What does it mean when someone says “If you had any brains you’d be dangerous”?
It’s mostly just an insult. “You have no brains.”
It also be involves a double insult. “Even if you did have brains, you’d still act stupidly.”
It’s just an ornate way of saying “Dummy! Nyah nyah nyah!” Clever and ornate insults are a form of art – maledicta! – “He’s dumber than a box of hammers!” “He’s as useless as tits on a boar!” “He’s so stupid, he can’t even integrate e to the x.”
(“Can such ignorance exist?”) (After Arthur C. Clarke.)
I would rephrase it thus: humanity should be grateful that you’re a moron, because if – heaven forbid – you had an IQ greater than your neck size, you might actually have the capacity to harness your propensity toward mischief and evolve into a genuine menace to society.
Bookmarking this for revival in a couple years.
Awesome if this became a zombie thread…
it is saying that they have a good zombie defense and aren’t in danger.
other than that some of the above.
I’d interpret it a little bit differently. To me the “you’d be dangerous” addition also suggests that the person is deficient in a moral sense (since a dangerous person is presumably not a moral one).
I agree. You’re saying:
- You’re a bad person who does awful things
- But thankfully you’re so stupid you never get away with it
It’s like a double-whammy insult. Think of the kleptomaniac who keeps stealing other people’s property, but he gets caught every time.