[Ads-l] "A village is missing its idiot."

[Stephen Goranson]

According to proquest:
"STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES: But since the word "stupid" sometimes seems
woefully inadequate, here are a few more colorful phrases to describe your
favorite goofballs:

He's sharp as a thimble.

He's about as deep as a saucer of milk.

Somewhere, a *village* *is* *missing* *its* *idiot*.

He's as bright as Alaska in December.

It takes him 90 minutes to watch "60 Minutes."

He got into the gene pool when the lifeguard wasn't watching."
BLATHER 22Mar, 1999BLATHER
1999 Mar 22The Gazette
<https://www.proquest.com/docview/268159845/107363C3650A40A8PQ/1?accountid=10598&sourcetype=Newspapers#>
; Colorado Springs, Colo.. Mar 221999, 22 Mar

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 9:32 AM Geoffrey Nathan <
00001a558db4a26e-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I know this is not data but anecdote, but I'm sure I remember my father
> saying this in a family gathering that could not have been later than the
> nineteen eighties. Google Ngram viewer, strangely, finds no instances.
> I admit I haven't searched our own archives, FWIW.
>
> Geoff
>
>
> Geoffrey S. Nathan
> WSU Information Privacy Officer (Retired)
> Emeritus Professor, Linguistics Program
> https://clasprofiles.wayne.edu/profile/an6993
>
> geoffnathan at wayne.edu
>
> Nobody at Wayne State will EVER ask you for your password. Never send it
> to anyone in an email, no matter how authentic the email looks.
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2026 7:22 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "A village is missing its idiot."
>
> [EXTERNAL]
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "A village is missing its idiot."
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Heard a number of times.
>
> 2000 _Independent_(London) (Aug. 28) 2: A village is missing its
> idiot....[O]ffice e-mail jokes...."This employee is depriving a village
> somewhere of its idiot."
>
> 2001 _News_ (Stuart, Fla.) (Apr. 21) D1: Which village is missing its
> idiot?
>
> Etc., etc.
>
> JL
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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