They’re not the sharpest candles

This one was heard on the FX series, “Justified” (Season 1, Episode 5). Raylan is talking to Perkins about his feud with his Dad, Arlo. Perkins then referred to his nephews saying “I know they’re not the sharpest candles.” This is a congruent conflation of “not the sharpest tool” and “not the brightest candle”, both describing someone who is not intelligent or dim-witted. As regular malaphor followers of this website know, there are many similar malaphors uttered, mainly because of the many idioms describing someone who is not very smart. Some examples: “not the brightest tool in the shed” https://malaphors.com/2013/06/24/not-the-brightest-tool-in-the-shed/, “I’m not the smartest bulb in the room” https://malaphors.com/2021/01/29/im-not-the-smartest-bulb-in-the-room/, and “I’m not the sharpest tack in the drawer” https://malaphors.com/2021/01/29/im-not-the-smartest-bulb-in-the-room/. There are many others (I think I need a new category. This is not rocket surgery). A big thank you to Mike Kovacs for hearing this one and sending it in!