dead from the neck up

Idioms  

1. Extremely stupid, as in That news commentator sounds dead from the neck up. This expression alludes to being “brain-dead.” [Early 1900s]

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Example Sentences

In "Heir to an Execution" I have Miriam Moskowitz, one of my characters, saying of that time period, "You have to be dead from the neck up not to feel radical, not to feel like a change is necessary."

From Salon

In The New Yorker, Richard Brody is similarly direct, albeit on the other side of the argument: “Anyone who needs ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ to explain that the stock-market fraud and personal irresponsibility it depicts are morally wrong is dead from the neck up; but anyone who can’t take vast pleasure in its depiction of delinquent behavior is dead from the neck down.”

From New York Times

The firearms manufacturers," he wrote, "have been dead from the neck up for about 40 years.

From Time Magazine Archive

Just Life�Dead from the neck up; elsewhere, sick.

From Time Magazine Archive

Honest, the first line I got on this party with the steady gray eyes and the poker face was that he must be dead from the neck up.

From Project Gutenberg