Shouldn't wise guy and wise man mean the same thing?

and they’re all coming out of the wookwork

What are you, some kind of wise guy? Oh, erm, nevermind.

Looks like you answered your own question. Not sure why they do that, wise guy.

Only if they start calling cream puffs and eclairs the same thing, too.

I think ‘wise guy’ started off as a sarcastic term…it kind of still is…

The term ‘guy’ is a slang word, and therefore much more likely to be a bad thing, as in ‘wise guy’, but the term ‘man’ is respectable by itself, and when paired with ‘wise’ becomes a compliment.

Literally, the two phrases are identical. But in English, especially American English, “guy” has a different set of meanings from those of “man”. Check out the dictionary. The example I like best is by Lazs Mouse: “A wise man speaks from knowledge and experience, a wise guy just speaks.”

Wise man: brings gifts to newborn messiah after interpreting celestial observations.

Wise guy… well… you get the idea….

Don’t forget wisenheimer and wiseacre.
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weisenheimer
noun

One who is obnoxiously self-assertive and arrogant: malapert, witling. Informal know-it-all, saucebox, smart aleck, smarty, smarty-pants. Slang: wiseacre, wisecracker, wise guy.

A wise guy is connected; a wise man stays the hell away.

From the mob, ok?