# I pit stupid metaphors! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 12, 2007, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466 "2007-07-12T05:36:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/41 "2007-07-12T20:51:44Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] I didn’t say it was a good metaphor, I just said it was a metaphor. Don’t you have a metaphor to mow unreasonably quickly, or something? [/QUOTE] Dagnabbit! A metaphor, not counting puns, is not a comparison. That’s a simile. In a metaphor, the subject IS the other thing, or BECOMES the other thing. Simile: Egbert has really filled out; he looks _like_ Horton the Elephant. Metaphor: Woo, look at Egbert; he’s Horton the Elephant. Simile: Lobelia is quiet _as_ a mouse. Metaphor: That Lobelia, she’s such a mouse. Simile: Reynolds looked _like_ a deer in the headlights. Metaphor: Reynolds was a deer in the headlights. Metaphor: This proposal is a toothless tiger. Now, you can resume the punfest. The tooth is out there. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/42 "2007-07-12T21:03:16Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] You know, that _really_ doesn’t work in English pronunciation. 😃 [/QUOTE] Metaphor = meadow for. Granted it’s a slack jaw pronunciation but I got but I was also raised in slack-jack country. …and tooth. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/43 "2007-07-12T21:14:41Z")
A man’s ideas should exceed his vocabulary, or what’s a metaphor? ---
**Author:** ![Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@Kneepants\_Erasmus\_the\_Humanist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kneepants_Erasmus_the_Humanist)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/44 "2007-07-12T21:35:57Z")
Er. So, I suppose I am the only one who thought that was actually pretty funny? Look, Harry Reid isn’t one of life’s funny people (from what I have seen); let him have this one. [QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Let’s see . . . a toothless tiger has zero teeth. To have less (or fewer) teeth than a toothless tiger, the proposal would have to have . . . Oh my God! The proposal has _negative teeth_! [/QUOTE] EXACTLY!!! HI-larious!!! _snort_🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/45 "2007-07-12T22:49:06Z")
I never metaphor I didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/46 "2007-07-12T23:01:15Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Rieux] I never metaphor I didn’t like. [/QUOTE] Nah, I am more of a Chevrolet guy ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/47 "2007-07-12T23:02:49Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] You know, that _really_ doesn’t work in English pronunciation. 😃 [/QUOTE] How do you pronounce “metaphor”? Actually I don’t think it works that well in American pronunciation either; “metaphor”-“meadow for” is a bit of a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/48 "2007-07-13T18:37:20Z")
Yes, it does. Meadow=meadah=meta in some parts of the country. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2007, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/49 "2007-07-14T09:49:12Z")
This thread makes sense like a chicken on a june bug. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/50 "2007-07-18T16:31:27Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] And if **Leaper** were a public figure who would knock over his invalid mother to get in front of a microphone and a camera, I’d back you up on that. People say dumb things. It’s just most of us aren’t being shown on CNN when we say it. 😉 [/QUOTE] I admit to occasionally saying a dumb thing or two. But I don’t call them “bad metaphors.” Granted, OP was right that it wasn’t particularly effective. He could’ve just said something like, “completely toothless.” And tigers have claws as well as teeth. Even a “toothless tiger,” or a tiger that has “less teeth than a toothless tiger,” can cause some harm. Personally, I’ve heard much more egregious things said in both the House and Senate. For example, when they changed the name of “French fries” to “Freedom Fries” in the House cafeteria. The Rep who pushed that one is now against U.S. policy with Iraq. (I’d love a job like that; where you can do as little or a much as you want, and no one seems to see the difference.) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466/51 "2007-07-18T16:48:42Z")
Reminds me of Blackadder and his sometimes hilarious inablility to extemporanously come up with a metaphor: "The grave opens up before me like a … big hole in the ground. " “Disease and deprivation stalk our land like… two giant stalking things.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-stupid-metaphors/411466.md?page=2)