Weekly English Words with Alisha Discrete Insults
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,
I mentioned 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.