Sayings or statements that don't make sense (1 Viewer)

Ever heard a saying or statement that really doesn't make much sense to you? I've also wondered how these sayings come about and the origins of it all?

• "That's the way the cookie crumbles"

Which way does a cookie crumble anyway? Is it always the same way a cookie suppose to crumble? What happens if a cookie doesn't crumble, what happens if it dissolves? I don't like cookies anyway but I do like lamingtons. Mmmmmmmm.... lamingtons...

• "As happy as Larry"

Larry, who the f#*k is Larry?


Can anyone think of anymore? Please add to the list.

Someone finds something after searching for a while, and comments that "it's always in the last place you look".

Well, of course it is, dumbass. Why would you continue looking after you found it?

I always felt "that's the way the cookie crumbles" to not be specific to how the cookie crumbles, but rather THAT it crumbles.

The idea of having something good (a sweet cookie) and how it can be fleeting (a cookie can crumble). If/when you have something good, and it crumbles (as it might be prone to do)- someone might say "that's the way the cookie crumbles)...

In other words, don't get too broken up over the loss of something, especially if it was in it's nature to collapse in the first place.

-Vince

Never heard that one. I have heard "As happy as a lark," but that doesn't make much sense either.

"Stop crying over spilled milk." (who would cry over this?)
"Don't tell Grandma how to suck eggs." (????)
"As the crow flies." (why a crow?)
"Neat as a pin." (??)
"He keeps coming back like a bad penny." (what makes a penny bad?)

That's the same person who hands you picture of himself "when I was younger."

I always thought the "way the cookie crumbles" referred to the random nature of things and that some things are utterly unpredictable. (In the sense that you cannot know exactly where the "fault lines" are in a cookie when it crumbles.)

Crows are rumered to always fly the most direct path (although I don't know if it's true or not).

Damn you, practical-reasoning-made-easy!!!...Damn you to hell!!! No, seriously, thank you D. Scott MacDonald for helping us to appreciate that things aren't always as stupid as they appear. If one is willing to search, there's an explanation for just about anything that we don't understand.

I understand the meaning behind the sayings, but don't understand why we need them (or why they were created in the first place).

Why not just say "don't worry over small things" rather than some folksy-cute slang like "don't cry over spilled milk"?

I'd think plain English works just fine over some non-sensical proverb.

"Stupid is as Stupid does"

Perhaps I'm too stupid to figure it out.

When little Forest was asked if he "was stupid" that was his reply. I never did quite understand that.

I bet that you and your friends make up your own vocabulary and sayings all of the time. I mean, why is there a term called "Toss the salad" when we could just as easily say "". It's just how humans work.

I forget what it's called, but there's a word that describes when a word is used and then is changed by people misspronouncing it.

This is also true with phrases: I'm not 100% positive, but I believe this is where the phrase "For Pete's Sake" comes from...

It was originally "For the sake of peace" - meaning, to make peaceful.
I believe people started shortening it by saying "For Peace Sake"
which was misheard and turned into "For Pete's Sake"


One of my favorites is "Letting the cat out of the bag". That one goes back to when farmers sold pigs. They'd put them in sacks and sell them. Sometimes (to make an easy buck), the farmer would put cats (which were more plentiful and cheap) in the bag and trick the people who bought them.

When the person would get home, they'd open the bag and the cat would come out, thus revealing the 'secret'. That's why we say that we let the cat out of the bag when a secret is revealed.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one.

Seriously, "That's the way the cookie crumbles" means "What will be, will be." meaning (as Vince explained) that you shouldn't worry about something that was meant to be.

I know I'm going to be laughed at for this, but here goes:



I don't even know where to begin.

I had trouble with "That's a no-brainer" the first few times I heard it. I couldn't tell if it meant something so simple that even a brainless dolt could make the right decision, or if it meant something so stupid that only a brainless dolt would be caught dead doing it.

It didn't help matters any that I first heard this phrase used by a brainless dolt:You see my dilema. It wasn't until I got sent on-site to fix everything that I realized "no-brainer" presumably meant the former.

Does the FCC now have jurisdiction over HTF?

What I want to know is who makes up these terms/phrases, and how do they become well-known enough to be self-sustaining?

"And Bob's your uncle"

Quite a popular one this side of the pond. It means to get a result (plug it in, switch it on and bob's your uncle). No idea who Bob is though or why I'd want him as an uncle.

Actually, thinking about it, I already DO have an uncle Bob.

Hey, and I am an Uncle Bob......and I like "look before you leap" always a good idea.