Insulting from Behind the Language Barrier

Gus: [in Greek to Ian] When my people were writing philosophy, your people were still swinging from trees.

Toula: [to Ian] ...He likes you.

— My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Suppose Alice knows two languages, and Bob only knows one language. She wants to insult him without him knowing, but he is within earshot, so she insults him in the one that he does not understand.

Alice may be talking to Bob in the language he speaks and then insulting him to his face in the one he doesn't understand. She may be switching between talking to Bob in the language he speaks and then insulting him while talking to her friend Claire in the one he doesn't understand. She may be speaking exclusively in the one he doesn't understand, not wanting him to know that she can speak his language, and insulting him while pretending not to know his language, so he will think he cannot retaliate.

The character who does this may not be able to speak at all and be taking advantage of the fact that people can't understand them.

If a character tries this only to find out that the other character does understand the language, that's Bilingual Backfire. If the character is insulting them in a fictional language, it's Pardon My Klingon. Compare Teasing from Behind the Language Barrier, when the character uses the non-understood language in a playful manner, and Hiding Behind the Language Barrier, when the character uses the non-understood language to transmit private information. Also compare Foreign-Language Tirade, when a character unintentionally switches to another language to insult someone because they are too angry to think in any other language.

May overlap with Bilingual Bonus if the insult is not in the language of the target audience and is not subtitled.

Subtrope to Stealth Insult, so long as the other person doesn't know the language they're being insulted in.

See also Foreign Cuss Word.

Subtrope of Language Barrier.

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Chilchuck from Delicious in Dungeon throws out Half-foot swears at his (non Half-foot) party members, and though they understand that he's cussing them out, they aren't aware of the specifics of his words.
  Laios: I'm being cussed out in a language I don't speak.

Comic Strips

• Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless gives insulting people in a foreign language they can't understand as an example of rude behavior — not quite as rude as saying "ucket-bay ead-hay," though insulting them in plain English is still worse.
  Foreign Speaker #1: Xmphlaca bi flucalaka un bijnana y aquaholder.^note His head is like a bucket.
  Foreign Speaker #2: Gne!
• A Far Side cartoon depicts The Lone Ranger in his old age discovering that "kemosabe," the "honorific" that Tonto uses when talking to him, means "horse's ass."
• In subversive newspaper comic If, there is a story arc where Margaret Thatcher and husband Denis went on a controversial holiday in South Africa, and Denis is playing golf. His black caddie, seemingly respectfully, tugs the forelock and calls him "baas-fella". When Denis has gone, a small dog squats and strains at the edge of the golf course. The caddie shoos the dog away, saying "Don't you do none of that baas-fella on this grass, dog!"

Fan Works

• Danny Phantom: Lost: It's quickly established how much of a stuck-up asshole Jean-Luc is when he refuses to greet Danny and insults him in French.
• Fox Rain: Using a paraphrased movie quote, Vorpika calls Papillon "Papillon der grillo coi fiori'n mano", which, in the Romanesco dialect, translates into "Papillon of the cricket with flowers in the hand". The full quote (which the author refused to publish to protect the story's rating) is "Il Marchese del Grillo, coi fiori in mano e il cazzo a spillo", translating as "The Marquis of the Cricket, with flowers in his hands and a pin-shaped dick". Gabriel's none too pleased when he finds out what she called him.
  Hearing the shout, Adrien decided that maybe he wouldn't ask Lila about the "grillo" thing.
• In The Horsewomen of Las Vegas, crime boss Charlotte Flair is hosting a dinner party to welcome Yakuza members Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura. Shinsuke goes on a lengthy and animated discussion with Asuka in Japanese, which Charlotte, being an Excellent Judge of Character and very good at reading body language and facial expressions, recognizes as him insulting her. So once they pause, she immediately makes it clear she knows what he was saying:
  Charlotte: (in flawless Japanese) Speak about me like that again in my presence, Nakamura-San, and, truce or not, I will have you fed to dogs.
  Asuka: (in accented English) HA! She WAS ready for you, Atisuto.
• Psalm of the Lark: After a guy tries to flirt with Harley using the line "Mi casa es su casa," she disses him in Spanish by calling him stupid. He isn't fluent in Spanish and, luckily, doesn't know that word.
• With Pearl and Ruby Glowing: When Durland (who doesn't know Hindi) doesn't believe Noah about Ratigan raping him, Noah's parents decide they're leaving and, on the way out, Mr. Tamboli tells his son in Hindi, "This man is a halfwit, we'll get no help here".

Films — Animation

• Bolt: Bolt and a pair of cats are talking to each other, and when Bolt gets angry at them, he starts barking, with the implication that he's cursing in dog language. Subverted in that later, when Rhino talks to a human, the human only hears realistic hamster noises, indicating that the animals are always speaking their animal languages, even when we hear them speaking English.
• Despicable Me: When Gru first meets Ms. Hattie, he tells her she has a face "como un burro" which translates to "like a donkey". Unaware of what he actually said, she's flattered and takes it as a compliment. Later, when Hattie comes back to pick up the girls, she hits Gru in the face with a Spanish dictionary because she didn't like what he said.

Films — Live-Action

• Inverted in Airplane!. The two black characters speak primarily in slang and are often heard saying offensive things, but the subtitles show they are not saying anything offensive in "Jive".
• Cashback: After Sharon learns of Matt spreading a rumor that he slept with her, she insults him in Spanish.
• Firewalker: In the lead up to the bar fight, a large man curses out Max in Spanish. Leo duly translates, saying, "He said your mother was a pig and your father was a dog."
• Four Weddings and a Funeral: Carrie and Charles encounter his deaf brother while out shopping. The two men proceed to converse in sign language, during which Charles complains about Carrie's impending wedding and makes nasty comments about her fiance (he's in love with her) while his brother "comments" on her "beautiful breasts", all the while telling Carrie that they're offering compliments and congratulations. One watches the scene expecting that any minute now, it will be revealed that Carrie knows sign language herself and has understood everything—but it never happens. (It would have been really surprising if she had, as the sign language used in the US isn't related at all to the one used in the UK.)
• In George of the Jungle, the three African guides frequently insult and mock Lyle in Swahili, knowing he can't understand a word they're saying. At first it's believed they can't speak English, but later on it's revealed they are all fluent, and were hiding it just to annoy him. (It also reveals that some of their earlier insults, which seemed to coincidentally respond to something Lyle said, were in fact deliberate.)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Ron gets the troll's attention by shouting "Hey, pea brain!". The troll does not understand English and seems confused by what Ron said. Anyone can speak Troll simply by pointing and grunting.
• The Last of the Mohicans: While Magua is guiding the British soldiers early in the film, Heyward tells him that they need to stop because the Munro sisters are tired, and asks if he understands. Magua mutters in his native Huron that "the white man is a dog to his women." When Heyward asks what he's saying, Magua merely says, "I understand English very well."
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding: When Toula brings non-Greek Ian to her family's Orthodox Easter dinner, her Greek immigrant father mutters something insulting in Greek under his breath.
  Gus: [in Greek to Ian] When my people were writing philosophy, your people were still swinging from trees.
  Toula: [to Ian] ...He likes you.
• A scene in My Fellow Americans does this. James Garner's character (an ex-President), and Jack Lemmon's character (also an ex-President) are on the run from assassins and hiding in a truck full of illegal immigrants (It Makes Sense in Context, sorta). While there Garner strikes up a conversation with one of the immigrants in Spanish, finally making some insulting remarks about Lemmon. As the punchline, after the two-part company with the immigrants, Lemmon responds in flawless Spanish, "I can speak Spanish too, dickhead!"
• In the French film OSS 117: Lost in Rio (OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus), Bill Trumendous swears at and insults 117 repeatedly in English, then laughs in his face because OSS 117 doesn't understand this language.
  Bill Trumendous: (switches to English) What a jerk.
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Dodge Landon, the caretaker of the chimpanzees, constantly insults Caesar and the other chimps, knowing full well they can't understand him. Although the chimps eventually learn to talk. While it's not clear if Landon knows sign language, it's likely he does since knowing sign language is a requirement for being a zookeeper that works with great apes.
• Scarface (1983):
  • After Alberto refuses to go with Tony's suggestion to wait until the journalist is alone so they can kill him without killing his wife and children, Tony tells Ernie and Chi Chi "This fucking guy" since he knows Alberto doesn't understand English.
  • Zigzagged at the climax. Tony switches between insulting the assassins (who only understand Spanish) in Spanish and English.
• The Sex Trip: When Eddie and Jess are out getting pedicures at an Asian spa, the ladies who work there start to have a discussion in Chinese, making fun of the two of them — in the middle of doing their feet, no less.
• In The Shape of Water, Elisa boldly signs "Fuck you" to Strickland, knowing that he can't read sign language. Strickland does at least sense that he's being insulted, and Elisa's triumphant smirk implies that it's intentional on her part; she wants him to know he's being insulted, but be unable to prove it, and thus helpless to punish her.
• In the Wizards of Waverly Place TV movie, Alex ends up lost in a Latin American jungle and, not being fluent in Spanish, uses a subtitling spell to let her (and, of course, the audience) understand what the women she meets are saying about her. It's mostly insults.

Literature

• The Death of the Vazir Mukhtar: The Omniglot protagonist turns out to not know Tatar, allowing the two tatars to mock him behind his back in the Tbilisi bathhouse.
• In the Discworld book Jingo, a Klatchian general takes great delight in viciously insulting the arrogant and bigoted Lord Rust in his native tongue, with Rust none the wiser due to his equally incompetent interpreter.
• In Ella Enchanted: Ella, on her first day of finishing school, meets a girl from Ayortha named Areida. Ella knows a few words of Ayorthian, which no one at school has been able to learn, and Areida begins teaching her more of the language. Later that day, a tall girl mocks Areida's accent, then hears Ella speaking to Areida in Ayorthian.
  "Are you from Ayortha too?" the tall maiden asked me.
  "No, but Areida is teaching me the beautiful Ayorthian language. In Ayorthian, you are an 'ibwi unju.'" It only meant "tall girl." I didn't know any insults in Ayorthian. However, Areida was laughing, which made it seem the worst of epithets.
• Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America. Calyxa is from Montreal and has a habit of delivering insults in French. This backfires when she does this to Deacon Hollingshead, a powerful figure in the theocracy that rules the country. He replies in French that he's not an idiot and will have her arrested if she tries it again.
• In the Star Trek novel The Final Reflection, Krenn gets fed up with the proceedings at a Federation diplomatic event, excuses himself, and then uses Kinshaya (an alien language the humans are unfamiliar with) "to curse the Humans and their riding animals."^note i.e. "... and the horse you rode in on!"
• In The Royal Diaries book Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile Pompey speaks Latin to insult Ptolemy to his face about being a drunkard and say very crude things about Cleopatra. Unfortunately for him, Cleopatra had taken the time to learn Latin, and calmly informs him that if he was only there to insult the Egyptian Royal Family, they would leave. A cowed Pompey doesn't try that again.
• Something to Talk About: Jo's father calls Emma a slut in Cantonese, knowing that she won't understand it while Jo does. Infuriated by this, Jo tells him off about it along with other things.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Much like his Game of Thrones counterpart Kraznys mo Nakloz spends most of his time pitching Unsullied to Daenerys Targaryen insulting her as a woman and primitive from Westeros, unaware that Daenerys understands what he's saying.

Live-Action TV

• Barney Miller: In the episode "Stormy Weather," The 12th Precinct has to deal with a prostitute who is deaf-mute. Nobody in the precinct can communicate with her in American Sign Language, except for Officer Levitt, whose sister was deaf and so is fluent in sign language. At one point, he's communicating with the prostitute's lawyer, who is also a deaf-mute. While Barney's in the room, the two get into a conversation, that at least through context is not altogether complimentary to Barney, him standing just behind and not suspecting he's being insulted.
• The Crown (2016): During a state visit to Britain, Boris Yeltsin invites the Queen to Russia. She declines, citing the fate of the Romanovs. Boris then makes a comment in Russian, implying that the British Royal Family was responsible for the deaths of the Romanovs. While the Queen didn't understand what was being said, she understood it wasn't very nice.
• The Empress: Maximilian insults his Italian girlfriend in German to Sisi, knowing that the girlfriend doesn't understand German.
• Game of Thrones: In Astapor, Valyrian-speaker Kraznys mo Nakloz is negotiating the purchase of the Unsullied with Daenerys. He keeps insulting her (referring to her as a "stupid bitch" and an "ignorant Westerosi whore") and Ser Jorah ("Tell the old man he smells of piss"), unaware that Daenerys also speaks the language. Nobody cries when when she has Drogon roast him.
• GLOW (2017) when Ruth tags along with the Russian motel keeper to a family occasion to learn more about Russian culture, the motel owner has a discussion in Russian with a relative in which the relative insults Ruth with her being none the wiser.
• Harlots: Marie-Louise, a Frenchwoman living in London, frequently insults people to their faces in French, even her clients while she's having sex with them, but most of the other characters have no idea what she's saying. Subverted when she does this to Lydia in front of her son Charles knowing that he can understand her. Charles nervously gives his mother a Tactful Translation.
• On House of Buggin, one sketch has a crew of mariachis insulting their monolingual English-speaking customers in Spanish under the guise of serenading them until, of course, they run into some customers who also speak fluent Spanish. While most of their insults are translated for us in the subtitles, this piece comes with a further Bilingual Bonus or two as well. (Translated: "Miserable barato..." Not translated: "...pendejo!")
• Law & Order: A season 1 episode has the detectives investigating the Russian mob, one suspect talks to them with his daughter as an interpreter.
  Suspect: American police are a joke, no one is afraid of them.
  Daughter: He says America is a great country.
• Motherland: Fort Salem: In "Cession In Session" Prof. Grafton insults Col. Jarrett in Mothertongue (who's just banned Grafton's class per orders of the anti-witch government), to his students' amusement. Jarrett looks like he suspects he's been made a fool of but can only stew quietly.
  Prof. Grafton: (in Mothertongue) Please continue to spread the stench of your diseased genitalia all over base. (Switches back to English) Enjoy your day.
• Outlander: Parodied. When Dougal, the War Chief of Clan MacKenzie, is required to speak to Lord Thomas, the English Garrison Commander, Thomas makes a big deal out of not being able to understand Dougal's "crude and barbaric" Scottish accent. The commander insists on a translator who repeats everything Dougal says even though MacKenzie is already speaking in perfectly serviceable English. When Dougal tires of Lord Thomas' theatrics, he gives a very creative insult of what he thinks of the Commander. The translator goes to repeat only for Thomas to snappily interject that he understood Dougal well enough, not wanting the whole gathering to hear the insult a second time.
• Sanditon: In the episode "Centaurea Cyanus", Charlotte has to teach a French lesson while not knowing any French due to fudging on her resume. When she asks Augusta for help, Augusta insults her in the language instead of helping her learn it.
• In the Seinfeld episode "The Understudy", Elaine feels that her Korean manicurists make jokes about her when they speak to each other in Korean (she's right). Eventually, she brings along Frank Costanza with her, who speaks Korean, and gets upset when they insult him too.
• Shōgun (2024): Blackthorne is fond of using creative insults against Japanese he doesn't like, and is able to get away with quite a lot of them by saying them in Portuguese, which most Japanese can't understand, and counting on his personal translator, Mariko, to provide a Tactful Translation so as to not offend the target. Likewise, many Japanese shoot insults at him, which Mariko must then filter.
• In Son of a Critch, St. Bridget's does not have an actual French teacher, and thus Principal Sister Rose took the job, despite not actually speaking French herself. Fox became the class' most proficient French speaker for the sole purpose of being able to insult the principal to her face without her realizing it.
• Stargate SG-1: In "The Scourge", resident omniglot Daniel Jackson has a brief conversation with a Chinese government representative visiting Stargate Command, and they both make fun of Cam Mitchell. Which Bilingual Backfires when Cam tells them in Mandarin to go screw themselves.
  Shen Xiaoyi: (in Mandarin, about Cam) You're bringing him along?
  Daniel: (in Mandarin) We have to baby-sit him. (she laughs)
  Cam: Yeah, that's very funny. 去你的!^Trans."qù nǐ de", lit. "go to yours", roughly equivalent to telling someone to fuck off
• Supernatural: In "Everybody Hates Hitler", the Victim of the Week is a rabbi and academic. When dealing with an Obstructive Bureaucrat librarian, he insults the man in Hebrew. Given the tone and that what he says ends with "tucus," the man clearly gets the gist.
  Victim: I hope they pay you good to keep that bug up your ass!

Pro Wrestling

• In a promo, Rusev insulted the The Authority version of Stephanie McMahon by doing so in his home language.
• There was a time when then-WWE Diva's Champion Maryse would come up to fellow Canadian Gail Kim and compliment her in English, only to then make rude comments about her in French. Eventually, Kim would reveal she understands French, and knew what Maryse was really saying about her, and then she attacked her for it.
• When she was with Damage CTRL, Bayley used to be the subject of the Japanese members' (Asuka, Io Shirai and Kairi Sane) insulting and condescending comments. They were careful enough to say every bad thing they ever said in their mother tongue, though, so she wouldn't cotton on. Just like Gail Kim and Maryse, however, this eventually backfired in 2024, when Bayley was about to pick her opponent for Wrestlemania, only to turn on her former teammates, revealing (by speaking Japanese herself) that she knows they were mocking her behind her back all along.

Tabletop Games

• Warhammer Fantasy: Subverted by Wulfrik the Wanderer, who was given the ability to speak every language of man and beast in order to be able to insult, mock, and otherwise goad them into fighting him, which he does with gusto.

Video Games

• Batman: Arkham Asylum: Bane refers to Dr. Young as bruja, which is Spanish for "witch".
• Bravely Second: The floating city of Sagitta speaks largely in French. At one point, a young boy named Procyon insults Tiz's hair while speaking to his father in French. Magnolia knows French, but Tiz does not (though he could still tell that his hair was being made fun of).
• In Far Cry 6, Anton Castillo is hosting an interview with an American reporter called Tilly, in the presence of Maria Marquessa, Anton's Dark Mistress and Minister of Communications and Entertainment (in other words, propaganda). The reporter, early on, asks Anton's son Diego about his seemingly absent mother, whereupon an indignant Anton asks Maria, in Spanish, "What kind of foolishness is this, Maria?" To which Maria replies, also in Spanish, "It's the American way." Tilly doesn't seem to recognize that she's being insulted, but more than that, Anton and Maria's comments serve to highlight how incredulous they are that Tilly doesn't realize that Maria is Diego's mother.
• World of Warcraft: In one of the inns in Netherstorm, there is a meeting between the Scryer and Aldor representatives, among others talking about how the Aldor could trust the Scryers. This exchange ensues, crossing over with Bilingual Backfire.
  Magistrix Larynna: (in Thalassian) I'm Surrounded by Idiots!
  Anchorite Karja: The Magistrix will be happy to know that I'm fluent in Thalassian. Your courtesy is not lost on me.

Webcomics

• Unsounded: Quigley hides insults on occasion by speaking in Tainish. Most people know he's said something unflattering, just not what.

Web Original

• Brawl of the Objects: Baguette frequently snarks in French. Although his lines are subtitled so that we can understand him, some characters noticed the subtitles. After his elimination, Baguette reveals that he was faking his French ethnicity hoping the language barrier would let him get away with the insults.
• Not Always Right has many examples of customers covertly insulting the staff or discussing plans to shoplift or otherwise abuse the business by talking in a foreign language, only to be called out on it because the employee understands them perfectly. Their sister site, Not Always Working has similar examples with reversed roles.
  • A particularly poor attempt by the waiter in this Not Always Working story. We're not told if the customer he calls "a little estúpido" can speak Spanish but, as the incredulous cook realises, they don't need to.
• Object Terror: In "P to the Fourth", after Paint is disqualified from the contest, Arch, who is also under threat of being disqualified, goes up next and insults Printer in German before doing so.
• Red vs. Blue: In Season 11, Lopez reveals that this is the only perk of being on Red Team; since none of them understand Spanish, he can insult them all he likes and they'll never notice.Even after Grif learns, he still feigns ignorance to Troll Lopez.

Web Video

• During the Frieza-saga in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, after Dende, Gohan and Krillin summoned Porunga, he and Dende talk about earthlings in their native language. Specifically, they call them "ugly" and "annoying". Krillin and Gohan, of course not being able to understand Namekian, are none the wiser.

Western Animation

• American Dad!: Steve's friend Toshi speaks exclusively in Japanese, and often insults him and their other friends without them being any the wiser.
• Bluey: In "Pavlova", Bandit plays the role of a French chef, speaking entirely in Gratuitous French (albeit in random utterances such as "I am the dog!"). At the end of the episode, he calls Bluey a "booger", with Bluey being none the wiser until Chilli points it out.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "From Russia Without Love", when Moe reveals his previous heartbreaks to her, Anastasia feigns sympathy but then insults him in Russian, calling him "Nightmare Face."
  • In "Four Great Women and a Manicure", Maggie holds up a U block and points to her pacifier while sucking on it, with the subtitles "You suck".
  • In "The Crepes of Wrath", when Bart returns to Springfield and watches Homer struggle to get a wine bottle open, he quips "My father—what a buffoon" in French... and Homer delightedly brags about how proud he is of his son's linguistic ability. To add to the joke, the French word for "buffoon" is "bouffon", a cognate that even sounds like its English counterpart—but Homer still can't pick up on the insult.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: The episode "Chatterbox Gary" implies that Gary insults Patrick and Squidward in meows all the time. SpongeBob puts a translator collar on him and shows it off to everyone, and his meows translate into insults when SpongeBob shows off the translator collar to Patrick and Squidward.

Real Life

• During the building of Versailles, a worker died, and his mother then went to see Louis XIV to shout him insults. She escaped unscathed since the king didn't understand the regional language she used.