Like wearing red to a bullfight

April 22, 2011 3:25 PM

What are some interesting/quirky/idiomatic phrases that convey the sense that one has just walked into the metaphorical lion's den, or somewhere you are dangerously out of place? Examples of what I'm looking for, inside.

I know I've often heard interesting phrases that accomplish this sentiment, but for some reason they're escaping me.

I'm looking for a verbal turn of phrase that expresses how one might feel, if they accidentally wore fur to a PETA Convention.

Another way of putting it: feeling like you have a target taped to your back. Or you'd just walked naked and covered in gravy into a room full of cannibals.

Any ideas? Sorry my eloquence seems to be escaping me, today. Thanks for your help!

posted by np312 to Writing & Language (26 answers total)

Best answer: A cat in a room full of rocking chairs?
posted by mittens at 3:32 PM on April 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Not in Kansas anymore.
posted by cyndigo at 3:33 PM on April 22, 2011

Best answer: Sweating like a hooker in church.
posted by Gordafarin at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2011 [4 favorites]

Shit just got real.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 3:35 PM on April 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Stranger in a strange land.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:38 PM on April 22, 2011

"[They're] breathing down my neck like a drunken jock at a roofie party."

-Strangers With Candy
posted by rhizome at 3:53 PM on April 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

Swam through shark infested waters.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:22 PM on April 22, 2011

**awk-ward**
posted by Sassyfras at 4:24 PM on April 22, 2011

Well, if you don't mind some likely made up ones....

Like a cobra in a mongoose exhibit.
posted by DisreputableDog at 4:28 PM on April 22, 2011

I knew I should've taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:31 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

I feel like a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 4:41 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Like walking into The Roman Colosseum
posted by I'm Brian and so's my wife! at 4:42 PM on April 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

I guess I zigged when I should have zagged.

(Said by Reagan after being shot.)
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:46 PM on April 22, 2011

Well, in Baltimore as a kid I heard "pervous" as a short form of "pinky's nervous."

This would be said by residents of the inner city watching a skittish white person (usually from the county or out of town) fumble through a conversation.

I've never heard anyone refer to themselves as pinky though.
posted by bilabial at 4:58 PM on April 22, 2011

Up to your ass in alligators.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:28 PM on April 22, 2011

Upon further review, I don't think my answer really conveys what you're describing. Up to one's ass in alligators really means you've got a lot to do and it's all clamoring for your attention at once. So, never mind.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:30 PM on April 22, 2011

I wondered who the fish was, looked around... and saw only sharks.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 6:20 PM on April 22, 2011

Best answer: The air just sucked out of the room
posted by unSane at 6:53 PM on April 22, 2011

Best answer: Brought a knife to a gunfight.
posted by usonian at 7:35 PM on April 22, 2011

You ain't leading but two things right now: Jack and Shit, and Jack just left town.

-Army of Darkness
posted by cali59 at 8:00 PM on April 22, 2011

When he received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1907, Twain appeared at one of the ceremonies inappropriately attired in a tuxedo instead of his scarlet academic gown. He said, "I looked as out of place as a Presbyterian in hell"

Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912. p.1395
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:06 PM on April 22, 2011

We call it "sticking your hand in a bear trap." And if there's one thing I've learned: Don't stick your hand in a bear trap. The bear trap doesn't learn anything.
posted by Ys at 8:10 PM on April 22, 2011

You really put your foot in it.
Up shit's creek without a paddle.
A sitting duck.
A lost ball in high weeds.
A fish out of water.
Stuck there like a beached whale.
posted by Paris Elk at 12:36 AM on April 23, 2011

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

A bull in a china shop.
posted by Nixy at 11:04 AM on April 23, 2011

"We're pilgrims in an unholy land." Henry Jones Sr. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
posted by JDC8 at 11:07 AM on April 23, 2011

A bull in a china shop isn't in danger--he's the danger.

Like a fly in a bowl of white rice.
In the belly of the beast.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:10 PM on April 23, 2011