pot calling the kettle black


this is a phrase that states that the person you are talking to is calling you something that they themselves are (and generally in abundance).

this comes from old times when pots and pans were generally black and kettles were generally metallic and reflective. therefore the pot sees its black reflection in the kettle and thinks that the kettle is black.

-this can also sometimes be shortened to “pot, kettle, black.”-
someguy: u r an idiot 4 sayin tht
some other guy: well thats the pot calling the kettle black!
an expression that is said when one accuses another person of that which they are equally guilty of.
many years ago, people used to cook over an open flame using copper kettles and iron pots. the copper kettles were usually polished after every use whereas the iron pots were not and remained blackened from the soot from previous cookings. well someone got the idea that if the iron pot were alive and it looked at a nearby copper kettle, it would see a black image. the iron pot believes it sees the image of the copper kettle when in reality, because the copper kettle was polished, what the iron pot was seeing was a reflection of itself. this symbolic phrase became -ssociated with hypocrisy. an accuser blames someone else for having a fault when the accuser has the same fault.

joe accuses mark for not keeping his house clean when in reality, joe has a messy house. therefore, joe is guilty of “the pot calling the kettle black”.
an idiom, in saying that something is, while the one saying it -is- that thing.
i ran into the conformist at samgoody with an eminem cd, whereas i had a blondie cd. he said i was r-t-rded because i was ‘listening to sh-t.’ i replied ‘well, talk about the pot calling the kettle black.’
something about racist weed or some sh-t, i don’t know.
pot: hey, black kettle!
pot-smoking bystander: hey, man. make peace not war, man.
kettle: well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black?
urbandictionary.com reader: wtf?!! this definition sucks b-lls!

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