Are bears Catholic?
- idiom
- Informal
:
¿Acaso los osos son católicos?
- Whenever someone asks a painfully obvious question, she replies, 'Are bears Catholic?' and rolls her eyes.
Examples
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He asked if she wanted coffee in the morning, so she shot back, 'Are bears Catholic?'
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When Tom wondered if the meeting would take long, Mark retorted, 'Are bears Catholic?' to make his point.
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Of course, are bears Catholic?
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You really think he would do that? Are bears Catholic?
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When I asked if he liked pizza, he just laughed and said, 'Are bears Catholic?'
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She rolled her eyes and responded, 'Are bears Catholic?' when he asked if it was cold outside.
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After hearing his ridiculous question, she quickly shot back, 'Are bears Catholic?'
Synonyms
A funny informal way to say yes very clearly and strongly
A question asked to show the answer is obviously yes
A question people ask to show the answer is clearly yes
To say yes strongly in an informal, rude way
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although a learner who knows 'bear' and 'Catholic' can understand the literal words, the sarcastic rhetorical force meaning 'of course' is not derivable from the constituents; it depends on pragmatic and cultural knowledge of this fixed rhetorical question pattern. The expression functions idiomatically (like 'Is the pope Catholic?') so a B1 learner who has not encountered it before is unlikely to infer the intended sarcastic yes from the parts alone.
Etymology
Are bears Catholic? is a joking, sarcastic question that makes a silly image by asking if bears are Catholic. Because that image is so absurd, people use it to say the answer to a previous question is obviously 'yes'.
