if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull
if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull
In lieu of concrete facts or exceptional wit, you can convince people with artful, flowery, or misleading speech. ("Bull" is a slang term meaning something utterly untrue or wildly exaggerated, short for the rude term "bullshit." ) The phrase is popularly attributed to actor W.C. Fields. My dad loved telling the most ridiculous tall tales. His real life had always been pretty unremarkable, so he adopted the motto, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull."
See also: bull, dazzle, if
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
- dazzle
- (as) artful as a wagonload of monkeys
- artful
- as artful as a wagonload of monkeys
- wagonload
- carpe diem
- in lieu
- in lieu of
- in lieu of (something)
- lieu