ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer

If one asks a strange or nonsensical question, the listener will probably respond with a similarly strange or nonsensical answer. A: "What the heck are you talking about? All I did was ask if you think I should dress my cat up for Halloween!" B: "Well, ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer!" A: "You want to get out of tomorrow's test, Bobby? Oh sure, why not? Why don't you stay home and sleep in, and I'll give you an automatic A?" B: "Really?" A: "No! Ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer." You asked Mom if you'd be allowed to go to a party the seniors are throwing with no chaperones? Good grief, what did she say? Ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer, I bet.

See also: and, answer, ask, get, question, stupid

ask a stupid question and you'll get a stupid answer

Also, ask a silly question. Your query doesn't deserve a proper answer, as in Am I hungry? ask a stupid question! One authority believes this idiom is a variant of ask me no questions and I'll tell you no fibs, which appeared in Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer (1773) and was frequently repeated thereafter. [Early 1800s]

See also: and, answer, ask, get, question, stupid

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ask a silly/stupid question (and you'll get a silly/stupid answer)

A response to an unsatisfying answer or to one that is a put-down. Eric Partridge believed this nineteenth-century retort evolved from the proverb ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies, but the two clichés are not identical.

See also: ask, get, question, silly, stupid

See also: