0

Some of you may have seen the Eminem film 8-mile, where he's in a rap battle, and at some point in the film he wins the rap battle by exhausting all the ammo about himself that his opponent was going to use so the opponent had nothing left to say.

I've seen this happen in real life a handful of times too, where a person who knows he's going to be insulted beats the other person to the punch and takes the wind out of their sails by doing so.

Is there any terms for this?

Improve this question
3
  • Related: term for anticipating counterarguments and rebutting them (pre-emptive arguments; procatalepsis). // 'Come clean' doesn't carry the pre-emptive requirement.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 10:16
  • Even 'jumping before you're pushed' doesn't really work; this time, too much of a hypernym.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 18:19
  • @EdwinAshworth I actually like that one quite a lot. It's not actually specific to the situation but it's an apt metaphor.
    – TKoL
    Commented Aug 19, 2021 at 7:11

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
0

Took the wind right out of his sails by a by means of a thorough pre-emptive mea culpa.

Improve this answer
2

Such a remark against yourself could be described as self-deprecating.

Improve this answer
6
  • 1
    I'm looking for a word that implies that the reason for the self-deprecation is to pre-empt insults. It might be too specific of a meaning to have a word or phrase dedicated to this type of thing though.
    – TKoL
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 11:15
  • @TKoL A phrase is more likely to exist than a single word here, but you need to add a tag and adjust your question to license an answer longer than a single word.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 11:43
  • 1
    @EdwinAshworth edited with the tag, ty for pointing that out.
    – TKoL
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 12:19
  • @TKoL 'self-deprecation' is exactly the single word for insulting yourself. 'disarming' is exactly the single word for removing an enemy's power over you. If you insist on the complicated concept being captured, there's no law that you have to use a single word.
    – Mitch
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 13:02
  • 1
    @TKoL Sadly, I anticipate that there may not be even a fixed phrase capturing both concepts (self-deprecation w preemption). 'Preemptive self-deprecation' works, but, not being a fixed phrase, is a free combination (like pink car, fierce polecat ...), not on-topic on ELU
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 18, 2021 at 13:56
1

An expression that may come close to capturing both parts of the OP's request is:

steal someone's thunder (idiom)

To prevent someone from having success or getting attention, praise, etc., by doing or saying whatever that person was planning to do or say m-w

Win praise for oneself by preempting someone else's attempt to impress.

Origin
From an exclamation by the English dramatist John Dennis (1657–1734), who invented a method of simulating the sound of thunder as a theatrical sound effect and used it in an unsuccessful play. Shortly after his play came to the end of its short run he heard his new thunder effects used at a performance of Macbeth, whereupon he is said to have exclaimed: ‘Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder!’. Lexico

Stealing thunder refers to a dissuasion tactic in which an individual reveals potentially incriminating evidence first, for the purpose of reducing its negative impact on an evaluative audience. We examined whether it was necessary to frame the negative revelation in a manner that downplayed its importance, and found that stealing thunder successfully dissuaded mock jurors even without framing. We also sought to determine the mechanism by which stealing thunder operated, and found that stealing thunder led mock jurors to change the meaning of incriminating evidence to be less damaging to the individual. "Stealing Thunder as a Courtroom Tactic Revisited" (2003)

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .