Barb
A short, sharply pointed remark designed to wound as it passes.
A barb is a brief remark whose purpose is to sting. The image is the barb of a hook or an arrow: a small backward projection that makes the wound harder to withdraw from than to inflict. In rhetoric the term names a compact, often witty, insult that lodges in the target after the speaker has moved on.
The form has an ancient pedigree — Martial's epigrams, Pope's couplets, Dorothy Parker's book reviews are all essentially collections of barbs — but its modern habitat is the political interview, the awards-show monologue, and the social-media reply. A well-made barb combines an accurate observation with a phrasing sharp enough to be quoted verbatim.
Editorially, barbs are dangerous. They read as wit when they land on a powerful target and as bullying when they land on a weak one; the same words can be either, depending on the asymmetry between speaker and target. Editors publishing barbs should consider that asymmetry as carefully as they consider the accuracy of the underlying claim.
Common mistake: assuming that the sharpness of a barb is evidence of its truth. Barbs are optimised for memorability, not for accuracy, and the two properties are only loosely correlated. A barb that turns out to be false is remembered exactly as long as one that turns out to be true.
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
Keep reading the glossary
A sharp, witty, and often cutting remark delivered for maximum effect — the modern cousin of the epigram.
A brief, witty remark — sharper than an observation, lighter than an argument.
A clever, often spontaneous remark that delivers humour through verbal ingenuity.
A flippant, knowing remark that scores a point through cheek rather than through wit's higher polish.