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Figaro rips the innards out of things people say and reveals the rhetorical tricks and pratfalls. For terms and definitions, click here.
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Wednesday
14Sep

"Now Go Away or I Will Taunt You a Second Time."

monty.jpgQuote:   "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper.  I fart in your general direction." French solder in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Figure of Speech:  mycterismus (mick terr IZ muss), the sneer

A mycterismus (from the Greek "to sneer") mocks someone through voice and gesture.  When one breaks wind rhetorically, it counts as a gesture, and maybe even a voice.

These days a mycterismus means yelling a profanity while redundantly flipping the bird.  The French soldier played by John Cleese in the Monty Python movie makes a more atmospheric gesture.

Snappy Answer:   "That's the smartest thing out of you yet."


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Reader Comments (2)

i prefer "your mother was a hamster"
September 26, 2005 | Unregistered CommenterDorothy
Ah, yes, thank you, Dorothy. Combined with the outrrrrrageous French accent, his further insult constitutes a cacemphaton--a figure of ill-sounding words.
September 27, 2005 | Registered CommenterFigaro

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