'Excuse me, madam, you have a thong hanging out of your handbag.'
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
122 answers answered between 2007 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
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On the record
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“You’re not funny.” I fully understand why my comedy might not be right for everyone, but don’t tell me, get on with your day!
“You look like a fat Jack Whitehall.”
There’s a tweet somewhere saying, “If you like Africa so much, why don’t you go back there.” It was because I dedicated one of my dances to my three mothers – Mother Africa, Mother Nature and my mother.
“Your lyrics are rubbish.” It was someone I was working with when I was in my early 20s. It turned out well because I then spent a long time studying and learning how to write good lyrics.
Called me the N-word.
It’s that bad, I’d never repeat it. I’ll just say it was particularly cruel and incredibly racist. It was somebody that I used to date, at the end of the relationship, and it hurt very deeply.
It happened when I was younger, somewhere outside London. We were on bikes, and this older girl pulled up and said something racist that I won’t repeat. I will never forget that, because it was the first time, and I was like, “Oh, I am feeling different from everyone around me right now”.
A friend and I were talking about eating disorders and he said: “Well, we never have to worry about you not eating.”
People give me a hard time about my hats. Over Christmas, this drunk woman shouted something about me having a shit hat because I had a red beanie on. Last week at a party, someone gave me a hard time for wearing a cap. I just think about melting ice caps when this happens.
“You were amazing in Game of Thrones.” I say it’s the worst thing – it’s also the best!
“I’ll tell you later.” They never do.
Racial and homophobic slurs – the F- and N-words. When I moved to London, people screamed the F-word from their cars, and that stings.
I don’t think you could print it, it’s so bad.
It’s the stuff about my appearance that sticks. I read I had a face like a crumpled napkin and teeth that could till a field.
Apart from stuff on social media, an ex-partner telling me I’m unlovable.
Someone said that I had a laugh like Jimmy Carr.
I was recently made to feel that it’s my mental health that’s the problem and not the system.
“I have it on very good authority he’s a complete cunt.”
I’ll never amount to anything. Who? He was my rival at dance school. It hurt and is something that I’ve always had in the back of my head to defy.
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