Word.ws English Dictionary

the lunatics have taken over the asylum

the lunatics have taken over the asylum phrase: said of a situation in which those in charge are incapable of handling their responsibilities, and should rather be put under scrutiny themselves.

Phrase

the lunatics have taken over the asylum

  1. Said of a situation in which those in charge are incapable of handling their responsibilities, and should rather be put under scrutiny themselves.
    • Achievers in San Francisco tend to refer to Bolinas as one of those places where the lunatics have taken over the asylum, and tell you about I.B.M. vice presidents who have dropped out there and are into macrame.1976 July 4, Ted Morgan, “The Pursuit of Happiness”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Jan 2018
    • The moon is a rock on a mountain / The lunatics have taken over the asylum / Waiting on the rapture2011, Radiohead, "The Daily Mail", Ticker Tape Ltd. (XL Recordings)

Forms of the lunatics have taken over the asylum

alternative forminmates have taken over the asylum
alternative forminmates running the asylum
alternative forminmates taking over the asylum
alternative formlunatics have taken over the asylum
alternative formlunatics running the asylum
alternative formlunatics taking over the asylum

Origin of the lunatics have taken over the asylum

Said to originate in a 1919 remark by Richard A. Rowland about the founding of United Artists. Perhaps an allusion to the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, first published 1845.

Questions about the lunatics have taken over the asylum

What does the lunatics have taken over the asylum mean?
The lunatics have taken over the asylum means said of a situation in which those in charge are incapable of handling their responsibilities, and should rather be put under scrutiny themselves.
What part of speech is the lunatics have taken over the asylum?
The lunatics have taken over the asylum is a phrase.

Words near the lunatics have taken over the asylum in the dictionary

  1. the Lord works in mysterious ways
  2. the Lord's Anointed
  3. the Lord's work
  4. the love of money is the root of all evil
  5. the lower 48
  6. the lunatics have taken over the asylum
  7. The Mall
  8. the man
  9. the man, the myth, the legend
  10. the map is not the territory
  11. The Marra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the lunatics have taken over the asylum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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