There's an art to the perfect comeback. Sadly, that moment usually comes way after we have the chance to say it to someone's face. There's a classic Seinfeld episode that explores this, where George goes to great lengths to execute the perfect retort. It's a phenomenon that the French call "L'esprit de l'escalier" or "staircase wit," describing the feeling of having the perfect comeback, but a little too late. It's always in the shower, or when you're trying to fall asleep that night that the perfect, withering remark comes into your brain. If only life were like the movies and we had the perfect script to follow.
But to cheat the system, you can have some retorts pre-loaded for common situations. If someone's always remarking about how tall you are, you can prepare a line like "I guess I picked the right parents." But a group of Redditors recently stuck their heads together to come up with responses to another constantly annoying phrase.