Be polite: call someone a stupid idiot

Recently, I stumbled across an old page on the BBC World Service website that made me laugh. It was within the 'Learning English' section, focusing on "expressing possibility: perhaps/maybe, may/might".

To give the reader "further practice of may and might, maybe and perhaps", the page included the following joke:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go camping and pitch their tent under the stars. In the middle of the night, Holmes wakes his companion up and says: "Watson, look up at the stars and tell me what you deduce." Watson says: "I see millions of stars and maybe quite a few planets among them. It may be true that a few of the planets are quite like Earth and there might be life on them." Holmes replies: "Watson, you bloody fool*! Somebody has stolen our tent!"


But it was the footnote to 'bloody fool' that caused me amusement:

*Bloody is a medium-strong swear word, used to give emotional emphasis to something that you are saying. It should not be used in polite situations. For polite conversation, substitute: You stupid idiot!


I'm not sure that 'you stupid idiot!' is very appropriate in polite situations...