Is there a proverb or idiom describing incompetence?


I am looking for a fancy expression to describe people who have no idea what they are doing.


I have a semi-proverb in my mind, but I cannot recall its origins (in particular, I don't think it is English). It essentially translates to:



These morons went to war with a wooden sword.



This supposed to be a (bit sarcastic) metaphor, describing some kind of situation, where the wooden sword represents unpreparedness and/or lack of skills. Those saying this proverb are very well aware of that these people were incompetent (as shown by the morons part).


Is there something similar in English?



Edit: Your idiom has been modernized to "brought a knife to a gunfight". Usually used to describe an event after the fact, though, not as a general description of a person's character. – as @Phil Sweet kindly noted in an earlier comment.



Related, but not a duplicate: Is there another word for unpreparedness?



Answer



If you are going to be dumb you have to be tough.


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