Expression of the Fortnight - 12

GO DOWN LIKE A LEAD BALLOON

This fortnight's expression is used to refer to something that is not accepted in a positive way. If you say something or show something to people and they do not react as you had hoped then you can say that whatever it was went down like a lead balloon. (Lead (pronounced led) is a very heavy material). This expression is most commonly used in the past simple.

My joke about the alcoholic went down like a lead balloon!

My suggestion about increasing office hours went down like a lead balloon.

Well that went down like a lead balloon! (said by someone after delivering a presentation that wasn't well-received)

Story has it that Keith Moon of The Who, on hearing a song on the radio by Jimmy Page and his group the Yardbirds, said "That will go over like a lead zeppelin!". Obviously, he thought the song wasn't so good and that the general public wouldn't buy it. Of course, he must have been wrong because Jimmy Page and his band renamed themselves Led Zeppelin, who of course were very successful.