Most insulting compliment you have ever received

[Pan]

Mine requires a bit of explanation...

I was wedding dress shopping for my upcoming nuptials with all my very best friends and my mother. It was between two dresses of similar styles. The only basic different was the waist height and material. I tried on my personal favorite and everyone loved it. My mom points out that the waistline makes my tummy look big (I'm a bigger girl, cute as hell tho) and tells me to try on the other dress.

She says the new dress looks much nicer, but then she checks the price tags. The dress I liked more that made me look "fat" was cheaper. Before you know it my mom says, "Maybe you should just go with your favorite, since you like it more? You'll still look pretty."

Gee.

Thanks mom.

[beta1042]

I got a compliment that was essentially saying that they admire me for doing this comic thing even though I'm not very good at doing the comic thing, but that they admire that I keep doing it despite that.

[LittleMissDevil]

It's not really that bad but...

I had one instance of a friend telling me "Oh, I don't even like comics, but I read yours, because we are frieeeends. If you have passion for it, there has to be something to it, right?". Felt kinda weird to have someone look at my art, not because she liked it, but because of our current status as buddies. But it might as well have been the circumstances that made me react to it strongly, it really is a small thing.

Another compliment I often get, that can be annoying is the "wow! I admire how persistent you are with your work on your comic" and then nothing else. I know, it's not even a bad comment. It's just... can't you find anything else to like bout my art aside from the fact that I draw a lot?

[gh0stcr33p]

sometimes older people will ask me, "oh, is this anime or whatever you guys call it these days?" like really, my style is nothing close to anime and it just pisses me off. also I get offended if someone compliments me on something that was actually a mistake. it just feels like sarcasm

[dawgofdawgness]

A lot of people (mostly older people) tend to think that all digital/cartoon art = anime

[gh0stcr33p]

I know right?
[character limit]

[Zyephen]

Pretty tasteless and crass, but I think they meant well xD

[bear1]

@ghostieblu and @dawgofdawgness

Something similar happened to me recently on a different site (in the comment section of a different comic, lol) where the average user is either GenX or older.
A user asked for comic recommendations and someone replied with my comic
A third user then joined the conversation just to refer to my comic as a ‘western manga wannabe’
(I was really tempted to reply to this with the ‘is this a pigeon?’-meme )
I’m not even sure what that person really meant by their comment. That my comic looks like ‘the last airbender’? Or that it seems like I try to look like ‘the last airbender’? Or that it looks like a non-Asia girl trying to draw a Manga? (I assume tha last, but still )
My style is highly anime/Manga influenced, I don’t deny it and I’m not ashamed of it. But it makes me roll my eyes when people come in and are literally be like ‘oh, spikey hair and big eyes, this must be Anim/Manga!’
Ahm...no.

@topic:
I find it always krass to read comments like ‘you’re good for a girl’. Hasn’t happened to me, but to others.
In Germany most popular artist in the Anime scene (which also blends into seriouse cartooning btw) were female. Nobody would drop a comment like this there (unless they are jerks or really ignorant towards the scene) It’s completely alien to learn that this ‘for a girl’-stereotype is so alive after all

@mean compliment directed at me:
Back in art school we were drawing some perspective exercises and backgrounds. A girl came up to mine and was like ‘Wow, your’s looks good..but you can’t make any money with it anyway’
Well, yeah, F* you too

I hate, really hate, that we have to value everything with money. Sure, you have to make a living, pay bills and so on. But it stinks to high heaven that skill only earns respect when a $$$-tag is attached to it.
Like you can’t enjoy something if it’s not admired by some sort of an Elite declaring it a valuable...what a sad mindset

Done with Ranting

[LCT_m_a_d]

"You have a gift, thats why you're good at art. With all of your talents you could be doing amazing things."

I actually get this quite frequently.

I understand it though and sympathize with people who make insulting compliments. My college and professional years I stopped trying to be a success and really focused on trying to live my life doing meaningful things and projects as aften as I can. Of course a large proportion of these things blew up in my face, followed by "I told you so". But the few successful outcomes were heavenly and life-changing for me. While luck is involved, things are bound to work out eventually when you keep trying to do the right thing and make ammends where you haven't, even when it's too late.

Most people who give backhanded compliments tend to have a story where they decided to go against what they really wanted in exchange for living a "better life" and have never made things right with themselves. It's easier to justify those choices by projecting their pain on others who decided to take those risks that they didn't. All the job security in the world can't fix an insecure mindset.

The reality is whenever someone makes comments like this, they are probably living with more pain than they can ever inflict and want people to share their hurt instead of sealing the wound.

[craftymarten]

I was just about to post the same! I had this from someone at a convention.

"Wow you're so talented, I could never draw like that."
"Thanks! I'm sure you could if you tried. It takes a lot of hard work to improve."
"No it doesn't, you're just talented."

Oh sorry, guess I'm working hard on studies all the time for no reason.

[dawgofdawgness]

God, those are the worst people like to believe that skilled artists were Picasso at birth lol (maybe because it makes them feel better

[MariMontoya]

Reminds me of the time I was tutoring a kid and he was like, "yeah it's only easy for you because you're born smart".....yeah, no, it's because I did practice problems every night and he would always sleep in class sooo. People who think like that makes me sad bc it sounds like they're making excuses to not try.

[ratscout]

This made me laugh out loud XD. Why bother writing anything at all if you're gonna write something so useless?

[ratscout]

On one of my more recent drawings on deviantart, someone merely wrote "ugly". This is why deviantart is a cesspool which I choose to frequent rarely these days XD.

[Penni]

I love your art!

[ericsalinas149]

I once wrote on a person's wall thanking him for recently subscribing to my comic. He wrote back that he was only mildly curious about my strip and only clicked the 'add to library' button by accident.

[lunaartemisasama]

You should try doing an horror comic it suits your style...so creepy... like Tim Burton.

I had mixed feelings, BTW I don't even have a style lol and I love TIm Burton.

[ratscout]

Whoops, that was just the meanest comment I ever got, the most insulting compliment I got was courtesy of my sister. God bless her, but she simply has no filter XD. She said one of my designs would be pretty cool if it weren't drawn by me LOL. Coming from her, it was a legit compliment, however, cause she doesn't give them lightly.

[ratscout]

Oh man. That's probably the worst one on this thread. That hurt my feelings just reading it even though it's not even my mom XD. It'd pretty much crush me if my parents read my work and told me it was a waste of time. I might not ever write again. Don't listen to your mom, man, I love your work! It's not a waste of time if it makes you and other people happy <3.

I never like to share my work with my parents though (mostly because the stuff I write is strange and I don't want them to see how strange and dark they can get). I remember my mom saw a printed version of one of my stories lying around one time and she forced my dad to read it because he's an extremely good writer, too, and I really didn't want him to. He read part of it on a plane and he told me when he came home, "well, it certainly kept my attention and I didn't fall asleep."
Yikes.
And then there's one of my sisters who's only read like three of my stories and claims they're all the same. For some reason she has it in her head that I only write children. WTF. I haven't written a main character under the age of 20 in years. I was brave enough to read this story I wrote that she was interested in aloud to her and afterwards she completely trashed it because it didn't take the direction she wanted it to (which is NOT a criticism). It stung extra because I partly wrote the darned thing for her. I think she even said that my other sister could have written it better.

This thread is cathartic, teehee.

[Zyephen]

I don't get many outright insulting comments on DA, but I suppose the internet in general is full of rude, hateful people. I see plenty of them over on my discord servers.