Is "neckbeard" supposed to be the new offensive term?

[Brian Tams]

Neckbeard? Well, there's one I've never heard from before. Quick, to the urban dictionary cave!

neckbeard
1. Facial hair that does not exist on the face, but instead on the neck. Almost never well groomed.

2. Derogatory term for slovenly nerdy people who have no sense of hygene or grooming. Often related to hobbies such as card gaming, video gaming, anime, et. al.
If this party is full of f*cking neckbeards, I'm out. I've got better things to do than sit around with a bunch of unwashed nerds.

How tasteful.

Yeah, I guess it is supposed to be the new insult or something.
The impulsive part of me says you should've gotten up and ripped the goatee off the kid, but the rational part of me says that it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Unless, of course, he was standing next to a mall fountain. In which case both sides agree he should've been pushed in.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Who randomly insults strangers? That's a whole other level of douchebag.

If he looked relatively average, I would have stood up and said "Fuck you say?" then put my 3 years of Karate to the test if he decided to make it physical.

If he looked like a badass, I would probably limit it to something like "What the hell are you talking about?" without standing up...

 

[Pink Gregory]

You should have looked up, called him a ****, and gone about your day.

That is immediately the response I envisioned.

Then again I'm from Yorkshire, where such things are as natural as breathing.

"What's that, pal? Yeah, ah'm playin' Purkemon, you gannin tae dee somethin' about it, man?"

 

[Mister K]

Got to wonder what he'd have said if you had been a lady though. Neckbeard's bad enough for a guy, let alone a girl.

Boys are neckbeards, girls are fake.

That reminds me of this tweet:

When a moron accuses somebody of being a fake, they can do the above. We now need to come up with a response for neckbeard. Which is a little trickier I think. Especially if the person making the insult has a beard, and the person being insulted does not...

Well, considering OP's situation (person who insulted him had a goatee) he could say something like "At least I don't wear my mothers pubic hair on my chin".
I wouldn't recommend doing so if said offender is 2 meters tall and looks like pro-athlete (just in case).

 

[Amir Kondori]

Human beings are just plain unpleasant 99...no, that's unfair, 90% of the time.

Hell, y'know how it became unacceptable to use "gay" as an insult? Which, of course, is great, by the way. Quite incredible when I think of how a relatively short while ago nobody bat an eyelid.

Well, the people who used to use that as an insult have replaced it with "Autistic". Anything they don't like or understand is now "autistic" or made by someone with autism.

And allow me to re-enforce, to make absolutely clear to cover my ass from a knee jerk reaction, it is great that gay cannot be used as an insult anymore. It is absolutely a positive thing that it isn't socially acceptable anymore, so I don't mean to belittle the work of the people who made that happen, but as someone with aspergers, I'm a tad pissed off that nobody seems to give a shit. My real, actual medical condition is being used as an insult, and not one fucker seems to care.

Sorry for that diversion, but I mean to prove a point. There is no logic. There is no reason. This is exactly why I think what I said in the first sentence of this post. This is the least dickish thing they might do. They have and they will murder for less. And there is no fathomable reason behind any goddamn bit of it.

And it's not that I don't think humanity can be great. Medicine: Humanity. The technology I type this rant on; Humanity. Light where there is none, warmth in the cold, thousands of miles traversed in under a day, tea, fucking tea, fuck yes, humanity has potential. But trying to make sense of them, of the normal people, is enought to make your head implode.

Oh, and on neckbeards itself, I'm not getting rid of it. I don't give a shit, I keep it well trimmed, it keeps my face warm, and it stops me from looking like a fucking twelve year old.

A lot of people still say "that's gay" as an insult to the thing they are talking about. Not a TV perhaps, or during a job interview, but unless a gay person is around I have rarely heard anyone complain.

On the other hand I have NEVER heard anyone say this "autistic" in place of "gay" thing you speak of.

 

[Michael Deeley]

I reserve the insult "neckbeard" for people with actual neckbeards. Like JonTron. Stupid, fat neckbeard.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Pretty much, I usually play Dark Souls and invade people low level just to be called a neckbeard.
So far my record is 2 times. Yay!

Someone saying it offline though... yeah thats just straight up blissful ignorance. A nice "ok seeya later douchebag" would have been my comeback, if they look like they'd start something i'd most likely ignore them though. Doubt they'd dare waste their time to argue (or worse) with me in public, I tend to show 0 tolerance/fear for those kind of people you describe.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

*shrug*

I would just laugh if I was called a 'neckbeard' in a condescending way. I'd laugh harder if I was called a 'tryhard'.

This stuff is just water off of a duck's back for me.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, I'd say yes, but it really isn't a new one.

 

[Vegosiux]

I've actually taken to playing stupid. You know, whenever an "unconventional" insult is dropped on me, I pretend I have no idea what the person insulting me is trying to say. It's hilarious to watch them either give up or try to pretty much state "Hey, I'm insulting you" in a roundabout way.

So..."Neckbeard...wait what? What do you mean with that? I shaved this morning."

 

[Rellik San]

Oddly enough, I never get that... unless I'm in work.

I'm 6'5'' and built like a damn Kodiak (as in the assault mech). So most people usually aren't brave enough to try it, couple with a thousand yard stare and most people are too intimidated to say anything insulting, but always pleasantly surprised when I pass them with a smile and a "Good afternoon."

In work, I tend to get called all sorts, sometimes jokingly, sometimes by people who mean it, usually it's "Saddo", "loser", y'know the usual, I don't think Neckbeard has caught on here yet... odd especially because I do have a lot of facial hair at times. It could be for something as simple as being excited for a new game release or for reading Private Eye instead of the Sun or Daily Star. I normally just shrug it off, if I gave one iota of a damn about what people think of me, I wouldn't be the person I am today, even if I occasionally exasperate my girlfriend with my antics.

 

[The Funslinger]

You should have looked up, called him a ****, and gone about your day.

That is immediately the response I envisioned.

Then again I'm from Yorkshire, where such things are as natural as breathing.

"What's that, pal? Yeah, ah'm playin' Purkemon, you gannin tae dee somethin' about it, man?"

I think you're confusing Yorkshire with Scotland. xD

 

[Pink Gregory]

You should have looked up, called him a ****, and gone about your day.

That is immediately the response I envisioned.

Then again I'm from Yorkshire, where such things are as natural as breathing.

"What's that, pal? Yeah, ah'm playin' Purkemon, you gannin tae dee somethin' about it, man?"

I think you're confusing Yorkshire with Scotland. xD

I thought I was confusing Yorkshire with Newcastle, but there you go.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Human beings are just plain unpleasant 99...no, that's unfair, 90% of the time.

Hell, y'know how it became unacceptable to use "gay" as an insult? Which, of course, is great, by the way. Quite incredible when I think of how a relatively short while ago nobody bat an eyelid.

Well, the people who used to use that as an insult have replaced it with "Autistic". Anything they don't like or understand is now "autistic" or made by someone with autism.

And allow me to re-enforce, to make absolutely clear to cover my ass from a knee jerk reaction, it is great that gay cannot be used as an insult anymore. It is absolutely a positive thing that it isn't socially acceptable anymore, so I don't mean to belittle the work of the people who made that happen, but as someone with aspergers, I'm a tad pissed off that nobody seems to give a shit. My real, actual medical condition is being used as an insult, and not one fucker seems to care.

Sorry for that diversion, but I mean to prove a point. There is no logic. There is no reason. This is exactly why I think what I said in the first sentence of this post. This is the least dickish thing they might do. They have and they will murder for less. And there is no fathomable reason behind any goddamn bit of it.

And it's not that I don't think humanity can be great. Medicine: Humanity. The technology I type this rant on; Humanity. Light where there is none, warmth in the cold, thousands of miles traversed in under a day, tea, fucking tea, fuck yes, humanity has potential. But trying to make sense of them, of the normal people, is enought to make your head implode.

Oh, and on neckbeards itself, I'm not getting rid of it. I don't give a shit, I keep it well trimmed, it keeps my face warm, and it stops me from looking like a fucking twelve year old.

A lot of people still say "that's gay" as an insult to the thing they are talking about. Not a TV perhaps, or during a job interview, but unless a gay person is around I have rarely heard anyone complain.

On the other hand I have NEVER heard anyone say this "autistic" in place of "gay" thing you speak of.

I have to a certain point, but usually less as a direct insult to people with autism and more as something that plays off the ability a lot of people with autism have to focus on something to the exclusion of everything else and really figure it out -- for example, I've seen people saying you'd have to have autism to enjoy Dwarf Fortress. It's certainly not a drop in replacement for "that's gay" as an insult, unless Amir Kondori is still in middle school or something and he's dealing with some weird piece of local slang[footnote]the "that's gay" thing tends to peak with kids in middle school and declines really quickly once they start to hit high school. Kids at that age also tend to be pretty inventive when it comes to slang words, and you'll see localized trends of using some new slang word that goes away by the time that the kids who started it have moved onto high school. Speaking both as a substitute teacher and someone who hasn't been done with secondary school for all /that/ long here.[/footnote]. I've also only ever seen this one on the internet -- it's not exactly a widespread or mainstream thing. You see similar but more common jokes with OCD, ADD, and Tourette's, none of which are based on the reality of the disorders so much as a misunderstanding of what they are.

Something related that you /do/ hear a lot, "that's retarded," as in "that's stupid." There's even a movement to try to get people to stop using it as an insult, with "don't use the R word" posters and everything. Unfortunately these people[footnote]Who are mostly of average or better intelligence and are offended on other people's behalf[/footnote] are fighting a losing battle and just don't understand what the euphemism treadmill implies here. "Moron" and "imbecile" both started as medical terms with no negative connotations, for crying out loud. People aren't going to stop using the medical term for "has severely low intelligence" as an insult unless society hits a point where a lack of intelligence is no longer seen as a bad thing, and personally I want no part of a world like that.

 

[2xDouble]

I would like to remind the OP, and everyone, that simply because someone is looking at you does not mean they are talking to you. I can almost guarantee everyone in here has said something to someone they were not intentionally addressing. For example, one might utter an insult intended for an obnoxious customer long after both have left the store; talking to no-one, but facing a random passer-by. That said, there isn't (and couldn't be) enough specific information about this particular encounter to make either judgement.

OT: Like many words before it, people say things they have no idea what it means because other people react to it. You tell that goatee-wearing, $12 coffee-drinking, hipster douchebag to go drown himself in his own failure. It's quite possibly the highest compliment one can pay, and will likely be met with the hipsters' highest expressions of gratitude: the perturbed sniff and head-eye roll.

...or you can use "plebeian" to retort, because the poor soul is demonstrating uncultured and ignorant behavior.

 

[RaikuFA]

I use the insult against people that play fighters, MOBA's and other online games.

 

[Flutterguy]

You where insulted by someone who has not yet realized our societal standards and dislikes are, in general, a big waste of time. Deems himself more accomplishing and worthy off of initial glance, obviously the sign of true genius.

No one, including ourselves, can measure our worth. We are creatures full of bias. The anti-social neckbeards are a large part of the force driving the modern age. Social outcasts deserve admiration they do not waste their existence or wordly resources to 'fit-in' to a ever-changing and pointless culture, unless necessary.

 

[Riot3000]

Neckbeard has bee around for a while I don't really know how long but a while. Basically like all terms its what you make of it. Usually its negative a lot of times more so stereotype than actual person or a sign of admiration. I found a subreddit called r\neckbeard where its just guys talking a bout how awesome their neckbeard are.

Honestly most insult as long as they are not racial slurs depending on circumstance have pretty mileage depending on how you want to interpret them.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Reply, "Thank you" or something along those lines. An insult is meant to make you feel worse so they can feel better, if you, taking the insult like a compliment is a good way to screw them over.