Ask a guy the last thing a woman did that pissed him off and he’ll have a laundry list of material. Ask him for the nicest compliment a woman gave him recently and you’ll probably receive an answer along the lines of: “Are they supposed to do that?” “Wait? The nicest thing she said to me or I told her? … Uhh. Well, this one time… Uhh… What’s the question again?”

After speaking with a bunch of guys about the most flattering comments they’ve ever received from women there was a lot of hesitation, at first. It was almost as if they didn’t want to brag about themselves, or even worse, admit that a woman said something nice about them.

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For some reason, men are all about complimenting women (teasing counts), but when women return the favor, they don’t want to believe it. “I guess I just don’t focus on compliments enough to remember them,” says Pierce, a musician from Long Island, who seems to speak for most of the people I talked to. Well, that’s unless women hit directly on the types of things men really want to hear. According to my humble research, those are the comments that really seem to stay with them.

The famous face
A lot of guys want to hear a girl tell them they’re good looking, but that can be an awkward thing for a girl to say to a guy she’s interested in or to someone she only began dating recently. That’s where the look-a-like compliment comes into play. “One girl told me I looked like Edward Cullen,” said Pierce. “That was an awesome compliment because every chick wants him.”

Connecting the dots, Pierce came to the conclusion that if every chick wants Robert Pattinson and Pierce looks like the Twilight star, well then, he’s in. Ladies, if you’re keeping track at home, score one for vampires!

The master of the bedroom
This one is a no-brainer. Men like to think they know how to rock a woman’s world in bed, even if they know it’s probably not always true. “One girl told me I was the best she ever had,” said Jeff, an Indiana-based accountant. “That’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten.” And in true male fashion, Jeff awkwardly followed it up with his favorite rap line of the moment, “I told her to blame it on the alcohol.”

The king of comedy
When women are asked what they look for in a guy, one of the most popular responses is always “someone who can make me laugh.” Trust me, most men are well aware that women want someone who can put a smile on their face, which probably explains all the lame Leno and Letterman wannabes out there. Fielding, a friend of mine from Los Angeles, (a real guy who made up this bogus name for this article), wants his sense of humor to be appreciated. “I like to think I’m funny, so it’s nice when it gets validated,” he said.