screen door on a submarine

plural screen doors on a submarine · plural screen doors on submarines

1. idiomaticSomething that is useless or absurd.

   If you don't know what security vulnerabilities look like at the code level, then having the source code is just as useful as a screen door on a submarine from a security perspective.

   2016, Rocky Heckman, Designing Platform Independent Mobile Apps and Services, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   But realists put the final number of jobs saved through privatisation at no more than 800. "It's about as useful to us as a screen door on a submarine," says an angry mayor's office in Sacramento .

   1995, The Economist, volume 336, numbers 7921-7925, Economist Newspaper Limited

   I doubt anybody would give you static about unloaded and stored long guns anywhere in U.S. waters, and few places would about handguns (although unloaded guns are as useful as a screen door on a submarine).”

   2005 July, Rich Beattie, “Trigger Happy”, in Boating, volume 78, number 7, →ISSN, page 123