Why is "You’ve brought a knife to a gun fight" considered to be a mixed metaphor?

Question

In my reading today, I came across this phrase:

Pardon the mixed metaphor, but you’ve brought a knife to a gun fight. [Link]

The (longtime) columnist was saying the person was outmatched. I understand that "gunfight" for a conflict is a metaphor, but I don't understand why the entirety is a mixed metaphor.

A mixed metaphor is mixing parts of two metaphors to make a, well, not a known metaphor or one that's ridiculous, e.g. to talk a very long time without significant results can be expressed by saying,

talk until you're blue in the face/until your face turns blue

and,

until the cows come home

Both are common metaphors. Mixing them would produce, say,

Talk until the cows turn blue.

I tried Googling variants of the supposedly mixed metaphor to see if there was a more established version. I could not find one.

There were references to the origin of the above idiom, my favorite (supported here as well) being from the movie, The Untouchables, wherein Sean Connery utters with contempt, "Isn't that just like a [racist for Italian]... brings a knife to a gun fight." (There were others but none earlier.)

The following, first appearing in print in 2008, might be considered a mixed metaphor:

Those who live by the sword get shot by those that don't.

But I can't understand the idiom in question as a mixed metaphor. Can someone tell me what I am missing?

Edited to add an example, and in case I was unclear: if it is a mixed metaphor, which are the two metaphors it's mixing?

Answer 1

To understand the mixed metaphor in this case, I believe you need to expand the scope of the article you are interested in (emphasis mine):

If anything, you are underthinking this, perhaps dangerously so.

You’re uncomfortable with the communication; you don’t want it; you don’t buy his rationale for it; you have indicated by typical “polite” means — asserting your commitment to your marriage then ignoring his texts and calls — that you aren’t receptive to his attention; and he is running through these red lights as if they aren’t even there.

Even in the rosiest of interpretations, his actions point to a person who is operating outside the norms of healthy behavior.

You, however, are trying your best to stay within them — and flustered that it hasn’t worked. Pardon the mixed metaphor, but you’ve brought a knife to a gunfight.

The author has used two unrelated metaphors to describe the same situation: one to describe the man's behavior, and another to describe the woman's. Though this doesn't produce "a ridiculous effect" as required by the definition of "mixed metaphors", and the author's use does make this confusing, since the metaphors are two paragraphs apart, I do believe this is the author's intent.

Answer 2

It's not a 'mixed-metaphor'. The knife/gun example doesn't fit the definition. I believe the author is simply mistaken.

A mixed metaphor, as defined by the Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Curent English (2009) is:

n. a combination of two or more incompatible metaphors, which produces a ridiculous effect (e.g., this tower of strength will forge ahead).

There are not two metaphors in your example. That is why I think the author you quoted is mistaken.

Answer 3

It's not a mixed metaphor, but the intent is to proclaim it as a possibly inappropriate or exaggerated one.

The speaker is responding to claims of inappropriate interactions and failure to take hints in terms of a gunfight. A better phrase might have been something like, "(This is a bit exaggerated)/(The metaphor is perhaps overdone) , but you're bringing a knife to a gunfight", but the speaker chose to take the metaphor bit and go off on a tangent.

Answer 4

Assuming you're referring to the Washington Post article referenced in the comment, I believe what the writer meant to say (but didn't get across) is that only a part of the metaphor she was about to use applied to the situation at hand.

"Bringing a knife to a gunfight" has at least two separate connotations: (1) confrontation and (2) inappropriate response (e.g. lack of preparation). But the woman the columnist was talking to wasn't trying to confront her friend's husband but was trying to avoid conflict; the confrontation aspect implied by the metaphor didn't apply to the situation. It was the inappropriateness (in her view) of the woman's response that the columnist was trying to highlight, which is evidenced by her later advice to the woman.

I tried to think of how to reword what the columnist said to concisely match the meaning of what she probably meant, but couldn't do so. She probably should not have used the metaphor if she had to put a confusing qualifier on it.

Answer 5

"Those who live by the sword get shot by those that don't". Is funny. It is meant to be funny. Those who know the remainder of the sentence get a good laugh. It is not a mixed metaphor. "She is a big as a dog in the manger" is a mixed metaphor because it mixes two metaphors and is incongruous. She may act like a dog in the manger and be as big as a house but that is not clearly stated.

Answer 6

It isn't at all a mixed metaphor… just - hopefully - not at all the best example of Carolyn Hax's writing talent.

What she seems to have meant wasn't in any way "mixed" but simply something like "inappropriate" or "unsuitable".

If she did mean "mixed" then she was simply wrong.

Answer 7

You are using a limited definition of a mixed metaphor. The full definition is

a combination of two or more different metaphors, often producing a silly or humorous effect: "The new job has allowed her to spread her wings and really blossom," is a mixed metaphor.

In this case, two metaphors are used, correctly. They have combined two separate metaphors into one sentence, rather than combining two parts of metaphors into one incorrect metaphor.

We cannot know if the sentence is a mixed metaphor unless you tell us what the author thinks it has been mixed with.

So a potential set up that would make the sentence a mixed metaphor could be somethign along the lines of

"Country X has been rattling sabers since the commissioning of their new battleship"

to which the response could be

"Country Y has 3 battleships already, so pardon the mixed metaphor, they are bringing a knife to a gunfight"

The gunfight being the act of using military might to scare your opponents, and the kknife being the metaphorical sabre that they have been rattling.