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The Art of the Riposte

The clever comeback, like humor, works magic in battles with adversaries. With wit as your weapon you can defuse a tense situation. You lighten up. You trim your enemy’s sails and maybe even make the person smile.

When the high-minded food police publicly assault your culinary choices, borrow a Peter Burns line: “You are what you eat, and who wants to be a lettuce?” Or try “Hunger is not debatable,” a line attributed to Harry Hopkins.

We all have the capacity for killer lines. The problem is that most of us think of clever comebacks after the fact. Those Johnny-come-lately responses are what the French call “staircase wit.” They come to you as you descend the stairs at evening’s end.

Granted some people seem to be a natural for such comebacks, but maybe they just worked harder to acquire the skill. And the art of the riposte is a skill.

If you want to acquire it then you have to make the effort consistently.