Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

The pot calling the kettle black

created by Segnbora-t

(idea) by Segnbora-t (12 hr) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sat Jun 10 2000 at 19:15:14

An idiom meaning that the person who said something fits the description as well as the person they were speaking about. Presumably dates from a day when pots and kettles were made of cast iron, which turns black pretty quickly with use.

(idea) by dizzy (2.9 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sat Jun 10 2000 at 19:37:48

Also a source of a post-pub surrealism game. To play the game, get very drunk with a group of close friends. Then proceed to combine sayings and proverbs with drunken enthusiasm. The person who gets the best combo, wins and, um, is greatly admired for 30 seconds.

Some examples.

  • That's like the oven blacking the kettle while calling the pot "the".
  • A rolling kettle gathers no black pots.
  • Kettles maketh not the pot.
  • Too many pots spoil the kitchen.

printable version
chaos

Why do we think we can give a score to our happiness? self absorption Physician, heal thyself Noam Chomsky on Propaganda
Pat Robertson on the Terrorist Attack Gary Busey plankeye Raising the bar
idiom If it were a snake, it would have bit me The Pot and Kettle War Open Letter to Saddam Hussein
Maxim Cast iron pot Black Books
Falling in love with strangers Free Trade of Labor Kettle The Thin Blue Line
Notelet Nodelet Squawkbox Client kbd EIPT Yakov Smirnoff
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
After stirring Everything, these nodes rose to the top:
Emma Goldman
Dirt in my hair and toenails
Fuel rationing
colonial mentality
This freaking obsession with really abysmal porn
Lineage of Jesus
How to survive against humans
white tea
the book of clean white pages, a poem of self absorption
Lyme disease
Rulers of England
Mack the Knife
conference call etiquette
New Writeups
SwimmingMonkey
Conversations with Fo Fo- the Loneliest dog in Purgatory(fiction)
locke baron
lynx(thing)
Simulacron3
Reality, Dimensions and the Natural Ontology(essay)
SubSane
Making Love to a 9-Foot Woman(person)
Ouzo
Thoughts(idea)
antigravpussy
I fall silent, listening. The breadcrumbs are talking about us(person)
calgon
Buffalo Bill by the pool(poetry)
gate
Anarchy is Order(idea)
ushdfgakjasgh
Scribeling(thing)
XWiz
Trism(review)
artman2003
Briefcase Full of Souls - Part I(fiction)
Dreamvirus
Alan Ladd(person)
waverider37
Harold Holt(person)
The Debutante
Until death do us part(fiction)
Ysardo
a brother to a sister(personal)
Everything 2 is brought to you by the letter C and The Everything Development Company