People List Influential Bastard Newspaper News Magazine Time

Every year, the well-known news magazine Time "compiles" (puts together) a list of the Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world. "Influential" people are those whose actions, ideas, or products affect a lot of other people, changing the way people think and behave.

Joel Stein, a "columnist" (writer or journalist who writes regularly for a newspaper or magazine) at Time, writes a "humorous" (funny) column or article that appears on the last page of the magazine each week. in 2010, he decided to compile his own list: The 100 Least Influential People of 2010. This list was "divided into" (separated into) four categories: Losers, Flameouts, Morons, and Slimy Bastards. These are all informal terms and insults for people who are undesirable, or that are unpleasant or unwanted, or simply people you don't want to know or to be friends with.

A "loser" is someone who is not successful in life and often fails at what he or she tries to do. "To flame out" is an informal phrase meaning to fail in a very "conspicuous" (easy to see; seen by many people) way. We usually describe someone as flaming out if that person has tried to do something difficult or very public and failed "miserably" (very badly).

"Moron" is a very insulting term for a very stupid person. It is similar to "idiot," but is even stronger and describes someone who is very, very stupid. On Stein's list are several famous people from "reality shows" (shows putting real people in real or unusual circumstances) that he thinks are morons.

The last category is "Slimy Bastard." The dictionary meaning of "bastard" is a child who is born to an unmarried mother. This is an old-fashion usage of this term and it isn't used this way very often anymore. Instead, we use "bastard" as a synonym for jerk, someone who does bad things to other people and who deserves to be hated. Bastard is stronger than jerk, so people usually use it when they are very angry. We use "bastard" for men and almost never for women.

We describe someone as "slimy" when that person does dishonest, "immoral" (wrong) things, especially if he is "obsequious," acting like a servant to other people hoping to gain some benefit from that person. So, a slimy bastard is a person who does bad things in a dishonest way, but always hoping to gain something for himself or herself.