Learn five discreet insults
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| Hi! Welcome back to weekly words. My name is Alisha and this week we are going to look at discreet insults. I like this already. |
| The first phrase is “the lights are on but nobody is home”. |
| This phrase means that somebody seems to look aware of whatever is going on around them but in their head, they don’t really understand. In a house where you can see in the windows of the house that the lights are on in the house but there is no one actually inside. If the same meaning inside someone’s head, it means that they are not very smart. |
| In a sentence, my co-worker isn’t very smart. Well, he is the kind of guy who makes you think the lights are on, but nobody is home. |
| Next, “space-cadet”. |
| I love this phrase. I use this from time to time. Again, doesn’t seem to be very aware or very smart or very conscious of what’s going on around them. Their head has a lot of space in it, perhaps. So maybe this phrase comes from the expression to space out. I am a bit of a space cadet sometimes. I just stop thinking about all the things that are happening around me and go somewhere else in my mind for a while. That’s true. |
| Onward, “even a stopped clock is right twice a day”. So this phrase is used to explain maybe someone or something who is not traditionally good at something or someone, who is broken or does not do things well, is capable of, you know, doing something correctly sometimes. A clock that’s broken and doesn’t move will at two points in the day show the correct time on a traditional clock. So a person who, for example, isn’t good at playing sports, maybe one day, they have a really, really lucky day and they played sports really, really well, you might say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. He did a great job this afternoon. |
| This is a fun one, “not the brightest bulb in the box”. |
| There are a lot of variations on this phrase, “not the sharpest tool in the shed”; we changed this one up a little bit, too, like “not the longest fry in the happy meal”. Basically it just means that the person that you are talking about is not the smartest person that you know. It’s used to insult their intelligence primarily. If you think about this expression quite literally, to be the brightest bulb in the box of light bulbs it would mean to shine brightly, to be very good at what you are doing. But to not be the brightest bulb, maybe it means you don’t do such a good job at what you are supposed to be doing. |
| In a sentence, let’s see… one of my friends, she is not the brightest bulb in the box. She makes some really strange decisions sometimes. |
| Next, a very similar phrase, “a few peas short of a casserole”. |
| This is very similar. I’ve never heard this one actually. This phrase is again to insult someone’s intelligence. If you are making food, if you are making a casserole, you need to use peas maybe depending on your recipe and if there aren’t enough peas, the casserole will not be very good maybe. So this means maybe somebody is missing the things that they need in their mind in order to do something correctly. |
| My friend, my other friend Stevens, that guy is a few peas short of a casserole. He should have done some things and he didn’t do. |
| Oh well, look at all of these. About as sharp as a marble. Well, that’s a good one. Only one oar in the water, ah my grandfather used to use that. I love that one. These are great. I got to remember some of these. Dumber than a bag of hammers, yeah. What do you mean? We are clever. Donated his brain to science before he was done with it. When do I stop? As quick as a snail crossing superglue. His cornbread isn’t down on the middle. Thanks! Oh! I went to the end, 2012! End. |
| If you use these, be very careful because if the other person can hear you, they will likely be very offended. Thanks very much for joining us this week and we’ll see you again next time, bye. |
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