I’ve spent many years collecting strange and obscure phrases from around the world. Many are so strange and obscure (I’m a hipster at heart and always favour the regional or outdated ones) that people often think I’m pulling their leg when I share them. So let me now share with you some of my favourite ways of saying “are you pulling my leg?” from various languages, starting with the French et mon cul, c’est du poulet? It means “and my ass, is it made of chicken?”
Another French response to someone who is yanking your chain is tu racontes des salades, which means “you’re telling salads”. One more option is tu te payes ma poire? (“are you buying yourself my pear?”).
A fun German reply to a load of nonsense is das ist ein Lügenkuchen mit einer Glasur aus Scheiße. This is just one made up by my German friend, but I strongly believe it should find its way into regular usage, so here we are.
It means “that’s a cake of lies with bullshit icing”.
Another German response to when someone is having you on is “you’re tying a bear on to me”. And while we’re on the subject of German expressions about bears, someone who takes the role of explaining something (the rules of a board game, for example) is der Erklärbär, or “the explanation bear”.
One last German expression for when you think someone is messing with you is erzähl mir nichts vom Pferd. It means “tell me nothing about the horse”. And speaking of horses, in Bengali, if someone says something fanciful, you can respond with ghorar dim, or “horse’s egg!”
An old (and regional) Polish expression for when someone is pulling your leg is nie mów mi, że żaba ma pióra, or “don’t tell me that a frog has feathers”. And an isiZulu response to someone talking rubbish is usenga ezimithiyo, which means “you’re milking pregnant cows”.
A phrase from Armenian slang for when a person is stretching the truth is պեչենու բաղերն ընկնել, or “you’ve wandered into the cookie forest”. And Hungarian has mese habbal, which means “a tale with whipped cream”.
Suggested Reading
An idiom abroad: One man’s guide to the weirdest European slang
An outdated Australian phrase for calling out a load of twaddle, used by my old neighbour in Melbourne (and not many others these days), is “don’t come the raw prawn with me”. Another old Aussie classic is “what do you think this is, bush week?”
And let me just add here that I have a lifelong obsession with making lists (I’m not tying a bear on to you about that), so I’ll leave you now with a list of five expressions that may or may not be having you on…
1. Are you playing the horn? (Basque)
2. You’re selling me doughnuts (Romanian)
3. Don’t make my slippers laugh (Russian)
4. Tell it to my conical hat (Turkish)
5. You’re hanging pasta on my ears (Lithuanian)
Adam Sharp is the author of The Wheel is Spinning but the Hamster is Dead: A Journey Around the World in Idioms, Proverbs and General Nonsense.
Peter Trudgill is away
