Mean lines are for banter, not strangers
Teasing can be flirty, but only between people who already trust each other. Friends who roast each other, a couple with a running joke, a match who opened with a jab first: that's where a mean line can land as affection.
With someone you've just met, the same line reads as a plain insult. They have no reason to assume you're kidding.
What voters think
This is the lowest-rated category on the site, and it's not close. Lines that attack someone's looks get buried in downvotes. The lines that survive tend to be mean to the speaker as much as to the target, or so exaggerated nobody could take them literally.
The Antarctica line is a good example of how split people are: it gets upvotes and a lot of downvotes. That's the risk profile of this whole category.
If you use one anyway:
- Only roast someone who has roasted you first.
- Aim at harmless things: their taste in pizza, not their face or body.
- Follow with something genuinely kind so the tease has a landing spot.
- By text, add an emoji or "kidding" if there's any chance of misreading.
The mistake to avoid
Negging. Knocking someone down so they'll want your approval is a manipulation tactic, not a joke, and people spot it fast. If the point of a line is to make someone feel worse about themselves, don't send it, however funny it looks on this page.