This movie

Guest   Tue May 22, 2007 4:46 pm GMT
This movie is stupid.

This movie is gay.

This movie is retarded.

This movie is dumb.

This movie is lame.

What's the difference between these five?
Skippy   Tue May 22, 2007 6:38 pm GMT
They're all insults... They're all used in the same contexts, but literally:

stupid: not smart, unintelligent

gay: homosexual

retarded: suffering from mental retardation, i.e. medically stupid

dumb: can mean stupid or mute, but when used as an insult it typically means stupid

lame: literally means you can't walk, but in this context it implies boring
Mark   Tue May 22, 2007 9:50 pm GMT
My sister is constantly using the word gay as a substitute to the word weird.
furrykef   Tue May 22, 2007 11:06 pm GMT
Note that some people might find "gay" in this context offensive (perhaps because of the implication that being "gay", i.e., homosexual, is a bad thing).

A lot of people find "retarded" in this context offensive as well, and it's a pretty offensive word in general, because it's perceived as an insult to the mentally handicapped. Amusingly, it was originally a euphemism.

- Kef