Three Straight Men

[00:00] everything about what a cross I'm embraced that I said you know what look
[00:03] I'm just gonna go ahead and cheat so I'm the smartest person through because
[00:08] that's what everybody expects out of this I'm just a person your brains and
[00:14] the bra and the and the beauty mm-hmm yeah and that and that's actually a
[00:22] radio voice she's got all the people's basically why are you guys are maybe why
[00:32] are the rest of you here you're so good you need three straight men I need three
[00:46] fluffers yeah all right so so we've been talking about our friend Kyrie Irving
[00:55] right in my brain I was thinking about him and he's too smart for his own good
[01:06] just like just like John Paulson which led me to the phrase too clever by half
[01:12] yeah under Google rules that was the play of super excited told us we had to
[01:31] so we said we signed up for it in the end it's gonna be better and more true than
[01:40] Google can give you what a I am not smart enough to know even what that phrase
[01:46] means let alone where it comes from too clever by half what are you guys
[01:51] heard this joke I think I've heard I think it means like does it mean too
[02:00] clever but then it didn't go well yeah is that right I mean my interpretation is
[02:08] something akin to too smart for their own good yeah it's almost like an
[02:15] overshoot it's like you were there and then like you got cute about it like you
[02:32] kind of had it and then like yeah you just over extrapolated yeah like the
[02:38] the level of cleverness would have been you know should have been 100% and that
[02:45] would have done it correctly yeah and you can't go to 150% everybody knows you can
[02:51] only go to 104 that's right so yeah I mean that's kind of what I think is okay
[02:58] okay to make sense me so so where do we think that came from and where when did
[03:06] people start using this and specifically like why I have you know why isn't it
[03:10] right five you know too clever by a quarter right I mean it's not imperial
[03:19] so I'm feeling that trick okay I'm going I mean I'm big on like numbers okay oh you
[03:35] know like letters numbers like he was more of a variable I mean yeah well no
[03:40] okay okay no you're right you're I'm gonna go I'm gonna see squared two it's a
[03:47] number I'm gonna go with a barista cuz they're gonna ask you whether you want
[03:54] half and half okay country of origin Norway okay no
[04:03] it's called a lot of cows a lot of coffee for half and half I think you're too
[04:10] clever by by negative half yeah I mean it's definitely like a sweet turner phrase
[04:19] like I just instinctually have always liked it as yeah it's very clear yeah so
[04:25] like somebody like a really good playwright come up with this shit or
[04:30] author or something okay right okay I like that idea so I'm gonna go
[04:39] ancient Greece I'm on air stuff it's hard on your stuff all right I'm gonna go I'm
[04:47] gonna go with a sitcom writer I think it's very recent very recent yeah and I
[04:57] think it was like like let's say I'm not a Lucille ball although did she
[05:04] actually write yeah yeah she wrote yeah she wrote produced and acted she did
[05:09] everything well outside of her own show yeah let's go Lucille ball let's never
[05:17] been Lucille ball but I'm going with it I feel older free yeah I know I'm going
[05:23] I'm thinking this is I'm thinking this is Shakespeare again
[05:28] Shakespeare's clutch seems in that era to me okay I think you're all wrong I think
[05:37] it's a modern barista slash Lucille ball okay you split your vote no I mean I
[05:48] already I'm already on the over whatever you guys took I'm on the over
[05:53] you guys are Shakespeare and Aristophanes to define too clever by half annoyingly
[06:06] proud of one's intelligence or skill and in danger of overreaching oneself mm-hmm
[06:13] that's he was always too clever by very solid definition of it I guess the by
[06:27] half designation was originally formulated in Sheridan 1780 school for
[06:36] scandal oh he's too moral by half okay okay and if too clever by half in 1858
[06:48] that's when Lucille was born right no heyday is a Britishism like a Leon good
[06:57] show and it was crossing and she still retains its British flavor some British
[07:05] to me I don't think you get to win that Shakespeare is like a thing Joey
[07:15] you just be like oh it was like you know four hundred years later but it was
[07:20] brighter so it's Shakespeare that's not fair yeah I think Joey nailed it what do
[07:24] you got Jason there's a history of by half meaning half again as much with no
[07:36] disparagement intended as in these two early examples excited by the Oxford
[07:41] dictionary in a letter from Balzac she is fair by one half than she was before
[07:52] or anything called cocaine truffle in oh yeah but those are all around
[08:07] earlier than the things we cited but they're all written at like 5 a.m. very
[08:14] excitedly right while watching a podcast network whatever dude I'll sleep on that
[08:20] shit no guys look I've got a great idea I got a great idea we should do a
[08:32] podcast like look like I'm serious like I think we look I just want all of us
[08:38] to commit right now right now do the podcast on a house oh yeah
[08:45] totally here's the thing I think all of us what we should do oh here's the thing
[08:49] that oh no all of us do half-assed we we're all half-assed and then that's the
[08:56] podcast and we'll turn in the movie it's gonna be awesome oh you know what
[09:00] and we also we mean we we need a theme song which I will write right now turn
[09:07] up lights this prison sites a something from oven in London a ludicrous poem by
[09:24] a member of the University of Oxford find you're a rare dad bright sir at pun
[09:34] I rejoined his bright spouse he's too clever by half for he makes such attempts
[09:41] that I never can laugh I'm sorry yeah that's pretty brutal though like I like
[09:50] it hey clever by half sounds like my new like this on everybody fine this one's
[10:01] Dapper Poe because it means like you're not that smart here you think you're
[10:07] smarter than you are yeah all right but you know I'm gonna know it's coming
[10:16] cuz you're so clever by half well it's just I I just never more than anyone that
[10:23] I know and we were just talking about it so I'm gonna say a comment I'm just saying
[10:27] I thought I kind of nailed it there you were too slow by half