What to say to people when you have no compliments

An older Chinese lady came up to the desk and was speaking to my colleague. She helped this lady with whatever it was she needed help with. The lady said, enunciating every word, “You have a bright smile” with a Chinese accent. My colleague laughed and thanked her. The lady repeated the phrase again: “You have a bright smile” before explaining that it’s a nice thing to say to people.

My colleague left the desk and I took over. The lady continued, “But you don’t tell men they have a bright smile.”

I laughed. “Well, that’s not fair.”

“You tell them, ‘You are great!'” she replied.

And since my family seems to think I’m the world’s biggest douche, even more so than Donald Trump, for joking that I didn’t like my cousins shirt (yes, really), next time, I’ll just say, unenthusiastically, “You. Are. Great.”