A friend of mine with a dubious past says: “Hit someone in the eye with any .22 and they will decided to do something else.”
We even practice that strategy at the range.
I've always said no one is going to stand around to find out what caliber you're shooting at them. Similar, but not as clever as your friend's saying. Besides, when you shoot CCI Stingers it even sounds like a larger caliber.
Had a guy at the range stop me just last week and ask what I was shooting when I switched from Min-Mags to Stingers.
The "something else" may very well be "collapse to the floor and thermally equilibriate with the environment".