old man yells at cloud en · X
Pronunciation
- (US) audio
Etymology
From a scene in the 2002 episode "The Old Man and the Key" of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, in which Grampa Simpson, applying for a driver's license, produces a newspaper clipping with this headline for identification.
Meanings
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(derogatory, humorous) Refers to a person who expresses a trivial, out-of-touch, or idiosyncratic grievance; especially, with an implication of aged crotchetiness.
Everyone has their own Old-Man-Yells-at-Cloud gripe that they just can't let go. Some people can't get over the fact that some people do (or do not) keep their ketchup in the fridge; other people can't stop themselves ragging on pineapple-topped pizza.
2022, Ruby Tandoh, Cook As You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks, and Messy Kitchens: A Cookbook, page 131:If you will allow me an “old man yells at cloud” moment...back in my day, the only tools we had to make documentation were plain ol' spreadsheets, slides, and Word documents.
2020, Matt LeMay, Product Management in Practice, page 148:I'm incessantly railing, in the old-man-yells-at-cloud tradition, against Big Beautiful Burgers stuffed into wispy buns that leave nothing to the imagination.
2018 February, Liz Cook, “Check-in Time”, in The Pitch, page 26:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| old man yelling at cloud | alternative | lexicographic | |
| old men yell at cloud | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| old man yelling at the clouds | alternative | lexicographic | |
| old-man-yells-at-cloud | alternative | lexicographic | |
| old man yelling at clouds | alternative | lexicographic | |
| old man yelling at a cloud | alternative | lexicographic | |
| old man yells at clouds | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
wikipedia: The Simpsons · wikipedia: The Old Man and the Key · wikipedia: Grampa Simpson