Rude Gifts for Adults
A sharper guide for people who are not looking for tasteful, sensible or emotionally improving presents.
When the point is to be rude
A rude gift is not trying to be universally charming. It is chosen for a specific person, usually someone who enjoys bad language, blunt humour and the small social danger of opening the wrong parcel in front of the wrong relative.
The Odyssey of a Word works in this category because the books do not look cheap or disposable. They look like serious little volumes, then immediately betray themselves with titles that belong nowhere near a respectable dinner table. That makes them useful as rude birthday gifts, sweary Christmas presents, adult novelty gifts and small insults disguised as literature.
Best rude gifts from the collection
These are the titles to consider when the gift needs to be direct, adult and difficult to explain to someone’s grandmother.
The most confrontational title in the series and the clearest rude gift statement.
A sweary all-purpose gift for people permanently at war with reality.
A deliberately filthy choice for recipients with no remaining innocence.
Short, sharp and pleasingly vicious.
An old-school insult with enough theatrical weight to carry a whole book.
British nonsense, disbelief and irritation in handsome book form.
Choosing the right level of rudeness
Brutally direct
CUNT, FUCK and BEEF CURTAINS are for people who will enjoy the shock rather than complain about it.
Rude but easier to give
BASTARD, BOLLOCKS and WANKER still land as rude gifts, but with a more familiar British comic edge.
If there is any doubt about the recipient’s sense of humour, choose the book that sounds like something they would already say.
