What are commonly used idioms/metaphors that make no sense to anyone who knows about the topic they come from?
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"Does a bear shit in the woods?"
Might be a regional thing but people would often say this as a sarcastic but emphatic "Yes" reply to people, particularly "obvious" answers.
Truth is, my personal observation is that they will make every opportunity to come out on the nearest road or field and shit there.
Obviously one could argue the pedantry (eg rural = woods, or most shit is in wooded areas) but my point is back to there actually being enough nuance to argue the point that they aren't making the point they think they are when they say that.
I'm fun at parties!
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I'm fun at parties!
Would you say you’re a party pooper?
(Likely another example of a phrase that OP was looking for)
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Humans are still monkeys. We're a couple laws and an evolutionary blink away from throwing it around.
I can think of even more, actually, like "shit rolls down the hill" (meaning blame naturally shifts to inferiors) and "hope in one hand, shit in the other and see which fills faster".
My partner and I went to the zoo for one of our first dates (13 years ago, holy poop) and when we approached the gorilla, he slowly pooped out a giant log into his hand, slowly brought the poo around to the front, stared us directly in the eyes, and took a big ol bite, moving it around with his tongue and teeth.
Everyone was mortified. We couldn’t stop laughing. I wish I had taken a video of it.
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TBF David is portrayed as the underdog in that story. IIRC Goliath had armour and may have had ranged weapons as well, but David got lucky (through divine intervention) with a difficult, imprecise weapon.
"If I was dictator for a day", "who made you king" and so on. Autocrats have a lot of power, but it's always leaky as hell and their position is always precarious. In some ways they're just the first among prisoners, since if they ever go against the system itself they're out as fast as Gorbachev was. None of the top officials want their skeletons coming out.
None of the top officials want their skeletons coming out.
I don't want my skeleton coming out either, I'm using it
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What I mean is like for example, a person having "gravitational pull" or someone making a "quantum leap" makes no sense to anyone who knows about physics. Gravity is extremely weak and quantum leaps are tiny.
Or "David versus Goliath" to describe a huge underdoge makes no sense to anyone who knows about history, because nobody bringing a gun to a sword fight is going to be the underdog but that's essentially what David did.
I'm looking for more examples like that.
"You cannot have a cake and eat it too?"
Bruv, if I have a cake in my hands, I am going to eat it.
It's like me giving a back massage to my girlfriend. Things are going to get groped.
Yes, I have a girlfriend. I will not be taking any questions. -
Thank you for introducing me to Wirth's Law. I'll be citing that whenever I write code that takes forever to run even on powerful compute
I'm totally guilty too. I'll be right next to you in that circle of hell reserved for "SWEs who failed to optimize their code."
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None of the top officials want their skeletons coming out.
I don't want my skeleton coming out either, I'm using it
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I meant the ones in their closet, but when it comes to methods of disposing of political enemies, you never know!
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My partner and I went to the zoo for one of our first dates (13 years ago, holy poop) and when we approached the gorilla, he slowly pooped out a giant log into his hand, slowly brought the poo around to the front, stared us directly in the eyes, and took a big ol bite, moving it around with his tongue and teeth.
Everyone was mortified. We couldn’t stop laughing. I wish I had taken a video of it.
Lol, I think we were the entertainment that day.
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What I mean is like for example, a person having "gravitational pull" or someone making a "quantum leap" makes no sense to anyone who knows about physics. Gravity is extremely weak and quantum leaps are tiny.
Or "David versus Goliath" to describe a huge underdoge makes no sense to anyone who knows about history, because nobody bringing a gun to a sword fight is going to be the underdog but that's essentially what David did.
I'm looking for more examples like that.
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
Has an entirely different message to me. It's often used as a reminder to be patient, not to loose your temper, etc.
On the day Rome was founded Romulus killed his brother Remus and marked out the city of Rome, construction starts. This is my initial reaction.
The next thing the Romans, a group of men (probably criminals), did after founding Rome was to raid their neighbours and kidnap their women. Rome then makes war for the better part of a thousand years, eventually subjugating the known world.
I think it's better used as a reminder subjugation starts out in small measures. "Parliament just passed antiterrorism laws, I'm sure they're to protect us" "Rome wasn't built in a day"
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I'm fun at parties!
Would you say you’re a party pooper?
(Likely another example of a phrase that OP was looking for)
Upvote for Flula
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Thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Every time I hear this song I just shake my head.
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Every time I hear this song I just shake my head.
Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
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Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
Absolutely.
