Creative Insults

There is a mindset with the creative insult that presumes that you have to include a clever phrase to it like:

When you go to the mind-reader, do you get half price?"
I would have a debate with you, but there is no honor fighting an unarmed opponent.
For you to be any lower you'd have to dig with heavy machinery or explosives.

Then there is another mindset with the creative insult that presumes the more adjectives the better like:

You are the ignoble, ignorant, illiterate, incestuous, illegitimate progeny of parents who belong to the phyla insecta.
You are a sleezy, slimy, sticky, stinky, scum bucket full of maggot vomit and horse poo.

It is when young Michael Patterson descends into the latter of these two choices, does his insult get praise from Lawrence Poirier. Prior to that point, Lawrence and Michael were dealing with one-word insults that seemed to be more a vocabulary test to see which one knew the most insulting nouns. Michael went with the adjectives and won the contest.

The nice thing about "new-runs and reprints" vs. "hybrid and reprints" is that at least we don’t have to endure modern Elizabeth looking back at the past and claiming that today’s reprint strip in For Better or For Worse is an indication of Michael’s genius which will result in his becoming a best-selling author. More likely it is an indication of how Michael will one day grow up and abuse adjectives terribly in his writing.