When rivalry between opponents in any matter intensifies and sinks to the most trivial, nit-picking, inane and embarrassingly immaterial level it becomes "compettytive" or infinitesimally petty. In such cases it is common to up the ante in an endless race toward utter nonsense and possible humiliation. AND against all rationality, the stakes can be ridiculously high.
BACKGROUND: The origins of this sort of struggle is a bastardization of G.W. F. Hegel's description of the Master-Slave dialectic, outlined in his "Phenomenology of Spirit" as an encounter between two subjects "who engage in a 'struggle to the death' before one enslaves the other, only to find that this does not give him the control over the world he has sought." (Wikipedia).
Rumor has it that in order to gain a seat in Congress, LBJ sunk to unethical compettytive depths in 1949 by accusing his wealthy and favored pig-farming opponent of having "routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children."
Pronunciation: \ˈkä-mət-ah-ka-zee\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English comete, from Old English cometa, from Latin, from Greek komētēs
One who, after playing the role of martyr by dramatically falling on the proverbial sword, actually lives through the 'said' episode to complain endlessly and render guilt upon an unsuspecting and sympathetic listener.
Phil was on the brink of blowing his own brains out after his Italian mother, a true Cometta-Kazi, volunteered to have everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner and then bitched and moaned about how much work it would be.