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How to Piss Off Men: 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego

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BE NO MAN'S PEACE.

Have you ever been badgered by an annoying pick-up artist at the bar? Ever felt a burning desire to emotionally torture a friend’s boyfriend in an act of revenge? Have you ever endured just talking to a man before?

If so, then this book is for you.

With more than 100 phrases, questions, and comebacks, How to Piss Off Men is your essential guide to sending even the most relentless mansplainer into an existential crisis. Whether it’s referring to his expensive NFL jersey as “cosplay” or letting him know he has the confidence of a much taller man, this handbook will ensure you’re equipped to combat toxic masculinity in any situation.*

* The advice in this book has been thoroughly tested for effectiveness. Even on the author, bless his heart.

144 pages, ebook

First published September 1, 2024

617 people are currently reading
11943 people want to read

About the author

Kyle Prue

6 books587 followers
Kyle Prue is an award winning author, actor and comedian. Kyle wrote The Sparks: Book One of the Feud Trilogy when he was just 16 years old. Kyle spent a gap year before college on a national book tour visiting over 100 middle and high schools and meeting over 80,000 students. Kyle is now a student at the University of Michigan, studying acting and creative writing. He still visits schools and is a keynote speaker for conferences.

Kyle is the founder of Sparking Literacy, a non-profit dedicated to lowering the high school dropout rate by inspiring teens to read, write and follow their dreams. An actor and comedian, Kyle trained at Second City Comedy Club in Chicago, where a number of SNL actors have gotten their start.

The Sparks has won numerous national awards including Best Book and Best Fiction for Young Adults 2015. The Sparks was runner up for Best Young Adult Fiction at the Florida Book Festival and won Honorable Mentions at the New England Book Festival, Midwest Book Festival, Southern California Book Festival, the International London Book Festival and won a prestigious Indie Fab award. Kyle also won an International Moonbeam Award for Best Young Author. The Flames won the FAPA Presidentiial Gold Medais for Best Fiction and Best Fantasy 2017.

Learn more at www.kyleprue.com and www.sparkingliteracy.org. Follow Kyle:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Kyle Prue
Twitter: www.twitter.com/@KylePrue
Instagram: www.instagram.com/KylePrue

A note from Kyle: If you enjoyed the book, I really appreciate your help in spreading the word about my books. Please leave reviews on Amazon and here on Goodreads. Thank you so much!

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5 stars
2,798 (40%)
4 stars
2,255 (32%)
3 stars
1,358 (19%)
2 stars
432 (6%)
1 star
133 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,498 reviews
Profile Image for Esta.
203 reviews1,752 followers
June 20, 2024
I’d never heard of Kyle Prue before, so I had no idea what to expect before reading this. I’ll admit, I was sceptical of this book. My initial thoughts were:


1. “Will it be ironic because he’s mansplaining the topic to me?”

2. “Will this even make me laugh/smile/chuckle?”

3. “Will this cisgender white man succeed in helping equip others to clap back at toxic masculinity?”

4. “Will he misguidedly or accidentally offend perfectly nice, lovely men/women/non-binary folk/LGBTQIA+ peeps?”

5.“Why can’t I just take this as sheer entertainment value instead of overanalysing every single freaking thing?”


A lot of questions. Yes.
Answers, (in my humble opinion):

1. This didn’t seem mansplainy/condescending and it was often self-aware and self-deprecating, drawing on his own personal experiences.
2. Some stuff did make me smile/chuckle.
3. Yes, possibly, there seems to be anecdotal evidence.
4. While I can’t speak for everyone, as a cis woman, I wasn’t offended. However, it could trigger men who are upholders of a particular version of masculinity that is unhealthy and perpetuates sexist and homophobic beliefs and patriarchal behaviours.
5. Dunno, oops, I'm fun at parties, I swear.

Look, the wisecracks aren’t revolutionary, but some of them entertained me, not all of them. Yet I appreciate where Kyle’s heart is at. He writes, “Did I write this book so that women could learn to bully men? No. Did I write this book because I hate men? No… I wrote this book because I think it’s time to… let our anger inform us of our hurt and finally heal from it.” So I guess, if you feel triggered by this book's contents, maybe it's time for a bit of introspection and self-reflection. 🤔

Favourite/most practical phrase? “I’ll just google it” - good to use if someone is intent on mansplaining to you (I've had this done to me throughout my whole career). If you're wondering if you're guilty of this, here is a handy flow chart.

Notes:

• I read this on Kindle, but it would probs be better as a print book on your coffee table to display amongst friends, family, and perhaps even relatives if you’re feeling bold.

• Humour and art are super subjective, so YMMV on what you find amusing/useful/offensive.


I was going to not rate this for that reason, but I decided that all things considered above, 3.5, rounded up to a generous 4 stars might suffice. Also because I just watched the author’s Planet of the Apes audition tape, which was more entertaining.

My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

———

Not too sure if this will make me laugh, cringe, or cause offence, but I've somehow ended up with this in my rotation. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the digital arc.
Profile Image for Rosh ~catching up slowly~.
2,383 reviews4,905 followers
June 19, 2025
In a Nutshell: I expected a funnier book. Then again, ‘funny’ is a subjective term, so this might be a good gag gift. But most of this content was boring to me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is very easy to guess why I requested this book – the title was almost like a fishhook that grabbed me and didn’t let me go. I was also curious that this was written by a man. So would it be a realistic expose on what men are truly afraid of hearing, or would it end up patronising women into thinking that they can do better with their barbs? The tagline was also interesting. 106 things not to hurt male emotions, or make them introspect, but to “shatter the male ego” – a strong claim.

Sadly, the potential was not met.

There are various reasons why this didn’t work for me. I won’t say it ‘did not live up to my expectations’ because I didn’t have any expectations in the first place except of finding an entertaining read. But in all honesty, I think the main reason is that we women are, in general, better at sarcastic barbs than men are. (Not something to boast about, I know.) But this isn’t a review about women or their talent for hitting where it hurts most when someone pisses them off, so let’s return to the book.

The comebacks herein are quite lacklustre. Most of the content aims to channelize reverse psychology into breaking a man’s confidence, but the retorts feel mostly juvenile. The author admits in his initial disclaimer that some of these retorts are easier for him to say as a cis white man. I think that defeats the point of the book to a great extent.

The responses are also highly situation-specific, with some situations being once-in-a-way encounters such as watching MMA or talking to a man who is explaining to you the concept of a secret identity. Thus, while there officially are “106 things to say”, the practical application of these is minimal.
(Note:The NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon covers have been updated to say that there are 109 retorts in this book. My cover and book had only 106. I didn't bother to check if three more comebacks have been added to the ARC as they wouldn't have saved the book anyway.)

The pop culture references are exclusively American, so this is certainly not a global advisory. There are a multitude of US-specific concepts and abbreviations such as JROTC or Kohl's Cash, which went over my head. (Not the author’s fault that an Indian reader gave his book a try. So the benefit of the doubt in this round goes to him.)

Obviously, we don’t read such books for actual implementation of the barbs but for laughs. However, I barely cracked a smile during this entire book. Only two of the retorts actually felt clever. The rest were mostly meh to my ears, and after a point, the whole thing felt repetitive.

On the pro side, it’s not offensive or condescending or patronising towards woman – I’ll give the author credit for this. I also loved the line in the opening note: “Women want to be loved, and men want to feel important.” Then again, this is something I already read in “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus”, so…

The most heartfelt content (honestly, I wasn’t expecting heartfelt content in this book, so this took me by surprise) is the final chapter titled “Why to Piss Off Men”, which is not at all what it sounds like. This chapter was brilliant (patriarchy having put both men and women in boxes – excellent analogy!), and while I might not agree with the rest of the book, I respect the intent of the author the way he has explained it in this section.

Basically, humour is quite subjective. So this book might still make some other readers guffaw. The author is supposedly a known online personality, actor and comedian, but I am not so much into movies these days (and I have no legal access to Tiktok), so I have no clue about his work. Maybe fans of his stand-up comedy would enjoy this better as some jokes are better heard than read.

I can advocate this as a light-hearted book to be borrowed from the library and read for entertainment value, or it could work as a prank gift. (But I am not sure whom you could gift it to.)

A shoutout to the cover pic – I love the expressions of the women in that artwork.

2 stars.


My thanks to SOURCEBOOKS (non-fiction) for providing the DRC of “How to Piss Off Men” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
Profile Image for Nancy •͙͙✧⃝•͙͙✩ͯ .
93 reviews89 followers
July 9, 2025
──⟡⋆˙✩ 4 stars ✩ ⋆˙⟡──

The moment I saw the title I knew this book and I were destined.

ೃ⁀➷ Some highlights of this book:

“You have the confidence of a much taller man.”
Author's note: Do not use this on a man who you plan to keep a relationship with. There’s no coming back from this one.

“Do you need me to walk you to your car?”

“Do you have a humiliation fetish?”
Author's note: Say this to a man who thinks he’s impressing you.

ೃ⁀➷ The book ended with the author saying this:

The patriarchy puts women in a box. And then it puts men in their own box on top of that one. And on some level, men think that qualifies as a win. But at the end of the day, everyone’s still trapped in a box.
Profile Image for LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!".
736 reviews579 followers
May 11, 2024
My thanks to Sourcebooks, Kyle Pure and Netgalley.
Well, I guess I'm the outlier here, because I personally thought this book was an unfortunate waste of time.
First off, women already know the best ways to piss off men! We've had quite a bit of experience!
Mostly though, these tips somehow made the woman saying them sound incredibly dumb.
I'm not one to purposely go around insulting men, but when I do I can guarantee you that it's going to be a zinger!
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.....unless you're a clueless half wit.
Profile Image for Zoë!.
246 reviews228 followers
Want to read
September 14, 2024
Y’all need an instruction manual for this? 😭
Profile Image for Zanna ❀.
16 reviews79 followers
February 4, 2025
Pretty good.

I do agree with the reviewer who said the last chapter titled "Why To Piss Off Men" was the best part. Within it, we read:

"If you’ve read this far, you know that men think anger is an important, direct emotion. In reality, anger is a complicated, amorphous, fluid feeling that seeks to warn us of deeper, scarier, weepier emotions. Anger never shows up first. It follows on the heels of fear, hurt, or loss. Anger is blood from a wound. Men love to talk about the blood and never the wound.

Are you enriching someone’s life by pissing them off? Probably not. Definitely not, if they’re not willing to treat anger as a messenger, to follow it to its source. But in rare instances, I’ve seen men grab anger by the hand and follow it with genuine curiosity....

I wrote this book because I think it’s time for men to take our cultural medicine. To let our anger inform us of our hurt and finally heal from it....

The patriarchy puts women in a box. And then it puts men in their own box on top of that one. And on some level, men think that qualifies as a win. But at the end of the day, everyone’s still trapped in a box."


I like that.
Profile Image for Youssra (semi ia).
719 reviews232 followers
May 18, 2025
silly little coffee table book. I chuckled.. a bit.

some of my fav insults:
You have the confidence of a much taller man
I like your hair. Is it real?
Do you need me to walk you to your car?
I love your pixie cut ( say this to a man with short hair)
Do you have a humiliation fetish? ( Say this to a man trying to impress you)
I thought your voice would be deeper.
Damn she sounds cool.( Say this to man complaining abt his ex)
Profile Image for Jenny.
518 reviews473 followers
September 22, 2024
I’ll be honest, I picked up this book purely because of the title. I mean, how could you not? The idea of a snarky handbook with comebacks to take down annoying guys sounded like it would be hilarious. And while there were definitely a few moments that made me laugh, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

There were some quite funny parts, but overall the humor didn’t quite hit the mark for me. While there were a few entertaining parts, a lot of the jokes fell flat. Many of the insults are things women already know or have said before, so I didn’t really get any new material to add to my list, which I was hoping for. The concept is great, but it felt like it could’ve gone further or been sharper.

I’ve followed the author on TikTok and love their content there, but something about the humor didn’t translate as well in the audiobook. Without the visual aspect of TikTok, the delivery felt a bit flat. I think I might’ve enjoyed this more in print where I could take my time with each line, but in audio form, it just felt kind of dry.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun read, and if you like the author’s style, you’ll probably enjoy it. It just didn’t land for me as much as I’d hoped. Definitely some laughs, but not quite what I was expecting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
Profile Image for Gabrielė Bužinskaitė.
325 reviews151 followers
January 30, 2025
I can’t lie, I find the current “women in male-dominated fields” type of jokes funny, so I expected something even cleverer from this very-new book.

But it was…eh. Meh. Did not laugh once. The author offers to either ask stupid questions or imply feminine/gay stereotypes about a man. It’s neither clever, nor witty, and certainly not powerful. I expected at least to chuckle.

Some examples:

“5. “Oh! I saw that on Pinterest!”

Say this when a man talks about anything he’s interested in or shows you one of his tattoos.

46. “You’re so sassy.”

Use this when you feel inclined to call him a dick.

82. "I love your pixie cut.”

Say this to a man with short hair.

105. “I love your corset.”

Say this to man who is wearing a weight belt.”

When you try to insult a man with stereotypically feminine or queer traits, in a way you perpetuate the idea there's something "less" about them. Not a fan.

Pro tip: if you want to offend a man, just ignore his self-ascribed importance.
Profile Image for ⋆.˚ Ariana ᡣ𐭩ྀིྀི.
621 reviews50 followers
December 18, 2024
It’s not everyday that I say that I love men, but I’ll say that I love Kyle Prue.

The fact that a man wrote this book makes it more funny and interesting. I also liked the fact that Prue used the insults that had deeply hurt him.

What I liked the most was how he ended the book where he wrote, “The patriarchy puts women in a box. And then it puts men in their own box on top of that one. And on some level, men think that qualifies as a win. But at the end of the day, everyone’s still trapped in a box. We men are all trapped there together. With our anger, our egos, and maybe a goose or two.”

One quote that struck me the most was:
“Anger is blood from a wound. Men love to talk about the blood and never the wound.”

I’d admit that the reason for the low rating is that I didn’t understand half of the insults as I am not from a Western culture and don’t know much about it lol. The half that I understood, I highlighted for the future use ☺️.


✎ᝰ. during-the-read:

The greatest weapon of the emotional assassin is their target’s own synapses. we’re off to a great start💕

✎ᝰ. Pre-read:

Not that I need guidance but still…😍
Profile Image for Ali.
203 reviews34 followers
September 24, 2024
Hilarious! Love these ideas to shatter the fragile male ego. Told so many to my husband who plans on using a few at work this week 😂 such a funny read. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the chance to review!
Profile Image for Shereadbookblog.
973 reviews
July 11, 2024
Written by an author/comedian and subtitled 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego, this short book is filled with questions, quips and retorts to help combat toxic masculinity, along with commentary by the writer.

Given the title, how could I resist this selection? A very quick read, it had me repeatedly laughing out loud and I have to say it takes something very good to make me do that. A humorous break from some of the heavier reading I have been doing, it was a delightful read. I am going to try to remember some of the lines and hope I get to use them sometime.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Sourcebooks for the DRC.
Profile Image for McKenna.
250 reviews10 followers
April 27, 2024
That title? SAY. FUCKING. LESS.

Are you tired of talking to men? I know I am. (If my husband is reading this: Not you, honey.) However, after reading this handy guide, I feel equipped to handle the next mansplainer that darkens my door!

Kyle Prue has given us insider tips on how to shatter the male ego. Some tips and phrases deal the devastation upfront, some are a slow burn and will fester for years. Prue personally vouches for several, having been on the receiving end of them. This book had me cackling! I’m a hater at heart and I loved every minute. Kyle is doing the Lord’s work. How To Piss Off Men is a quick read that will stay in your mind long after you’re done.

How to Piss Off Men: 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego is out September 17, 2024.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Profile Image for benita.
642 reviews63 followers
April 27, 2024
In How to piss off men we get 109 phrases to tell men, and questions, and comebacks, along with a few stories from the author.

I wanted to read this mainly because of the title, and it did not disappoint. Easy to read and short chapters which made this straightforward to read. It was also fun to read that the author had actually tested these out which made it even better to read each chapter.

If you like humor books, or just want to piss off men, I’d recommend this!

Happy reading!♥️

I got this book for free from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for andrea.
1,036 reviews168 followers
May 3, 2024
thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this one!

this hits shelves on September 17, 2024.

--

in the interest of full disclosure, i'm a kyle prue fan. i've long followed him for his "how to piss off men" series, because there's something so great about a man revealing the cheat codes on how to neg men back. and as he succinctly summarizes it in the book: all you really need to do is treat men the way that they treat women.

this was a great book. i think i read everything out loud to my mom who snickered along and started to come up with her own dunks on men.

though this book is pretty much exactly what the title says it is, i also appreciated the tender-hearted, sincere insight that kyle had at the end of the book - about seeing that society taught men violence, about seeing a relative with dementia sharing cake that kyle brings him even though this relative considers him a stranger, about the default act when all is nearly gone being kindness, and about how kyle wants to foster that kindness in himself.

not only that, but he acknowledges that sometimes these ridiculous "insults" are a way to get men to be introspective about the crappy behaviors and emotions the patriarchy has instilled in them, that maybe dismantling the patriarchy also has to include letting go of its indoctrinations, too.

don't get me wrong, this is mostly an extremely unserious, funny little book. and you should all read it. maybe not if you're ed helms, though.
Profile Image for Sierra.
724 reviews43 followers
July 13, 2025
this is the most useful book i’ve ever read
Profile Image for — nova.
480 reviews343 followers
October 7, 2025
this is hilarious of course, but also, dare i say, important

“i wrote this book because i think it’s time for men to take our cultural medicine. to let our anger inform us of our hurt and finally heal from it”

“the patriarchy puts women in a box. and then it puts men in their own box on top of that one. and on some level, men think that qualifies as a win. but at the end of the day, everyone’s still trapped in a box. we men are all trapped in there together. with our anger, our egos, and maybe a goose or two:”
Profile Image for Debi .
1,264 reviews37 followers
Read
November 16, 2024
Eureka!
My white elephant gift will be an annotated copy of this book and I don’t even care that four potential recipients will see this “review”.

Advice: don’t read this in a quiet break room during lunch. It will be a massive challenge to refrain from actually laughing out loud or trying the lines on colleagues.

More advice: test a carefully selected line on your boy boss. For safety’s sake, dramatically read it aloud while holding up the book so that he can read the cover and knows it’s only a cue to laugh.
Profile Image for troubleshooterrr.
18 reviews7 followers
March 5, 2025
Wenn ihr lesen wollt, wie ein außerordentlich aufgeklärter mann mit je drei Zeilen pro Seite 150 recyclete tweets als Buch binden lässt, bitte schön. Man fühlt sich danach, als hätte man auf Klo zu lange in einem okay witzigen subreddit gescrollt.

Kaufen würde ich das aber auf keinen Fall. Die 18 Minuten Lese-Erlebnis kann man genauso gut einfach gleich im buchladen hinter sich bringen und muss dann praktischerweise nicht mal Geld dafür ausgeben.
Profile Image for Lindsay.
129 reviews
March 12, 2025
Iconic - purely a mood rating. Notes taken.
2 reviews
September 14, 2024
Worst book ever???

This laughable excuse for a book is everything you’d expect out of an author too weak to beat a Canadian goose in a fair fight. This derivative, TikTok-inspired drivel pokes fun at men and makes them complete laughingstocks. It’s emasculating, cruel, and totally uncalled for. 10/10 would recommend.
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