underpants gnome

English

Etymology

Named for the Underpants Gnomes, characters in the South Park episode “Gnomes” (1998) who stole underpants from children as part of a plan to make a profit, but their plan lacked the means by which that profit was to be made.

Noun

underpants gnome (plural underpants gnomes)

1. (slang, derogatory) Someone who makes incomplete plans with missing steps; someone who plans unsuccessfully.
   • 2014, Frederic Harper, Success in Programming: How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding, Apress, →ISBN, page 53:

     2. ? 3. Profit! Do you think their plan is missing something? They know Success in Programming 53 There Is No Try It's a Question of Passion Don't Plan Like an Underpants Gnome.

   • 2016, Steve Kamb, Level Up Your Life: How to Unlock Adventure and Happiness by Becoming the Hero of Your Own Story, Rodale Books, →ISBN:

     ... an underpants gnome! Any time you read an inspiring news story, watch a YouTube video of somebody doing something amazing, or read a book like this one that encourages you to make changes in your life, you are collecting underpants.

   • 2020, Art Mitchell, Grateful, Not Dead, Morgan James Publishing, →ISBN:

     Don't be an underpants gnome. Have a clear Step Two. You clearly need to make some profit, to be financially stable during your retirement, and you know how to do something, if only how to collect underpants. And you may have some more ...

2. (slang, derogatory, chiefly attributive) A plan with missing steps; an incomplete plan.
   • 2018, Rick Wilson, Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 232:

     Like the rest of Trump World, Page brought a kind of Underpants Gnome theory to his bromance with Team Putin. Through some unknown alchemy, he expected to benefit Trump and gain influence and profit from his Russia foray.

   • 2020, Rick Wilson, Running Against the Devil: A Plot to Save America from Trump--and Democrats from Themselves, Crown Forum, →ISBN, page 201:

     […] is the Underpants Gnome theory of politics. It doesn't work. What works is a move from A to B, not A to Q to G to T to X to B. In 2008, desperate to reset a flailing campaign and find some way, any way, to interrupt the narrative […]