I've collected a list of sayings that describe something or someone that fails to meet expectations, such as:
Is there a specific name for this type of saying?
These are called "pejoratives", or short phrases that express disapproval in some fashion. There are quite a few of these, including ones like:
The elevator doesn't go to the top floor.... Not the brightest bulb in the bunch.... Not the sharpest knife in the drawer....
What members of this particular category of metaphorical insults have in common is that they all tend to be used to impugn a person's mental competence or acuity, albeit in a jocular or pseudo-jocular way. Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) has this entry for "bricks shy of a load":
bricks shy of a load Mentally impaired, either unintelligent or merely eccentric. For example, He may be handsome, but he's not too bright—a few bricks shy of a load. This term, transferring a light load to a lightweight mental capacity is usually preceded by either a few or a specific number such as two. {Slang 1960s} Synonymous slangy terms include not playing with a full deck, which refers to the game of poker, the elevator doesn't go to the top floor, and having only one oar (not both oars) in the water. All of them date from the second half of the 1900s. An older and more polite synonym is not all there
According to Ammer, "not all there" is a much older expression:
all there Having one's wits about one, mentally competent, as in John may seem absent-minded, but believe me, he's all there. This phrase is often used negatively, as not all there, for being without one's full faculties. For example, I wonder about Justin; sometimes it seems as if he's not all there. {Mid-1800s}
As for what generic term might be used to describe quasi-humorous insults of the type "a few beads short of a rosary," Barbara Wallraff, "Shouldn't There Be a Word ... ?" in The American Scholar Spring 2006) indicates that (as far as she knows) there isn't one—at least not yet:
Words about words. The words in this category are undeniably ethereal. Here many old words have fallen into disuse. We as a society would be better off if everyone knew what words like pronoun, adjective, and preposition mean. I believe this because I find it nearly impossible to talk about language and how it works its wonders without employing at least basic grammatical terms. If everyone had these words down, we could move on to complaining that nowadays no one understands the likes of meiosis ("the use of understatement not to deceive, but to enhance the impression on the hearer," as H. W. Fowler explains in his Modern English Usage) and tmesis ("separation of the parts of a compound word by another word inserted between them"—for instance, un-freaking-believable). But let's not go there. Plenty of words about words remain to be coined. Here are two requests:
I am looking for a word to describe the deliberate misspelling of words and phrases for marketing purposes. For example, Citibank, Rite-Aid, Kool-Aid, and Krispy Kreme. It drives me crazy! (M. Harris, Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Is there a term for those metaphorical insults like "She's one sandwich short of a picnic" and "He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer"? (J. Blum, San Francisco)
Evidently, Ms. Wallraff is a few key terms short of a glossary.
Try "insult" without name calling. All these phrases have in common that they impugn the intelligence of a particular person by inferring the person referenced is not as bright as they may be thought without using a specific insult like: dumb, stupid, a moron, etc.
To say someone is not the "brightest light on the string" implies others are "brighter" intellectually. Similarly, "he's a few bricks short of a full hod" implies the person referenced doesn't have the intellectual capacity of ordinary people. There are many examples and they are all pejoratives, or negative ways of commenting on someone's intellectual capability.
