peanut gallery

Noun

peanut gallery (plural peanut galleries)

1. (historical) In the nineteenth century, the cheap seats at the back of a theatre or in the upper balcony.
2. (historical) The upper balcony to which black patrons were restricted in racially segregated venues such as theatres.
   • (both of which are dated and offensive)
   • As early as the 1870s, most theaters allowed African Americans to sit in designated areas, while the dress and parquet circles were reserved for whites. A few theaters did not allow blacks at all. In the early 1920s, black leaders protested these “peanut galleries” on the grounds that African...2001, John E. Kleber, The Encyclopedia of Louisville, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 630

   Synonyms:

   nigger gallery, nigger heaven

3. (idiomatic) Any source of heckling, unwelcome commentary or criticism, especially from a know-it-all or of an inexpert nature. May also now refer to general audience response: "Let's hear it from the peanut gallery."
   • Enough already from the peanut gallery; if you think you can do a better job, go right ahead.
   • "No democratic government can function effectively on a stage in which every private conversation and classified document is second-guessed by a peanut gallery of unqualified loudmouths," said Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute.2010 July 26, “Leaked archive fuels doubts on Afghan war”, in Reuters, archived from the original on 27 May 2017