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You found that one of your friends is asking some advice from someone, but you find it hilarious because that someone is the worst adviser in the history of the universe, even though there are many good people available to take advice from.

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"The blind leading the blind."

From Wikipedia: The blind leading the blind is used to describe a situation where a person who knows nothing is getting advice and help from another person who knows almost nothing.

Example: "Alice just bought her first car and is asking Bob for driving tips. I don't know why, since Bob is infamous for how often he gets caught violating traffic laws. It's the blind leading the blind."

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    What @P. E. Dant said. I'm not normally a big fan of How do I express this in idiomatic English? questions, but this answer is so indisputably the most common turn of phrase it's well worth learners taking it on board.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 21:08
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    IMHO this phrase describes the situation after the "asking advice" part.
    – Nuri Tasdemir
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 11:33
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The pig asking the butcher. The sheep asking the wolf.

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    Can you explain what these mean rather than just listing them here? While this may be a good suggestion, it's much more useful to tell us how this relates to the question.
    – Catija
    Commented Aug 3, 2016 at 22:07
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    These fit the title question, but not the full-text question. These obviously put malice on the side of the one being asked, where the situation the OP describes more likely involves ineptitude than malice.
    – TecBrat
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 4:53
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"barking the wrong tree?"

That is.. when a question is directed to a person who was assumed to be in the know of what is queried about, and his response turns out disappointingly lacking in the needed clarity, it makes the enquirer regret his/her own misjudgment in approaching the said person in the first place..

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  • Please edit to include an explanation of why this is correct; answers without explanation do not teach the patterns of the language well.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 4:00
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    The phrase is 'barking UP the wrong tree' and it means making an incorrect assumption, not asking an inappropriate person for advice.
    – abligh
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 5:33
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    The assumption has to be about something. Asking or barking up a tree ( in gerund form ) can be used in its verb form in this context indicating the act of asking or barking up or down a tree of incorrect choice.
    – Narasimham
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 6:41
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    This answer seems to be an example of the blind leading the blind!
    – dotancohen
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 11:17
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    @dotancohen et al. - Though not an exact match, it's still a related expression that could be used. I can see where the O.P. is going with this. "You asked Dave for advice? You're barking up the wrong tree."
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 12:53

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