Knuckleheads: No-brainer insult

knucklehead, n, • mildly offens. a stupid person. One lacking good sense, intelligence or the ability to formulate sound strategies.

USAGE: "Londoners are disgusted that they're going to be inconvenienced because a knucklehead management at London Underground are not prepared to go to arbitration." (24/09/02) London Mayor Ken Livingstone on the impasse surrounding the fourth Tube strike in 18 months.

NOTE: "knucklehead" originated in the US - just like Mayor Livingstone's transport guru Bob Kiley. The mayor first called Tube bosses "dullards" and "knuckleheaded" in 2001 when trying to replace them with the American.

FORMALISED: originally street slang with lovable overtones (the Three Stooges were famously "knuckleheads"), it is increasingly being used in political rhetoric and to convey more serious criticism in cases where an expletive cannot be used.

EXAMPLE 1: USAGE 2: "There always is going to be a knucklehead out there who will make a decision based on race or gender." Gerald A Reynolds, US Department of Education's assistant secretary for civil rights.

EXAMPLE 2: "You'll have to sit there for seven days with all of the other knuckleheads up there, see what it's like. It's not a great place." Cincinnati Judge Robert Ruehlman sentencing juror Christine Fiorini for going on holiday during a murder case.

EXAMPLE 3:"We've got a knucklehead on our hands." Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent Rich Marianos on the person who has placed more than 15 pipe bombs in mailboxes across the American west. ALTERNATIVE: precede the word "head" with any term suggesting dense matter eg.bonehead, blockhead, hammerhead.

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