mother started making fun of me to my other relatives, laughing, calling me too sensitive, and mimicking the way I was acting during that process. I was pretty upset.
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