What? You're Pulling My Leg!

"You're pulling my leg" is an idiomatic expression that means "you're lying to me," but not in a bad way. It means that you're telling me a story, a yarn, a real whopper of a tale, and you're doing it in such a cool, smooth, straight-faced way as to make it seem like you think I'll believe you, but my goodness, who would ever believe a story like that.

Clear?

Now I don't know how the heck we ever got around to saying "You're pulling my leg" when we mean "you're telling me a not-so-true story," but let me take a crack at it (let me try to answer it). If someone friendly, someone you know is telling you about something that happened, and that something is pretty unbelievable, you might wonder why we don't just call him or her a liar and get it over with. Well, honestly, I don't remember calling anyone a liar or being called a liar since I was in elementary school. Why not? Is it because nobody's lied to me? No. Not at all. It's probably because accusing someone of lying is a pretty bold thing to do, and you wouldn't want to be so bold with a stranger for fear they have a concealed carry permit and will pull a gun on you, and you wouldn't want to be so bold with a friend because, well, he or she is a friend, and let's be honest.

"Liar" has the deep seated emotional impact of calling someone a "brat," or a "booger." They seem like harmless words, but they strike a chord. Think for a moment about all the other ways you might accuse someone of making up a story. You might say, "you're full of sh*t," or "you're full of baloney." You might say "hogwash," "that's a crock of *&%*," or just "you're full of it." But would you ever just say "you're lying?" There's something about being that direct that just seems socially less acceptable than swearing about it. In a sense, the swearing seems good natured. It's like a line of dialogue in a scene where you tell me a crazy story, I loudly disbelieve it, you make stronger claims that it's true, and I protest that it can't be. In a sense, the louder you deny it, the more it seems that you're really admitting that it's hogwash, and we're bonding.

Now ya know (or maybe you don't).