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Rhetorical figures: what is your favorite bdelygmia?

Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:41 am
Posted by When in Rome
Telegraph Road
Member since Jan 2011
35538 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:41 am
Bdelygmia, deriving from a Greek word meaning "filth" or "nastiness", is a technique used in rhetoric to express hatred of a person, word or action through a series of criticisms. It is a form of congeries (list).

Shakespeare utilized it:
"Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bowcase; you vile standing-tuck!"

Gabriel Harvey put it to use it in the late sixteenth century:
"Fie on impure Ganymedes, Hermaphrodites, Neronists, Messalinists, Dodecomechanists, Capricians, Inventors of new, or Revivers of old lecheries, and the whole brood of venereous libertines..."

I personally enjoyed the bdelygmia in some of my favorite Christmas movies:

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:
"And I want to look him straight in the eye, and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-assed, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed, sack of monkey shite he is!"



And in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York:
"I'm gonna give you to the count of three to get your lousy, lyin', low-down, four-flushing carcass OUT my door!"



And, of course, the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is full of bdelygmia:



You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch
You really are a heel
You're as cuddly as a cactus, you're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch
You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch
Your heart's an empty hole
Your brain is full of spiders, you've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch
I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot pole

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch
You have termites in your smile
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch
Given a choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crocodile

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch
You're a nasty-wasty skunk
Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch
The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, "Stink, stank, stunk"

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch
You're the king of sinful sots
Your heart's a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch
Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable
Mangled up in tangled up knots

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch
With a nauseous super "naus"
You're a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch
You're a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce

I suppose the insult in Billy Madison could be construed as bdelygmia-adjacent:



Let's hear some more examples!
Posted by Motorboat
At the camp
Member since Oct 2007
22666 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:42 am to
quote:


Let's hear some more examples!


nah I'm good
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
123935 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:42 am to
quote:

Shakespeare utilized it: "Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish! O for breath to utter what is like thee! you tailor's-yard, you sheath, you bowcase; you vile standing-tuck!"



Great stuff there.


There are other verses to the Grinch song

you're a foul one, mr grinch,
You really suck a taint,
Like a leaky prolapsed anus,
What the IT thing is, you ain't,
Mr. Griiiiiiiinch,
We covered up your walls with,
Dirty gooch scented paint...


There are others as well
This post was edited on 3/15/24 at 9:47 am
Posted by Putty
Member since Oct 2003
25483 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:45 am to
quote:

what is your favorite bdelygmia?


I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries! ... No go away, before I taunt you a second time.

Posted by TD422
Destrehan, LA
Member since Jun 2019
480 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:48 am to
This doesn't fit the definition - so I'm off on a bit of a tangent. But the rant is the same:

Taggart: What do you want me to do, sir?
Hedley Lamarr: I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger in the west. Take this down.
[Taggart looks for a pen and paper while Hedley talks]
Hedley Lamarr: I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, arse-kickers, shite-kickers and Methodists.
Taggart: [finding pen and paper] Could you repeat that, sir?

I love the way he throws the random "bull dykes" in there...
Posted by CocomoLSU
Inside your dome.
Member since Feb 2004
150568 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:50 am to
Man, some shitty threads being started on this Friday morning...
This post was edited on 3/15/24 at 9:51 am
Posted by When in Rome
Telegraph Road
Member since Jan 2011
35538 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:51 am to
quote:

I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries! ... No go away, before I taunt you a second time.
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
123935 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:52 am to
You are a pigeon-toed, pig-headed, pug-ugly panty-sniffer, a pustulant, pestilent, pole-sitting pederast. A pauper, a pornmonger, and most pathetic of all, a Purdue fan!
Posted by When in Rome
Telegraph Road
Member since Jan 2011
35538 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:53 am to
quote:

This doesn't fit the definition - so I'm off on a bit of a tangent.
That's still a good example of congeries, the broader rhetorical device utilized in bdelygmia
This post was edited on 3/15/24 at 10:22 am
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
123935 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:54 am to
quote:

Man, some shitty threads being started on this Friday morning...



I'm sure there are some coloring books more your speed little buddy.



Posted by BRgetthenet
Member since Oct 2011
117678 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 9:55 am to
quote:

I don't like the name Lawrence, only ****s and sailors are called Lawrence. From now on you're Gomer Pyle.
Posted by LittleJerrySeinfield
350,000 Post Karma
Member since Aug 2013
7666 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:10 am to
Easily my favorite...

I hate Tennessee
Posted by PappaPig
Member since Aug 2023
61 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:22 am to
Number 5: Ya Momma was a snow blower!
Posted by Giantkiller
the internet.
Member since Sep 2007
20269 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:23 am to
The frick is this nerd shite?
Posted by When in Rome
Telegraph Road
Member since Jan 2011
35538 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:27 am to
That is also a good example of the ubiquitous rhetorical figure of alliteration.
Posted by lsuconnman
Baton rouge
Member since Feb 2007
2636 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:32 am to
(no message)
This post was edited on 4/21/24 at 11:23 am
Posted by When in Rome
Telegraph Road
Member since Jan 2011
35538 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:38 am to
You’re right—this thread does not meet the high bar of typical threads like “what annoys you that shouldn’t” or “bidet baws” or “read this clickbait article about a sad thing that happened in North Dakota”
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
123935 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 10:52 am to
Well Cocomo, him I do pity,
For it pains him when prose presents pretty,
Be they insults or poems,
He feels partly purloined,
If a thread isn't doom, gloom, or titties.





Not that there's anything wrong with tittles
Posted by AgCoug
Houston
Member since Jan 2014
5858 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 11:00 am to
Short but famous:

Leia: Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!
Posted by fr33manator
Baton Rouge
Member since Oct 2010
123935 posts
Posted on 3/15/24 at 11:35 am to
quote:

That's still a good example of congeries, the broader rhetorical device utilized in bdelygmia


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