English

Alternative forms

• move the deckchairs on the Titanic
• shift the deckchairs on the Titanic
• shuffle the deckchairs on the Titanic

Verb

rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

1. (idiomatic) To do something pointless or insignificant that will soon be overtaken by events, or that contributes nothing to the solution of a current problem.
   • 1969 January 17, Elizabeth Carpenter (interviewee), Nan Robertson (reporter), “White House Memories Recalled By Mrs. Johnson's Press Aide”, New York Times, page 18

     All the new people want an office close to the President's. You should see them scramble. It's like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic.

   • 1972 May 15, Joseph Eger, “Listening to the Vibes”, New York Times, page 34

     Administrators are running around straightening out deck chairs while the Titanic goes down.

   • 1976 May 16, Rogers Morton (interviewee), Washington Post

     I'm not going to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic.

   • 1995 Jeriko One (fictional) Political Rapper in Film "Strange Days"

     The mayor and the city council sit up in their offices with their social programs that don't work. They're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. (NOTE: Strange Days writer James Cameron was working on his film "Titanic" at the time.)

   • 2005 July 24, Business Online

     Gordon Brown's decision to redefine Britain's economic cycle has been damned by one of the City's most influential economic forecasters, which accuses the Chancellor of the Exchequer of doing little more than "moving the deckchairs on the Titanic".

   • 2006 April 29, Stephen Colbert, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Washington, D.C.

     "And then you write, ‘Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.’ First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!"