Substitutes for "lame".

[blimix]

What adjectives can we substitute for the colloquial (and unfortunately ableist) use of "lame"?

A web search didn't help. Most writers suggested "weak," but that's a poor substitute: It carries little of the insulting and dismissive quality that we look for when we want to call something "lame". So my spouse and I took a deep dive into the dark corners of the thesaurus, and came up with a list. Most of these words are more specific in their usage than "lame," so rather than pick a single substitute, we decided to note some that could be selected depending on circumstances.

(On a related topic, a friend points out that one might use "wild" or "ridiculous" in place of "crazy" or "insane".)

• Worthless
  
• Inept
  
• Bogus
  
• Mediocre
  
• Useless

The honorable mention list:

• Pointless
  
• Incompetent
  
• Ineffective
  
• Feckless
  
• Good-for-nothing
  
• Weak
  
• Boring
  
• Pathetic
  
• Pitiful
  
• Sucks

Here are some examples:


Moist is a mediocre henchman. His super power is useless.

The TSA's security theater is worthless.

Spirit was a good wingman, but Knight was incompetent.

McConnell's argument is bogus.

"The Lair of the White Worm" looked promising, but turned out to be boring.

The administration's response to the pandemic has been utterly inept.

When Greedo shot first, the scene became ineffective.

I hope you're not planning to vote for that abusive, good-for-nothing puppet of the Russian mob.

Ron Weasley isn't bad, he's just kind of pointless.

I couldn't be offended: His feckless insult only made him more pitiful.

People who won't stand up for their fellow human beings are pathetic.

I stopped playing "Might and Magic IX" because the story was so weak.

Nazis suck.

Comments

[chamaenerion]

The first thing I went for was "half-assed" but that has its own problems, and can also specifically imply a lack of effort, depending on context.

Also those are great example sentences. :)

[kirin]

Thanks for this. Among the common insensitive adjectives, it's definitely the one I've had the most trouble replacing in my vocabulary.

I particularly like Bogus, as I think it hits a broad swath of the most relevant use cases, and at this point we're far enough from the 80s that it feels ripe for an updated revival.

[eirias]

I've noticed this before -- replacing ableist language actually seems to lead to richer and better writing, by making it harder to lean on calcified phrases.

"Ron Weasley isn't bad, he's just kind of pointless" made me LOL.