Combining Metaphors

As my 10 yo daughter’s grammar book said, a metaphor is a figure of speech that describes something via a comparison that isn’t literally true e.g. “The world is your oyster” and “All the world is a stage”.

 

If you combine multiple metaphors in a train of thought, it can be illuminating. Or funny. Or both. Like:

“When you open that Pandora’s box, you will find it full of Trojan horses.”

Or this line from the serial Futurama:

“If we can hit that bull’s-eye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards.”

Or the time an Irish parliamentarian said:

“Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat. I see him floating in the air. But mark me, sir, I will nip him in the bud.”

We don’t nit-pick about the weirdness of such combined metaphors – they’re just too funny.

 

Funnily though, in the British comedies, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, Bernard Woolley did nit-pick, and yet one doesn’t feel put off by what he points out. In fact, it adds to the humour.

'This needs a sledgehammer,' I declared. 'We must cut through the red tape.' Bloody Bernard piped up again. 'You can't cut tape with a sledgehammer, it would just...' and then he made a sort of squashing gesture.

One time, Bernard even corrects his own boss on such matters:

Sir Humphrey: I implore you to stay out of the minefield of local government. It is a political graveyard.

Bernard: Actually, Sir Humphrey, you can't have a graveyard in a minefield because all the corpses would...' and he made a vague explosion gesture.

 

In the same series, the award for the longest stream of combined metaphors probably goes to Sir Desmond who said:

“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.”

 

Of course, it’s easy to mix up the metaphors in ways that don’t make any sense, even creates contradictions. Which is probably why this website warns:

“Keep an eye on your metaphors and an ear to the ground so that you don't end up with your foot in your mouth.”