# 馬鹿が付くほどに



## puercopigsk8

Hello everyone,

I saw this sentence in a light novel and I could not find a translation for this particular sentence"馬鹿が付くほどに".

My guess is that it means “to the point of being stupid” but I would be very thankful if somebody could help me with this sentence.


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## Flaminius

Hello,

This is moderator of this sub-forum.

Yes, 馬鹿が付くほどに is "to the point of being stupid" but please bring here "this sentence" so we can understand this phrase in context.


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## puercopigsk8

Thank you for the answer, I edited the post and I will be more cautious the next time.

ありがとうございました


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## wind-sky-wind

There's an expression like "ばか正直" and "ばか真面目."

This means "being honest/earnest to a fault."

So, Japanese people often say,
"あいつは馬鹿がつくほど正直者だ."

If "ばか" is put before "正直," it would be "ばか正直."

I mean, "his honesty goes too far."


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## puercopigsk8

wind-sky-wind said:


> There's an expression like "ばか正直" and "ばか真面目."



I did not know those expressions.

Thank you, this is very helpful.

ありがとうございました。


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## karlalou

Traditionally, it's either ばか正直 or くそ真面目, and I never heard ばか真面目. I see that some people on the net seem to know ばか真面目 as if it's a matter of fact, while others say never heard that. This word seem to be known to only a limited group of people.

「つまり、私は、 _糞真面目_ （ _くそまじめ_ ） で興覚めな、気まずい事に堪え切れないのだ。」（「桜桃」太宰治 (1909-1948)）
「今なら話を三分の一に聴いて仕事も三分の一位で 済 （ す ） まして置くが、その時分は_馬鹿正直_だったので、」（「処女作追懐談」夏目漱石(1867-1916)）
Both are well-known writers of literature. I mean these words are widely accepted as part of standard language.


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## wind-sky-wind

Does it matter whether you say "バカまじめ" or "クソまじめ" when you answer this question?

Anyway, "バカまじめ" is not so limited, I think.

画像・写真 | 松本人志、CMで“バカまじめ”な郵便局員熱演「ドッキリじゃないかと」 2枚目

ばかまじめの同義語 - 類語辞典(シソーラス)

「バカ真面目」と「クソ真面目」の違いについて…？


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## karlalou

The dictionary has entries on 馬鹿正直 and くそ真面目, but it doesn't have ばか真面目. Because of the subject matter, I feel it's a creation of like part of the Japanese net culture many people don't feel good about. I don't want Japanese learners to learn such a word without knowing how we normally feel about that.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

puercopigsk8 said:


> I saw this sentence in a light novel and I could not find a translation for this particular sentence"馬鹿が付くほどに".


"*馬鹿*が付くほどに" = "to the point to add *"too" *to the adjective/description"
馬鹿正直 = too honest (excessively honest that it is regarded as rather absurd)
バカ真面目＝too earnest

I don't use バカ真面目 myself because I don't think the collocation of バカ and 真面目 is as good as バカ and 正直. I agree with karalou.

According to the 松本人志’s commercial, I think バカ真面目 is a newly created catch phrase, just like "I'm loving it" in McDonald's catch phrase. The creator intentionally used a kind of weird Japanese for a certain, specific intention.
In that context, I think バカ真面目 is a very cool and effective newly-developed-word, and 松本人志 acted fairly well.
Maybe it would be a candidate for the next 流行語大賞.
I don't like it to be used by Japanese learners for the time being, as karalou said.

However, according to the second reference in #7, バカ真面目 seems to be a standard Japanese word already. So maybe I'm wrong again.


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## puercopigsk8

Thank you everyone, it was very interesting information.



SoLaTiDoberman said:


> "*馬鹿*が付くほどに" = "to the point to add *"too" *to the adjective/description"



Didn’t see it that way, very ingenious indeed.


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## Flaminius

What *SLTD* said is right but the use is limited to "too honest/good-willing" or to that effect.   This is the reason we ask you to provide the whole sentence. 

Once again, please bring the sentence in which 馬鹿が付くほどに is found.


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## frequency

You know, we don't say バカ真面目, so this unlikeliness causes us to say 馬鹿が付くほど真面目, for example.
I guess this is the reason why the speaker chose to say 馬鹿が付くほどXX.
like


wind-sky-wind said:


> あいつは馬鹿がつくほど正直者だ.


 (this can be バカ正直, though.)


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