the lunatics have taken over the asylum

the lunatics have taken over the asylum

The people least capable of running a group or organization are now in charge. Said especially when the result is total chaos or calamity. With the primary schools giving their young students complete control over the curriculum, it seems as though the lunatics have taken over the asylum. After the recent election, a new wave of political extremists have taken power in Congress. It looks like the lunatics have taken over the asylum.See also: asylum, have, lunatic, over, taken

lunatics have taken over the asylum, the

The individuals who should be overseen or regulated are running the show. The term appears to have been first used in 1919, when the four most powerful figures in the American film industry—Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith—decided to found their own distribution company, called United Artists. In response the producer Richard Rowland remarked, “The lunatics have taken over the asylum.” The remark got wide publicity and entered the language, subsequently applied to many other situations of a comparable nature and becoming a cliché. In 1981 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer absorbed United Artists but retained the name, but in 2004 Sony Corporation agreed to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the future of United Artists was in doubt. See also: have, lunatic, over, taken