User blog:Dorkpool/Degrees of Burn

The phrase "roasted" annoys me. You know, like someone says a weak insult, and someone else adds, "Boom! Roasted!" But this phrase doesn't annoy me for the reason you think.

If you ask me, a roast should be a really scathing yet incredibly clever and funny insult. However, when I mentioned this to someone, the person told me that no, roasted just means a standard, run of the mill insult.

But why? Roast implies a great degree of burning, and considering "You got burned," pretty much means "You have just been hurt by a good insult," you'd think roast would correspond to the degree of burning. If it's a normal insult, shouldn't it be a slight singe or something?

See, in my opinion, the ranking of burn based comments on insults should go as such:

Slight singe: A weak, standard insult.

Burn: A pretty good insult, and somewhat funny.

Roast: The creme de la creme of insults. Really scathing, really witty and funny.

But that's just what I think. Maybe I'm wrong. However, I shall continue to believe this, and die a little inside whenever people misuse the phrase.