Occasionally as an Australian you’ll be talking to someone from overseas, and you’ll discover a common phrase you took for granted is, in fact, not universally known outside of our country.
Turns out casually dropping “fuck me dead” into conversation will give unsuspecting Americans an aneurism.
The more you know.
Imagine being on a work call with an Aussie and they suddenly announce they’re gonna blow a load in response to a problem.
Not Aussie but I asked an American once if she was taking the piss ( i.e. pulling my leg, joking. Perfectly cromulent and friendly english expression)
and she got really upset because she thought I was threatening to piss ON her
This is killing me
Rifling through the tags, here’s some other terms which are apparently causing mass carnage whenever they escape our borders:
Having a goon (i.e. Sipping on a delightful wine)
Having a gaytime (Eating an icecream)
Having a sticky beak (Investigating)
Take a squiz (To have a sticky beak)
Get stuffed (To express a revelation is most frightful)
Chuck a sickie (Take a day off work due to the humours being misaligned)
Chuck a wobbly (When one’s temperament becomes visibly upset)
Carry on like a pork chop (Acting most silly indeed)
Thongs (flip flops)
Hot chook (Pre-cooked supermarket rotisserie chicken, otherwise known as the Bachelor’s Handbag)
Fair suck of the sauce bottle (Let’s be real)
Shits me to tears (Something is mildly annoying)
Not here to fuck spiders (Expressing a situation is serious)
Having a piss-up (A social gathering)
I’ll shout you (offering to goon an old chum)
A cruisy place (a relaxed atmosphere, where one might shout and goon the night away while enjoying many a gaytime in your favourite thongs)
When you fuck up a work call so bad it gets your entire country trending on social media
A NATIONAL NEWS HOST has now weighed in on this post ðŸ˜
We are not a serious country
I can’t believe nobody mentioned “don’t piss in my pocket”, meaning “don’t pretend you’re doing me a favour”
I’m not american but I swear to god some of these if not most had to have been made up on the spot… It’s like someone fell off Babel and hit their head really fucking hard
From what I know of Australian culture
(specifically, the honored national tradition of making up ridiculous lies solely to mess with foreigners) (see: Drop Bears)
I seriously suspect that a fair number of these WERE made up on the spot, at some point, just to mess with someone
(If not actually made up FOR this Tumblr post)
But after a time, I suppose it stops mattering
Because no matter how a phrase originates, enough usage will MAKE It part of the language
And this Tumblr post is definitely contributing to that spread of usage. So, yay linguistics!
Even the interplay of a speaker’s “taking the piss” and a listener’s “piss poor comprehension” can, on occasion, turn nonsense into true episs-temology.
