‘I love James Blunt as much as I love herpes’ – ‘I love that you're not ashamed to admit you have both’: Attempted insults and responses on Twitter

To date, little research has examined participants' understandings of insults. We examine (potentially) derogatory talk and its consequences in interactions on Twitter, considering instances the Twitter feed one high-profile user. Discourse analysis identifies four forms response to attempted insults: (1) ascribing category membership first contributor, (2) taking up contributor self-identification, (3) syntactic echoing, (4) co-constructing criticism. These responses treat original remark as literally accurate, thereby ‘breach’ usual expectations talk. Thus, insulting is an outcome that must be accomplished interaction. Otherwise, can become no more than failed