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Is there an idiom in English that relays that an action is too easy in a negative light? Like, it is so easy that it is boring/uninteresting/not worth one's time to do it?

I feel like I have seen one before but I can't remember or find it by searching. Common phrases for too easy are "piece of cake" and "walk in the park" which I have only seen in positive or at least neutral contexts. "Rowing with the current" somewhat fits in with the idea but it's not exactly a dictionary-listed phrase, and not always used negatively either.

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In some contexts such a task would be described as trivial.

Cambridge Dictionary gives the meaning

having little value or importance

which is a negative description.

It also notes that

A trivial problem is easy to solve.

Wikipedia states that the word trivial is used in Mathematics to describe things that are simple or easy. This meaning is also described in a more general context at betterwordsonline.

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  • I agree the colloquial use of "trivial" is usually negative, but I consider the mathematical use (where I encounter it most) to be neutral.
    – jecado
    Commented Nov 6 at 14:41
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Something that is too easy is

child's play
1: an extremely simple task or act
2: something that is insignificant
figuring out the password was child's play

From Merriam-Webster. It has a negative connotation.

Farlex has:

child's play
Something easily done, a trivial matter.

Originating in the early 1300s as child's game, the idiom was already used in its present form by Chaucer in The Merchant's Tale:
It is no child's play to take a wife.

Edit: in answer to comments that child's play isn't negative. The typical use of "child's play" is disparaging, hence it is a negative remark. Some activity wasn't interesting, rewarding, enlightening etc., but child's play.

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    I don't think "child's play" is negative.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Nov 4 at 14:33
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    @DJClayworth It does depend on the speaker's tone of voice and context. I've mostly heard "child's play" used in a negative way. Like "oh you did two backflips? That's child's play! I can do three backflips easily".
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented Nov 4 at 17:22
  • @DJClayworth I can't imagine it being used in a positive way. No-one would say of their own easy action that it was child's play. Who would be proud of that? And of someone else's work, it's hardly a compliment. And as a literal usage: "What are these cards for?" "They are child's play." doesn't really work.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Nov 4 at 17:51
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    Her math talent was noted early on: in high school she found even the most challenging problems child's play. That's not a criticism.
    – DjinTonic
    Commented Nov 4 at 20:06
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    @DjinTonic Perhaps negative isn't the right word, but the phrase often carries a connotation of an activity being "beneath" you. There is a suggestion that something described as "child's play" is far below your skill level and does not really deserve or require your full attention or effort. Your example sentence isn't exactly a criticism, but there is some implication that the person finds the math problems to be uninterestingly simple.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Nov 5 at 20:49
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OxfordDictionaries.com defines "facile" as "contemptibly easy".

See: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=facile.

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    heh, "contemptibly easy" itself is a pretty good phrase actually
    – Esoppant
    Commented Nov 6 at 1:22
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Mickey Mouse (adj.)

You use Mickey Mouse to show that you think something is silly, childish, easy, or worthless.

[disapproval]
This is not a Mickey Mouse course where every player has a chance.
There's nothing Mickey Mouse about the 1993 version.
The whole thing is somehow a bit Mickey Mouse.
Collins

informal disapproving
U.S.

(Of an organization, place, object, or activity) too small and simple; not to be taken seriously:

I don’t get paid enough to put up with that Mickey Mouse sort of stuff.
Cambridge

Too easy, small, ineffective, or unimportant to be taken seriously

Mickey Mouse courses
a Mickey Mouse operation
M-W

Silly, puerile, contemptible
Easy, facile.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang

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A word that could be used is unchallenging:

unchallenging [adjective]

  1. (of a task or situation) not testing one's abilities.
  • my job was unchallenging

[ODE courtesy of Google]

There is often a pejorative association:

  • The work I had at that time was secure, but unchallenging.
  • The album's lackluster and unchallenging music was the last straw.
  • Reviews criticized the oversized and maze-like maps, lag issues, unchallenging battles, poorly designed puzzles and uninteresting storyline.
  • Tracking can be associated with giving students in low-track classes less resources, fewer experienced teachers, low expectations, and unchallenging curricula.

[Cambridge Dictionary]

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    Doesn't quite meet the demand of the question.
    – user405662
    Commented Nov 4 at 15:29
  • 'too easy with a negative connotation'? It's closer than 'be able to (do something) in (one's) sleep' (where the connotation is, I'd say, person-orientated rather than difficulty-level–orientated).
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Nov 4 at 16:03
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    Up-voted +1. Beat me to it.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Nov 4 at 19:30
  • It actually is close enough meaning-wise to the demand of my question. Though it's not exactly an idiom/phrase.
    – Esoppant
    Commented Nov 6 at 1:23
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Mindless can be used to describe something that is not intellectually stimulating, or is so simple that it doesn't even require thought. It can negatively connote that a task is not engaging. Although a mindless task is simple mentally, it may not be "easy" overall - carrying heavy boxes up stairs, for example, is mindless but difficult.

Brainless similarly can be used to describe a task that doesn't require thinking. It would often connote a dull, repetitive, simple, and uninteresting task - it often suggests something not particularly enjoyable, although the connotation may not be strictly negative (one might enjoy a brainless activity if, for example, they wanted to "zone out" at the end of a long day).

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be able to (do something) in (one's) sleep

To be able to do something with very little or no difficulty, or complete or accomplish something in a relaxed, carefree, or effortless manner.

You should ask Johnny for help—he's able to do this level of math in his sleep.

be able to (do something) in (one's) sleep

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Informally: cheating. The more formal implication is that something shouldn't count because it's outside the rules or the spirit of the rules. Informally, it can mean something is too easy. For example a cyclist might deride people that won't go outdoors in bad weather: "Indoor exercise bikes are cheating." (Not to be confused with the actual cheating that goes on in cycling competitions.)

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  • +1 Good perspective. Related slang is "cheesy", meaning essentially the same and commonly encountered in the context of video games.
    – jecado
    Commented Nov 6 at 14:32
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    @jecado That's interesting. I haven't heard that, but I'm not a gamer.
    – piojo
    Commented Nov 7 at 1:10
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You could use the adjective cushy, which is pejorative:

cushy
adjective informal disapproving

very easy:

a cushy job It is a cushy number, when one thinks about it.(Cambridge)

In fact FreeDict lists a cushy number as an idiom.

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I would say low-hanging fruit more or less implies “too easy” and somewhat has a negative connotation.

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    That phrase implies a particular context, though — one in which there are many actions to perform, of varying difficulty — and so only the easier ones are being performed.  It also speaks only of the relative difficulty of the tasks, not of how easy or interesting they might be in absolute terms.  And it isn't necessarily negative; it might be positive if e.g. selecting the easier issues lets you fix lots of them quickly.
    – gidds
    Commented Nov 4 at 18:59
  • Though not always used negatively, in the right context, this works as a decent meteaphor actually.
    – Esoppant
    Commented Nov 6 at 1:29
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"Easy-peasy" is a childish sounding one, perhaps mainly UK

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/easy-peasy-jiggery-pokery-reduplicative-words

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I'm not sure whether it's quite negative enough, but what about:

Like shooting fish in a barrel

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'Too' already has a negative overtone. So the Cambridge English Dictionary

more than is needed or wanted; more than is suitable or enough:

It goes on to emphasise the negative overtone of this word:-

used before an adjective or adverb to emphasize a negative meaning:

This may seem too simple, but it might, in fact, be enough. When we say "this is too easy" we are implying that there is something wrong with it. It applies, for example to test questions which might be 'too easy' to be able to test whether a candidate has reached the desired standard. Or it implies the suspicion that some proposed solution to a problem looks so easy that it cannot really solve the problem or that, to the extent that it does, it will probably cause other highly undesirable 'side-effects'.

So perhaps "too" will do.

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  • The OP knows this and needs a better alternative perhaps.
    – user405662
    Commented Nov 6 at 12:13
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    user405662:- That's fine, except that, as I understand it, that must entail that the question is asking for an opinion and so render any answer 'opinion-based'.
    – Tuffy
    Commented Nov 7 at 14:59
  • Yeah, too easy -and other alternatives suggested in the answers like contemptibly easy, disappointingly easy- are good phrases. What I was looking for was an idiom that works like a metaphor; but I guess there isn't a particularly popular one that's exclusively negative.
    – Esoppant
    Commented Nov 8 at 16:12

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