.......................

I was in my early 20s and was visiting a friend’s house. His wife had a friend visiting that I’d never met. We were introduced and the first words she said to me were “Do you know your features are wasted on a guy?” and then went on to provide specific details.

We were married a year later. And that was 30 years ago.

A neighbor saw me walking barefoot to my mailbox and complimented me on my healthy feet.

Hackles went up thinking he was some foot fetishist who was going to get weird on me. Nope, just a medical person of some sort that works with feet a lot and I genuinely have healthy arches and mobile toes. At least I choose to believe that explanation he gave. Otherwise, I have to assume my neighbor is jerking it every time I walk outside.

I got my leg fucked up in a hot sandy land far away. While I was doing rehab I used a cane and walked with a limp. One day I was walking out of an HEB in Houston when a dude dressed like Huggy Bear told me he liked my strut and then told me to "keep on pimpen playa."

In retrospect, it sort of makes sense as my limp with the cane looked like I was doing that stereotypical pimp walk but at the time I was very confused lol

I was dancing at a club a couple years ago and someone came up to me and yelled without pause “Are you a boy or a girl you’re gorgeous”

"You look like a spy" Which is sadly why my career as a spy never got off the ground.

A decade ago, I was walking a few blocks to get a burger, passed by a bar with an outdoor section.

A fairly sloshed guy stared me up and down, looked at his female friend, back at me and asked "Hey, are you trisexual?"

Being extremely awkward, significantly autistic, and apparently sufficiently twink, I responded "...sure?"

Guy got up and kissed me on the cheek.

I told him to have a nice night and went to get my burger.

...

So... yeah. That was the night I discovered what a 'twink' is, that I am apparently a twink, and explains all the times I've been catcalled by other dudes.

A shame that I am (basically) straight and only seem to date women who cheat on me or have immense mental health problems.

I had to have an abdominal ultrasound done once and the tech told me I have a great pancreas, "the most beautiful she's ever seen". I didn't know what to say but it made me happy.

A PTA mom once told me that she'd commit murder for my hair.

The Miss "my state" came to sing the national anthem for a big sports event at my job. I took care of the sound for her and we chatted a little bit. She was constantly barraged by guys coming up and wanting a picture with her, so we didn't get to have too much of a conversation. She sang the anthem, and was moving on to her next engagement and I said glad to meet you and was about to go back to the rest of my job. She stopped me and said " but we didn't get a picture together!" I told her it was ok, I understand that it's part of her job. She insisted and handed HER phone to someone walking by and insisted they take a picture of us. After they returned her phone she looked me in the eye and asked for my phone number so she could send it to me. I have a wonderful girlfriend and I would never cheat on her, but miss "my state" asked ME for my number, and I have been walking on air ever since.

You guys are getting compliments?

I was walking out of the gas station and the older lady at the counter yelled out to me, “mm I love watching you leave in those jeans.”

I was flattered and I still think about it some days.

This guy once told me "Your hair looks small" as a compliment... I still dont't know what to make of it.

An ex from a meaningful, but fraught relationship tried to seduce me a few months after we had broken up. In the interim, I had started dating someone new, and I rejected the advances.

My ex was angry and lashing out. She said a few random insults about my new partner (implying she had manipulated me with sex), before finally saying “well, I hope she enjoys your magical penis!” (It’s not magical. The tiny wizard hat is purely for decoration.)

I hooked up with someone at a party and they told my sister I have a big dick, loudly, in a room full of people that know me.

A friend of mine said I had a very good hugging-body. I always pictured huggable dudes as big, but I was really lean back then. She said it was because my lanky body somehow automatically fit the shape of her hugs.

"Your art looks like it tastes nice"

When I was in undergrad, a new friend in my program asked if he could inspect my elbow. I said sure, and he probed my elbow with his fingers thoroughly for a couple of minutes. He then told me it was very well structured.

"I like your butt hair."

"You have suspiciously clean ears."

A random black man at the pool yelled at me that I look exactly like Emilio Estevez. I didn't know what to say

I'm going to preface this with two things...

First, I realize it'll sound fake. And second, I'm pretty sure she was just trying to stroke my ego, but...

One of my first girlfriends was a little odd. She was smart, well-spoken, witty and knew her way around a clever turn of phrase.

After we had finished having sex for the first time, she fake coughed into her hand, held it up to me and said

"Oh look, my ovaries..."

"You have really hard bones". By two doctors in different hospitals. At least I took it as a compliment. They may have been complaining.

Coworker told me I look like Linus Torvalds. I really don't, not even a little (other than being a white guy with glasses). But it was oddly flattering.

My dentist (who is also my friend) told me I have great saliva. Fortunately it was while I was getting my cleaning…not in random hang out conversation.

I stick with pretty neutral compliments towards others but probably in my own profession I’ve expressed over the top enthusiasm for remarkably good handwriting or very organized/complete records. I’ve gotten a couple of laughs out of clients because it’s semi-rare and it’s kinda odd to get excited about those things.

"You're almost an intellectual." Which I think will be the name of my autobiography.

A couple years agoI (at the time mid 30s male) was coming back from a movie with my GF at about 11pm waiting for a bus in the UK. Two moderately drunk guys (looked to be about 10 years younger?) were waking down the same sidewalk, and about 2 steps after they passed us, one of them turns around and goes "Mate...", me and my GF look over and he's looking me up and down, "... NICE ass!" then fist bumps me and keeps walking.

She was like "what the fuck was that?"

I said "meh, it happens".

I'm pretty sure it was intended as a compliment, but a little after I came out as trans I had a coworker tell me about a conversation she had with another coworker where she said about me, "They always dress better than us."

Your nose looks very well tended.

My ENT one week after my surgery.

When we started dating my partner told me I look like Jeff Goldblum (I am a female). He then bought us a Jeff Goldblum curtain for the bathroom and a portrait we put on the wall, as well as several records, keychains and cushions with Jeff (including that Jurassic park one). It's weird as fuck but Jeff's a handsome guy and a cool fucking person so I'm not too worried about it.

"You're very handsome for an Asian man." - My girlfriend's mom

Just one of those that confirms someone's biases.

I was once walking past a gay bar with a buddy of mine. A drunk guy stumbled out, looked us both up and down and yelled "Phwoar! That's a porno I wanna watch!".

"Courage means being scared but doing it anyway" seems like a pretty succinct way of putting it I think.

My wierd compliment (if it can be called that) was when I was in high school English class. My teacher noticed how competent I was and how I was the only one to consistently raise my hand when he asked a question. He gave us a research paper to do and I got an F on it, exclusively because I fucked up the citations. He said the content was good, but he had to mark me way down due to improper citing. He said "I know you can do better than this."

Is that a complement? Either way, I think about that interaction and scenario a lot even though I haven't been in high school for well over a decade.

I've been complimented on my voice before, and those aren't weird compliments. But delivery is important. I had a coworker tell me, "Your voice is great!" And of course I'm thankful. But then deadpan, she goes, "You should do ASMR so I can listen to it."

Now that was a weird compliment.

Randomly stopped by a random guy as I was walked off the sky train "uhhh excuse me could you be a model for us?"

Hands me a business card etc. I'm nothin special lol. I'm also a dude.

It was the middle of summer and I was jogging the last leg of a 20km lake circuit with my shirt off, sweating like crazy, and a guy drove past, leaned out the window, and yelled "My wife likes what she sees!"

Not especially weird compliment just weird that it came from the husband.

"You have perfect teeth." I don't, which is why I find it weird. One is cracked and another is chipped. Two separate women 2 years apart have told me that several times.

Several men have told me I have a great smile. I'm a cis-straight man. One of them was a martial arts instructor that looked like the Rock. He told me this in front of my girlfriend and the whole class. He then pointed it out a few times throughout the weekend-long workshop.

One guy that I had never met came up to me and told me I was a good dancer. He was with his girl.

I'm really confused about the last two.

"Your dogs are beautiful."

Uh... Thanks? Is that a compliment for me or the dogs? 🤨 Honestly don't know how to respond or react to this one and it makes me feel weird.

I know there have to have been even weirder ones I got over the years, but what stuck with me is when a nurse in a psych ward psychiatric clinic called me (a patient) being like a "weird, confused professor" as a genuine compliment.

A girl sidled up to me at college when I was About 18 and just said “you have beautiful veins”

I was told my calves were absolutely shredded by an attractive woman. I'll carry that to my grave.

One particular winter I frequently wore a long coat and had longer wavy-ish hair. Two different people (separate occasions) said that I looked like Sam Kinison, each time with a disclaimer that I looked better than he did.

A gril I had a few hookuos with broke it off. Essentially her text said I was funnier than her and she wanted to be the funny one.

Id like to believe it. But if not it was still such a good text with 0 recorse.

I saved it for future bailouts.

Someone told me that I talk like Christian Slater. I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not, but Slater is pretty cool, so I said thank you.

That I have nice eye sockets

At a gas station, go in to grab some of my favorite brand of chewing gum (Original flavor Trident), and the clerk said "You look like you should be famous." I thanked him, and agreed.

At the grocery store, a cashier woman told me I look like Justin Timberlake. I've gotten that one a few times, and I take it as a compliment.

and one last one, I was on vacation with my girlfriend at the time, and we found this bar in South Carolina that had a big dancefloor, a great DJ, and almost nobody dancing. I love dancing, so I went out and started grooving to the music, just slipping between random dance moves, having fun because there was like nobody there to judge me. After dancing for a while, I'm about to go back to my waiting GF, when a pair stop me, a guy and gal. They said I was a great dancer, and asked what dancing school I attended? I told them I've never gone to a dancing school, I just do what feels natural.

That last one is definitely my favorite, though 😊

I have been complimented on my voice, apparantly I speak quite calmly and clearly.

A girl in college once told me I have "beautiful, horse-like legs". I did martial arts at the time and my calves and thighs were very well toned, but I was actually a little self-conscious about them, and I had never considered horses to be particularly beautiful so I kind of took it as an insult after walking away from the conversation. It wasn't until I relayed the story to a colleague a few months later that they told me it was probably a genuine compliment.

I was told "No, you're intimidating". I forget exactly how it became the topic. It was an ex who said it and it was supposed to be a compliment in context. I still don't understand it especially compared to the friend whom I was with.

I am not tall, not heavy, not particularly muscular (especially at that time) and have soft features. My friend is a head taller, twice my size, built heftier/stockier and had sharper features. He is a big ol hairy Aussie. Awesome guy, no idea how I'd be more intimidating than him though

Two:

1. "You're almost a hotty." This was before I transitioned.

2. "You have a great voice for radio." I'm an average tenor/alto. Not quite as high as the science Friday guy...

"You appreciate good food."

"You look like a movie star".

I was standing in a parking lot of a grocery store, and it seems this was because I had a hat and sunglasses on as far as I can tell.

I had many strange encounters with random people as I often look like someone they know from TV or a band. One was on a university dance ball where there was an actual minor music star - young guy. He was getting a lot of attention and I was quite envious. I complained a bit and a bit more but then suddenly random girl approached me and asked: "Can I take a picture with you?" :)

"You have the charisma of a garbage man's cologne"

"...uh...n...n...nice shoes!"

I had seen this gentleman cleaning the floor near the bathrooms at a school district where I was working as a substitute at their district office one day. He looked like he was working up the courage to say something as I entered, but I really had to go.

When I walked out, he was at the end of the hallway, and as I was passing him, he said "...uh...n...n...nice shoes!". I was wearing a pair of well-worn sneakers, the exact opposite of nice shoes. I just said, "...thanks...?" with a puzzled look on my face, turned the corner, and never saw him again.

Upon reflection, my best guess was that he was an individual with an intellectual disability and that his case worker (or therapist or family member or something) had been trying to help him overcome his shyness and become more social by giving someone a compliment, and that resulted in him mustering up the courage to tell me I had nice shoes.

In the moment, a VERY weird interaction. But he was being genuine, and I feel bad now about not showing him I appreciated his kind words.

That i had beautiful eye brows. Didn't see that coming

"You aren't as ugly as you sound on the phone."

When I perform, the best compliments are the people who have to look away. I think that qualifies as weird. Not JD Vance weird though.