Idioms #012 - 東施效顰

Hey, if it worked on Bu$h...

東施效顰 Dōng Shī xiào pín - make a bad imitation of smbd.

Usage: 一個東施效顰歐巴馬說“是的，我們辦得到”的政治人物 A politician that says "yes we can" in a poor imitation of Obama. 

Xi Shi (西施 Xī Shī) was one of the four legendary beauties of Chinese history, who, in accordance with the beauty standards of the time, was so sickly and weak that activity more strenous than lifting a teacup would lead to her instant death. As the Zhuangzi tells us, one day Xi Shi had come down with an illness and due to the pain, was holding her hand over her heart and frowning with her eyebrows (顰). This was immediately celebrated by the court as a wondrous display of female beauty.

An extremely ugly (and fat) woman observed this and mistakenly believed that she too could be beautiful if she just imitated the sickly gracefulness of the diseased Xi Shi. She was sorely mistaken; the villagers all recoiled at her sight, the noblemen even refusing to go outside due to the presence of this ugly wretch frowning and clutching her breast in the street. Later this woman became known as 東施 Dōng Shī.

 東施效顰 means to imitate somebody (especially someone famous or very talented) without having the requisite skills, gravitas or natural endowments to do so. A scrawny nerd flexing his muscles and believing he looks like a pro wrestler is 東施效顰, as is the guy who tries to do the deep movie trailer voice and ends up sounding like he has a sore throat. Or, to take a more recent example, a certain shoe-throwing German student.