Are there popular English sayings to express “Big fuss, tiny result”?

Question

The recent EL&U question asked by Mikhail about the alternative expressions of ‘To shoot out of cannon into sparrows’ reminded me of Japanese saying - 大山鳴動鼠一匹- literally meaning people find (get) “Only a small mouse coming out after hearing rumblings and experiencing shaking of the big mountain, (and jumping out of the house)” which I believe was imported from Chinese classic literature.

I think it has a different meaning from “Shoot sparrows with cannon” and “Chop a chicken using the blade for cow.” Instead it means “a very small result attained with great effort” or “marginal consequence or gain after making a big fuss”

Are there similar English sayings to express “大山鳴動鼠一匹 - Big fuss, tiny result”?

Answer 1

I think Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is quite relevant. In more contemporary English "a lot of fuss [over/about] nothing" means the same thing.

Answer 2

I have heard people speak of "making a molehill out of a mountain" (an inversion of the more common "making a mountain out of a molehill").

Answer 3

I'm not certain it meets OP's exact definition, but a storm in a teacup* might fit. It's usually used where the fuss is over some undesirable thing, rather than a trivial but (slightly) desired outcome.

Another possibility is don't sweat the small stuff (used to tell people not to worry about trivial or unimportant issues). It can be used as don't expend too much effort [to achieve some trivial gain], but it's normally advising what not to do, rather than a description of what you did for little gain.

There's always this graffiti, commonly found on the walls of UK public toilets...

Here I sit broken hearted,
Paid a penny and only farted

In practice, I think the most common phrasing is just a lot of effort for little reward, but in my particular neck of the woods I often hear life's too short to stuff a mushroom.

*As I've just discovered, the American version of this is very definitely tempest in a teapot.

Answer 4

Perhaps Shakespeare's oft quoted line from Macbeth

. . .it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The full quote is an even more dramatic commentary on an entire life being lived to little outcome

Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Answer 5

I think "all heat, no light" carries a similar meaning, and is usually used specifically in connection with debates and discussions, as in a "heated discussion" that does not result in any insights (i.e., "no light").

Answer 6

Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?

Answer 7

Wild-goose chase is close — although it would be usually be interpreted as "big fuss, no results", it is sometime used when there is a successful conclusion in spite of the twisted turns of the process.

For a less poetic, but common phrase, more effort than it’s worth and more trouble than it’s worth spring to mind.

Answer 8

Virtually the same thought was, as Konrad Rudolph points out, expressed in Latin by Horace, Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus, and through frequent quotation the idea has become proverbial in English. Here's a collection of usages:

When I such guests did see come out of such a house, The mountaines great with childe I thought brought foorth a mouse. - Sidney, Arcadia ca 1580

But I doubt (ſays G.R.) *it will prove but a Mouſe brought forth by the long labour and hard throes of Mountain. —Sage, Fundamental Charter 1695

All parties united in patching up a reconciliation, to avoid the laugh that muſt ever follow, when “A mountain in labour has brought forth a mouſe.” —Sporting Magazine 1793

Like the mountain in the fable, it seems to me, the Ways and Means Committee has labored and brought forth a mouse in the shape of the Payne bill—a miserable makeshift and the merest aplogy for real tariff reform. —Speech in US Congress 1909

Common Cause, the self-appointed, so-called “citizens lobby”, which is a mountain among the other self-appointed, so-called “citizens lobbies” in this city, has labored mightily and brought forth a mouse. —Newspaper column 1977

The Debt Mountain Labored and Brought Forth a Mouse —headline in National Review Online 2011

Answer 9

You could call this

A tempest in a teapot

That is a very common expression.

There is a similar expression in Japanese: コップの中の嵐. Does that have the same feeling to you?

Answer 10

"All hat and no cattle." --- From Texas! :-)

The direct interpretation is that the person dresses like a rancher or cowboy (i.e. has a ten gallon hat), but does not own any cattle.

The implied meaning is that the person is all talk and no substance.

Answer 11

It's more of a meme or trope than a common idiom, but the first thing that came to my mind was the Lousy Shirt.

If you were to generalize it and say something like this, I think most english speakers would understand the reference.

I [made a big fuss] and all I got was this lousy [result]!

Answer 12

There is also the "without much to show for it" expression.

This can be combined with many different verb phrases:

For example:
We put forth a huge effort without much to show for it.
We've spent millions and don't have much to show for it.
He stayed up all night studying but doesn't have much to show for it.

Answer 13

Perhaps not much heard, but All gong and no dinner might be close to the spirit of the Japanese, although it presages not so much a little result as no result at all.

Answer 14

Depending on context, you could describe a "big fuss with tiny result" simply as overkill.

Answer 15

There's always the quote from Haggai 1:

You have sown much, and harvested little.

It readily lends itself to metaphorical usage and change of person, and would usually be recognised as being wry rather than pretentious.

Answer 16

There's also "all sizzle and no steak".

Answer 17

I have heard the phrase "Using a siege gun to kill a gnat" (actually I think it was in a novel).

Answer 18

Are there similar English sayings to express “大山鳴動鼠一匹 - Big fuss, tiny result”?

Dud: a person or thing that proves ineffectual or a failure, or does not meet expectations.

Fizzle: To fail or end weakly, especially after a hopeful beginning. A failure. a fiasco.

You might hear someone say "That turned out to be a dud." Or "That fizzled."

This is a metaphoric reference to the expectation of an explosion where one did not, in fact, occur.

Answer 19

Here's one from A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, Collected, Explain'd, and Made Intelligible to the English (1721), by James Kelly:

"A great Cry and little Wool quoth the Deel when he clip'd the swine."

The author comments: "Spoken of great Pretences and small Performances." "Deel," I believe, is an old Scottish pronunciation of "Devil."

Answer 20

Somewhat related is a reply I offered on a similar thread. The link to the thread is A situation when you do too many thing but achieve nothing

I am going to repeat my reply here:

You're looking for the expression spinning your wheels.

Example: They're on the grind spinning their wheels.

You can also invent your own expressions such as:

Circling around in circles (suggesting no movement or direction inspite of activity)

They're pushing too hard, a door that needs pulling.

Or they're pulling what needs pushing.

They're pushing a brick wall.

They're busy chewing the stones.

They're busy chewing the rocks.

They're taking one step forward and two steps back.

They're trying to fleece leather out of a sheep.

They're working hard counting the hairs on their own heads.

They're making about turns to get there.