Captain Obvious

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkæptɪn ˈɒbviəs/, /-ən -/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkæptən ˈɑbviəs/

Noun

Captain Obvious (plural Captains Obvious)

1. (humorous, usually derogatory, sarcastic, very often preceded with thank you) Someone who makes superfluous or obvious statements.
   • 1994, L. E. Blair, Drummer Girl (Girl Talk series, vol. 12), Golden Books Publishing, →ISBN, page 33,

     "But you're a girl," the guy said in surprise. This guy was getting on my nerves. "You are Captain Obvious, aren't you?" I shot back.

   • 1995, Rob Stokes and the Minds of Quirk, eMarketing, Рипол Классик, →ISBN, page 82:

     Text links, by their very nature, contain text (thank you, Captain Obvious).

   • 1998, David Groth, A+: Core Module Study Guide‎^[1], Sybex, →ISBN, page 189:

     The larger of the two specifications is known as Wide SCSI-2 because it's wider (Captain Obvious rides again).

   • 2002, Cathryn Michon, The Grrl Genius Guide to Life‎^[2], HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 145:

     The Qiana-wearing slacker next to me poked me on the shoulder and said, "We totally knew it was you in the bathroom!" Well, thank you, Captain Obvious, I thought.

   • 2002, Tee Morris, Steve Oakley, Premiere 6.5 Power!‎^[3], Thomson Course Technology, →ISBN, page 240:

     Hold the camera properly. No, I'm not playing Captain Obvious here, but there is a certain way to hold a DV camera to avoid jittery movement.

   • 2013, Kaleb Nation, Harken, VOLT, →ISBN, page 38:

     “Do you know who that is?” he said, pointing both hands at the screen. / “Harold…Wolf…?” the class stated the obvious in slow, disjointed unison. Mr. Candas looked ready to jump off a roof. / “Thank you, Captains Obvious,” he murmured.

   • 2022, Questlove [pseudonym; Ahmir K. Thompson], “Evolver”, in Revolver, Apple Corps, page 17, column 1:

     Captains Obvious point to Sgt. Pepper’s as the source but, in reality, it’s Revolver. It comes from here, and it goes there and everywhere.

Synonyms

• master of the obvious

Translations

someone who makes superfluous statements

• Catalan: Capità Obvi m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 明知故問的人／明知故问的人 (míngzhīgùwèn de rén)

• Esperanto: Kapitano Evidenta
• Finnish: Ilmari Ilmiselvä
• German: Kapitän Offensichtlich m
• Hungarian: (literal; less common) Nyilvánvaló Kapitány, (sarcastic; cf. “surprise surprise”) milyen meglepő, minő meglepetés, csodák csodája, láss csodát
• Italian: Capitan Ovvio
• Kazakh: Капитан Айқындық (Kapitan Aiqyndyq)
• Polish: Kapitan Oczywisty m
• Portuguese: Capitão Óbvio m
• Russian: Капита́н Очеви́дность (ru) m (Kapitán Očevídnostʹ)
• Spanish: Capitán Obvio m

See also

• no shit
• no shit, Sherlock
• duh
• surprise surprise
• water is wet
• where's the lie