Take off one's pants to fart
Meaning: Overcomplicate a simple task
Originated in: 🇹🇼 China
Original quote:
脫褲子放屁
(Chinese)
To take off one’s pants to fart is to go to a lot of trouble to do something that could have been done much more easily. Most commonly, it involves the addition of a wholly unnecessary step to a process. Often the whole “process” itself is pointless.
It obviously derives from the humorous absurdity of a person taking off their pants in order to fart. As trousers are not airtight, it is quite possible and natural to fart while wearing them. Taking off your pants every time you need to fart would be a lot of effort for no benefit.
It similarly mocks processes viewed as overly complicated or unnecessary. You can diligently follow a process, but if the process itself is pointless, you are wasting your time.