APAD: Dead from the neck up

Dead from the neck up

Someone who's dead from the neck up is very stupid indeed. It is an informal idiom used to describe someone as extremely stupid, foolish, or unintelligent. It implies that while the person is physically alive, their brain is non-functional or they are "brain-dead".

It is often used to insult someone's lack of common sense or intellect, as in: "That commentator sounds dead from the neck up". 

The phrase was a recurring insult used by Archie Bunker toward his son-in-law Mike (the "Meathead") in the classic 1970s TV show All in the Family. 

 A "checkup from the neck up" is a more positive, humorous expression for a mental health self-assessment or an analysis of one's thoughts.  

Multiple bands have used the phrase as a song title, like this one by  Stampin’ Ground

Dead from the Neck Up

I know you hate to face the truth but can't you see me I'm not like...
You can count the true friends you have on the fingers of no hands
You never looked before you leap
Never think before you speak
The things you think of as your strengths I depise for being weak
You made my acquaintance with broken glass
I know you hate to face the truth even when you're faced with the proof
Can't you see that you're just a fake?
How much of this can you take?
You're dead from the neck up
Look deep in every shadow

.... ....