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I have seen this phrase a couple times now and I'm not sure what it means. It was in the headline of an article on Der Spiegel online:

Frauenfußball-WM: Das Gras? Kannst du in der Pfeife rauchen

Google translate wasn't much help in this area.
Is it an idiom? And what does it mean?

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  • The "können" is a part of the idiom: "den/die/das kannst du in der Pfeife rauchen"
    – Chris
    Commented Dec 25, 2014 at 22:22

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It basically means: "You can forget it, it is crap". Here, it is even funnier, as "Gras" is a german slang word for marijuana.

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  • Was soll "Gras in der Pfeife rauchen" im Kontext Frauenfussball+Marihuana bedeuten? Eine falsche Fährte, hier. Gras in der Pfeife rauchen macht ja Spaß und dieses Gras ist besonders teuer - hat also die gegenteilige Bedeutung. Das macht keinen Sinn.
    – user unknown
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 1:06
  • And once in the past, "marijuana" was a slang word for cannabis, rooting in mexican parlance, introduced by companies campaigning against weed (because they prospected pot as dangerous to their business).
    – phresnel
    Commented Nov 29, 2017 at 16:21
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Marijuana often is smoked in a pipe, Pfeife in German. Gras is another word for marijuana in German, often used in the slang. In this headline, Gras stands for the grass used in the women's world cup. Because it was that bad, you can't use it for playing football on it, you can just smoke it in a pipe (in der Pfeife rauchen).

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  • Besonders schlechtes Gras will niemand in Pfeifen rauchen.
    – user unknown
    Commented Dec 26, 2014 at 1:07

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