A friend recently heard the final version of an album I mixed for him, and he replied with the phrase, “You sir, are the cat’s pajamas!” I’ve heard the phrase before, and it’s supposed to mean good things, but thinking about it, that’s a very strange phrase. I asked the Buffet o’ Blog staff to interpret / interpolate it, and here is one of the replies.
I think the “cat’s pajamas” is a very versatile phrase. Using the magic of language, I’ll break the phrase down to its base parts.
The base words, cat’s pajamas, can mean the following:
* Pajamas? On a cat? It’s both useless and annoying!
* Pajamas! For cats! That’s the best idea I’ve ever heard!
* Pajamas, for cats? That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard!
* Pajamas, for cats. Why not?
* Cats pajamas: Made from real cats.
* Cat’s pajamas: Made for real cats.
The modifier, sir, can mean:
* A medieval knight.
* A formal language substitute for bub, buddy, bro, homie, guy, etc.
The rest leaves us with “you are (the)”, which modifies the pajamas. (You’d think that would be a seamstress, but no.)
Thus, the phrase means: (paraphrased for explanations)
* (anger) Hey buddy, I’m going to make you into some pajamas for my cat.
* (male) Bro, you are as unnecessary as pajamas on a cat.
* (female) That guy makes me think of those clothes I dress small animals in.
* (strange) That knight is wearing armor made of cats!
* (possessive) Bub, you are similar to an item of clothing owned by a feline.
* (Impressed) Wow, you remind me of cat pajamas, which allowed me to finally shave cats and then dress them so they won’t get cold.
You sir! ARE the cat’s pajamas! And I STILL don’t know what that means. 🙂
Buffet o' Blog 
BeBop
makes as much sense as sticking poop in a microwave.
Fab
I think what he was saying is that you’re like a cat in that you either roam aimlessly or lie around the house all day and the pajama part of this magnifies the lazy factor. He basically called you a lazy cat-like person of super low energy or something. 🙂
Beppo
I wouldn’t want to be a cat, although the eating and sleeping whenever you want sounds pretty good… 🙂
BTW, I’m not lazy, I’m just motivationally deficient. Or you could say I’m an overachiever at taking breaks. 🙂
Holiday Inn Express
What’s so special about cats anyways? I mean, if clothing applied to animals is the sort of thing that impresses you, why not boots for centipedes, or swimwear for whales?