Line #266 Main/MixedMetaphor


1	[[quoteright:284:[[Webcomic/BasicInstructions https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mixed_8.png]]]]
2	->''"He was marooned in the jaws of a human minefield, and with every step the noose grew tighter."''
3	-->-- Sports columnist '''Jerry Izenberg''' in ''The Star-Ledger'' (of Newark, New Jersey), as quoted in the Literature/LyttleLyttonContest of 2007
4
5	A character, possibly but not necessarily a {{Malaproper}}, mixes two (or more!) metaphors, with generally humorous but sometimes creepy results. May lead to the original point being {{Metaphorgotten}}.
6
7	Another common component in BuffySpeak, although probably not as common as pure {{Metaphorgotten}}. Can be done intentionally for humorous effect.
8	----
9	!!Examples:
10
11	[[foldercontrol]]
12
13	[[folder:Anime]]
14	* The ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' art book ''Eve'' has this to say about Asuka (in Japanese using English(mixed)metaphors). "Asuka's pride is a double-edged SwordOfDamocles". Which actually sums things up pretty well.
15	* Minako Aino does this all the time in ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', much to Artemis' dismay.
16	* In the novels for ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', Gourry mixed three metaphors together, one of which was a bit of an anachronism.
17	--> '''Gourry''': "I know I'm not the smartest light bulb in the shed."
18	* ''Anime/TheTowerOfDruaga'', the captain of the army in one of the early episodes:
19	--> ''[[OtherStockPhrases Remember, there's no "I" in "win"!]]''
20	[[/folder]]
21
22	[[folder:Comic Books]]
23	* In a ''[[ComicBook/TheSimpsons Simpsons Comics]]'' {{Elseworld}} story, Homer was working for the Mafia, Comic Book Guy was the local don, and Lou and Eddie were his two flunkies. CBG assigned Homer to kill Milhouse, to which Homer remarked "Don't worry, boss. This little wiener is toast". CBG replied "Good. And please don't mix metaphors. You know it makes Lou nervous".
24	* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'':
25	** This exchange between a thug and [[Characters/BatmanThePenguin The Penguin]]:
26	---> '''Thug''': This is a crime family. A syndicate. You're the top dog on the pyramid and we're all the little fish on the bottom rung of the totem pole.
27	---> '''Penguin''': I understand your point, Marco. Despite the murder of several metaphors to get there.
28	** In another issue, one of his goons says, "You know what they say, a penguin never forgets."
29	* "''ComicBook/{{Cerebus\|TheAardvark}}'' has made his omelet and now he has to lie in it."
30	* ''ComicBook/XForce'', during the X-Statix run. "Who knows how long this gravy train is going to keep rolling? We have to make hay while the mixed metaphors last."
31	* From ''ComicBook/TheLosers'':
32	--> '''Clay''': Once we've got our foot in the door, we work our way up the food chain.
33	--> '''Pooch''': Metaphor never was your strong point, boss...
34	* P.I. Milo Garret from ''ComicBook/OneHundredBullets'' does this constantly:
35	-->'''Milo''': Sending Echo airborne took care of one a the two birds in my hand. I'd been pretty bush league about the other. Not that Megan Dietrich didn't deserve to have her feathers ruffled. After all, she had laid the golden egg that ended up on her face.
36	** From the same issue:
37	-->'''Milo''': The whole job was set up so that one hand wouldn't know what the other one was doing, and when I started stickin' my fingers where they didn't belong? Limp-wristed Karl was strong-armed into cutting them off.
38	* Melody from ''ComicBook/JosieAndThePussycats'' has a habit of this.
39	* Franchise/{{Tintin}}: In ''[[Recap/TintinExplorersOnTheMoon Explorers on the Moon]]'', Thompson and Thomson are walking around the surface of the Moon when they have this exchange:
40	-->'''Thomson:''' Just think of it, Thompson: we are walking on the Moon.
41	-->'''Thompson:''' Indeed, where no man's hand has ever set foot.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Fanfic]]
45	* The narrator to ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'' directly lampshades the fact that she often mixes up her metaphors.
46	* ''{{Fanfic/Hivefled}}'': Nepeta gives us the memorable "don’t be such sticks in the mud after the rain on the parade." Rose actually tells her it's a terrible habit, but in Nepeta's defence, she is an alien without much grasp on human culture.
47	* The author of ''Fanfic/InThisWorldAndTheNext'' is fond of both metaphors and run-on sentences, making this trope all but inevitable. A reference to "spring[ing] the rat trap" in the "snake's den" led one reviewer to reference Music/MitchBenn's "Devil and a Hard Place" (see below).
48	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12854254/1/Plastic-Love Plastic Love]]'' Harry is invited to a Veela ball due to his status as a potential mate. Hermione tries to talk him into going despite his total lack of interest.
49	-->'''Hermione:''' It's the principle of the thing. I know it's not your scene; I know you'll probably hate the whole thing, but that's no reason to burn bridges that could one day come back to bite you.
50	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12527436/33/Jamie-Potter-and-the-Arrogant-Warlock-s-Curse Jamie Potter and the Arrogant Warlock's Curse]]'' Lilith tries to use a glass of water to illustrate a point.
51	-->'''Lilith:''' Think of it like this... the water is your magic... you pour it out and use your will to shape it to do what you want, right? So what you want is to form it into a tube... like the one in the tire of your bicycle... where you can put more in using the valve stem... but instead of air you are pouring in magic...\
52	'''Hermione:''' Okay... but it would help if you stopped mixing your metaphors...
53	* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/6931618/chapters/15815188#workskin Luna Lovegood and the Wizard of the Island]]'':
54	-->'''Luna:''' So - grab the nettle by the horns and look the gift horse in the bum.
55	* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13142525/11/The-Seventh-Day-Seer The Seventh Day Seer]]'':
56	-->'''Harry:''' It's not greasy, you know.\
57	'''Snape:''' My hair? I am ''flattered'' that you imagined it would be.\
58	'''Harry:''' Oh, hush. I was trying to show you that my impressions of you as a child were, well, wrong. Ron and I used to go on about you, but everything I ever said about you then was so far off the mark, it wasn't even in the same building.\
59	'''Snape:''' I believe you have mixed your metaphors, so to speak.
60	* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13065793/8/Harry-Potter-and-the-Bodacious-Bodyguard Harry Potter and the Bodacious Bodyguard]]'':
61	-->'''Hermione:''' I'm not mad at you. You're just...\
62	'''Tonks:''' Upsetting the balance. You've always been the mother hen, and I'm usurping the crown.\
63	'''Hermione:''' You're ''really'' bad at metaphors.
64	* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2721625/37/Freedom-And-Not-Peace Freedom and Not Peace]]'':
65	-->'''Draco:''' We were talking about ''you'', too. Don't you get it, Harry? I'm better when you're around, at least when you're being honest with me, because then I can concentrate on your emotions. But when you're not, then I get bored. And Blaise was emoting all over the place. Did you really expect me to pass up an opportunity like that?\
66	'''Harry:''' Not yet. But having me around as a means of controlling your empathy is a crutch, Draco, one that we've got to wean you of.\
67	'''Draco:''' Now you're using mixed metaphors.
68	* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8233288/9/Faery-Heroes Faery Heroes]]'':
69	-->'''Luna:''' Okay, then Hermione, you don't have to take part in the fun. We'll just hold it as an IOU.\
70	'''Hermione:''' But I don't owe you anything!\
71	'''Luna:''' Yes you do; you owe me the laughter I'll get when you finally pull that stick out of the mud.\
72	'''Harry:''' Luna, I think you have your metaphors mixed up again. She is a "''stick in the mud''", and she needs to "''pull the stick out of her arse''".
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Film]]
76	* ''Film/{{Airplane}}'': "I guess the foot's on the other hand now!"
77	* ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar'': Henry Cravely tells Gust Avrokatos "We'll call it water under the dam and move on." While forcefully outlining the many, many other issues that Gust has with Cravely's speech, Cravely himself, the management of the [=CIA=], and so on, he adds "also, water goes over a dam and under a bridge, you poncy schoolboy."
78	* ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'': "Looks like the upper hand is on the other foot!"
79	* Similarly, from ''Film/TheNakedGun 2'': "Well, it looks like the cows have come home to roost!"
80	* ''Film/AustinPowers'': "But unfortunately for yours truly, that train had sailed."
81	* Mr. Furious from ''Film/MysteryMen'' does this a lot, often in conjunction with {{Metaphorgotten}}. "I don't need a compass to show me which way the wind shines."
82	* In ''Film/MasterAndCommander'', the entire final battle hinges on a tactical maneuver Captain Aubrey derives by completely mangling the notion of an insect that disguises itself as a stick to evade predators.
83	--> '''Captain Aubrey''': Now to pull this predator in close and spring our trap.\
84	'''Dr. Maturin''': Jack?\
85	'''Captain Aubrey''': Yes?\
86	'''Dr. Maturin''': You're the predator.
87	* Biff Tannen from the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy: "Make like a tree, and get out of here." Ironically, it was the 2015 Biff that corrects him, saying, "It's ''leave'', you idiot! "Make like a tree and ''leave''." You sound like a damn fool when you say that wrong."
88	** And BUFORD. Honestly:
89	--->'''Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen:''' ...I'm gonna hunt you down and shoot you down like a duck!\
90	'''Henchman:''' It's dog, Buford. Shoot him down like a dog.
91	* In ''Film/TheBoondockSaints,'' the bartender Doc is always doing this.
92	-->'''Doc:''' Well, you know what they say... people in glass houses sink sh-sh-ships.
93	-->'''Rocco:''' Hey, Doc, I've gotta buy you, like, a proverb book or something. This mix-and-match shit's gotta go.
94	** Eventually the other characters start making fun of him for it, saying things like: "A penny saved is worth two in the bush" and "And don't cross the road if you can't get out of the kitchen."
95	** Also:
96	--->'''Doc:''' Why don't you make like a tree and get the fuck out of here!
97	* The Dude from ''Film/TheBigLebowski'':
98	-->'''Jackie Treehorn:''' Refill?
99	-->'''The Dude:''' Does the pope shit in the woods?
100	* From ''Film/MarginCall'', on discovering an emergency:
101	--> '''John Tuld:''' But from what I've been told this matter needs to be dealt with urgently. So urgently in fact (it) probably should've been 'dressed weeks(!) ago but... that is spilt milk under the bridge.
102	* From ''Film/{{North}}:''
103	--> A bird in the hand is always greener than the grass under the other guy's bushes.
104	* Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}:''
105	-->'''Jiminy Cricket:''' You buttered your bread. Now sleep in it!
106	:: Interestingly, early on in the film's production, it was intended that this be Jiminy's main shtick. For example, he describes Honest John the Fox and Gideon the Cat as "a couple of ill winds in cheap clothing". In the final film, only the above line is spoken, and in its context, he says it in a state of anger and frustration.
107	* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'':
108	--> '''Sean:''' Ah ha. The shoe's on the other...
109	--> '''Amy:''' Foot?
110	--> '''Sean:''' ... table, which has turned.
111	* In ''[[Film/TheWholeNineYards The Whole Ten Yards]]'', Jimmy seems to merge two Biblical phrases into "Do unto others before you're turned into a pillar of salt". Of course, being a retired hitman, he has a slightly different understanding of "do unto others".
112	* In ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'', Breaker, a non-native speaker of English, tries to make a metaphor, is told they got it wrong, and corrects himself:
113	--> '''Breaker:''' Locating [=McCullen's=] base will be like finding a needle in a coal mine.\
114	'''Ripcord:''' Haystack.\
115	'''Breaker:''' Oh, right. Haystack in a coal mine.\
116	''[Ripcord looks at him]''
117	* ''Film/Robocop2'' has an example that doesn't even sound relevant to the current situation (kids wasting water):
118	-->'''[=RoboCop=]:''' A rolling stone is worth two in the bush.
119	* In ''Film/TheTrumanShow'', Truman locks the car with Meryl in it and says they should go to Fiji right now. "Let's go right now. Early bird gathers no moss. Rolling stone catches the worm, right?"
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	[[folder:Literature]]
123	* Philippa Gordon from the ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'' series does this in ''Anne of the Island'': in a letter to Anne:
124	** The mixing:
125	--->I have a huge pile of letters to answer, so I must gird up the loins of my mind and hoe in.
126	** Phil promptly {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s her error in the next sentences:
127	--->Excuse my mixed metaphors. I'm fearfully sleepy.
128	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat's Revenge'': Inskipp says they "must get a man to Cliaand to root out the problem at the core of the woodpile and cut the Gordian knot." Slippery Jim replies, "Other than being contained in a mixed and disgusting metaphor I think the idea is a suicidal one."
129	* Happens ''constantly'' in the ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' books. Usually in the form of Jack mixing a metaphor, Stephen "helpfully" correcting him, and Jack becoming even more confused. To wit...
130	-->'Why, as to that,' said Jack, blowing on his coffee-cup and staring out of the stern-window at the harbour, 'as to that ... if you do not choose to call him a [[BoringButPractical pragmatical clinchpoop]] and kick his breech, which you might think ungenteel, perhaps you could tell him to judge the pudding by its fruit.'\
131	'You mean, prove the tree by its eating.'\
132	'No, no, Stephen, you are quite out: eating a tree would prove nothing.'
133	* Used a lot in ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', primarily by Mustrum Ridcully and Nanny Ogg - example from the latter "The worm is on the other foot now!" (mixing 'the worm has turned' with 'the boot is on the other foot now').
134	** Granny Weatherwax ''tries'' to tell a joke (A man orders an alligator sandwich and says "Make it snappy!"), but she never quite gets the punchline right ("And make it fast!" "And it'd better be quick!" etc.).
135	** "The leopard never changes his shorts" (supposed to be "spots") started with Nanny Ogg, but [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike others started saying it]] even if they'd never met her, including Glenda in ''Literature/UnseenAcademicals''.
136	* The troll Ed in the book ''Literature/OnceUponAMarigold'' is fond of mixed metaphors, such as "Let's get this show on the ball" and "He'd buttered his bread, and now he had to lie in it."
137	* In Creator/StephenColbert's book ''Literature/IAmAmericaAndSoCanYou'', the character admits that he's "not the smartest knife in the spoon."
138	* This is one of the things that George Orwell criticizes in his famous essay "Politics and the English Language." His most famous example (presumably made up) is ''The fascist octopus has sung his swan song''.
139	* Creator/DaveBarry likes to mix his metaphors. One impressive example: ''Literature/DaveBarrySleptHere'' describes the Great Crash of 1929 as the day when "the nation's seemingly prosperous economy was revealed to be merely a paper tiger with feet of clay living in a straw house of cards that had cried 'wolf' once too often."
140	* Nicholas Van Rijn of Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/PolesotechnicLeague'' stories, along with [[{{Malaproper}} malapropisms]], often mixed metaphors. Particularly appealing was his reference to forcefully seeking something he wanted "like a bulldozer going after a cowdozer."
141	* Lampshaded in ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency'', after Michael Wenton-Weakes's mother is described as a battle-axe: "She had been waiting patiently -- or at least with the appearance of patience -- in the wings all this time, being the devoted wife, the doting but strict mother. Now someone had taken her -- to switch metaphors for a moment -- out of her scabbard and everyone was running for cover."
142	* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', the spymaster Varys is known as the Spider, but his spies are called his "little birds."
143	* In ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, the metaphors "the witch is dead" and "the fat lady sings" have somehow been merged into "the witch sings". While the novels take place in the distant future, the merging has only happened a few decades before the events, as evidenced by Geary's surprise. Having been stuck as a HumanPopsicle for the last 100 years, he tries to explain that the two metaphors used to be different, only for his officers to start throwing wild guesses as to why the fat witch might be singing because she's dead. The exasperated Geary tries to explain that the two sayings have nothing to do with one another, then gives up.
144	** Later, someone mentions the old "Catch 42". Obviously a mix of [[Literature/CatchTwentyTwo Catch-22]] and [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy the Ultimate Answer]]. Except the new saying goes "the meaning of life is that, in the end, you always get screwed".
145	* ''Literature/HelpMyStoryHasTheMarySueDisease'' has three overarching metaphors - Mary-Sues as a disease in a story, Good and Bad Eggs for character quality, and Suspension of Disbelief as architecture. These get ...interesting when combined.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
149	* This happens in the episode "Business Trip" of ''Series/{{Workaholics}}'' with neither Ders nor Adam and Blake understanding Ders' point.
150	-->'''Ders:''' Guys, come on! I'm like Steve Martin in that John Candy movie.\
151	'''Adam:''' I thought you wanted to be like Steve Jobs and do a bunch of acid with us.\
152	'''Ders:''' Steve Jobs, right? Created Apple. Great company. But then he left and created Pixar, which is way better, then he came back to Apple, made that way better. We got iPads, iPhones, all sorts of stuff. Let me go create my Pixar. Then I'll come back and we'll drop iPhones, okay?\
153	'''Adam:''' I have no idea what any of that stuff meant. Am I Pixar?
154	* The Mayor on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "This year is too important to let a loose cannon rock the boat. Loose cannon. Rock the boat. Is that a mixed metaphor? Boats did have cannons. And a loose one would cause it to rock."
155	* Common on ''Series/YesMinister'', with Bernard usually lampshading them:
156	-->'''Jim Hacker''': If I can pull this off, it will be a feather in my cap.
157	-->'''Bernard''': If you pull it off, it won't be in your cap any more.
158	** There was a clusterbomb of mixed metaphors in episode 4 of season 2:
159	-->'''Sir Desmond''': If you spill the beans, you open up a whole can of worms. How can you let sleeping dogs lie, if you let the cat out of the bag? Bring in a new broom, and if you're not careful, you'll find you've thrown the baby out with the bath water. If you change horses in the middle of the stream, next thing you know you're up the creek without a paddle.
160	-->'''Jim Hacker''': And then the balloon goes up.\
161	'''Sir Desmond''': Obviously.
162	** And from the sequel, ''Yes, Prime Minister'':
163	-->'''Jim Hacker''': "So they insult me and then expect me to give them more money?"
164	-->'''Sir Humphrey''': "Yes, I must say it's a rather undignified posture. But it is what artists always do: crawling towards the government on their knees, shaking their fists."
165	-->'''Jim Hacker''': "Beating me over the head with their begging bowls."
166	-->'''Bernard Woolley''': "Oh, I am sorry to be pedantic, Prime Minister, but they can't beat you over the head if they're on their knees. Unless of course they've got very long arms."
167	** One in which Bernard goes to a lot of trouble to point out the implausibilities of the metaphor:
168	-->'''Jim Hacker''': Furthermore, Sir Mark thinks there may be votes in it, and if so, I don't intend to look a gift horse in the mouth.
169	-->'''Sir Humphrey''': I put it to you, you are looking at a Trojan Horse in the mouth.
170	-->'''Jim Hacker''': You mean, if I looked inside the Trojan Horse, I would find Trojans inside?
171	-->'''Bernard Woolley''': If you had looked inside the Trojan Horse, you would have found Greeks inside.
172	-->'''Jim Hacker''': What do you mean, Bernard?
173	-->'''Bernard Woolley''': Well, the Greeks gave the Trojan Horse to the Trojans, so technically, it wasn't a Trojan Horse at all, it was a Greek Horse. Hence the phrase timeo Danaos et dona ferentes which as you would recall, is usually and inaccurately translated as Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. [[TakeThat Or doubtless, you would have recalled, had you not attended the LSE.]]
174	-->'''Jim Hacker''': I suppose Greek tags are all right in their own way, but can we stick to the point, please?
175	-->'''Bernard Woolley''': Greek tags, minister?
176	-->'''Jim Hacker''': Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I suppose the EEC equivalent would be Beware of Greeks bearing an olive oil surplus!!
177	-->'''Sir Humphrey''': Excellent, Minister!
178	-->'''Bernard Woolley''': Um, just as the Trojan Horse was in fact Greek, what you described as a Greek tag is in fact Latin. It's obvious, really: the Greeks wouldn't suggest bewaring of themselves, if we could use such a participle, bewaring, that is. And it's clearly Latin, not because timeo ends in -o, because the Greek first person also ends in -o. Although, there is a Greek word τιμαω, which means 'I honour'. [[OverlyLongGag And the -os ending is the singular nominative termination of the second declension in Greek, while it is the accusative plural in Latin. And 'Danaos' is not only the Greek for Greek, its also the Latin for Greek, it's quite interesting really... ]]
179	* ''Series/{{Life on Mars\|2006}}'':
180	-->'''Gene''': Look, when a big shark disappears from the scene, smaller fish want to climb the ladder.
181	-->'''Sam''': You're using mixed metaphors
182	-->'''Gene''': Right, whatever, the smaller fish want to enter the hunting grounds.
183	* After [[spoiler:Chris']] death in the sixth season of ''Series/TheSopranos'', Tony has to dispel a rumor that ''he'' killed him ([[spoiler:he did so as a mercy killing after a car crash]]). He starts off by saying, "Okay, we gotta deal with the 500-pound [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom elephant in the room]]..."
184	* Nina from ''Series/JustShootMe'': "A bird in the hand is worth two if by sea" and "Denial is not just a river in England."
185	* Magda from Brazilian sitcom ''Sai de Baixo'', being from the [[TheDitz ditzy]] kind of stupid, has some of these such as "Who plants the wind, reaps blood, sweat and beers" and "everyone in life must plant a son, have a book and write a tree!".
186	* Kelly Bundy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' is chock full of these, being TheBrainlessBeauty of her family. [[http://www.bundyology.com/kellyisms.html This site]] has a near-complete list of them.
187	* Cyril Bryson on ''Series/Chef1993'' "This is the eye of the needle that breaks the camel's back!"
188	* The Seventh Doctor on ''Series/DoctorWho'' started out doing this a lot. "A bird in the hand keep the doctor away." "A memory like a kangaroo." "Time and tides melt the snowman." It was initially intended to be a consistent quirk but, after he'd come to grips with himself, he (or rather, the writers) grew out of it.
189	** People forget that the Fourth Doctor did it too (just never in such a high concentration). "While there's life, there's six of one, half a dozen of the other."
190	* Michael Scott of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' does this just about OncePerEpisode.
191	-->"Ryan is now at corporate where he is a little fish in a big pond. Here, I am still top dog. So which is better... being a dog, or a fish?"
192	* Serena on ''Series/GossipGirl'' talks about how her mother ''adapts'' to each new husband:
193	-->'''Serena''': The second he starts to call the shots these gloves come off and the nails come out. I just mixed metaphors, didn't I?
194	* One of Series/ElChapulinColorado's trademark gags: every time he tries to cite a famous saying he gets it mixed with another one, tries again and ends up mixing them up in a different way, then he goes on a tangent trying to link both of them and ends up saying "...Well, you get the idea."
195	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d on ''Series/MadMen'' when Bert Cooper calls Don in to tell him they can't fire Pete Campbell because his family is too old and important. He starts off about how New York City is like a fine watch full of tiny, precise parts and always ticking away. Don says it sounds more like a bomb. Cooper says that if they fire Pete word will get around to the Dykeman-Campbells' million connections around the city and the agency will lose some of its establishment cred, and when Don objects to this kind of nepotism, Cooper tells him, "You'll have to have a stronger stomach if you want to be back in the kitchen seeing how the sausage is made." Don, after a beat: "I thought it was a big watch."
196	* Something Inspector Grim is good at in ''Series/TheThinBlueLine''. For example in the episode "Night Shift", he informs everyone that he is looking for:
197	-->A fat cat, spinning his web with his tentacles in every pie.
198	* Shawn Micallef does this in ''Series/TalkinBoutYourGeneration'': "And next up, something that will literally blow the socks off your mind."
199	* On ''Series/TrueBlood'' Jason is famous for these "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, it's still a tree isn't it!"
200	* On ''Series/PeepShow'', Jez discovers that his bisexual girlfriend Elena already has a girlfriend named Gail, but (initially) thinks that sharing Elena will work out: "Me and this Gail, we're just eating from different sides of the plate. I play woodwind, she's on brass."
201	* Emerson Cod from ''Series/PushingDaisies'' was prone to these.
202	* ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'': "We're as thick as two thieves in a pod."
203	* On ''Series/FreshMeat'', when the housemates are chewing out Josie for hiding the fact that she got their stuff stolen, Vod tells them that they need to lay off:
204	-->'''Vod''': Don't cast the first stone at the fucking kettle black.
205	* In ''Series/FatherTed'', Ted tells Dick Byrne, "Go and count your sour grapes before they hatch."
206	* On ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'' the principal Dr. Samuels was occasionally prone to these.
207	** In one episode he referred to teens in school as "a bubbling cauldron of raw human emotion." Charlie calls him on it: "Wouldn't that be ''cooked'' human emotion?"
208	** In another he says he can smell trouble, "It's like a sixth sense." Charlie: "No, that would be one of the five."
209	* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', when George's coworkers find out that he's been [[ObfuscatingDisability faking a disability]], but he has a one-year contract and refuses to resign:
210	-->'''George:''' ... They've downgraded me to some sort of a bunker. I'm like Hitler's last days here.
211	-->'''Jerry:''' So you're gonna leave?
212	-->'''George:''' Oh no! I'm invigorated! Haha, they'll never get me out. I'm like a weed, Jerry.
213	-->'''Jerry:''' I thought you're like Hitler in the bunker.
214	-->'''George:''' [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs ...I'm a weed in Hitler's bunker]].
215	* At one point on ''Series/ILoveLucy'', Ethel came over and accidentally blabbed some info to Ricky that Lucy didn't want her telling. Lucy was upset, but Ricky welcomed Ethel to come over at any time and "spill the beans out of the cat-bag." Lucy then had to correct him saying that it was either "spill the beans" or "let the cat out of the bag." Justified here since English isn't Ricky's first language.
216	[[/folder]]
217
218	[[folder:Magazines]]
219	* ''Magazine/TheNewYorker'' often fills up extra space at the end of an article with a short excerpt from another publication, filed under "Block That Metaphor!" if it fits this trope. ("The moment that you walk into the bowels of the armpit of the cesspool of crime, you immediately cringe.")
220	* Mixed metaphors are one of the richest veins for the sports-commentator gaffes that ''Magazine/PrivateEye'' refers to as "Colemanballs".
221	[[/folder]]
222
223	[[folder:Music]]
224	* A well-known example is Music/TaylorSwift's "Love Story", which randomly adds a reference to ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'' in an otherwise ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''-themed song. She does it again in "Sparks Fly", whose first line is "The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm / And I'm a house of cards".
225	* This was part of what made Music/EltonJohn's Princess Diana version of "Candle in the Wind" so notorious. She's a candle, but she's also a rose and a golden child, capable of leaving footprints on England's green hills, plus equipped with wings of compassion. Cause of death was wind, rain, and/or the fading of the sunset.
226	* Music/KathyMattea's "Clown in Your Rodeo" completely derails its rodeo metaphors in the second verse:
227	-->Hand me my feather duster
228	-->I'm cleaning house out of the gate
229	-->Before my heart starts caving in
230	* Music/KennyChesney's "Better as a Memory" has a verse that starts out with "Goodbyes are like a roulette wheel" and ends with "You're left holding a losing hand". What version of roulette uses cards?!
231	* Music/MartinaMcBride's "Ride" has "Life is a roller coaster ride / Time turns the wheel and love collides." Wait, what?
232	* The second and third verses of "Run-Around" by Music/BluesTraveler are constant strings of these.
233	* "Suspended in Gaffa" by Music/KateBush has a biblical version: "There's a plank in my eye/with a camel/that's trying to get through it"
234	* Music/{{Madonna}}'s "I'll Remember" gives us this confusing verse implying among other things that children have wings:
235	-->Inside, I was a child that could not mend a broken wing
236	-->Outside, I looked for a way to teach my heart to sing
237	* In Music/RandyNewman's "The World Isn't Fair," he opines that "If Marx were living today/He'd be rolling around in his grave."
238	[[/folder]]
239
240	[[folder:Radio]]
241	* Inspired a song by Music/MitchBenn on ''Radio/TheNowShow'' after he heard a spokesman described global warming by saying the world was "standing on the precipice of a runaway train". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sxgxZQ95ts Listen to it here.]]
242	-->And now I've got a snowball's chance in a handcart
243	-->And it's a different kettle of ball games...
244	* In an episode of ''Unnatural Acts'', Jeremy takes various mixed medicines, [[IntoxicationEnsues with predictably spaced-out results.]] His speech pattern changes to reflect this, with mixed metaphors being one of the symptoms.
245	-->'''Jeremy:''' Blast! I knew I shouldn't have tried to rub elbows with the small potatoes when I should be chewing the cud with the big fish!
246	* In ''Radio/HamishAndDougal'', Dougal taunts the Laird with "Hah! So you don't like it when the boots are down and the chips are on the other foot!"
247	* In ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue'', Humphrey Lyttelton introduces a round with the statement "Now, there's nothing worse than badly written English to really make my goat boil."
248	[[/folder]]
249
250	[[folder:Stand-up Comedy]]
251	* Mae Martin, as a lesbian in a relationship, often finds herself asked "which one of you is the man". She compares this to asking a vegetarian "which part of your salad is the pork chop" and decides the answer is "every vegetable wears a strap-on".
252	[[/folder]]
253
254	[[folder:Theater]]
255	* OlderThanSteam: ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'': "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?" Apparently, Creator/WilliamShakespeare was [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples notorious for this.]] Then again, Hamlet was probably Schizophrenic.
256	* While not necessarily in the original script, E. A. Sothern's then-famous portrayal of Lord Dundreary in OurAmericanCousin became notorious for them, which for a while were even known as "Dundrearyisms."
257	--> '''Dundreary:''' Birds of a feather... gather no moss!"
258	[[/folder]]
259
260	[[folder:TV Tropes]]
261	* All-Devouring Black Hole LoanShark, the former trope title. Sharks and black holes both have a well-deserved reputation for devouring and destruction--but surely they don't have anything else in common. Perhaps this status as a mixed metaphor is one reason why the "all-devouring black hole" part is now a mere alternate title for the trope, but it could be argued that this makes the trope more fun since comparing anything to a black hole is a very [[HypocriticalHumor colorful metaphor.]] This then also applies to ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'', the {{Trope Namer\|s}}.
262	* ThisAintRocketSurgery is the exact trope name for both phrases it references.
263	[[/folder]]
264
265	[[folder:Video Games]]
266	* In a random conversation in ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'', Pit may say "A bird in the hand keeps the doctor away?" and "The squeaky wheel gets the worm!"
267	* Sensei in ''VideoGame/INinja'' gives you random sayings at the beginning of each new hub world. "A rolling stone is worth two.... in the bush!"
268	* In ''VideoGame/EternalSonata'', Allegretto comes up with "You know what they say, 'If you don't go into the lion's den, you can't count your chickens'," which results in the blowing wind variant of ChirpingCrickets and Viola to tell him flat-out "That doesn't make any sense."
269	* ''Franchise/SlyCooper'': About the only way to describe Dimitri's speech habits. Although at times its hard to tell what the original metaphors were, they're so badly mangled.
270	-->"I'm sure two cats in a bag like us can work something out... What is this with clocks, bro? Have you no vision? Are you hearing what I beam to you? You think you have juice? Don't show me a little mind when talking about such big things. You think you can swing the bat? Show your bling and let me shine you!"
271	* ''VideoGame/SunsetOverdrive'': Smartphone #38 ends with one about digging up secrets to try and cure a deadly illness:
272	--> '''Ariana (Cinder):''' Brilliant. Dig enough and you're in a hole.\
273	'''Zander:''' If I don't dig at all, everyone's six feet under.\
274	'''Ariana:''' All right, I'm stopping before this metaphor gets out of hand.
275	* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', CJ repeatedly responds to Cesar Vialpando's questions about his interest in making money through street racing by asking [[IsTheAnswerToThisQuestionYes "Does the Pope shit in the woods?"]] This obviously confuses Cesar.
276	-->'''Cesar:''' Why you keep asking me that, homes? I told you, I dunno. Where his Holiness does his business, ''is'' his business.
277	[[/folder]]
278
279	[[folder:Webcomics]]
280	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
281	-->'''Haley Starshine:''' If you want to pull the strings, you've got to pay the piper!
282	* ''Webcomic/{{Pibgorn}}'': [[http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2009/04/09/ But that would be mixing metaphors and Nat Bustard doesn't mix metaphors for anybody.]]
283	* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' has many examples, but the most self aware would be the incredible quote: "So many irons in the fire. Such a tangled web. It is a web full of flaming irons and mixed metaphors."
284	* ''Webcomic/BasicInstructions'': [[http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2012/1/8/how-to-accept-forgiveness.html You're a pig, cause you squealed, like a rat!"]]
285	* In ''Webcomic/NoRestForTheWicked'', [[http://www.forthewicked.net/archive/04i-05.html mixing metaphors]] revolts [[PrinceCharmless Prince Ricardo]].
286	* ''Webcomic/{{Paranatural}}'':
287	** Max [[http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-18 here]]:
288	--->'''Max:''' Is that why you participate in keeping secrets from Isaac?\
289	'''Isabel:''' Max, that's a whole can of worms.\
290	'''Max:''' Hey. I'm fishing for information. Open that can I need those worms
291	** On [[http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-6-page-45 this page]], Professor Bigfoot mixes various sheep/dog/wolf-related sayings including "crying wolf", "lambs to the slaughter", "AWolfInSheepsClothing", and "lone wolf".
292	[[/folder]]
293
294	[[folder:Web Original]]
295	* Ross O'Donovan, AKA "[=RubberNinja=]", has a tendency to do this quite often on ''WebVideo/SteamTrain''. Notable "Rossisms" include:
296	--> It's like listening to a mirror.
297	--> Don't count your chickens before they egg.
298	--> That train has sailed.
299	* Greg Haiste's character on ''Podcast/TheJohnDredgeNothingToDoWithAnythingShow'' is prone to do this:
300	--> '''Greg''': I don't want to blow my own xylophone…
301	* From ''Podcast/FatFrenchAndFabulous'': "Cool your tits."
302	* The ''WebAnimation/HowItShouldHaveEnded'' video for ''Film/{{Venom\|2018}}'' is full of this, with lines like "Do not beat a dead gift horse in the mouth" and "This is not Rocket Surgery".
303	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in the ''WebVideo/ContraPoints'' video "Canceling", where Natalie Wynne discusses the risks of relying on emotional support from strangers online and ends up using the expressions "sink or swim" and "trial by fire" in the same sentence:
304	-->'''Natalie:''' ...Are we swimming through fire or are we mixing metaphors?
305	* ''WebVideo/Gamechamp300'' [[https://youtu.be/4ylEp-uu3EU?t=320 "VG Myths - Can You Beat Pokemon Without Getting Hit?"]]:
306	--> The more times we roll the dice, the more likely it is to come up tails, at least once.
307	[[/folder]]
308
309	[[folder:Western Animation]]
310	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
311	** Zapp Brannigan: "Once we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."
312	** Also from "Future Stock".
313	--->'''That Guy:''' [[ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld There are two kinds of people]] - sheep and sharks.... I am proud to be the shepherd of this herd of sharks.
314	* Abe Lincoln on ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' had a few.
315	** Combining this trope with DoubleEntendre:
316	--->'''Abe:''' It's everything I've been wadding up in the sad chamber of my heart, and now I'm shooting that wad. Thirty-five millimeter.
317	** Also:
318	--->'''Abe:''' You sold us all a bill of goods, and those goods turned out to be bad. Then you sold me up the river.\
319	'''Joan:''' That may be, but I sent you up that river with my heart as a paddle!\
320	'''Abe:''' But you took that paddle and smacked me in the face, and I wear my heart on my sleeve, so when I wiped my face, I got heart all over it.
321	* In ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld1991'', there's this classic courtesy of Mama Luigi:
322	-->"Well like they say in Brooklyn, early to bed early to catch the worm... or is it the bagel?"
323	* From ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'' "The Dentist,":
324	-->'''Dan:''' [The dentist]'s a long term strategist! He's playing fourth-dimensional chess, and we're his ball of string!\
325	'''Chris:''' I think you're mixing up games.\
326	'''Dan:''' Go fish! I'm in horrible pain!
327	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
328	** In "Take My Wife, Sleaze":
329	--->'''Homer:''' They ran away like schoolgirls with their tails between their legs!
330	** From "Much Apu About Nothing": "These people are the glue that holds together the gears of our society."
331	** In "The Trouble With Trillions", while reporting the midnight rush for mailing taxes, Kent Brockman says "It's literally the eleventh hour: 10 PM!".
332	* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', from "Kevin Party":
333	-->'''Steven:''' Nice [[TalkAboutTheWeather weather]] you're wearing.\
334	'''Connie:''' Uh... I got your texts.
335	* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'': Rath's food is accidentally blown away by Octagon Vreedle, prompting Rath to say "A man's food is his castle!" (Octagon calls him out on it, using the page title).
336	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Chalkzone}}'':
337	-->'''Rudy:''' Don't be such a wet party blanket.\
338	'''Penny:''' Do you mean party pooper or wet blanket?\
339	'''Rudy:''' Both.
340	* Rick in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' does this a lot.
341	-->"Don't jump a gift shark in the mouth, Beth."
342	* In the ''WesternAnimation/PorkyPig'' cartoon, "Porky's Bear Facts", which serves as a Grasshopper and the Ant retelling, Porky spends all summer working his butt off on the farm as his lazy neighbor lounges around. Come winter, Porky's neighbor is left starving, and when he see's Porky has plenty of food, decides to invite himself over for dinner. Porky slams the door in his face and delivers a quote identical to the Jiminy Cricket example above.
343	-->'''Porky:''' You b-b-b-buttered your bread, now sleep in it!
344	* In the ''WesternAnimation/SnooperAndBlabber'' cartoon "The Lion is Busy," the two detectives chase escaped lion Snagglepuss (early version) into an adventurers club. Snooper exclaims "We've got him in the Daniel's den!"
345	[[/folder]]
346
347	[[folder:Real Life]]
348	* There is a famous quote from the time of king Louis-Philippe of France: "Le char de l'État navigue sur un volcan!" (The chariot of the State is sailing on a volcano!) Chariots can't sail, especially on volcanoes...
349	* A few years ago, this quote from a participant in a symposium about AIDS: "We are sitting on a volcano and running toward disaster!" Here, the translator may be to blame. Or else they were doing ThatRussianSquatDance... towards something that's somehow ''more'' dangerous than a volcano.
350	* From a Creator/NewtGingrich press release:
351	-->The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.
352	* In his book ''The Better Angels of Our Nature'', Stephen Pinker uses this trope intentionally when he comments that the European colonization-era condemnation of the "savagery" of Native American warfare "looks like a black pot in a glass house casting the first stone".
353	* It is becoming common for people to deliberately use the mixed metaphor "Not the sharpest candle in the deck" to describe low intelligence, a combination of three common metaphors with three parts to them - sometimes used in literature to show somebody is [[HypocriticalHumor not much smarter than the person they refer to.]] There's also "A few sandwiches short of a jumper" and "it's not rocket surgery," a portmanteau of "rocket science" and "brain surgery."
354	* A period of high geo-political tension without direct military confrontation is referred to as a "Cold War", while a detente is referred to as a "thaw". But since the term "Cold War" is used to contrast it with a traditional "Hot War" (what we would normally refer to simply as a "war") logically a "thaw" should be the exact opposite.
355	[[/folder]]
356

Context Main / MixedMetaphor